And on the Inside...
Well, I've never been to Moscow (heck, I've never been off the contintent - and the sum total of my international travel has been Canada...) but I've seen pictures of the subway system. I didn't realize that few tourists ventured down there. What I remember from a History Channel special about it (yeah, I'm getting old, I know...) was that it was somehow tied in with the Communist era...don't remember too much now that I've started.
Anyway, I go back and forth about the whole "outward appearance" thing. I mean, I'm healthly on the inside (all outward evidence to the contrary - my blood pressure is always perfect, my cholesterol is in the normal range, my heartrate is good, I just had a cbc and everything was fine...) even though I am more that 100 pounds overweight. I know that eventually the weight is likely to catch up to me, so my inside health will probably someday match my outside health... That's all just the physical part. But there is a spiritual dimension. Do I have any reason to care how unhealthy I get? People like to throw that Corinthians passage at fat people (you know, the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit - so you better get the temple in better shape, buddy) but I don't know that it has anything at all to do with the outward appearance.... I should read it....
Sigh, okay - so it really DOESN'T have anything to do with the outward appearance (darn prooftexters) but it's all about...shudder...sin. Specifically, sexual sin.
Wow - for once I actually find more depth in Peterson's The Message (I've always loved to read it - he's good at putting words together - but sometimes he goes for clever to the expense of...well, accuracy):
There’s more to sex than mere skin on skin. Sex is as much spiritual mystery as physical fact. As written in Scripture, “The two become one.” Since we want to become spiritually one with the Master, we must not pursue the kind of sex that avoids commitment and intimacy, leaving us more lonely than ever—the kind of sex that can never “become one.” There is a sense in which sexual sins are different from all others. In sexual sin we violate the sacredness of our own bodies, these bodies that were made for God-given and God-modeled love, for “becoming one” with another. Or didn’t you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don’t you see that you can’t live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body.
(1 Co 6:16-20).
I think this whole passage really is great stuff from Peterson - really illuminates Pau's point. And the point he's making really is one about grace. It isn't just the "don't sin because you're going to hell" kind of rhetoric we get from the far Right - Paul really tells us WHY we shouldn't sin - it really does affect us spiritually. GOD LIVES WITHIN US. That's a pretty powerful message.
So, I think you're right. I need to keep my heart beautiful (heck, there's no way the outside will ever be considered beautiful) - I sweep it up with confession, repentance is a new coat of paint, resisting temptation is a new...um...chair? Uh, this metaphor has reached its limits, I think...
I don't want Jesus to look at me and see a whitewashed tomb, I want Jesus to look at me and see a well kept house - maybe a little plain to look at, but cared for... And on the inside - home...
Anyway, I go back and forth about the whole "outward appearance" thing. I mean, I'm healthly on the inside (all outward evidence to the contrary - my blood pressure is always perfect, my cholesterol is in the normal range, my heartrate is good, I just had a cbc and everything was fine...) even though I am more that 100 pounds overweight. I know that eventually the weight is likely to catch up to me, so my inside health will probably someday match my outside health... That's all just the physical part. But there is a spiritual dimension. Do I have any reason to care how unhealthy I get? People like to throw that Corinthians passage at fat people (you know, the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit - so you better get the temple in better shape, buddy) but I don't know that it has anything at all to do with the outward appearance.... I should read it....
Sigh, okay - so it really DOESN'T have anything to do with the outward appearance (darn prooftexters) but it's all about...shudder...sin. Specifically, sexual sin.
Wow - for once I actually find more depth in Peterson's The Message (I've always loved to read it - he's good at putting words together - but sometimes he goes for clever to the expense of...well, accuracy):
There’s more to sex than mere skin on skin. Sex is as much spiritual mystery as physical fact. As written in Scripture, “The two become one.” Since we want to become spiritually one with the Master, we must not pursue the kind of sex that avoids commitment and intimacy, leaving us more lonely than ever—the kind of sex that can never “become one.” There is a sense in which sexual sins are different from all others. In sexual sin we violate the sacredness of our own bodies, these bodies that were made for God-given and God-modeled love, for “becoming one” with another. Or didn’t you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don’t you see that you can’t live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body.
(1 Co 6:16-20).
I think this whole passage really is great stuff from Peterson - really illuminates Pau's point. And the point he's making really is one about grace. It isn't just the "don't sin because you're going to hell" kind of rhetoric we get from the far Right - Paul really tells us WHY we shouldn't sin - it really does affect us spiritually. GOD LIVES WITHIN US. That's a pretty powerful message.
So, I think you're right. I need to keep my heart beautiful (heck, there's no way the outside will ever be considered beautiful) - I sweep it up with confession, repentance is a new coat of paint, resisting temptation is a new...um...chair? Uh, this metaphor has reached its limits, I think...
I don't want Jesus to look at me and see a whitewashed tomb, I want Jesus to look at me and see a well kept house - maybe a little plain to look at, but cared for... And on the inside - home...
posted by Pastor Bill at 8:50 AM
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