Happy new year, y’all.
We made it to 2021. I feel like that’s all there is to say about that. Maybe like me you heaved a big sigh of relief after holding your breath for a whole year. Maybe you’re still holding yours.
Either way, here we go…
Here at the beginning is as good a time as any to talk about what the Bible has to say about sex, right? Let’s go back to the beginning.
There’s this book, In the Beginning, GOD by Marva Dawn, that I love. The whole thing is pretty great but the first chapter does something with Genesis that completely changed the way I read it.
Dawn walks us through the first chapters of Genesis. You know, the ones that sometimes get treated like a science book? Dawn suggests that the work is something entirely different. She suggests that the first several chapters, the creation account, is a liturgy. A beautiful poetic congregational responsive reading that leads the people into awe and worship of our creator God and defines our relationship to God and to each other.
Can you imagine it?
Leader: God said “let the earth bring forth living creatures…”
Congregants: AND GOD SAW THAT IT WAS GOOD.
After beautiful, wild, marvelous imagery of spinning planets and exploding lights, land and air erupting with life, we reach the pinnacle of the service. God creates humans. Have you ever thought about that? That God saved the best for last?
God creates Adam (which by the way means ‘earth creature’ and is not a gendered term until the next chapter). But wait. Something in the liturgy changes. The echoed response has changed. God says “it is not good for [this creature made from earth] to be alone”.
What’s going to happen? Here it comes, the answer. God creates another. Male and female God created them.
They were naked - before God and each other - and knew no shame. And there they are, the image of God.
And then what does God say? What does the congregation sing out? “And God saw that it was VERY GOOD.”
Very good. What a litany. What would it be like if as a church, we reminded each other of this through our congregational worship? Called each other into the truth that our created bodies and created selves are very good? Wouldn’t it be beautiful to enter the church and be reminded who you are? To be called home into your body? Reminded that we too can be naked without shame. Naked by the way means a lot more than just physically exposed. Here, in this context it means intimately known. They were naked and known and were not ashamed.
What if our church calendar included a litany like this, once a year, a day to be reminded who we are, bodies and all? (If your church does I’d love to hear about it!)
And what if it became a touchstone in our own lives, an awareness that shame was not the original plan? That if shame is directing my relationship with my body or other bodies, I’m believing the lie that told Adam and Eve to hide themselves?
We’ll talk more, this could get lengthy so for now, we’ll end on the high note of knowing our bodies in relation to each other were created VERY GOOD. There are a lot of implications we’ll talk about soon. For now, go look in the mirror at that body of yours and remind yourself that it is very good. Maybe tell another body too.
More to come, Holy Bodies.