This is Part 3 of a 4 week series on Healthy Sexuality

Week 1: Our bodies – God’s image

Week 2: (Pro)Creative intimacy

Week 4: Sexuality and spirituality: When all is one

https://joelssermons.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/20191020sermon.mp3

Texts: Songs of Songs, 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Speaker: Joel Miller

GK Chesterton once wrote: “Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere.” (1)

In the fine print of a pastor’s job description, so fine it cannot be seen by the naked eye but is surely there, is the expectation that, should the pastor ever be asked privately or need to comment publicly about sex, that the pastor steer the conversation toward lines.  Lines that differentiate the good from the bad.  Lines that should not be crossed.

I don’t know if that’s part of the CMC pastor’s job description.  Maybe some of you will let me know after this sermon!  Either way, I’m going to take the bait.  As long as I can talk about lines the way GK Chesterton does: “Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere.”

In other words, what makes healthy sexuality healthy as opposed to unhealthy?

If you’re already starting to get a bit nervous, now might be a good time to take a large bite of chocolate.

I think it’s fair to say that the church’s main contribution to the sex conversation has been one big heavy line.

That line, in case you need reminded, can be summarized as: Celibacy, no sex, for singles.  Sex only within marriage.  That’s one way of wielding the line.  The line is a rule.  It values covenant and the commitment of marriage vows.  Check.  It’s clear, kind of, because how far is too far?  It’s easy to remember.  Check, check.  It elevates marriage as the only relationship in which sex is appropriate/good/not sinful.  In itself it has nothing to say about what might make for a…

This is Part 2 of a 4 week series on Healthy Sexuality

Week 1: Our bodies – God’s image

Week 3: Healthy sex: Drawing the line(s)

Week 4: Sexuality and spirituality: When all is one

Texts: Readers theater excerpts from Genesis 2, Ruth, John 11

Speaker: Mark Rupp

Welcome friends.  Welcome family.  Welcome neighbors and guests.  Welcome sisters, brothers, cousins, aunties, tios, and omas.  Welcome lovers.  Welcome husbands, wives, partners, significant others.  Welcome people who are straight.  Welcome people who are L-G-B-T-Queer.  Welcome people for whom “it’s complicated” best describes their relationships.

Welcome all, to this, our second week of a four-part worship series on healthy sexuality.

I want to thank Joel for naming in his sermon last week the reality that too often these sorts of conversations in the Church have been dominated by straight people talking about the sexualities of queer people, dissecting every detail and treating the lives of real people as if they were nothing more than an “issue” to be resolved.

But we are all sexual people.  None of us can distance ourselves from the “issue” any more than we can separate our mind from our heart from our body.  We are all in need of good, theological discourse about our bodies, relationships, sex, and desire, because sexuality is about a lot more than just what we do with our genitals.  It’s about how we relate to the world around us, how we understand our identities, how we express our desires.

And we are in desperate need of good theological conversations about sexuality because for too long the Church has been one of the chief purveyors of unhealthy, damaging, and even death-dealing notions of sexuality.

So what does a healthy, life-giving conversation about sexuality in the Church sound like?

The High School Sunday School class is doing a series concurrent with this worship…

This is Part 1 of a 4 week series on Healthy Sexuality

Week 2: (Pro)Creative Intimacy

Week 3: Healthy sex: Drawing the line(s)

Week 4: Sexuality and spirituality: When all is one

https://joelssermons.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/20191006sermon.mp3

The audio recording includes a follow up reflection from Jenny Campagna, beginning around minute 18.

Genesis 1:26-31, John 1:14

Speaker: Joel Miller

One of the more daunting aspects of speaking about sex and sexuality in a congregation, is just how many differences we bring into the room.  In the few conversations I’ve had anticipating this Healthy Sexuality series, a wide range of life experience has already showed up.  For one person, growing up in the free love sexual revolution of the 60’s resulted in a need to form more disciplined habits and attitudes toward sex later in life.  For another person, growing up in the evangelical purity culture of the 90’s included a shame based view of the body and sex that still lingers.

Sexuality, by its very nature, is intensely personal.  It speaks to our deep needs and most raw vulnerabilities.  Sexuality is expressed differently at different stages of life, whether we are single or partnered.  Sexual violence is pervasive, and the resulting trauma can be a life’s work to heal.  Sexual intimacy can be profoundly meaningful, pleasurable, and restorative.  All this is true.

And, oh yeah, sex is still the main way people make babies.  Infertility, miscarriage, birthing and parenting, family- making in both traditional and non-traditional configurations are all connected to sexuality.

In the past few decades when the church has talked about sexuality it has been almost entirely about how people who identify as gay, lesbian, queer or gender-nonconforming are or aren’t welcome in the church.  That means for most of us, we’ve been talking about other people’s sexuality.  Which hasn’t really been all that fun, but it’s been a nice distraction for…

https://joelssermons.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/20191006sermon.mp3

The audio recording includes a follow up reflection from Jenny Campagna, beginning around minute 18.

Genesis 1:26-31, John 1:14

One of the more daunting aspects of speaking about sex and sexuality in a congregation, is just how many differences we bring into the room.  In the few conversations I’ve had anticipating this Healthy Sexuality series, a wide range of life experience has already showed up.  For one person, growing up in the free love sexual revolution of the 60’s resulted in a need to form more disciplined habits and attitudes toward sex later in life.  For another person, growing up in the evangelical purity culture of the 90’s included a shame based view of the body and sex that still lingers.

Sexuality, by its very nature, is intensely personal.  It speaks to our deep needs and most raw vulnerabilities.  Sexuality is expressed differently at different stages of life, whether we are single or partnered.  Sexual violence is pervasive, and the resulting trauma can be a life’s work to heal.  Sexual intimacy can be profoundly meaningful, pleasurable, and restorative.  All this is true.

And, oh yeah, sex is still the main way people make babies.  Infertility, miscarriage, birthing and parenting, family- making in both traditional and non-traditional configurations are all connected to sexuality.

In the past few decades when the church has talked about sexuality it has been almost entirely about how people who identify as gay, lesbian, queer or gender-nonconforming are or aren’t welcome in the church.  That means for most of us, we’ve been talking about other people’s sexuality.  Which hasn’t really been all that fun, but it’s been a nice distraction for us straight folks from having to talk about our own issues.

This four week series is a humble attempt to widen the conversation.  To acknowledge that we are all sexual beings. …

https://joelssermons.files.wordpress.com/2019/09/20190922sermon.mp3

Texts: Genesis 3:16-21; Romans 8:19-27

She fell like a maple seed, pirouetting on an autumn breeze.  A column of light streamed from a hole in the Skyworld, marking her path where only darkness had been before.  It took her a long time to fall.  In fear, or maybe hope, she clutched a bundle tightly in her hand.

Hurtling downward, she saw only dark water below.  But in that emptiness there were many eyes gazing up at the sudden shaft of light.  They saw there a small object, a mere dust mote in the beam.  As it grew closer, they could see that it was a woman, arms outstretched, long black hair billowing behind as she spiraled toward them.

The geese nodded to one another and rose together from the water in a wave of goose music.  She felt the beat of their wings as they flew beneath to break her fall.  Far from the only home she’d ever known, she caught her breath at the warm embrace of soft feathers as they gently carried her downward.  And so it began.

The geese could not hold the woman above the water for much longer, so they called a council to decide what to do.  Resting on their wings, she saw them all gather: loons, otters, swans, beavers, fish of all kinds.  A great turtle floated in their midst and offered his back for her to rest upon.  Gratefully, she stepped from the goose wings onto the dome of his shell.  The others understood that she needed land for her home and discussed how they might serve her need.  The deep divers among them had heard of mud at the bottom of the water and agreed to go find some.

Loon dove first, but the distance was too far and after a long while he surfaced…