Living in Christ: First and Second Corinthians

Transcription

1 Living in Christ: First and Second Corinthians Diocese of West Texas Fall 2012 SESSION FOUR The Body Matters There is a long history of reducing Paul s teaching to abstract theological concepts like justification, grace, atonement, faith. But when we do so, we miss out on Paul s rich teaching on the importance of the human body, and the role of the body itself in our salvation. Especially as Paul addressed issues in the Christian assembly in Corinth, he focused on the body, both in its fleshly reality and as a metaphor for a healthy community. This session will examine some of what Paul had to say to the Corinthians about the human body, in this life and in the life to come. Body (sōma) and Flesh (sarx) One of the ways in which readers have become confused about what Paul really thought about the body is in the use of the two words, flesh and body. Sometimes they are interchangeable, in their reference to simple human creatureliness. For example in 1 Corinthians 15:39, Paul writes, Not all flesh is alike, but there is one flesh for human beings, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. And in Romans, Paul writes of Abraham, He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah s womb (Romans 4:19). Flesh and body are ways of talking about the simple fact of our physical existence. But sometimes being of the flesh is contrasted with being spiritual, and is a way of saying that a person is still immature in the faith, as in 1 Corinthians 3:1, And so, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. When Paul wrote to the Galatians, who were being taught by other teachers to keep the full Torah, he contrasted the spirit and the flesh as a way of clarifying the fact that he understood that in the cross of Christ God had broken through all the boundary markers between Jews and Gentiles, making a way for Gentiles to become the people of God without the fleshly sign of circumcision. For Paul, God had accomplished a way of holiness for all people that was more effective even than the law, as he writes to the Galatians: It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh that try to compel you to be circumcised--only that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. Even the circumcised do not themselves

2 2 obey the law, but they want you to be circumcised so that they may boast about your flesh (6:12-13). At times, Paul uses the word flesh to denote specifically sinful desires and actions, as in 1 Corinthians 3:3:...for you are still of the flesh. For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations? (and see also the works of the flesh in Galatians 5:19 and the desires of the flesh in Galatians 6:16). But often Paul uses the term flesh to speak simply of our finitude as human beings, whose bodies are subject to decay and death, but who, at the same time, have important and holy work to do in the world, work that can be done only by mortal, flesh-and-blood human beings. He writes poignantly to the Philippians, as he considers the possibility of his imminent death, For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which I prefer. I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better; but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you (1:21-24). Paul speaks most about the FLESH in Galatians and Romans, two communities that were at odds over the ongoing role of the Jewish Torah for believers in Christ. Paul speaks most about the BODY in 1 and 2 Corinthians, where he is concerned about their cohesion as a community and about certain practices that they are engaged in. The Body and Sexuality Before we look at Paul s corrections of what he saw as harmful sexual mores in the Corinthian community, let s take a look at what he has to say positively about human sexuality. In 1 Corinthians 7:1-7, Paul lays out the norm of mutuality in marriage. Apparently, the letter Paul had received from the community contained the following statement: It is well for a man not to touch a woman (7:1). We cannot tell whether this statement was actually a quotation from Paul himself in an earlier visit or letter, or whether it is a teaching coming from someone else in the community, but it does not represent Paul s actual view on the subject of human sexuality, even though it appears that he himself does not have a wife (7:7). His decision not to marry may perhaps be on account of the dangerousness of the times and of his work, and the need to focus on unhindered devotion to the Lord (7:32-35). He seems to feel that his ability not to marry is a gift from God. Against the norms of the Greco-Roman culture concerning marriage, Paul stresses complete mutuality in 1 Corinthians 7:1-7:

3 3 The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another except perhaps by agreement for a set time, to devote yourselves to prayer, and then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. This I say by way of concession, not of command. I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has a particular gift from God, one having one kind and another a different kind. So, as you can see, even while Paul has a preference for the unmarried state, he sees marriage and sexuality as a gift from God, a powerful gift that must be managed well in order to live in holiness, but a gift all the same. It is this norm of mutual care in human sexuality that undergirds Paul s censure of sexuality that, in his opinion, has gone awry, and is creating havoc in the Corinthian church. One case concerns a man who has married his father s wife. One would presume that the woman is his stepmother, whom he has married after his father s death. It is possible that the community sees this action as exhibiting commendable care for the stepmother, who may have had no other means of financial support. Paul calls them arrogant (literally, puffed up ) for supporting the man in this action, and he goes on, Should you not rather have mourned, so that he who has done this would have been removed from among you? (1 Corinthians 5:2). Paul compares the man s action to a grain of yeast left in a house at Passover time. That one little grain can cause a whole batch of dough to puff up (5:6), and he counsels the community to drive out the man whom he sees as immoral, just as a woman would clean yeast out of every seam in a cupboard before Passover. A second case concerns some members who were apparently engaged in sex with prostitutes. Here, you may want to remember that Corinth was a port city, known for the bawdy pleasures it offered to sailors coming through town. At this time, some of the Greco-Roman cults also had a religious practice of sex with temple prostitutes. It is hard to tell exactly what type of prostitution Paul was condemning, but his condemnation, at least, is clear in 1 Corinthians 6:15-19: Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that whoever is united to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For it is said, The two shall be one flesh. But anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Shun fornication (in Greek, porneia)! Every sin that a person commits is outside the body; but the fornicator sins against the body itself. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own?

4 4 The positive teaching on the body contained in this negative example is that the human body of the believer is as sacred, inviolable, significant, and holy as the Temple of God in Jerusalem. The body--and what we choose to do with it--is that place where heaven and earth meet, as we live out the will of God in our particular context. Our bodies are members of Christ s body, and our each decision, our least action, should reveal Christ again enfleshed in the world. The holiness of the believer s body is so intense that it has the power even to sanctify an unbelieving spouse (7:14). The Christian Church as a Body of Christ One of the most familiar passages in 1 Corinthians is Chapter 12, on the Corinthian church as a single body: For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--jews or Greeks, slave or free--and we were all made to drink of one Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:12-13). Here I would encourage you to remember the description of the importance of the body that we just read above. The body of a person who is in Christ is a place of dynamic intersection between God and the earth, a place where the will of God that causes the creation to flourish can take hold. But the true body of Christ in the world is not any individual believer, but the community of believers, because in the love they show for one another, in their willingness to serve the weakest among them, they show forth the life of God given for the world in Christ. The following are the characteristics of the community that is a Body of Christ. You may follow along by reading these comments as you read through 1 Corinthians 12:14-13:13. The metaphor of the body to represent a whole community was a familiar one in the ancient world, and was used in the political sphere to encourage the people of a city to be unified around their goals and values. We retain that image in our phrase, the body politic. Paul s description of the community as a body of Christ intensifies the usual political rhetoric, as the standard for relationship in the Body of Christ is one in which each person lives fully for the well-being of the others, particularly the wellbeing of the least and the weakest members. No person in the Christian community is dispensable; all are needed for the community to be whole (1 Corinthians 12:14-21). The church particularly mirrors forth the life of Christ in its care for the least, for the weakest among them (1 Corinthians 12:22-24).

5 5 The community that is a body of Christ is marked by compassion and by the sharing of every experience, good and bad, with one another (1 Corinthians 12:25-26). Love is the still more excellent way that characterizes a true church, because in the mystery of our loving one another we come to know and be known by God (1 Corinthians 13:1-13). Now that you have come to see what characterizes a church that is a true body of Christ, you are ready to understand what has gone wrong in Corinth when they come together for the Lord s Supper. Turn to 1 Corinthians 11: Paul complains that when the Corinthians come together they are more divided than ever, and show forth their divisions more clearly (1 Corinthians 11:17-19). In fact, he says succinctly, When you come together it is not really to eat the Lord s Supper. How would you feel if someone said of your church, Your Eucharist isn t a Eucharist at all!? At this point, it would be helpful for you to know that at banquets in the ancient world it was customary for there to be special places of honor for certain people, and for even the food to be served in larger or smaller quantities, and to be more or less appealing for people of different social stations. The Lord s Supper was apparently celebrated in Paul s day as a kind of potluck meal. Everyone brought some of the food to the celebration. Do not picture our formal Eucharist, with its sip of wine and single piece of bread for each person, but rather a community meal that would include a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation after the meal (1 Corinthians 14:26). For a fuller description, read all of 1 Corinthians 14. In Chapter 11:21-22, Paul chastises the wealthier members of the congregation, who have the liberty to arrive early with their meals, and who go right ahead, eating and drinking, leaving nothing for those who have worked all day and can only arrive later with their meager supplies. And so, as Paul says, One goes hungry and another becomes drunk (11:21). To make clear to the Corinthians what is at stake in their common meal, he brings in Christ himself (imaginatively) to bear witness against them, in 11: And he underscores the fact that it is the death of Jesus that they are to proclaim, until his coming, not the glory of his resurrection. But how are they to proclaim his death? Continue reading verses In failing to be the kind of body in which the strong serve the weak, the rich serve the poor, the Corinthians have not discerned the body of Christ that they are intended to be. The new covenant that Paul referred to in verse 25 is one that entails living as a body like the body of Christ, a body that is for others (11:24), as Christ s body was for you in his death on the cross. When we die to the demands of I-me-mine, and instead serve the needs of others, we

6 6 proclaim Christ s death until he comes. Our bodily actions in service to others are the means of this proclamation. Because the Corinthians have not lived as this kind of body, mistreating their weaker members, they have broken covenant with God, and are suffering the consequences (11:30-32). Finally, in the last two verses (33-34), Paul tells the Corinthians very simply what to do: wait for one another. But pay attention here: what would have been lacking in the Corinthians understanding of Christ if Paul had not first given the foundations for why they should wait for one another? They would not understand what was at stake in their behavior. They must discern how to be a body of Christ in all times and places, in all their dealings with one another. In showing them how to discern the body, Paul has helped the Corinthians to grow up in their faith, to become people who do not have to wait for their teacher to tell them how to model the life of Christ in every circumstance. The Resurrection Body Finally, we come to the question of what kind of body we will have in the resurrection. This is a very important question, because many people today simply assume that Christ s resurrection was basically a resuscitation of his earthly body. The resurrection is definitely embodied, but note that in most of the Gospels Jesus risen form is unrecognizable to his closest followers (for example, see Luke 24:16; John 20:14, 21:4). His risen body has special properties, such as appearing and vanishing (Luke 24:31), and coming into locked rooms (John 20:19, 26). On the other hand, his body is definitely his body (the body of the crucified one, John 20:27; Luke 24:39-40), and in one account, the risen Lord eats a fish (Luke 24:42). No wonder the Corinthians are confused about what to think of their own future resurrection, so they have asked Paul about it. He answers that the resurrection is central to their proclamation: Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have

7 7 died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied (1 Corinthians 15:12-18). But what kind of body will it be? Read 1 Corinthians 15: Paul compares our bodies to a seed sown in this life that will be raised up in another form, our mortality giving way to an immortal, spiritual embodiment. He leaves much room for our imagination, as he says only that the resurrected body will have its own kind of glory, particular to it (15:41), that we will bear the image of the man of heaven (15:49), that we will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. Thus, the goodness of bodies is affirmed, even in the resurrection, where we will have a new embodiment. On this side of resurrection, then, we are to nourish the seed of our present body by imitating Christ, so that it will be ready to bloom into the full image of Christ in immortality. Paul closes his reflection on the resurrection body by saying: Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION Questions for an individual doing the study: Christian tradition has not always shown respect for the body or for human sexuality, as the lives of celibate monks and nuns were praised as being somehow more holy than the lives of ordinary people who married and raised children. How has that history affected your own life? The culture in which the Corinthians live affects how they view the body and human sexuality. Can you name some expectations of our culture, regarding the body and sexuality, that are harmful to people s well-being? What aspects of our

8 8 culture work against our ability to have a healthy view of our own embodiment? What might be the role of a Christian in counteracting negative views and uses of the body in our society? What might be some ways for a Christian to affirm the goodness of the body? What part of your embodiment are you most grateful for? Paul emphasizes the body as the place where we live out our salvation in all the decisions and actions of our day-to-day life. Look over a typical day in your life. How do you encounter God in and through your body? How do you use your physical being to live faithfully? Does Paul s emphasis on the goodness of the body suggest anything to you about the care of your body? Paul emphasizes the importance of putting ourselves, body and soul, to the service of our weakest neighbor. He was speaking particularly about neighbors in Christian community. Beginning in your Christian community, and then working outward from there, whom do you serve on a regular basis with your whole physical being? Where does the Body of Christ begin and end for you? Think over the last seven days. Did you witness someone else sowing seeds in this life that will bloom forth in the likeness of Christ in resurrection life? Tell that story in all of its physical detail. Have you had the experience of being in a community in which everyone truly shared their joys and sorrows? Which is harder to share in a community, a joy or a sorrow? What values does a community need to hold for significant sharing and compassion to happen? Paul stresses the ways in which the Lord who is remembered in the Lord s Supper should be consistent with the actions of the community that shares the Lord s Supper. Do you feel that the Eucharist affects your daily moral life? Have you ever been moved to care for someone else more compassionately on account of your being a person who has received the Body of Christ in the Eucharist? Questions for a church or other group doing the study together: Some of you have probably experienced serious illness or disability. Share with one another what you have learned about the body from that experience. How can a person who is ill still receive the body as holy and good, as the place where salvation is lived out?

9 9 Does your Bible study group have any practices that help you to be a Body of Christ when you gather? Does your group interact in any special ways with the larger church community that would help that larger community to be a clearer Body of Christ? What are some concrete ways in which your Bible Study group might live more deeply into their call to be a Body of Christ? Paul calls on the Corinthians to expel the man who is sleeping with his stepmother, as an aspect of their care for the holiness of their community. Have you ever had the experience of needing to establish a boundary, prohibiting someone from being in contact with you, or with a particular community that you were a part of? What was the result of establishing that boundary? How have you imagined the resurrection of believers? Does Paul s teaching contradict anything that you have assumed before? Note that even Paul s teaching on resurrection has a moral force for the present. How can we encourage one another to live boldly as people of faith in this life, who are sowing seeds for blossoming into the next life? Questions for a Vestry or Gathering of Church Leaders: If you were writing a letter to your church community, what would you want to say, in a loving way, about their common life? Paul likes to say first, I commend you for this, and then secondly, In this I do not commend you. He can be harsh, probably harsher than most people today would put up with. If you were going to correct some aspect of your church s life together, what image of Christ would you ground your thoughts in, as Paul grounds the Corinthians in a vision of their crucified Lord? Think over the people in your church community. Where do you see the Body of Christ most clearly revealed in the actions of a particular group or committee or ministry? What are the most serious divisions in your parish? What do you think Paul would have to say about those divisions? Think about the youth in your parish. What would you want them to know about the goodness of the body, as Paul has described it? What is the role of

10 10 parish leaders in encouraging young people to care for and respect their bodies as not their own, but God s (1 Cor 6:19)? Sometimes vestry members are the people who need to do the hard work of establishing boundaries or setting standards in a congregation. What preparation would you need to undergo, in order to do this work well? Note that Paul teaches the Corinthians not only what to do, but how to think through their actions, so that they can respond faithfully to situations in the future. How might you do this the next time you make a decision that affects the whole parish? Tell stories among your group that illustrate some times that you have seen people in your parish truly living as a Body of Christ together. Telling such stories encourages the parish to be more intentional in their life together. What are some ways that you could foster this intentionality?