I Samuel 3:1-10, I Cor 6:12-20 1/18
It tells us something about American sports culture that beer and erectile commercials fund broadcasts,along with a flurry of getting our weight down as a New Year’s resolutions. Come and see says Philip.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. Glorify God in your body.Notice, God doesn’t disdain the body; God doesn’t want us to rise above these bodies. I heard Tom Hanks talk about losing some weight and he said that we have to take care of the temple.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. 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.Life can become a search for pain relief-life often hits exposed nerves- pain distorts our thoughts and feelings.. Farley (Wounding, 2005) sees our complicated lives as distortions. 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, so precious that these embodied lives will continue on in resurrection.We are dwelling places of the holy One. Just because we can do something, even if we have a right, does that mean we should? We are not our own. Are we called to self indulgence or to act beneficially for all?Can freedom mean surrendering to every whim? Do not some things then gain power over us as obsession or addiction? Paul raises the issue of spiritual intimacy with Christ. Sexual activity is not hooking up alone, but it does create a bond, a union, a pledge-we then treat someone as if married.
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: deaf 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. 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 special items with care. We don’t handle each other with that same level of respect. Familiarity pushes us to treat others 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.
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