We Are Not Alone

Pastor Kyle Clark

Text Lesson: 1 Corinthians 6:12-20

Sunday January 18, 2009

Second Sunday after Epiphany

“What distracts you at home?” she was asked. She responded immediately, “Knowing there is food in the fridge.” Her response might have been humorous if she had been the typical middle-aged person who is 10 to 15 pounds (or more), overweight but she was barely 30 years old and so thin you could see her collarbones protruding at the base of neck. The pain is there behind her eyes, hardly noticeable to most people. Her friends and family say she is a wonderful host, always offering to feed those who come to her home, offering them the one thing that would bring her so much pleasure, the one thing she denies herself. If she ever did succumb to the temptation to raid the fridge, there was no evidence. She’s an attractive young lady who should have been happy with her body, but she denies herself so much that she thinks constantly about food. She is not alone.

            “I just can’t help myself!” he said despondently. “I promise to stop. I swear that I will not go out to those pick-up bars and that I’ll stop surfing the web for those sites. I’ll do great for days, even weeks at a time. Then, one night I can’t get to sleep; the desire becomes overwhelming; images flood my mind from websites and past experiences. I try to block it out, but it’s so difficult! So I get up and within a few minutes it’s all over again!” The shame for him is so deep that he doesn’t know how to ask for help, and even if he had the will to ask, he doesn’t know where to begin. The illicit encounters, both physical and virtual, are his highest and his lowest moments. For him it’s a terrifying secret. For him it’s the nightmare that won’t end. He knows the emptiness that will follow each time, but he does it anyway. He tells himself that he’s in control and that this time will be the last. But it’s a lie. He says he wants out, but it’s so hard dealing with such an overwhelming desire. He’s got a problem with sex. He’s not alone.

            Mrs. Jones is different. She doesn’t think she has any problems. She avoids the liquor store – a den of iniquity she calls it. Mrs. Jones doesn’t respect people who have ever had a gambling problem, drinking problem or worse, those who are addicted to drugs or sex. In fact she thinks those who admit to having problems at all are just exhibitionists and show- offs clamoring for attention. Her generation just didn’t talk about such things openly. Mrs. Jones doesn’t like messy things or messy lives. She wants everything neat and tidy. EVERYTHING. But, it’s hard for Mrs. Jones to keep her clothes looking neat because, well, she could stand to lose a few pounds. More than a few pounds. She gets winded just walking out to the mailbox. When Mrs. Jones looks out over her neighborhood, she sees exactly what’s missing from other peoples lives, yet she is somehow out of touch with her own body. Her body is sending her signals, but she misses the message. She goes to the doctor, but most of what he says goes in one ear and out the other. Mrs. Jones has a different kind of problem. She is in denial. She is not alone.

            Being human isn’t easy. We are all trying figure out what’s really important, what we really believe. We search for that “higher something”, that one special thing that we can commit to, but sometimes it’s hard to look in the right places. So we rely on experts to guide us and lead us in our search. All we have to do is turn on the TV or pick up a magazine or listen to the radio and we are bombarded with the messages, some subtle and some not so subtle, that our bodies are somehow inadequate and our lives are incomplete. It doesn’t matter what we weigh, it’s too much. If we don’t look like rail thin, wasp-waisted runway models after endless dieting or if we aren’t muscle bulging, six-pack-abs-toting jock wannabes after spending hours each week in the gym,  then we liposuck, breast enhance, tummytuck, and botox inject until we create the body that society says is desirable.

            We are told that eating at the right restaurant will enhance true happiness; that our fast food meals need to extra-biggie sized. Later, we hear we must drive the right car and live in a certain sized house, make a certain amount of money or at least have the right charge card, and we must be actively engaged in a sexual encounter at least once a day in order to satisfy all our physical and emotional desires. Then everything will be perfect. The only problem is that it doesn’t work for us. We discover that even these things leave us wanting for more. We are not alone.

The philosophers of our age and every age have constructed worldviews to help us find meaning in our human activities. Some say that the way to find fulfillment is to isolate ourselves from the world around us. Make strict rules and do not deviate from them. Legislate everything from morality to mortality. We have indulged too much, they say. Others say that we have denied ourselves for too long, that the human spirit has become weary from repression. The answer, they tell us, is to relax the rules. Anything goes. Everything is permissible. So is it any surprise that when we hear so many different messages that are contrary to each other, all sense of certainty is lost? We know that the human spirit, our spirit longs for fulfillment, but too often we don’t have a clue where to find it. We are not alone.

            The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Paul addresses people in Corinth that were just as confused as we are today, people searching for fulfillment just like us. They were wading through different philosophies trying to find truth and meaning just like we are. They were dealing with issues of human desires just like we do. And that is what this whole passage boils down to – desires. You see, Paul is writing to a church on matters of importance. Outside influences had challenged the core beliefs of the congregation by introducing different and competing philosophies that had distorted the message of the Gospel Paul had given them. And it was threatening to tear that community apart. Sound familiar? The same thing happens today in our society.

Paul’s speech here is Holiness talk. Our bodies are set apart for the Lord. Being set apart is the root of holiness. Paul’s understanding of the human body and human nature are revealed in this passage. Today we often, mistakenly, speak of body and soul or spirit being separate. For Paul humans do not have bodies, they are bodies. The whole person, body and soul are integral to each other, inseparable from each other.  The whole body is the object of God’s redeeming love. Redemption is not the salvaging of some inner essence of the individual when the shell dies. It is the saving of the whole body. We are reminded of this every week when we recite the Apostles Creed – “we believe in the resurrection of the body.” We believe that when God raised Jesus from the dead he was not raised as some type of formless, fleeting phantom; he was raised in the body. And we believe that God will raise us too, not as disembodied souls, as bodies. The body, your body, our bodies both individually and collectively as the body of Christ, are a gift created by God. But our bodies are not ours alone. Christians claim, “Jesus is Lord and the Spirit of the Lord is with us.”  What Paul is saying is that the body is where the Lord’s Spirit resides.

Paul understands that all people depend upon some being or some thing beyond themselves giving them meaning and significance. We all have that desire, to find meaning and significance and acceptance. It’s our human nature. For him that meaning and significance and acceptance is rooted in faith in the risen Christ. In this text he speaks of how we as people of faith treat our bodies in terms of food and sex and how that corresponds to our relationship with Christ. But this passage raises issues for us today that go beyond these indulgences. The issue is not whether a person has a lord, but rather what lord every person will have.

What is your lord?

Tobacco, excessive drinking and lack of exercise are more than just health risks to the bodies we live in. Like eating disorders and illicit sexual encounters, they are abuses to the selves God created us to be.

What is your lord?

Alcohol and drugs are so insidious, so destructive, so consuming that some people will sacrifice everything, everything for the next hit, the next shot, the next drink until lives are ruined and families are ripped apart.

What is your lord?

Television, computers, internet surfing, internet porn and chat rooms are barriers to our communicating with God and with each other. Private lives become virtual lives lived vicariously, voyeuristically or electronically.  

What is your lord?

Work or hobbies become excuses to leave home early and get home late. Chasing the dollar to live the dream; or escaping the pressures and responsibilities by going to the lake, to the course, to the workshop or to the mall can consume time and resources and neglect real needs.

What is your lord?

What is it in your life that is so strong that you just can’t stop?

This is your lord.

Self destructive behavior has many faces. It crosses social and cultural and economic boundaries. It is present in the class room, board room and even here in this sanctuary. It has affected us all directly and indirectly. It’s not enough to simply say these things are bad so don’t do them or if you are doing them, stop. It doesn’t work and it just piles guilt on top of guilt.

Certainly learning to deal with many of the things controlling us requires professional help. Overcoming these entrapping kinds of behavior will not be easy. Overcoming anything that has such a powerful attraction for us that we can’t stop is difficult. They stem from our need to belong, to be accepted, to be heard, to be healed, to be loved. So many people don’t know that is exactly what God offers through Christ.

St. Augustine said, “The heart never rests until it rests in God.”  This is what Paul is getting at. People are looking for something to which they can belong. The amazing thing is that we don’t have to look too far or reach too high or cry out too loud. God already knows. God has already come. You see, it’s not about moral or immoral behavior. It’s about God’s love of us through Christ. It’s about God calling to us through Christ. It’s about God being with us in Christ. It’s about God claiming us in the name of Christ. And it’s about our freedom to accept the invitation to know God’s grace. It’s about belonging to Christ. It doesn’t matter where we may find ourselves now, that invitation to belong to something more is never taken away. The promise is this, belonging to Christ changes things because in Christ we are not alone and we never will be. And that, my friends, really does change things.

Amen!