Glorifying God in the Temple of Our Body

It was one month ago today. What a day! It’s still kind of a blur. I was holding my own pretty well for about two thirds of the service, mainly because all I had to do was wash the hands of the bishop and then stand there as he draped the towel over my head. It’s not hard to be a towel rack. But when the moment came it was too overwhelming. I couldn’t take it in. My brain started sending messages like: Warning! Emotional stack overflow; brain has shut down; operating system is now unstable; some applications may not function properly; click Yes for core dump; must reboot. But there was no time for a reboot. I had to complete my parts in the service. There are very few times in life that is so emotionally packed to that level of intensity. It was the same on my wedding day, the day Abigail was born, and the day Jesse was born. Now there is one more, ordination. Thankfully, someone had secured a tether to one of my legs with a piece of rope, which prevented my body from just floating away, as my brain had already done.

In His mercy our Lord comes to us. He draws near to us. He even reveals Himself to us. When the light of His countenance shines on us, we feel warmed through and through with joy, happiness, and glory. Something seems to radiate through our body that makes us come alive. It’s called uncreated energy, the grace of God. The heart begins to race with excitement. The eyes begin to perceive. He has our attention. We may even be so bold as to say, “Who are you, Lord? Tell me your name.” And like the prophet Samuel of old, in silence we may even say “Speak, for your servant is listening.” And then we wait, expecting an answer. But the answer doesn’t come. Or maybe the answer comes in a way that catches us a little by surprise. The answer makes us think. We look inside the heart. We perceive the answer. The answer brings us pain. We cry out to God, “Sweet Jesus, You drew near to me in mercy and now I grieve.” But He comes to us in love. He is a God of mercy and compassion. Sometimes it’s just that He wants to do a little house cleaning before He comes into His temple, your body. He wants to purify the heart. The Lord draws near to you this morning to shine the light of His countenance on you. Let us open our hearts to light of the Scriptures in the epistle reading from 1 Corinthians 6:12-20.

The Outward Struggle for Purity

These words are a timely reminder for us, especially as we embark upon the spiritual passage of Great Lent. It is a journey that will take us to the foot of the cross, the grave, and the tomb of the Resurrection. Set before us is a journey that will take each one of us to the foot of our own cross too. That cross is planted within your heart. As we look within we might experience pain and grief over the sin that so easily besets us. Notice how the Apostle brushes aside in verse 12 and 13 what, for most of us, becomes the focal point of the Lenten journey: food. He spends very little time on that. And so should we. Too often during Great Lent sometimes the only pain we feel is the discomfort of an empty stomach. When it comes to food, the point is moderation and self-control, having mastery rather than being mastered. St. Paul moves quickly beyond that, and so should we. It is far better that we wrestle with the pain that comes from our sin.

That is what I want to deal with now. When the grace of God comes upon us, when we enter that spiritual state, we see that our sin prevents Him from coming as close as we want Him to be and that He wants to be to us. He wants to purify and transform us so He can draw near. Flee from sexual immorality. The Greek word is πορνεια. This is the word from which we derive our English words pornography, pornocracy (government by harlots), a pornocrat (the member of a pornocracy), or pornographic, and other words like them. St. Paul spoke literally and spiritually to the Corinthians. The point was very relevant to the believers of the day. The culture was all too familiar with what Paul was talking about. “Oh yea, that’s the temple of Aphrodite over there. The priestesses of Aphrodite know how to help you worship.” For those of you who do may not know, sexual intercourse with a priestess of Aphrodite was a method of worshipping the goddess. In the general culture of the day, loose living, and the gratuitous sexual encounter were all too common. In some ways things haven’t changed today.

And just as it did back then, word of God speaks to us today. How we live does matter. What we do in our “private life” does matter. Sexual sin is not compatible with the Christian life. The apostle, here, is talking about sexual activity apart from the God-blessed union between a man and a woman. Flee from πορνεια and all of its manifestations. Why? The answer is horrifying. It brings decay and death to the soul. It separates us from God and prevents His grace from covering us. Brothers and sisters, we have been united to Jesus. As St. Paul tells us in Ephesians, we have ενοτητα, unity and oneness with our Lord. It is a state of being, a reality. We are of one soul and body with Him. Sexual sin splinters the relationship with God. It splinters our relationship with people, and the inner relationship with your self. That is what πορνεια does inwardly. We could have our own in-house expert on Mammalian Biology, Father Steven, talk about the decay and death that πορνεια, can bring to the physical body too. But that’s a topic for another day. We have to put sins like this to death. The Lord Jesus wants to draw near to us. He wants to cover us with His grace. The first step is to flee, literally, from sinful behavior.

The Inward Struggle for Purity

The Lord wants to draw near to us because He loves us. In His mercy He wants to purify us. He wants to transform us from within. The apostle Paul speaks of more than just outward acts of sin. He is also talking about the temptation and coupling with sin that takes place in the heart. St. John tells us in his first epistle that the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life are not from the Father, but are from the world. The particular temptation may be this or that. It may be a different one for each one of us. Too easily and too often we want to escape to secret places of delight that we like to visit within the heart. We fancy ourselves into thinking that no one will know. I am all alone. I am in the place known only to me. No one will see. In other words, the temptation is standing at our very door. Right then and there, it would be terrific if we could make time stop, OK! a big time out! It would be very good if we were somehow able at that moment to hook up a lie detector to the evil one. The poly graph needle would go berserk because the thought that no one will know, I am alone is a lie from the pit—nothing but hooey.

Theopan the Recluse says, “The sweep of the enemy’s sword is the introduction of a thought into the heart: the devil expects that the heart will respond to it and on this assumption proceeds to build up a strong temptation.” In other words, beloved, the battle for our soul begins on the spiritual plane, and then from there it moves into the heart. To be tempted, the provocation is not a sin. What we do with the suggestion determines whether we go astray or whether we remain pure. So here we are a couple of weeks from Great Lent. We do well to remind one another, like St. Peter said; “I stir up your pure hearts by way of remembrance.” The guarding of the heart requires prayer and fasting. It requires denying ourselves and, in love, practicing humility. That is to say, we must struggle in the grace of God as co-laborer with Him. The Lord wants to draw near to you. Each of us is a holy temple. He will come to the temple of His holiness. In His mercy he dons the garments of a servant to do a little house cleaning.

In conclusion,

Let us have the courage to examine our hearts. Let us strive to be vigilant. Let us struggle to be watchful and spiritually alert. Let us embrace the time of Great Lent with joy and anticipation. Our Lord will come to the temple of His glory. He will abide with you. Let us prepare our hearts to receive Him, now in Holy Communion and in the coming season of the fast.

1 Corinthians 6:12-20

12 All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

13 Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

14 And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power.

15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not!

16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For “the two,” He says, “shall become one flesh.”

17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.

18 Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.

19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?

20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

12 παντα μοι εξεστιν αλλ ου παντα συμφερει παντα μοι εξεστιν αλλ ουκ εγω εξουσιασθησομαι υπο τινος

13 τα βρωματα τη κοιλια και η κοιλια τοις βρωμασιν ο δε θεος και ταυτην και ταυτα καταργησει το δε σωμα ου τη πορνεια αλλα τω κυριω και ο κυριος τω σωματι

14 ο δε θεος και τον κυριον ηγειρεν και ημας εξεγερει δια της δυναμεως αυτου

15 ουκ οιδατε οτι τα σωματα υμων μελη χριστου εστιν αρας ουν τα μελη του χριστου ποιησω πορνης μελη μη γενοιτο

16 η ουκ οιδατε οτι ο κολλωμενος τη πορνη εν σωμα εστιν εσονται γαρ φησιν οι δυο εις σαρκα μιαν

17 ο δε κολλωμενος τω κυριω εν πνευμα εστιν

18 φευγετε την πορνειαν παν αμαρτημα ο εαν ποιηση ανθρωπος εκτος του σωματος εστιν ο δε πορνευων εις το ιδιον σωμα αμαρτανει

19 η ουκ οιδατε οτι το σωμα υμων ναος του εν υμιν αγιου πνευματος εστιν ου εχετε απο θεου και ουκ εστε εαυτων

20 ηγορασθητε γαρ τιμης δοξασατε δη τον θεον εν τω σωματι υμων και εν τω πνευματι υμων ατινα εστιν του θεου

last updated:Thursday, 15-Feb-2007 20:28:35 EST

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a parish of the Self-Ruled Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America