Parental Warning: This sermon is rated PG-13. Parents Strongly Cautioned.
Some Material May Be Inappropriate for Children Under Age 13.

Parents, I really want to encourage you to give your children some guidance after this sermon. Not only children under age 13, but also children OVER age 13.

Today's topic: Sex.

We may not talk about it in polite company, but it's on our minds and in front of our eyes every single day. Safer sex. Sex and the City. Sex Addicts Anonymous. Sex offenders. Sex Education. Sex Therapy. Sex on the Internet.

Plug the word "sex" into an Internet search engine, and you'll get over 72 million hits. 72,100,000, to be exact. If you looked at each of these web pages for one minute, and you did this 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year ... it would take you over 137 years to visit all the websites.

Clearly, people have a passion for this subject. I feel like it's very appropriate for me to preach this sermon on the Sunday before Valentine's Day.

A newspaper recently ran an ad for a medical group. The headline said: SEX FOR LIFE! A group of licensed medical doctors was promising "immediate results" for men with various sexual dysfunctions, claiming to offer a safer and more effective treatment than Viagra. It doesn't matter if you've got diabetes, high blood pressure, stress, or a heart condition -- these docs promise to help anyone and everyone who craves a better sex life. Their ad featured an attractive man and women, lying in bed together, with huge smiles on their faces.

The message was obvious: This could be YOU, enjoying a life of unlimited ecstasy!

Right next to this ad was a story about the sex scandal in the Catholic Church. Now here's a church that requires its priests to be unmarried and celibate, but the unlawful sexual activity of SOME of these men has plunged the church into its most devastating contemporary crisis. On one side of the newspaper page, you've got the promise of improved and seemingly unlimited sex for life; on the other, you've got the woes of a church that requires a celibate priesthood. (The Washington Post, August 11, 2002, A2-A3)

Sex for Life ... or NO sex for life. What's the proper course to follow? Perhaps the healthiest and most spiritually sound approach lies somewhere in between.

In today's passage from First Corinthians, the apostle Paul speaks of the proper and improper uses of our bodies. "'All things are lawful for me,'" he says -- sounding like he's open to having a good time -- "but not all things are beneficial." Then he says, "'All things are lawful for me,' but I will not be dominated by anything," clarifying that nothing in this world should be allowed to be our god. Nothing, that is, except for God himself (6:12).

Have we allowed sex to become a kind of a god to us? In many ways, yes. Type the word "sex" into an Internet search engine, and you get 72 million hits. Search for the word "God" and you get only about 36 million websites. Now this number is certainly not insignificant, but it does cause you to wonder about our 21st century priorities. On the Internet, sex is twice as popular as the Lord God.

Today, sex is at the heart of our entertainment and advertisement industries. It's used to sell everything from breakfast cereal to school backpacks, and sexually provocative images, artists and clothing are marketed to children as young as age 6. Even little kids now receive literally thousands of messages a year about sex ... on television, in magazines, on billboards, in pop music. (Deborah M. Roffman, "What Our Kids Know About Sex: All Mechanics, No Meaning," The Washington Post, June 9, 2002, B5)

If sex has become our ultimate concern -- one that completely permeates our entertainment, advertising, health and fashion industries -- then it has become, in a sense, our god. The global offerings made to one little god alone, the little blue deity called Viagra, soared to more than $1.3 billion in the year 2000.

Paul has a word for us here. "'All things are lawful for me,'" he says, "but I will not be dominated by anything." He's not calling for censorship, he's not playing the prude, he's not insisting that all temptations be removed from his field of view. Instead, he's making it very clear that nothing sensual will CONTROL him -- he's not going to give in to anything that he can taste, touch, see, hear, smell, swallow or wrap around his body. "'Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food'" he reminds us, and there is certainly nothing wrong with satisfying our earthly hunger. But both food and the stomach are temporary, "and God will destroy both one and the other" (v. 13).

The apostle challenges us to take sex seriously, but to take God even more seriously. He wants us to have a close and intimate connection to God's Son Jesus, one that goes so far as to rival sexual intimacy in its closeness and intensity. "The body is meant not for fornication but for the Lord," Paul says, "and the Lord for the body" (v. 13). Since our bodies are members of Christ, closely and intimately connected to him, the very last thing Paul wants is for us to connect ourselves to prostitutes or to other persons in acts of sexual immorality. Whoever is united to a prostitute becomes one body with her, warns Paul -- so don't do it! (vv. 15-16).

Fornication, sexual immorality, prostitutes ... remember, this picture is PG-13.

Save yourselves for Christ, advises the apostle, and become one with him (v. 17). As persons connected closely to Christ, we are to glorify God in our bodies (v. 20). This means that we don't worship sex, we worship God. This means that as we become intimate with others, we remember that we are already intimate with Christ. This means that good sex is governed not by law, but by what is beneficial, and by what is pleasing to God. This means that sexual activity is never to be disconnected from the Great Commandment of Jesus to love the Lord our God, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

Love God. Love neighbor. Love self. All three are essential ingredients of a distinctively Christian sexuality.

If we follow this formula, we find that we, as Christians, don't fit into either a "Sex for Life" advertisement or a newspaper article on lifetime celibacy. Instead, we find ourselves with an approach to sex that is realistic and honest and life-affirming. We could call it "Sex ... for Life," with the emphasis not on "SEX" ... but on "LIFE."

People today desperately need more life in their sex, you see -- not more sex in their life. What our nation experienced in the 1960s was not a sexual revolution, according to educator Deborah Roffman, but a sexual REVOLT: We tossed out the old ideas but failed to replace them with anything solid or meaningful. It should come as no surprise that sex is now frequently depicted as simply another form of entertainment or recreation, deserving no moral reflection of any kind. Kids today know all about the mechanics of sex, but nothing about its meaning.

But by following the formula for Christian sexuality ... love God, love neighbor, love self ... we quickly discover the significance of sex.

First of all, sex is not SPORT. It's not to involve what Paul describes as sexual immorality, fornication, or union with a prostitute, but is, instead, to be part of a promise-based, biblical relationship in which "The two shall become one flesh" (v. 16). One of the ways we love God is to practice adherence to his guidance for our lives.

In addition, sex is not SELFISH. It is not designed for self-gratification or conquest or control. Instead, sex is the most intimate and intense way to love your neighbor ... to love the neighbor who is your life partner.

At the same time, sex is never to be SELF-DESTRUCTIVE. The gift of your precious body is not something to be given away recklessly or thoughtlessly. It is not to be shared with anyone who wants it, as though it were a snack to be passed around and enjoyed by all. Instead, your body is nothing less than " a temple of the Holy Spirit" (v. 19), a magnificent structure created by God to be used for wonderful purposes. In an age of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, it is essential that you love yourself by protecting your body from destruction.

So, this is what sex is NOT. What then, is a positive definition of sex, and what does it mean to practice sex ... for LIFE?

First, sex is UNITIVE. It creates a loving union between two partners, and stands as a sign of Christ's loving union with us. Sex breaks down barriers, enables two distinct humans to become one flesh, and allows different people to become one in spirit. It can be a powerful experience of reconciliation, the kind of relationship-restoration that Christ came to perform between people, one to another, and between people and God.

Second, sex is CREATIVE. It allows men and women to be co-creators with God, joining themselves together and helping to begin a brand new life. Few experiences move us closer to the wonder, the mystery, and the awesomeness of life than the conception, growth and maturation of a child. The celebration of infant baptism at our 11:15 service this morning reminds us of how the creation of children helps to grow the church of Jesus Christ. Of course, sex can also be creative when it does not involve conception, but when it forms deeper, stronger, and more loving relationships between partners.

Third, and finally, sex is ECSTATIC. It's joyful and intense and delightful and deeply moving and it drives us right out of our senses -- which is, incidentally, the dictionary definition of "ecstasy." Sex moves us beyond thought and self-control, an ecstasy that can be dangerous in certain situations, but can be absolutely wonderful in a loving, committed, monogamous marriage.

Unity, creativity, and ecstasy. You won't find them in advertisements or newspaper stories. You won't find them on television or at the movies or on the Internet. But you will find them in a sex-life that is rated not NC-17, or R, or even PG-13.

No, this kind of sex for life is rated G. For God. And it's glorious. Amen.

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