"You made my whole being; you formed me in my mother's body. I praise you because you made me in an amazing and wonderful way. What you have done is wonderful. I know this very well. You saw my bones being formed as I took shape in my mother's body. When I was put together there, you saw my body as it was formed" (Psalm 139:13-16a).
"You should know that your body is a temple for the Holy Spirit who is in you. You have received the Holy Spirit from God. So you do not belong to yourselves, because you were bought by God for a price. So honor God with your bodies" (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
I spent most of my twenties in ministry with young women in college through the National Network of Presbyterian College Women (NNPCW). Over and over again, we returned to both of these lectionary texts, praying with one another for the wisdom and courage to honor our bodies--to honor God with our bodies--in a cultural climate that seems to vascillate wildly between the extreme poles of objectifying our bodies on the one hand and controlling them on the other.
Paul's concern with faithful sexuality was certainly part of our discussion (what college student isn't preoccupied with sex!) . . . but so were other basic physical needs: adequate sleep, proper nutrition, safety from violence, healing from childhood abuse, recovering from eating disorders, embracing a visible ethnic identity in a still-racist society, regulating menstrual cycles, facing endometriosis, getting a new haircut, buying flattering clothes, and generally cultivating the physical beauty required to attract a mate while longing to be loved for a lifetime for our minds and hearts, as well as our bodies.
"Surely you know that your bodies are parts of Christ himself," Paul tells the community of Christ in first century Corinth. "Surely you know that you are the body of Christ," we tell each other over and over in the centuries to come.
The church is the "Body of Christ," we say, and we mean it as metaphor, as a nice way of talking about diversity and the importance of every member.
But this is not a metaphor!
"The body is not just an ephermeral entity inferior to the immortal soul," Eugene Eung-Chun Park writes in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary. "Rather, it is the locus of the union with Christ in the present life of a Christian" (259).
Our bodies are literally the Body of Christ. Every one of them. And all of them together. How we treat our bodies--and how we treat the bodies of others--literally is how we treat the body of Christ, whether it is through our sexual relationships or our soup kitchens or our military actions. And our bodies are fearfully and wonderfully made!
College women are not the only ones concerned about the beauty of the body. So is God. And our prayer is that the God who breathed life into the first human--formed from the humus and pronounced very good--will continue to breathe life-giving honor into our bodies as we strive to honor the bodies of one another and ourselves. Amen.
Gusti Linnea Newquist
(additional lectionary texts: 1 Samuel 3:1-10 (11-20); John 1:43-51)
"You should know that your body is a temple for the Holy Spirit who is in you. You have received the Holy Spirit from God. So you do not belong to yourselves, because you were bought by God for a price. So honor God with your bodies" (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
I spent most of my twenties in ministry with young women in college through the National Network of Presbyterian College Women (NNPCW). Over and over again, we returned to both of these lectionary texts, praying with one another for the wisdom and courage to honor our bodies--to honor God with our bodies--in a cultural climate that seems to vascillate wildly between the extreme poles of objectifying our bodies on the one hand and controlling them on the other.
Paul's concern with faithful sexuality was certainly part of our discussion (what college student isn't preoccupied with sex!) . . . but so were other basic physical needs: adequate sleep, proper nutrition, safety from violence, healing from childhood abuse, recovering from eating disorders, embracing a visible ethnic identity in a still-racist society, regulating menstrual cycles, facing endometriosis, getting a new haircut, buying flattering clothes, and generally cultivating the physical beauty required to attract a mate while longing to be loved for a lifetime for our minds and hearts, as well as our bodies.
"Surely you know that your bodies are parts of Christ himself," Paul tells the community of Christ in first century Corinth. "Surely you know that you are the body of Christ," we tell each other over and over in the centuries to come.
The church is the "Body of Christ," we say, and we mean it as metaphor, as a nice way of talking about diversity and the importance of every member.
But this is not a metaphor!
"The body is not just an ephermeral entity inferior to the immortal soul," Eugene Eung-Chun Park writes in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary. "Rather, it is the locus of the union with Christ in the present life of a Christian" (259).
Our bodies are literally the Body of Christ. Every one of them. And all of them together. How we treat our bodies--and how we treat the bodies of others--literally is how we treat the body of Christ, whether it is through our sexual relationships or our soup kitchens or our military actions. And our bodies are fearfully and wonderfully made!
College women are not the only ones concerned about the beauty of the body. So is God. And our prayer is that the God who breathed life into the first human--formed from the humus and pronounced very good--will continue to breathe life-giving honor into our bodies as we strive to honor the bodies of one another and ourselves. Amen.
Gusti Linnea Newquist
(additional lectionary texts: 1 Samuel 3:1-10 (11-20); John 1:43-51)
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