Sense and Sensuality

Many people say that in the end, MCC's great gift to the world will be our reconciliation of and celebration of Christianity and sexuality. I agree. But I also think we will return an equally important gift to the church--the gift of sensuality. Now, many people will say they are the same, and certainly, that's a defensible position. But it's a little like saying Ghirardelli and Keebler are the same....Let me explain.

My sermon for this week is "Sense and Sensuality," and I promised you a full-bodied experience. That you shall have! But it might not be exactly what you think, especially after you read the scripture passage from the Song of Songs. You see, over time, we have lost the "full-bodied" nature of sensuality and reduced what actually pertains to the whole body, and all five senses, to a single set of sensations and very limited body parts. Even the dictionaries participate in the conspiracy. As soon as you get beyond the first definition, or sometimes in the first definition itself, you find these narrow definitions of sensuality: suggesting sexuality; voluptuous; physical rather than spiritual or intellectual; lacking in moral or spiritual interests; worldly.

Oh, my. There is so much about sensuality that is not sexual, not limited to the physical rather than the spiritual or intellectual realms, and not lacking in morality. I can offer you my personal experience here. I've often had my senses ignited by someone or something smart and challenging--no need to separate sensuality from the intellectual, for sure. For most of my teenage years, the feel and smell of a leather Wilson basketball, the saltiness of sweat, and the exhaustion of effort were the heights of my sensual experience--no immorality there. And even now, the intimacy of communion, the re-membering of Jesus' body broken for me, the sharing of food and drink and whispered blessings offer me a tangible sensual experience that is nothing other than spiritual.

My days are made more beautiful by unexpected sensual pleasures--the pleasure of touch when a nineteen year old daughter plops down in my lap while we're watching TV, or an eight-year-old who is "too big" forgets and slips his hand in mine when we cross the street, or the connection made when fingers momentarily touch in an action as simple as the passing of a spoon. Smells can take me back to my grandmother's kitchen, warm and safe as a womb, or to my grandfather's garage, full of tools and fishing poles and wood-shavings and every kind of potential adventure. The gift of loving words spoken and heard or written and read can offer not only pleasure, but hope and comfort and even renewal and healing.

As you go through the rest of your week, I invite you to turn your sense receptors up to high. Allow your whole life to be a full-bodied experience! When you eat, taste! When you touch, feel! When you breathe, smell! Then this weekend, come and worship the One who has created and continues to re-create us as sensual, spiritual, sexual, intellectual, physical, emotional, beloved beings.

Love and Blessings,