August 15, 2007
Scripture
Psalm
139:13-16
13 …. you created my inmost
being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from
you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of
the earth,
16 your eyes saw my unformed
body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
Genesis
1:26-31
26 Then God said, "Let us
make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the
sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over
all the creatures that move along the ground."
27 So God created man in his
own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to
them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.
Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living
creature that moves on the ground."
29 Then God said, "I give
you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that
has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30
And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the
creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in
it—I give every green plant for food." And it was so.
31 God saw all that he had
made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the
sixth day.
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
12"Everything is permissible for
me"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for
me"—but I will not be mastered by anything. 13"Food
for the stomach and the stomach for food"—but God will destroy them both.
The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for
the body. 14By his power God raised the Lord from
the dead, and he will raise us also. 15Do you not
know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the
members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 16Do
you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in
body? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh."17But he who unites himself with the Lord is
one with him in spirit.
18Flee from sexual immorality.
All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually
sins against his own body. 19Do you not know that your
body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from
God? You are not your own; 20you were bought at a price.
Therefore honor God with your body.
Sacred Rhythms
“Honoring Our Bodies:
Flesh & Blood Spirituality”
One of my favorite quotes comes from Pierre
Teilhard de Chardin, a 20th century Jesuit priest well respected for
his insightful writings integrating both theology and the sciences. It was de
Chardin who once said:
We are not human beings having a
spiritual experience,
we are spiritual beings having a human experience”
I was reminded of this
though-provoking and potentially reorientating quote, and the whole differentiation
between our physical beings and our spiritual beings, when Philip Yancey
referenced this quote in his 2003 book, Rumors of Another World. Yancey quoted
de Chardin but then added another dimension, by observing that in fact we are
both spiritual and physical beings, and we need to remember that we are
incomplete spiritual and physical beings waiting for a complete experience; we
are fragmented spiritual & physical beings awaiting unity.
It was Yancey’s point that our process
of becoming complete begins when physical beings establish contact with the
unseen world. In pietistic language, we are used to saying that human
redemption only occurs as we live in relationship with God… a relationship made
possible in Jesus Christ and facilitated by the Holy Spirit at work within us.
Let me give you a biblical example of
this interweaving of physical and spiritual lives, to add to those experiences
you have had as you’ve reached out to God.
Do you remember the story of Jesus
sending out the 72 as recorded in Luke, the group of followers sent out two-by-two
to do His work in towns ahead of Him?
There they offered Jesus’ peace, they healed the sick and cast out demons.
Later, in response to their reports of
the physical things which they saw happening in those towns,
Jesus declared:
LUKE 10:18, 21,23-24
"I saw Satan fall like lightning from
heaven. ……..
Full of joy, Jesus then prayed:
"I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and
revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure…..
Then he turned to his disciples and said
privately, "Blessed are the eyes that see what you
see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but
did not see it, and to hear what
you hear but did not hear it."
We are incomplete physical and spiritual beings living in a world where
the physical and spiritual co-exist and interact. Most people never notice.
Most people never see it. But, as we live in relationship with God; working for
His Kingdom, our eyes see the interconnections as we move toward a time of
spiritual and physical completeness.
Jesus is our example of what spiritual and physical
completeness is all about. He is what scripture refers to as the” firstborn
among many brothers” (Romans 8:29) and the ‘firstborn from the dead”
(Colossians 1:18). While many people assume their future is purely spiritual,
that is not what the Bible describes. Our physical future was described by the
Apostle Paul; a future first seen by the early disciples in the
physically-risen Jesus who could be touched, and yet whose physical body was no
longer limited by doors or by gravity.
Years after Jesus ascension, Paul would write to the Christians in
Corinth:
1 Corinthians
15:51-54
51Listen,
I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at
the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised
imperishable, and we will be changed. 53For the
perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with
immortality. 54When the perishable
has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then
the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in
victory."
To Christians in Thessalonica, worried
about those who proceeded them in death, Paul wrote:
1
Thessalonians 4:16-17
…. the
Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of
the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will
rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up
together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
Today, people spend considerable resources trying to
live longer and look younger, yet have little regard for the eternity of physical
and spiritual wholeness which comes after our mere 70/80/90 years of earthly incompleteness. Do you understand what I am trying to say
about our spirits and our bodies?
I know that one of the
problems we preachers have is that while we contemplate a Sunday message for a
week or more before we preach, you only get “one shot” at it (unless you go to
our website or read it over again). I realize that you have to digest my week
of thoughts in 25 minutes or less. So if I have lost you with my ramblings so
far, hear my main point:
Our relationship
with God has as much to do with our physical being as it does with our spiritual
being. Today and for all eternity, we are both physical and spiritual beings, created
that way and called “good” by God, and God desires our whole selves devoted totally
to Him. So today, during a summer when we are exploring how we can grow closer
to God, let me ask the question “how do
we grow closer to God through our physical bodies?”
1. God’s Word calls us to offer our bodies as “living
sacrifices”.
Romans 12:1
……, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's
mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this
is your spiritual act of worship.
Perhaps this truth is so basic
that we have forgotten the obvious message; that the actions of our bodies will
either declare our worship of God, or the worship of ourselves.
This morning
we have already heard a “worship” story; the physical sacrifices made by our
Phoenix, LA mission team, even as we perhaps began to imagine the physical
sacrifices soon to be made by those going to Chicago. And while God calls us to
worship Him through such acute, intensive experiences, let me highlight the
biblical concept of a “living sacrifice”. For indeed we are to continually…
throughout our lives, offer our bodies for God’s glory; in both the “big
events” and in the day to day, we are called to recognize that our bodies are a
very precious part of who we are to God, as well as a powerful declaration of
who God is to us. The Apostle Paul warned the Corinthian Christians that to
come to God in Christ meant that they were to physically live very differently
than the people of their city. Unlike the Corinthians who had accepted a
philosophy which divided body from soul; the body being evil and the soul being
good, Paul argues for a unity of body and soul worshiping God:
1 Corinthians 6:18-20
18 Flee from sexual
immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins
sexually sins against his own body. 19Do you not know that your body is
a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?
You are not your own; 20you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God
with your body.
The Christian
concept of stewardship is much broader than the financial issues acknowledged by
most people. It is even broader than our use of time and talents. Today the
scriptures are reminding us that Christians are to be a good steward of themselves…
their minds and bodies.
When you laid your
sins before God and trusted your life to Him, you laid your whole being on His
alter; body, soul and spirit; a gift to bring Him glory. But how can you serve
Him if you are harming the very tool you have been given to accomplish the work
of His Kingdom; your physical being?
God wants us to be
living sacrifices, not burnt out, or fried, or emaciated or anemic or exhausted
followers of Jesus. God wants our “best” when we bring our sacrifices.
Do you remember the
first lesson of Cain & Abel, sons of Adam & Eve whose sacrifices were
received very differently by God? One brother brought his best while the other
brought something less.
When we come to God as a “living
sacrifice”, we are to come offering the best we can be, which means that
2.
We are to be good
stewards of the bodies we have been given.
This week has been an historic week for
professional baseball with Barry Bonds exceeding Hank Aaron’s home run record
which had stood for 33 years. But as you
know, many contest Bond’s achievement, believing he used performing enhancing
drugs like steroids to make him stronger.
Athletes in every sport, most
notably in the Tour d’France bicycle race, are increasing using foreign
substances to physically improve themselves. But as we have already seen, such
substances come with a great price. Recently we heard news of a pro-wrestling
star who killed his wife and son in what many link with “steroid-rage”. Regularly we read of once star-athletes or
body-builders dying young from heart disease linked to steroid use.
Stewardship of our bodies is not
just a male issue. It is also know that since 1975 the incidence of skin cancer
has doubled in the United States for women ages 15-29, coinciding with the
growth of the tanning parlor industry. Today there are over three times as many
professional tanning parlors as there are Starbucks in the U.S., and an estimated
2.3 million teenagers have entered those parlors. Just a generation ago skin
cancer was a older-person’s disease. Citation: "Why
Teens Are Obsessed with Tanning," Time magazine (8-7-06), p.
54-55
While God wants us to be good
stewards of the physical and mental potentials each of us have, we risk disaster
when we play with steroids and human growth hormone, megavitamin regimens, fad
diet pills, or tanning booths for the sake of vanity or fame. God has given us
minds to discover and implement truths about health and fitness, but not to
risk our health for the sake of glorifying ourselves.
Again let me ask: Are you worshiping God with your
bodies, or are you worshiping yourself? How good is your stewardship of the
body God has given you?
We draw nearer to God as we serve
his Kingdom with our bodies; with strength of muscle and bone, with clarity of
thought, and a sharpness that comes with a well-trained mind.
3.
Our Bodies also draw
us closer to God whenever we recognize our strengths and acknowledging our
limits.
We all know that the human body is an incredible gift
from God. Perhaps somewhere in your education you’ve heard that:
-
The never-sleeping human heart, will beat over 2.5 billion
times, pumping enough blood in it’s lifetime to fill 13 super oil tankers.
-
Perhaps you’ve heard that the lungs contain over 1,000 miles
of capillaries, all capable of doing the nearly impossible task of exchanging
oxygen for carbon dioxide.
-
Perhaps you’ve marveled at the knowledge that every cell’s
DNA contains enough information to fill a book, 150,000 pages in length, and
that if all the DNA in the body were laid end to end it would circle the sun 260
times.
-
And in world increasingly conscious of a vehicle’s fuel
efficiency, perhaps you’ve heard that the human body is so efficient in energy
metabolism, that if compared to a car the human body gets 900 miles-per-gallon.
|
Citation: Dr. John Medina, genetic engineer, University of
Washington, |
While scientific discovery draws
some people away from God, for me such knowledge only draws me closer to my
Creator. For as much as human beings have been given the ability to postulate
theories, and investigate the sciences, there will always be mysteries unknown
to us; there will always be wonders too marvelous to rule out One who designed
us and this world as we are.
God has not only created us, but He has given us that
very unique ability to increasingly understand our bodies; to marvels at our
strengths and to ponder our limitations.
While human marketing will always
cater to those seeking to avoid the inevitable aging process, be it the newer
antioxidant craze, or some older regimen touting promises and potentials, the
truth is that human life has been limited by sin. “You will surely die” God
warned Adam and Eve, if they were to fall away from God’s perfect instructions
for living. (Sin had a physical effect on us.)
Today that age limit averages 78 in
our country, more in some other countries not wrestling with obesity. And as we
all know, with the aging process comes increased limitations, and yet we must
recognize other limitations found all along life’s journey.
When I’ve preached on the busyness
of life, and how it impacts our relationship with God, I was in truth speaking
of human limitations; our mental limitations of attentiveness, our physical limitations
of tiredness. One can be a deeply spiritual person, and yet severely limited by
the effects of busyness on our bodies.
More and more often we are find
ourselves like Elijah; physically tired & spent, threatened &
depressed; sometimes even to the point of wishing death. But God cared for
Elijah, didn’t he? He cared for him physically by sending an angel with bread
and water (1 Kings 19). Then again, as we read in
1 Kings 19:7
The angel of the LORD came back a second time and touched him and
said, "Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you."
Elijah had reached a limit. Human beings
are physically limited by both busyness and age, as well as by illness and
disease. And like Elijah we need to acknowledge those limits and work within
them, so that we can continue our journey to the One who makes us whole.
For it is when we do so
that we discover ourselves drawing closer to God as we see His strength and his
provisions for us. In one of the Apostle Paul’s most famous self disclosures,
we are told in 2 Corinthians of a physical weakness; “a thorn in my flesh” as
Paul describes it…. some unidentifiable limitation in his life. And yet, Paul
sees that limitation, which God does not take away from him, as a means of
experiencing God’s grace and God’s strength (2 Corinthians 12:9). In the end,
Paul writes, “For when I am week, then I am strong.” Paul discovered God’s
strength amid his physical weakness.
Today, begin to draw nearer to God with
your body:
-
as you offer your body as “living sacrifices”,
and
-
as you choose to practice good stewardship of what
God has given you, and
-
as you take the time to both marvel at both your
strengths and still allow God to be glorified in your limitations.
Let us worship God and draw nearer to Him
as beings created to be spiritual and physical for all eternity. AMEN
Scripture taken from
the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION
©.Copyright © 1973,
1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.
Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing
House. All rights reserved.