vitalwholeness

This morning the congregation I serve had lots of sex in church. Ok, not what you’re thinking. The topic of the day was making sense of sexuality through a faith lens, in particular same-sex relationships. At one point I suggested that in order to get over our anxiety about saying the “S” word in church we just say it in unison, which we did. That was interesting. What a liturgical exclamation!

What led to the suggestion was the observation that we can talk about sex everywhere in the culture except church. What does that say to our children, our youth, when we send sex packing away from our faith communities?

The test of the day was from that ancient blusher, The Song of Solomon. There is no escape from its deep eroticism, however it has been used metaphorically to express rapture with God. We began a journey of exploration in the Bible, recognizing that there is no one “Biblical perspective” on sexuality and marriage, but only perspectives. The only option is to become interpreters of complex texts.

Sex belongs in church. We need to model healthy, faithful and reasonable conversations for our children and youth. Because if we don’t, others will. Do we really want an disembodied religious experience that excludes a life force as powerful as this? If so we will continue the downward spiral into irrelevancy, the church as soul without a body, a phantom.