1 Cor. 6:12-20
"You are not you own."

I remember my father telling me how upset he was about a minister who preached about the virgin birth. It was not the virgin birth that upset him, but rather all the direct talk about where babies come from that upset him. "It's just not right talking about sex in Church. It's not the proper place for such discussions."

I suspect that many preachers have shied away from 1 Corinthians 6, because of Paul's frank talk regarding fornication and prostitution. Perhaps some might have wished that I would have stuck to more "spiritual" matters, however strangely enough, Paul tells us that what we do with our bodies is a deeply spiritual matter.

He says ,"Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God and that, you are not your own." "You are not your own." Them'sa fight'n words for the spirit of this age. No one owns me, I am the author of my life!

I was at a pool party, my brother invited me to, and a guest was talking about how he was a "self made man". He was an entrepreneur and generated his own income from scratch. He'd made his life without the help of anyone. Another guest, upon hearing this pointed to her belly and said, "You've got belly button and I've got a belly button ... don't tell me that you've never been helped."

All of us started life because of two other people ... all of us floated weightlessly dependant on our mothers care and feeding from her body. All of us were birthed from our mothers ... and cared for by one or more who parented us. People who cleaned up gooey diapers, wiped noses, taught us to talk, walk, use the toilet ... all of us had someone who gave life to us ... and taught us about life ... yes, some people work hard, but no one does it alone.

The philosopher Descarte said in his ignorance, "I think therefore I am." But who taught him to even know he was thinking; who taught him to know how to express those ideas about thinking. A community of people did. Without them, Descarte would be nothing. Without other human beings we are not human. Desmond Tutu calls this 'unbuntu,' or, roughly translated, the 'intercon-nectedness of all people.' He says, "In the West you believe ‘I think therefore I am'. In Africa we say ‘I love, I am loved, therefore I am'." Or as another puts it, instead of "I think therefore I am.", being human is really "I am what I am because of you.".

What does it mean to be a human being? How we answer that question is key in how we shape our lives and our relationships with others and eventually our relationship with God. That is at the core of Paul's discussion of fornication (Sex outside of marriage), and prostitution (buying sex). At the core is the question "who are we as a people?"

This was the issue within the Corinthian Church., Paul quotes a slogan, "All things are lawful for me." Some within the church learning that salvation is by grace through faith in Christ, and that we gentiles need not work and follow all sorts of laws in order to be united with God, were saying that they were free to engage in all sorts of behaviours, including fornication and prostitutes. To this Paul says, "All things are lawful for me, but not all things are beneficial." "All things are lawful for me but I will not be dominated by anything."
Ah, yes Paul, but sex is natural! "Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food", and God will destroy both one and the other. We know they are not talking about the stomach and eating, but about sex. Sex is a natural part of being human now, and in the end God is going to destroy these bodies anyway so it doesn't matter. Church is about our souls, not about what we do with our bodies.

Ah, but we know that nothing is that simple, especially when it comes to sexuality. A young person once asked a trusted Aunt why she should not engage in sexual enjoyment with her boyfriend. The Aunt responded, "While you are certainly physically capable of a sexual relationship, and I know that you both love each other, both of you have not matured enough to covenant together. You have not yet grown enough to make the level of commitment necessary for you to express your love in a sexual relationship. If you do so too soon, you risk damaging your ability to covenant together in the future."

I don't know if that is true, however covenanting (making a mutual promise) is what Paul points to in response to those who are saying that Christian freedom means we can have sex with whomever, and even with prostitutes, it doesn't matter, in the end we are souls going to heaven. To them he says, "The body is not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?" Bodies do matter, what we do with our bodies does matter. Jesus was not raised as some sort of bodiless spirit, a ghost. Remember that Thomas touched him, and he ate fish with the disciples. Just as Jesus body was raised so too shall ours. Bodies matter to God. Your body, my body, others bodies. This is why issues of sexuality are important to our life together.

"Oh no, that's not it at all, it that you Christians you are such prudish people, sexually repressed folks. Always, ‘tsk tsk tsk' about sex. You are so moralistic." Yet, the issue for Christians is not sexual purity or "being a nice girl or boy", but rather about commitment, about who we belong to, about fidelity. And we know fidelity encompasses, faithfulness, honesty, integrity, faith, and loyalty. Fidelity is often used for marriage. That two people shall join together in Christian marriage and express fidelity to one another. And yet, Christian marriage is not just about two people covenanting together, promising each other faithfulness. Christian marriage includes God, and includes the Church.

Perhaps you did not know that, we have forgotten much in the United Church and for some reason, the importance of marriage and the role of marriage in the life of the Church has been forgotten. In the life of the Church, marriage means a number of things. Firstly, it is a witness to the covenant that God has with the Church. God has claimed us, without merit, to be the body of Christ in the world. We are part of Jesus Christ, and God has promised us God's presence, in this life and in the next. Not marriage, but Christian marriage is part of the mission of being disciples and witnessing to the love of God.. It should make us wonder then, why when we voted that homosexual relationships are a gift from God at the last General Council, that we did not include the requirement of this sexuality to be expressed in a covenanted form? Aside from the debate on the rightness or wrongness of homosexuality, if Paul calls us to express heterosexuality within covenanted relationships, ie marriages, then why wouldn't homosexual relationships also be expressed in a form of marriage?

That may sound all theological and some of you may not wish to this preacher to wade back into the minefield of "the homosexuality issue", so let's get back to some plain talk about marriage.

Basically Christian marriage is about expressing ‘honest love'. A friend of mine once had a couple who wanted the marriage vows to be ‘As long as we both shall love." rather than ‘As long as we both shall live.' She realized when people talk about "love" they mean something different since for Christians love means, "As long as we both shall live". Yes, we know that marriages fail, but for Christians the intent and direction for honest love between two people is a life long commitment.

In this age of serial monogamy, marriage after marriage, if people even do get married, the idea of sex only within marriage seems oppressive. The idea that marriage is a life long commitment seems quaintly traditional for some, and yet, Paul's position on sexuality is that sexuality is a powerful thing for binding human beings one to another. For good and for bad. Sexual relationships can creating division and heart ache. Some of you know the heart ache of being betrayed, or seeing the consequences of your betrayal.

Forgive me if you think that the days have passed when the Church should talk about such private things, yet, Paul thinks that wrongly expressed sexuality has such great consequences for human relationships that he says that these personal matters are church matters. For they ultimately affect the whole of the life and mission of the Church. That is the crux of the issue at Corinth Church. In another part of the letter, we hear that one member of the Church is living in a sexual relationship with his mother-in-law. And in this text, some folks are saying that visiting the local brothel, and having a good time with the prostitutes is OK for Christians. And, Paul responds, "All things are lawful but not all things are beneficial." Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ.

And he goes further and says, "Every sin that a person commits is outside the body, but the fornicator sins against the body itself." Why does Paul think that fornication (sex outside of marriage) will harm the Church community? As long as it is between consenting adults what can be the problem? If two people love each other and want to enjoy each other romantically how can that affect the Church?

While many in our culture think that seek intense sexual relationships is what healthy human beings should do, its natural. Yet, when that intense passionate desire fades, as the two people change, they fall out of love and move on to the next intense relationship. When "that fire is gone" they seek someone else to stoke the "fires of their love". That is what they call natural.

And yet, Christians seek not intensity, but continuity. They seek a relationship that will last over time, even if people do change. Even if the nature of their sexual desires for one another is not the same as it was when they first met.

But that doesn't make sense; we know that people change over time and it doesn't seem fair that we should burden people with a lifetime commitment knowing that they will change. And you know, it doesn't make sense, unless of course marriage occurs in a community that has a mission in which marriage serves a purpose beyond just the two individuals. If marriage is more than just too persons serving their own interests, then it does make sense.

And marriage has such a purpose for Christians for it is a sign and source of hope, "For as long as there are people loving and working together, and bringing up children, there is a chance at new life." If we see relationships as being part of the very mission of God that can help sustain not just married persons, but also allow their marriage to be a source of hope for others who'd relationships have failed. Or for younger people who's experience with seeing others marriages has not given them hope.

I know many of you ask why so many young people live together in a sexual relationships rather than getting married. Yes, we know that some naively think that they should "try things out first" not realizing that a few years of living together can not foretell the future. But many are choosing not to get married at all!

And yet, perhaps why should they put off sexual activity until marriage? That is the question they ask of the Church, and their question should call us to ask whether we have shown them an account of life that makes intelligible why their interest in sex should be subordinated to other interests. In other words, to lots of young people the Church and the mission of the Church looks much less important that their interest in sex.

And yet Paul says, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body."

Within an individualistic culture these seem like alien words, meaningless words. All of you together; not this building; all of you are the temple of the Holy Spirit. A vessel containing the Spirit of God; a community united with God in a deep and intimate way. All of you were saved for a purpose; to in your lives to be the very body of Christ together. Do you know that?

Helen Keller once said that "Life is an adventure, or it is nothing at all." If the Church is the temple of the Holy Spirit, the very body of Christ in the world, then it is the greatest adventure of all. Now I know some of you are thinking, "Church an adventure! It's nothing near an adventure, it is boring!" Or maybe others are thinking, "Well, I enjoy the worship service, but as a whole I don't see many Christian communities which I'd describe as adventures!"

Yet there have been times in the Church were it has been described as "an adventure". And, believe it or not, there are United Churches where folks know that the Church is on an adventure. An adventure worth setting aside lesser desires for in the service of that mission, an adventure worth setting aside ones wealth for, an adventure worth setting aside time for, even an adventure worth setting aside ones very life for.

"Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body."