CALVARY BAPTIST CHURCH
Rev. Fred
Weimert January 18, 2009
“The Spirit Within”
What if we were so careful living up
to the letter of the law
that we forgot about God’s love and
grace?
Beginning
in the 5th chapter of I Corinthians
and through the 6th
Paul begins to address
the matter
of
sin found within the community in
He
speaks of a member
living
with his “father’s wife”…
Of
community members
taking each other to civil courts…
And finally
there
is the matter of fornication…
or
someone having sexual relationship
with
a prostitute.
I agree whole heartedly with Paul on
these subjects…
I think that a Church as a
covenanting community
has a responsibility to
both God and each other…
We are to
live in a fashion
which
doesn’t bring shame on the community.
Living lives which are
committed…
set apart …
holy…
is
important for the Christian community
to do that for God and for each
other.
The opening
words of today’s reading
speak
of the freedom we have…
"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.
Paul wrote to the church at
many of whom were
gentiles…
to remind
them:
As Christians we are
freed from the bonds of the law…
but in
making a commitment to Christ
we
also bind ourselves to each other…
to
live faithfully…
we
cease to be autonomous.
Richard
Hays’ commentary on Corinthians puts it this way:
“Those who commit sexual sins or
pursue litigation against their brothers and sisters in the faith are doing
damage not only to themselves but also to the community; consequently, the
community must act to preserve its unity and its identity as the sanctified
people of God.”
In a way
today’s text
has a ring of the wisdom found in
the book of Proverbs…
The fatherly advice
given to a child… (5: 3-6)
For the lips of a loose woman drip honey,
and her speech is smoother than oil;
but in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
sharp as a two-edged sword.
Her feet go down to death;
her steps follow the path to Sheol.
She does not keep straight to the path of life;
her ways wander,
and she does not know it.
Those words
in Proverbs are very similar to Paul’s advice here:
Corinthians 6: 12 - 20
"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.
"Food
is meant for the stomach
and
the stomach for food,"
and God will destroy both one and the
other.
The
body is meant 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?
Should
I therefore take the members of Christ
and make them members of a prostitute?
Never!
Do
you not know that whoever is united to a prostitute
becomes one body with her?
For it is said,
"The two shall be one flesh."
But
anyone united to the Lord
becomes
one spirit with him.
Shun
fornication!
Every
sin that a person commits
is outside the body;
but the fornicator sins against the
body itself.
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.
Here
ends the reading.
As I said
earlier
I agree with what Paul has written
here
I think his challenge
was appropriate for
the
community of
where
prostitution was accepted a norm…
I think living a disciplined
life is important…
I try to do
it …
and I hope you do as well…
because it does matter
to how the Christian community
appears to the larger
world.
I could
stop here…
Let you go early…
Let you get ready for
the Ravens game.
But since
you’re here I might as well say a few more things.
While I agree with what Paul is
saying here…
I get kind-of-nervous
when people
start getting all holy…
or talking
about being “sanctified people”…
saints…
holier
than thou.
In the text
Paul said…
Should I therefore take the members of Christ
and make them members of a prostitute?
Never!
How could anything of God…
be related to a
prostitute…
I would
remind you
there is a book in the Hebrew Bible…
Where God in the second
verse is pictured as saying:
"Go, take for
yourself a wife of whoredom
and
have children of whoredom,”
How can God
call a “holy
prophet”
to
marry a prostitute…
and
have children with a prostitute…
who
at times leaves home
to
practice her profession?
How can the prophet
still be considered holy?
What do you think the
community back then
thought about Hosea
and his marriage to Gomer?
Do you think anyone
thought it was a marriage
made in
heaven?
but
it was!
Probably
as much or more
than
almost any other marriage in scripture
Except
maybe Mary and Joseph…
a
questionable relationship
as well?
I am sure
those marriages
made
the “holy people” talk
about
the prophet
who
can’t keep his wife off the streets…
and
the illegitimate child
whose
mother believes to be the messiah.
Why
should we listen to such unholy people?
What
could they possibly say to us about God.
Problems
can arise in communities
that are too concerned with being
all sanctified…
and holy.
In Hosea
what God commanded
was not mandated as a
sign of God’s approval of prostitution,
but as a
reminder of God’s grace and love…
a
love so great that it called
and
unfaithful people…
again
and again…
to
come be my bride:
It was one of those prophetic
example things…
which some people, in
Hosea’s day, probably missed,
because they
were just too holy to listen to someone…
who
had been made impure
by his relationship with a
prostitute.
And in
Jesus’ day
We have reports about what the ‘holy
ones’
said about Jesus:
”Now all the tax collectors and sinners were
coming near
to
listen to him.
And
the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling
and
saying,
"This
fellow welcomes sinners
and
eats with them.” (Lk. 15:
1-2)
In Luke’s version of the
story
of
Jesus being anointed by a woman…
It wasn’t Mary of Bethany doing the
anointing here
a student who studied at Jesus’ feet
a
good girl.
Luke said it happened like this:
“One of the Pharisees
asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and took his
place at the table. And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned
that he was eating in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment.
She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her
tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and
anointing them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw
it, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would have known
who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him--that she is a sinner.”
Sometimes
all our concerns about holiness
can keep us from hearing
the message of God’s messengers…
Even the
message of the angels…
at
the birth of Jesus:
“I am bringing you good news of great joy
for all the people:” (Lk.
2:10 b)
The good
news that we have
is for all people…
not just for holy people…
it is for
all people…
God’s
love, God’s grace for all .
I think it
is important to be disciplined about our living.
and hanging with a bad crowd
can lead children and
adults
into sin.
But being
more concerned for how the world sees us…
than we are about God’s concern for
the world…
can lead just surely to
sin.
May the
Spirit of God
not
just a spirit of holiness dwell in us.
May we be
people who share the grace and love,
extended
to us by God,
to
all people.
Amen