Sunday 28 August 2011

Rev Nadia Bolz-Weber - sermon "we are the temple of God"

Why would God choose to become human when the human body is so flawed.  Yet God did become human in Jesus.

Our culture is youth obsessed, completely convinced we can eradicate physical imperfection and aging.  This is basically a fear of death.  But we need not fear death, nor deny it; through Jesus' resurrection we know we have eternal life beyond this.

John 1 "and the word became flesh and lived among us..... You have received grace upon grace."

We may want a spirituality that rises above our broken physicality; but in Jesus we see that the physical life IS a spiritual life.  Jesus had a real body, just as we have; he bore the scars of having lived, just as we do.

God came and made his home with us in a human body.  Perhaps this tells us that home is not merely heaven, it's here in our human form, in our imperfect bodies.

God has blessed Human flesh; not made it perfect but made GOOD.  Our good bodies are made of God, we should know we are therefore beautiful to God.  

Jesus showed us what God looks like; not worrying about hunger and illness and sickness and touching.  God is revealed in the vulnerability of our flesh and our lives.  We should therefore care for and bless all human bodies; our own, those in starvation, those in pain.

We are flesh and blood.  "the word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us".  

We are flesh become word.
We are Christ's body in abundance.
We are God's healing word in a broken world.

1 comment:

Ann Memmott said...

Aye, very much in agreement. It takes courage and insight for people to turn away from society's obsession with perfection... and realise that Jesus rose from the dead not as a perfect body but as one still showing the scars and wounds of his torture and death. His apostle Paul had a disability, we believe. His follower, Nicodemus, was arguably on the autism spectrum. Both good enough for God.
We are beautiful to God, in all our variety, and in all our situations. All are welcome before Him as equals, to share on that one bread and drink that one cup.