Please remember that we are gathering this evening to read through 1 Corinthians 6:12-7:40. As you re-read through this passage, see how Paul develops a sacramental understanding of sex. The sacraments are outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual grace. 1979 BCP 857. For baptism, for example, the physical sign is water and the inward grace is union with Christ in his self-emptying sacrifice of death and resurrection. Paul’s discussion of relations with prostitutes has a similar understanding that sex is the physical sign of an inward spiritual union with the other party that should precede a spiritual and personal self-emptying. In a similar vein, Paul also presents sex as part of the covenant renewal of marriage. Within the sacrament of communion, for example, the congregation and the individual renew the baptismal covenant and celebrate Christ’s self-emptying on the cross. Likewise, in chapter 7, Paul presents sex as the outward and physical means of the renewal of the marriage covenant and the celebration of the self-emptying that should occur between spouses. Pastor Tim Keller has a more complete discussion on sex as a sacrament HERE.
Dinner is at 6. The menu is fried chicken. Discussion around 6:45. Hope to see you here.
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
Ephesians 5:25-33.