{"id":20224,"date":"2021-06-07T09:39:08","date_gmt":"2021-06-07T13:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=20224"},"modified":"2021-06-07T09:39:08","modified_gmt":"2021-06-07T13:39:08","slug":"a-sexual-morality-based-on-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=20224","title":{"rendered":"A Sexual Morality Based on Love"},"content":{"rendered":"<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jhnJXDGfPiE\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe>\n\nIn the area of sexuality, we all seem to have our sacrosanct areas that cannot be touched. Liberals will find some way to say\nthat it is always good, and conservatives are determined to enforce rules and regulations. Both seem to be nervous about nuance. Idols with clear shapes and explanations seem to be easier to live with. Our job is to keep working to enjoy, to respect, to reverence, to honor, to love, and to listen to our bodies\u2014before we start controlling or judging our sexuality. We must not picture God sitting up in heaven with a list: \u201cThese kinds of things I get really happy about; these kinds of things I get upset about. Uh-oh\u2014you touched that! I\u2019m upset with you now.\u201d\n\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\nThe wisdom from the Christian tradition is that whatever God is doing, it is certainly beyond cultural fears, fads, and social taboos. Open and prayerful people will likely discover a very intuitive and almost common-sense wisdom about what is real and what is unreal in regard to our sexual relatedness and the many ways it allows us to move and discover\nour true bodily and spiritual selves.\n\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\nThe Catholic Theological Society summarized it\nwell when it stated that our sexual actions must aim to be \u201cself-liberating,\nother-enriching, honest, faithful, socially responsible, life-serving, and\njoyous.\u201d [1] That is certainly the task and journey of a lifetime, but it is no\nmore or no less than what Jesus said when he taught the greatest commandment of love of God and love of neighbor. The two loves \u201cresemble one another\u201d (see Matthew 22:37\u201339). They are each the school of the other. We will learn how to be properly sexual as we understand the properly passionate relationship that God has with us. And we learn how to be properly spiritual as we come to understand the true character of human longing and affection.\n\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\nFinally, the only biblical mandate that matters is to copy and allow the pattern of God\u2019s love in you. If this sounds too soft, perhaps it means that we have never loved \u201call the way.\u201d We have never let it carry us through all its stages, all of its internal ecstasies, loneliness, and purifications. To attain a whole and truly passionate sexuality is hard and holy work.\u00a0God\u2019s way of loving is the only licensed teacher of human sexuality. God\u2019s passion created ours. Our deep desiring is a relentless returning to that place where all things are one. If we are afraid of our sexuality, we are afraid of God. Nor should we equate sexuality with unadulterated lust, which is far too egocentric to care about anybody else.\n\nMy desire in this week\u2019s meditations is to initiate a healthy and holy dialogue within your own spirit and perhaps between lovers and would-be lovers. In such an interchange, I hope that you will catch sight of that one Holy Spirit, who enlightens and assures us that it is from our flesh that we shall look on God (Job 19:26).\n\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\n<strong>Overcoming the Gap<\/strong>\n\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\nIncarnation is the overcoming of the gap between God and everything visible and concrete. It is the synthesis of matter and spirit. Without incarnation, God remains separate from us and from creation. Because of incarnation, we can say, \u201cGod is with us!\u201d In fact, God is <em>in<\/em> us, and in everything else that God created. We all have the divine DNA. Everything bears the divine fingerprint including, of course, the mystery of embodiment.\n\nThe belief that God is \u201cout there\u201d is the basic dualism that is tearing us all apart. Our view of God as separate and distant has harmed our relationship to food, possessions, and money, to animals, nature, and our own bodies. This loss is foundational to why we live such distraught and divided lives, particularly when it comes to sexuality, the subject of this week\u2019s meditations. Jesus came precisely to put it all together for us and in us. He was saying, in effect, \u201cThe material and the physical can be trusted and enjoyed. This world and even this body are the hiding place <em>and<\/em> the revelation place of God! To be human, to have a body, to be sexual is good!\u201d\n\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\nThe whole movement of Christianity is found in the Incarnation. Jesus was not satisfied to remain Word, he became flesh. Already in the first century, the New Testament speaks of the resurrection and\nredemption of the body. God did not play a trick on us humans, saying \u201cI\u2019m\ngoing to give you sexual desire, but don\u2019t you dare really think, feel, or act\nsexually!\u201d But that\u2019s what happens with dualism and when we view God as separate.\n\nThe word sex itself comes from the Latin <em>sectare\n<\/em>(to cut), so the original root meaning suggests that reality is cut\nor divided. We split matter and spirit into two and we are searching for union or our other half.\n\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\nAs the writer and Lutheran pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber puts it, \u201cWhen two loving individuals, two bearers of God\u2019s image, are unified in an erotic embrace, there is space for something holy. What was\nseparate has come together. Two spirits, two bodies, two stories are drawn so close that they are something together that they cannot be alone. There is\nunity.\u201d [1]\n\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\nJesus is the great synthesis for us, the icon of the whole mystery\u2014all at once. \u201cIn his body lives the fullness of divinity, and in him you too find your fulfillment\u201d (Colossians 2:9\u201310). We are clearly not very at home in our bodies, and Jesus came to show us that it is our human and this-world experience that we must and can trust. It is our necessary and good beginning point. After the Incarnation, we hopefully realize that the material world has always been the privileged place for divine encounter. What a surprise for most people! Most of us are hooting for the stars instead. We are looking for \u201chigher states of consciousness\u201d and moral perfectionism, while Jesus quite simply comes and \u201clives among us.\u201d\n\n_________________________________________________________\n\nSarah Young Jesus Calling&#8230;\n\nIAM ALL AROUND YOU, like a cocoon of Light. My Presence with you is a promise, independent of your awareness of Me. Many things can block this awareness, but the major culprit is worry. My children tend to accept worry as an inescapable fact of life. However, worry is a form of unbelief; it is anathema to Me. Who is in charge of your life? If it is you, then you have good reason to worry. But since I am in charge, worry is both unnecessary and counterproductive. When you start to feel anxious about something, relinquish the situation to Me. Back off a bit, redirecting your focus to Me. I will either take care of the problem Myself or show you how to handle it. In this world you will have problems, but you need not lose sight of Me.\n\nLUKE 12:22\u201331; <span class=\"text Luke-12-22\"><sup class=\"versenum\">22\u00a0<\/sup>He said to his disciples, \u201cTherefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear.\u00a0<\/span><span id=\"en-NRSV-25475\" class=\"text Luke-12-23\"><sup class=\"versenum\">23\u00a0<\/sup>For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.\u00a0<\/span><span id=\"en-NRSV-25476\" class=\"text Luke-12-24\"><sup class=\"versenum\">24\u00a0<\/sup>Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!\u00a0<\/span><span id=\"en-NRSV-25477\" class=\"text Luke-12-25\"><sup class=\"versenum\">25\u00a0<\/sup>And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?<sup class=\"footnote\" style=\"font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; vertical-align: text-top; top: auto; display: inline;\" data-fn=\"#fen-NRSV-25477a\" data-link=\"[&lt;a href=&quot;#fen-NRSV-25477a&quot; title=&quot;See footnote a&quot;&gt;a&lt;\/a&gt;]\">[<a title=\"See footnote a\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Luke+12%3A22-31&amp;version=NRSV#fen-NRSV-25477a\">a<\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0<\/span><span id=\"en-NRSV-25478\" class=\"text Luke-12-26\"><sup class=\"versenum\">26\u00a0<\/sup>If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest?\u00a0<\/span><span id=\"en-NRSV-25479\" class=\"text Luke-12-27\"><sup class=\"versenum\">27\u00a0<\/sup>Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;<sup class=\"footnote\" style=\"font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; vertical-align: text-top; top: auto; display: inline;\" data-fn=\"#fen-NRSV-25479b\" data-link=\"[&lt;a href=&quot;#fen-NRSV-25479b&quot; title=&quot;See footnote b&quot;&gt;b&lt;\/a&gt;]\">[<a title=\"See footnote b\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Luke+12%3A22-31&amp;version=NRSV#fen-NRSV-25479b\">b<\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.\u00a0<\/span><span id=\"en-NRSV-25480\" class=\"text Luke-12-28\"><sup class=\"versenum\">28\u00a0<\/sup>But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you\u2014you of little faith!\u00a0<\/span><span id=\"en-NRSV-25481\" class=\"text Luke-12-29\"><sup class=\"versenum\">29\u00a0<\/sup>And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying.\u00a0<\/span><span id=\"en-NRSV-25482\" class=\"text Luke-12-30\"><sup class=\"versenum\">30\u00a0<\/sup>For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them.\u00a0<\/span><span id=\"en-NRSV-25483\" class=\"text Luke-12-31\"><sup class=\"versenum\">31\u00a0<\/sup>Instead, strive for his<sup class=\"footnote\" style=\"font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; vertical-align: text-top; top: auto; display: inline;\" data-fn=\"#fen-NRSV-25483c\" data-link=\"[&lt;a href=&quot;#fen-NRSV-25483c&quot; title=&quot;See footnote c&quot;&gt;c&lt;\/a&gt;]\">[<a title=\"See footnote c\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Luke+12%3A22-31&amp;version=NRSV#fen-NRSV-25483c\">c<\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.<\/span>\n\nJOHN 16:33; I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.&#8221;\n\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the area of sexuality, we all seem to have our sacrosanct areas that cannot be touched. Liberals will find some way to say that it is always good, and conservatives are determined to enforce rules and regulations. Both seem to be nervous about nuance. Idols with clear shapes and explanations seem to be easier [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20224"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20224"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20225,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20224\/revisions\/20225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}