1 Corinthians 10 - Sexual Immorality - By Rev. Jason Cooper
In today’s lesson from I Corinthians, St. Paul is speaking to people who are, for the most part, recent converts to Christ. They have come out of a decadent culture, much like our own. He is reminding them of how easy it is to slip back into the old ways. He takes them back to the story of the Exodus from Egypt. While Moses was on the mountain the people slipped back into the idolatry and sexual immorality that had been part of their life in Egypt. Their backsliding, according to Exodus 32, offended God and their punishment was severe. Paul writes, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. We must not indulge in sexual immorality,” Paul continues, “as some of them did and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents. And do not complain, as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer. These things happened to serve as an example and they were written down to instruct us. . . .”
No one is immune to temptation. Paul writes, “So, if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall! No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to everyone.” Paul was writing to church people who had gotten the idea that because of their commitment to Christ, they were somehow immune to the temptations that trouble the rest of humanity. The warnings are plentiful and blunt in today’s readings. Lent is a season of repentance. Cut it out or get cut down! In the Gospel lesson Jesus remind us that all of us are sinners deserving of the same penalty for sin and that “unless [we] repent, [we] will all perish just like the Galileans.” The creators of the church lectionary cycle were wise in matching texts of Law with texts of Grace. We don’t like being shown our sin and it is wrong to proclaim the Law without the promise of Grace. The parable of the fig tree is a reminder that when our lives do not bare fruit, when the way we are living is contrary to God’s purpose – we must change or risk being cut off and Christ our Savior buys us time to repent. This is the Law – Gospel tension that has been a hallmark of Lutheran preaching since the Reformation. |
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Temptation is strong, but God is stronger. Do your part to remove yourself from temptation and God will help you overcome it. “God is faithful,” writes St. Paul, “and He will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing He will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.”
The best way we make ourselves more immune to temptation is to stay in the fellowship of other believers and grounded in Holy Scripture. Perhaps in terms of Jesus’ parable of the fig tree we can understand the manure that will be used to nourish the tree the Church – (Oh come on – as those living in a farm community we can all appreciate that maybe we don’t like the smell of the farm (the teaching of the church) but in the end we know it is essential for growth.
Besides making us want to run from God, sin also makes us want to isolate ourselves from other believers. In his book Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: “Sin demands to have a man by himself. It withdraws him from the community. The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him, and the more disastrous is this isolation. Sin wants to remain unknown. It shuns the light. In the darkness of the unexpressed it poisons the whole being of a person.”
One of the great temptations of faith is thinking that, post crucifixion and resurrection of Christ or certainly post baptism for the believer, sin no longer matters. Some of the believers in the Corinthian church needed convincing that sin really matters. Some of them had been influenced by the Gnostics who separated the flesh from the spirit. The flesh was not important, neither were the sins of the flesh. Sin simply didn’t matter in the eyes of the Gnostics. Here is where many believers are today. “Yes, I give into temptation from time to time,” we will say, “but does it really matter?”
The “original sin” is to believe that we know better than God what is good and what is evil. Remember the story of Adam and Eve is that Satan convinced Eve that God just didn’t want her to be like Him – omnipotent. Wanting to be like God – being idolatrous is what led Eve to disobey God. And so it continues with sexual immorality today. Earlier in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 St. Paul deals with the sexual immorality of a son having sex with his father’s wife – his step-mother. I’m sure we would not have to look hard to find that these sorts of behaviors continue today. We live in a culture that believes we all should just do what makes us happy. Don’t push your pious puritan beliefs on me St. Paul – (Pastor Jason).
For nearly two millennia the church has taught and mostly continues to maintain that sexual intercourse outside of marriage is a sin of sexual immorality. Now pastors hardly ever preside over a wedding where it is not common knowledge that the couple has already consummated the marriage. I’m sure you have all been to a wedding where the couple’s child is in the wedding party. It is interesting however that when I talk to parents of the couple they just kind of shrug their shoulders and quip, “what could we do?” How sad, that if we believe something is contrary to the will of God – indeed a sin committed by our children that we would just shrug … say-la-vee!
Lest we think it is only the young who commit sexual sins outside of marriage, we all know what a pastor friend of mine calls Social Security couples – senior citizens who commit the same sins as their grandchildren only it is far less likely that a child will be produced by the couple to serve as ring barer at their wedding. ‘Oh but pastor we would lose so much money if we were to get married.’ So we complicate the life of sin with money. ‘Oh but God must understand.’ Right? No, St. Paul in chapter 7 verse 9 tells us that if those who are widowed “cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than burn with passion.”
By saying nothing, by doing nothing - aren’t we in affect making the statement that we know better than God. Remember the movie The Last Temptation of Christ? Wasn’t that the basic gist of the movie? If Christ/God had really understood the temptation of sex the whole Christ event would likely have ended differently. In chapter 6 of 1 Corinthians St. Paul reminds the Church that, “The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” Sin destroys both body and soul.
I don’t think I was a member of this community six months before I started to hear rumors (gossip) about so called open marriages – partner swapping. In fact I was questioned about how this could be a sin if everyone is “OK with it.” The argument was basically that since God created us as sexual beings and we acknowledge our temptations to our spouse and they admit the same temptations what’s so wrong with indulging together with other consenting adults. The word of God has much to say about this. Again chapter 7 of 1 Corinthians St. Paul declares, “because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. That Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.” God pleasing sexuality is between man and wife in marriage.
It seems that sexual immorality has no limits and no end. The seemingly timeless sin of adultery has become less taboo since we rationalize that it leads to “happier, healthier relationships”. Pornography has moved off the pages of cellophane wrapped magazines and into our mobile phone picture in-boxes. We don’t want our children sending such texts but there is little hesitation to share a pic with friends on the golf course or at the passion party! Just last month Fremont County, Iowa Judge Timothy O'Grady ruled that the strip club in Hamburg, Iowa was protected because the law doesn't apply to theaters, art centers, or other venues devoted to the arts or theatrical performances. O'Grady said prosecutors failed to prove the club wasn't a theater. Therefore it is lawful and legal for 17 year olds to take their clothes of for the artistic entertainment of adults.
Believing that we know better than God about sexual morality, has led the ELCA and other denominations into a firestorm of conflict and controversy. Again what St. Paul calls in Romans 1 “dishonorable passions” some now defend as God pleasing and demand that God’s church approve and bless. Homosexual acts are sin. It bares no fruit other than personal gratification. It is an expression of the highest form of idolatry – the worship and praise of the unholy trinity – ME, MYSELF and I – just as all sexual immorality and unrepentant sin ultimately does.
Holy Scripture is clear from Genesis to the Epistles of Paul that God’s divine plan for sexual intercourse is between a man and a woman in marriage. The only way around this is exegetical acrobatics that ultimately lead to the rejection of Holy Scripture as the source and norm for our faith and the living of our lives. It is a fact that the ELCA Social Statement on Human Sexuality and ministry guidelines for rostered leaders make no Scriptural argument for homosexuality to be God pleasing and yet we voted to allow such relationships.
Leadership expert John Maxwell put it this way, “Sin pushes the person out of the community of believers, and being away from other Christians prevents us from receiving the benefit of accountability. It’s a vicious cycle. As the saying goes, prayer prevents us from sin, and sin prevents us from prayer. If you’re harboring sin in your life, confess it now and receive God’s forgiveness. Clear away what’s preventing you from connecting with God.” (7)
“The man who cheated on his wife never dreamed he would lose his wife and children because of yielding for one fleeting moment. But he could remember thinking, ‘Who will ever know?’
“The fish who took the bait never dreamed a hook was inside and he would end up in a frying pan. But he couldn’t see the man standing on the shore with a fishing pole at the other end of the line.” (8)
Some of you will think that, in the words of the old joke, “I’ve quit preaching and gone to meddling.” But families are being torn apart, lives are being ruined and even being lost by the oldest vices known to humanity. And it doesn’t have to be. Flee from temptation. Stay connected to God and grounded in Holy Scripture. Much is at stake, perhaps even our very souls. The parable of Jesus reminds us that we have a loving God that does not desire for us to be destroyed by sin. The gardener buys the tree more time to do what it was created to do – bare fruit that pleases the owner. Jesus by the cross buys time for us sinners to see God’s love and seek to flourish as God intended us to.
Hear again the words of the great prophet Isaiah: “Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”
Thanks be to God. Amen.
1. http://www.oncecatholic.org/reading_answers.asp?QC0892
2. http://www.mamashealth.com/relationships/openmarriages.asp
7. Partners In Prayer (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1996), pp. 53-54.
8. (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1997), pp. 32-3
(listen to the audio of the sermon)
The best way we make ourselves more immune to temptation is to stay in the fellowship of other believers and grounded in Holy Scripture. Perhaps in terms of Jesus’ parable of the fig tree we can understand the manure that will be used to nourish the tree the Church – (Oh come on – as those living in a farm community we can all appreciate that maybe we don’t like the smell of the farm (the teaching of the church) but in the end we know it is essential for growth.
Besides making us want to run from God, sin also makes us want to isolate ourselves from other believers. In his book Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: “Sin demands to have a man by himself. It withdraws him from the community. The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him, and the more disastrous is this isolation. Sin wants to remain unknown. It shuns the light. In the darkness of the unexpressed it poisons the whole being of a person.”
One of the great temptations of faith is thinking that, post crucifixion and resurrection of Christ or certainly post baptism for the believer, sin no longer matters. Some of the believers in the Corinthian church needed convincing that sin really matters. Some of them had been influenced by the Gnostics who separated the flesh from the spirit. The flesh was not important, neither were the sins of the flesh. Sin simply didn’t matter in the eyes of the Gnostics. Here is where many believers are today. “Yes, I give into temptation from time to time,” we will say, “but does it really matter?”
The “original sin” is to believe that we know better than God what is good and what is evil. Remember the story of Adam and Eve is that Satan convinced Eve that God just didn’t want her to be like Him – omnipotent. Wanting to be like God – being idolatrous is what led Eve to disobey God. And so it continues with sexual immorality today. Earlier in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 St. Paul deals with the sexual immorality of a son having sex with his father’s wife – his step-mother. I’m sure we would not have to look hard to find that these sorts of behaviors continue today. We live in a culture that believes we all should just do what makes us happy. Don’t push your pious puritan beliefs on me St. Paul – (Pastor Jason).
For nearly two millennia the church has taught and mostly continues to maintain that sexual intercourse outside of marriage is a sin of sexual immorality. Now pastors hardly ever preside over a wedding where it is not common knowledge that the couple has already consummated the marriage. I’m sure you have all been to a wedding where the couple’s child is in the wedding party. It is interesting however that when I talk to parents of the couple they just kind of shrug their shoulders and quip, “what could we do?” How sad, that if we believe something is contrary to the will of God – indeed a sin committed by our children that we would just shrug … say-la-vee!
Lest we think it is only the young who commit sexual sins outside of marriage, we all know what a pastor friend of mine calls Social Security couples – senior citizens who commit the same sins as their grandchildren only it is far less likely that a child will be produced by the couple to serve as ring barer at their wedding. ‘Oh but pastor we would lose so much money if we were to get married.’ So we complicate the life of sin with money. ‘Oh but God must understand.’ Right? No, St. Paul in chapter 7 verse 9 tells us that if those who are widowed “cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than burn with passion.”
By saying nothing, by doing nothing - aren’t we in affect making the statement that we know better than God. Remember the movie The Last Temptation of Christ? Wasn’t that the basic gist of the movie? If Christ/God had really understood the temptation of sex the whole Christ event would likely have ended differently. In chapter 6 of 1 Corinthians St. Paul reminds the Church that, “The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” Sin destroys both body and soul.
I don’t think I was a member of this community six months before I started to hear rumors (gossip) about so called open marriages – partner swapping. In fact I was questioned about how this could be a sin if everyone is “OK with it.” The argument was basically that since God created us as sexual beings and we acknowledge our temptations to our spouse and they admit the same temptations what’s so wrong with indulging together with other consenting adults. The word of God has much to say about this. Again chapter 7 of 1 Corinthians St. Paul declares, “because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. That Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.” God pleasing sexuality is between man and wife in marriage.
It seems that sexual immorality has no limits and no end. The seemingly timeless sin of adultery has become less taboo since we rationalize that it leads to “happier, healthier relationships”. Pornography has moved off the pages of cellophane wrapped magazines and into our mobile phone picture in-boxes. We don’t want our children sending such texts but there is little hesitation to share a pic with friends on the golf course or at the passion party! Just last month Fremont County, Iowa Judge Timothy O'Grady ruled that the strip club in Hamburg, Iowa was protected because the law doesn't apply to theaters, art centers, or other venues devoted to the arts or theatrical performances. O'Grady said prosecutors failed to prove the club wasn't a theater. Therefore it is lawful and legal for 17 year olds to take their clothes of for the artistic entertainment of adults.
Believing that we know better than God about sexual morality, has led the ELCA and other denominations into a firestorm of conflict and controversy. Again what St. Paul calls in Romans 1 “dishonorable passions” some now defend as God pleasing and demand that God’s church approve and bless. Homosexual acts are sin. It bares no fruit other than personal gratification. It is an expression of the highest form of idolatry – the worship and praise of the unholy trinity – ME, MYSELF and I – just as all sexual immorality and unrepentant sin ultimately does.
Holy Scripture is clear from Genesis to the Epistles of Paul that God’s divine plan for sexual intercourse is between a man and a woman in marriage. The only way around this is exegetical acrobatics that ultimately lead to the rejection of Holy Scripture as the source and norm for our faith and the living of our lives. It is a fact that the ELCA Social Statement on Human Sexuality and ministry guidelines for rostered leaders make no Scriptural argument for homosexuality to be God pleasing and yet we voted to allow such relationships.
Leadership expert John Maxwell put it this way, “Sin pushes the person out of the community of believers, and being away from other Christians prevents us from receiving the benefit of accountability. It’s a vicious cycle. As the saying goes, prayer prevents us from sin, and sin prevents us from prayer. If you’re harboring sin in your life, confess it now and receive God’s forgiveness. Clear away what’s preventing you from connecting with God.” (7)
“The man who cheated on his wife never dreamed he would lose his wife and children because of yielding for one fleeting moment. But he could remember thinking, ‘Who will ever know?’
“The fish who took the bait never dreamed a hook was inside and he would end up in a frying pan. But he couldn’t see the man standing on the shore with a fishing pole at the other end of the line.” (8)
Some of you will think that, in the words of the old joke, “I’ve quit preaching and gone to meddling.” But families are being torn apart, lives are being ruined and even being lost by the oldest vices known to humanity. And it doesn’t have to be. Flee from temptation. Stay connected to God and grounded in Holy Scripture. Much is at stake, perhaps even our very souls. The parable of Jesus reminds us that we have a loving God that does not desire for us to be destroyed by sin. The gardener buys the tree more time to do what it was created to do – bare fruit that pleases the owner. Jesus by the cross buys time for us sinners to see God’s love and seek to flourish as God intended us to.
Hear again the words of the great prophet Isaiah: “Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”
Thanks be to God. Amen.
1. http://www.oncecatholic.org/reading_answers.asp?QC0892
2. http://www.mamashealth.com/relationships/openmarriages.asp
7. Partners In Prayer (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1996), pp. 53-54.
8. (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1997), pp. 32-3
(listen to the audio of the sermon)