United by and with the Spirit (1 Corinthians 6: 12-20)

Well, the scriptures that inform this sermon are certainly not the kind we normally hear from the pulpit, are they? I’m sure that they’ve made some of us uncomfortable, including me if truth be told. I don’t enjoy having to read of sexual immorality and prostitutes, or speak on such issues, yet I also know that these are words from Holy Scripture that help shape us and our faith, and we ignore them at our peril.

What makes this particular scriptural passage harder to hear is that it comes on the same day as we celebrate Holy Communion. It just seems like it’s all sorts of wrong to speak on the sin of prostitution when in another few minutes, we’ll be sharing in our commemoration of the Lord’s Supper. They don’t go together! Theologically, these two things could not be further apart… or could they? Is it possible, even remotely, that we might learn more about our faith through these two admittedly disparate things?

In order to better understand this unsettling piece of scripture, we have to realize from where it’s coming. It is part of a long letter from St. Paul to the people of Corinth, written so that Paul could clear up a number of matters and serious concerns that had arisen within the church he’d founded not so very long ago. It seems that some persons in the surrounding, urban area were “spiritual people” who emphasized their freedom and independence, saying “All things are lawful (or, all right) for me.” In other words, they chose to do whatever they wished because it was their own selves or bodies that were being affected; what concern was it of others what they did, so long as they obeyed a law that was personal? And as you can easily surmise from the rest of this passage, part of this freedom they touted was the freedom to engage the services of prostitutes, if they so desired.

Apparently, these “spiritual people” were members of this new Christian church of Paul’s and incorrectly saw Christianity as relating solely to the spirit, not to the physical body. Thus, they had themselves convinced that they could do whatever they liked, so long as they went to church on the Sabbath and got themselves spiritually refreshed for the rest of the week. Not to be cynical, but that kind of argument is one that continues to permeate the minds of some people to this day! They don’t want to obey a set of rules that might somehow impinge upon their right and freedom to do anything that they have deemed pleasurable. Don’t try and enforce your standards on what I want to do, seems to be their rallying cry, or else I’ll sue you for interfering with my constitutional rights. Back off, and let me do what I want.

Wow… does that sort of thinking ever miss the proverbial boat in terms of understanding the law of God! Christianity isn’t about simply going to church for an hour, saying a few prayers, singing some hymns and then going home, believing that you can do as you please for the rest of the week. No, it is about obeying a higher law, one that demands we give of ourselves and work towards uplifting others in the spirits of love, mercy, justice, peace and reconciliation. Our Christian faith is based on self-sacrifice, in a manner similar to how Jesus gave His all for the saving grace offered to humanity.

Part of the point St. Paul was making about being united with a prostitute was that the thing that brought them together was money; in short, it is a business transaction masquerading as love, nothing more. It is sin because it focuses on the self rather than on the spirit which comes to us from God. That was what Paul hurried to correct in the minds of the Corinthians, before it was too late.

Jesus came in love, bearing love for all. Nothing was required of all who heard Him, save that they do likewise. The very basis of the Sacrament of Holy Communion is freely-offered love, without terms, boundaries, conditions or contracts. It extends to all persons and unites each of us not only with the Triune God, but with one another as well. Holy Communion is holy because of the unity, the oneness it offers. That is what makes this sacrament so special, so life-affirming each time we partake of it, that we take a little piece of the Living Christ unto ourselves and are thus sanctified. So maybe that’s the connection between Paul’s warning and Holy Communion: a revelation of what true unity is, that we might understand the difference and no longer remain enslaved to impure thoughts and deeds, but to move toward a spiritual joining with God and an increase in faithful living. Thanks be to God!