Everything is OK, but it's not all Good (I Corinthians 6:12-20)
A second piece of pie Last Monday afternoon I finally got around to making the lemon meringue pie I had promised Glena for her December 11 birthday. This was her request and the pie was about a month overdue. (though with all the Christmas goodies tempting us everyday she wasn't upset about taking a rain check) I'm not very smooth around the kitchen so there were dishes everywhere. Shortning, the pie filling, and anything else that was sticky kept smudging up my hands. I must have washed and dried my hands a couple dozen times, trying to keep them in good working order.
I ran into a real problem when the recipe suddenly called for crème of tartar. What in the world is crème of tartar? I searched our array of spices. Nothing. In desperation I called Glena. No answer. So I called my mom. She said, ``it's this white powdery spice. And be sure you don't let one trace of egg yoke touch your egg whites!'' Searching with renewed vigor through our spices, I found some crème of tartar.
Eventually there was a real lemon meringue pie.
So the next step was to eat it. However, I had a worship committee meeting Monday night. Not wanting to eat dinner and dessert in a rush and then dash off to worship committee I decided to save the lemon meringue pie for later. We all know that the anticipation is so sweet.
I got home at about 9 pm and Glena was just about to go to bed. Some of her last words were these. I had a piece of pie and it was so good, I had to have a second piece. But then she said something like, ``I really didn't need that second piece, and I wouldn't recommend that you do the same.'' Then we did agree together that the pie would never be better than it was the very first day so what she had done was understandable.
I cut myself a piece of lemon meringue pie. I began to eat it with some hot tea, and soon it was gone. Next thing I knew the voice that says ``I want a second piece'' was competing with ``I wouldn't recommend it'' which was overlaid by ``It's best the first day.'' So I got up off the couch and enjoyed a second piece. The next day I told Glena, ``I really shouldn't have taken that second piece.''
I've been thinking about that piece of pie this week because of this word in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians where he says ``all things are lawful for me but not everything is beneficial.'' You know, there's not too much wrong in the world with lemon meringue pie, and there's no great moral prohibition against taking an extra slice, but that doesn't mean it will be, in truth, beneficial.
Back inCorinth During these weeks we are spending time with Paul's letters to the Corinthians, this young network of churches that Paul was instrumental in starting in an early missionary voyage. Corinth, a cosmopolitan town composed of immigrants from other places, all gathered together and trying to make a go of it, was strategically located on a narrow isthmus separating the Greek mainland to the north from the Peloponnese to the south. Larger boats came from the Aegean Sea to the east, unload, have their cargo carried across through Corinth to the other side of the isthmus, and the boat would make the trip around the south of the Peloponnese. Lots of people passed through Corinth and it was a city known for its licentiousness.
Paul spent eighteen months in Corinth and then moved on. He got news from Corinth and in these two New Testament letters we read his responses to questions he has been asked. The Corinthians, in a big way, were no different from us. They were trying to sort out what it means to be a Christian in their own time and place. They were doing so just a generation or two after Jesus himself. We come along a few thousand years later.
It's important to recognize that Paul is responding in large part to questions asked him in a particular time and place. So his responses are specific to the situation. We have to read and interpret with care to discern how broadly and universally his specific instructions should be taken today, almost 2,000 years later.
In I Corinthians Paul responds to the question of whether or not food can be eaten that was part of a pagan ritual. Or what about clothing, how important is it for women to keep their heads covered. Clothing can be an issue for us as well. Juan was telling us in our staff meeting the other day about some of the questions arising in our Spanish language service about clothing. To some degree we have it here in this service as well. We have our own internal monitors about what kind of dress is okay and what isn't so good.
Sexual practices But here, at the end of chapter 6, the focus is on questions of sexual practice. Here we are in Corinth, in a culture where promiscuity is socially acceptable, where temple prostitution was socially acceptable, where pedophilia was acceptablein the middle of all this, how is a Christian supposed to know what is permissible, holy, sexual behavior?
We live, as God created us, as sexual beings. From when we were very young to when we are very old, we live as sexual beings. Male and female, straight and gay, physically healthy and physically disabled, single and married, we are wondrously sexual. Our sexuality is an important part of who we are. I believe that the overall tenor of the Holy Scriptures is that our sexuality is a gift, that it is powerful, that it is beautiful, that it is a treasure.
But it's for many of us, I would guess, a bit of a dicey subject. It's so private, so intensely personal. It's hard to bring out into the light of day. Some people have to live with the difficult, sometimes abusive, memories that go back to childhood. So alongside the rhapsodizing of the poet in the Song of Solomon (How beautiful you are, my love, how very beautiful!) with its clear delight in the sexual experience, we know that sometimes sexual experiences are anything but healthy and beautiful.
And we live today, it goes without saying, in a fairly highly charged sexual environment. We all know this. Just look at the advertisements, the movies, the television. And so we can ask the same question as the ancient Corinthians, in the middle of all this, how is a Christian supposed to know what is permissible, holy, sexual behavior?
In the verses just preceding our text, Paul has listed a number of practices that just are outside the boundary line of proper Christian behavior. Thievery, greed, drunkenness, idolatry, temple prostitution where older men had sexual relations with young boys, adultery, idolatryall this is not of the kingdom.
And then in our passage he begins by affirming that ``all things are lawful,'' in other words, that through Christ, in Christ, we are set free. The gospel of Christ sets us free. We are not slaves to law, we are free in Christ. But then Paul adds a moral dimension. There are a couple of ``buts.'' Yes, he says, everything is OK, ``everything is lawful,'' but everything is not actually beneficial, or helpful, or for my good. Then he says it again, ``all things are lawful,'' but ``I will not be dominated by anything,'' Or put another way ``I refuse to let anything have power over me.'' Though everything may be okay, not everything actually builds up others, honors others, empowers others, or edifies others.
I like the way Susan Andrews asks the question in a sermon she gave on this text: And so when it comes to the freedom of sexuality created by God, the question becomes for Paul, how can our sexual behavior glorify God and ennoble the other? How can agapethe moral love which is incarnated in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesushow can this moral love be fully expressed through erotic love? (Andrews, November 5, 2004 sermon)
In all of life, including our sexual lives, we seek to live in ways that honor God, that lift up and ennoble the other person, that practice the ``self-giving'' agape love that is so integral to God's vision for humankind. Personally, I think we might add to Paul the reminder that as Christ followers we are called to a narrow path, a way that might feel out of step with the culture and the powers around us. It's a way that may have us leaning way over to the left with very few friends, and on other occasions, way over to the right.
Holding up this prism to sexual practices in our own time can help us in discerning which practices seem blessed by God, and which practices are not reflections of God's best for humankind. Sexual practices that do not practice mutuality, that are decidedly unbalanced, that do not strengthen and ennoble the life of the other, these are outside of Gods' best. To me it seems clear that practices like adultery, promiscuity, casual ``hooking up,'' relationships where one party is domineering, that these are examples of being outside of God's best intention. Obviously, our freedom in Christ does not give permission for any kind of sexual practice.
These days it's pretty difficult to think about sexuality and sexual practice without acknowledging the reality of homosexuality, and the significant number of fellow citizens and churchgoers for whom this is their truth. So let me say a word about the particular challenges within our own faith community, the Mennonite Church, coming from our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters. The challenges we face as a community are not that much different from what every other denomination has, is, or will be facing. We are being asked by gay and lesbian friends to be supportive of their covenanted, monogamous relationships. How one responds may initially depend on your own particular experiences and relationships. But Paul, I think would push us to consider to what extent these relationships are beneficial, to what extent is mutuality practiced, to what extent is the other lifted up, to what extent is each person ennobled, to what extent is God glorified. These are questions that we could ask of any of us here today, especially those of us who are married.
We know that when these qualities are present then God is honored. Our sexuality becomes sacred when our bodies are shared within a faithful and monogamous covenant. Such a covenant reminds of the utter and complete faithfulness of our God.
Living within our bodies Paul goes on to say in the concluding verses of this passage that our very bodies are special. Our body is a temple within which the Holy Spirit takes up residence. We are, Paul says, to glorify God in our body.
It's stating the obvious to say that in life we just get one physical body. We live our lives in the flesh and bones, the brains and heart, assigned to us. We may tweak things a little bit, an artificial hip here, a by-pass there, but basically, this is it. This is the vehicle we have, while we are living, to live our lives within.
We please God, I think, when we manage our bodies well, when we take care of our bodies, and when we reject the temptation of abusing ourselves. It's probably a good idea to limit the number of times where we take a second piece of lemon meringue pie. Moreover, when we use our bodies to encourage others, to bind the wounds of others, to serve others, we honor the One who created us in the beginning, male and female in the very image of God.
