I Samuel 3:1-10, I Cor 6:12-20 1/18

I can do what I want. What Paul heard in Corinth is the standard of most folks who would define their rights as doing what I want. Paul grants the premise, but he questions it. Sure you can do what you want, but does it do good, does it promote your health and the health of your community? Is the body a tool for good or evil?

The body is temple of the Spirit Paul sees the body as a sanctuary, a tabernacle, a temple. God sees fit to make it a dwelling place in this physical life of ours. Notice, God doesn’t disdain the body; God doesn’t want us to rise above these bodies. You get to a certain age and to hear your body called a temple is laughable. If it a temple, it’s in ruins, or in need of repair. If these wrinkles get any deeper, I could grow corn. What would make the body a proper tabernacle? How should we use it to honor God? The physical was good enough for Jesus Christ.

The ancient church feared the body not because it was bad, because pleasures could hide our deep wounds. They found the human heart has many rooms, many chambers, like the part of the second Matrix movie where different deeper architecture comes in Pain relief-life often hits exposed nerves- we don’t; know any distortions in pain. Farley (Wounding, 2005) sees our complicated lives as distortions to honor God. We have drives that distort our search for the good. to play.. In other words, the physical often is a visible sign of something deeper going on. Instead of the clarity of seeing our lives, we often get a distorted view. Sexual union is a holy union-married. Just as we develop muscle memory, we build up spiritual memory. Habit becomes second nature. These bodies are proper dwelling places because they are vehicles for love, the very nature of God.

Eli knows well the infirmities of age. He is growing blind, and he probably has come to rely on young Samuel to help him with keeping up the tabernacle area. Sometimes sleep doesn’t come as easily as we age. Sleep is a merciful blindness to the sins of his sons and the curse God has placed on his family. So, it is hard for him to recover when young Samuel rouses him from the deaf and blind territory of sleep. In a way, his physical condition matches his spiritual condition: eaf and blind. Still, he is not utterly disabled. He is a priest and tells Samuel the right words to say to the words in the night. We can try to run from god’s call, in sleep, in denial, in staying out of church, but we cannot hide. As the Psalmist makes clear, God permeates every facet of our existence, and that includes the physical.

We carry out our callings physically. Honor God with your body-by carrying our calling-bloom where we are planted-when and how do we hear the call? How are we to be the hands and feet of Christ? Elsewhere, Paul speaks of us forming Christ. As individuals we bear the indwelling Spirit. Together, we help for m the body of Christ. As Julian of Norwich said, “this is a fair and delectable place, large enough for all.

We are right to try to handle sacred objects with care. We don’t handle each other with that same level of care and respect. Familiarity pushes us to treat those close to us with an almost casual disregard. Respect gets generated when we see each other as made in the image and likeness of God. Every body is a dwelling place for the divine. Treat your own body, treat others as sacred places for the presence of God.