Epiphany 2, January 15, 2006
Texts: 1 Corinthians 6:12-20; John 1:43-51
Contacting God through The Body
Recently I saw the 1997 movie “Contact.” Ellie Arroway, working as a radio astronomer combs the sky with vast arrays of huge radio receiver dishes for signals from outer space. One day her team receives a signal from aliens, a message that gives them instructions on how to build a mysterious machine that will help them to communicate with them. Half a trillion dollars later the machine is ready to transport Ellie into another world. There she meets an alien who is disguised as her deceased father. He tries to comfort her with some New Age religious nonsense, that things like facts and reality do not matter in the end, or that there will not be an “exam” or judgment at the end of the world. When Ellie returns to “reality” she is unable to prove to her sceptics that anything she experienced in that machine actually took place. In the end it all came down to faith.
How about you? Do you believe in aliens? Ellie Arroway, reflecting on the vastness of the universe says, “If it is just us it seems like an awful waste of space.” It is quite possible that there are other intelligent life forms like us in the universe. I do not think the Bible denies that possibility. God does, however, tell us about certain aliens out there and even names their leader, Satan, the Devil. And he is a liar and a deceiver. These “aliens” or demons as the Bible calls them, are eager to make contact with us. And they do not require a half-trillion dollar machine to do that job either, though, I am sure, they are more than happy to make us pay for our own deception.
In our Gospel reading Jesus presents us with an alterative to the trillion dollar “mystery machine” to help us make contact with another “alien” world. In the final verse (1:51) Jesus says: “I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” Jesus tells us of a gateway to heaven that is safe from demonic attack and deception. Here only the angels of God tread. These are the good “aliens” sent by God to serve and protect us.
Jesus’ words recall a similar vision Jacob experienced, when he saw a ladder extending into heaven upon which God’s angels were descending and ascending (Genesis 28:12). With this vision God assured Jacob that He would protect him from his angry and vengeful brother Esau. But what is different with Jesus’ ladder to heaven is that there is no ladder. Here the angels of God ascend and descend on the Son of Man. He Himself is the ladder. He adds: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me” (John 14:6). There is only one way for us to communicate with God that is safe from demonic deception and which brings us to the true God, our Heavenly Father, and that is Jesus.
Jesus’ own body is our point of contact with God. He offers His body as a sacrifice for our sins and He gives us His righteousness and goodness so we can safely and confidently approach God as His true children. Baptized into Christ we have received His righteousness. And remembering the calling we have as God’s holy children we strive to live holy lives here in this world. But as we are still sinners and sin daily, we are drawn to the body of Christ as He comes to us in the Lord’s Supper. Confessing our sins we receive forgiveness and fellowship with God as we eat the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus. Jesus’ body is the means for us to contact God, to experience His love and grace as He promises us.
Just because we have been baptized into Christ does not grant us automatic immunity from temptation or deception. What we receive is access to God’s protection from such attack which is ours through faith in His Word. The Corinthians Paul addresses in our second reading had experienced the freedom that comes through faith in Jesus. But they did not persist in maintaining contact with Christ and His Word. Somehow Satan managed to deceive them. For example, they believed the freedom they received in Christ meant that they could now do whatever they wanted. Satan led them to believe that they were free to satisfy all their sinful desires, which included sexual relations outside of marriage such as fornication, adultery, prostitution and homosexual relations. But such activities are incompatible with freedom. So-called “sexual freedom” is not really freedom at all. It is just another form of slavery and bondage to sin. Those who engage in it lose the ability to experience true love and joy as God designed it to be experienced in marriage.
Having received the Holy Spirit we are free from the bondage of sin. That is why a Christian cannot continue to live in sin. It is incompatible with what the Holy Spirit desires. You cannot be united to the Lord while at the same time uniting yourself to someone in a sexually immoral manner. And that is not only true for actions, but also our thoughts. If in your thoughts you freely entertain sexual fantasy and lust, you cannot at the same time remain connected to the Lord.
The apostle Paul urges us to “flee from sexual immorality.” Sexual sins are particularly bad because we commit them against our own bodies. All other sins are external to our bodies. They do not affect us in the same way sexual sins do. By uniting ourselves sexually with another person we enter into a level of intimacy that unites us with that person and makes us one flesh with them. That is why sex was designed by God to be enjoyed by a husband and wife in a life-long monogamous union. It is a picture or reflection of the relationship God has established with us when we were baptized into Christ. In Baptism Christ joined our bodies to His body in a monogamous and eternal union. Sexually immoral thoughts, words and behaviour desecrate our bodies and make them unfit to be members of Christ’s holy body. Such thoughts originate with Satan and his demons. Jesus will not share our bodies with such foul spirits. In order that we might remain united to Him, Christ has promised to forgive us our sins daily when we confess them and truly desire to live by the Holy Spirit.
It is in Christ’s body that we have access to heaven. Jesus did not redeem us by enlightening our minds with his beautiful teachings or exciting our passions with His powerful deeds. He saved us with His body that was sacrificed on the cross and which suffered, bled and died. God sent Jesus to suffer and die bodily for us because God wanted to save not only our souls but also our bodies. For God created us as humans as a union of body and soul. Jesus came to redeem not only our souls but also our bodies. And through the body and soul of Jesus our bodies and souls are made holy and perfect. In heaven we will not only live as spirits, but we will have new, resurrected bodies and we will continue to exist as human beings—that is, perfected human beings.
As Christians our souls and bodies have been purified through faith in Christ. Paul asks “Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” What we do with our bodies affects our soul and our spiritual relationship with God. Therefore, if we are to maintain contact with God, we do so through our bodies, and not just in our mind or spirit. Because God redeemed our bodies from the power of sin, death, and the Devil through the precious blood of His own Son, Paul exhorts us to “Honour God with your body.” We do that by keeping our bodies from becoming desecrated with sexual immorality and using them instead to reflect His love to those around us through acts of service.
It is, after all, through our bodies that we experience God. Without ears or eyes we would not be able to read or hear the Gospel of God’s love for us in Christ. Without a sense of touch we would not be able to feel the purifying waters of Baptism. Without mouths and stomachs we would not be able to receive the Body and Blood of our Lord sacrificed for us. It is through our bodies that we perceive God’s gracious action for us which the Holy Spirit uses to work saving faith in our hearts. And since our bodies are temples of God, let us not desecrate them by living in sin. Instead, living by the Spirit, we cling in faith to our Lord Jesus who promises to purify us from all sin as we confess them to Him. This is how we remain in contact with Christ who brings us before the throne of God, to the Creator and Ruler of the universe who cares deeply for each one of us and loves us dearly as our Heavenly Father.
Now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit keep you hearts and minds in His peace. Amen.