Sensual Jesus (Midweek Message)

 Wedding at Cana, by Louis Kahan

Fr. Tony’s Midweek Message

Sensual Jesus

March 27, 2019

In the “Questions and Opinions” section of the Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber’s presentations last week in Ashland, the question was asked:  “What can you say about Jesus’ sexuality?”  Bolz-Weber’s wise response was a cautious, “I’m not sure we can say much about Jesus’ sexuality—too little information has been passed on to us, and that in ways subject to vastly different interpretations.  But we can say plenty about Jesus’ sensuality—on that, there’s a lot that has come down to us.”  She went on to list a few examples:  Jesus spending most of his time with sex workers and people of questionable piety, Jesus being accused of being a glutton and a drunk by his opponents, Jesus making 120 gallons of the finest, most intoxicating wine out of water at the wedding in Cana.  What becomes clear in all this is the point that Bolz-Weber was trying to make:  Jesus was no prude, and no despiser of the simple pleasures of life.  Jesus’ parables reflect a lot about his personality and many of these show a deep appreciation and even love for the beautiful and pleasurable in life: the joy of a woman finding a lost coin and then throwing a party to celebrate, the tastiness of salt on food, the glory of a room brightly lit by lamps on a stand, the pleasure of new wine in new wineskins, the comfort of old clothes properly mended with matching patches, the yeasty carb-loading strength of fresh bread eaten while warm, the comfort of finding a friend to take us in on a cold night.  Most of the parables tell a joke, and Jesus laughs regularly with his friends.  

  

Puritans, Calvinists, and fundamentalists have always accused us Episcopalians/ Anglicans and more down-to-earth members of their own sects of being too worldly for our own good.  But one should never confuse a hearty thankfulness for the good creations of God with selfish or God-despising inordinate attachment to mere parts of creation.  What others call our worldliness is actually an integral part of our spirituality and passionate desire to follow Jesus.   

 John O’Donahue summed it up well in To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings in his blessing “For the Senses”: 

May the touch of your skin

Register the beauty
Of the otherness
That surrounds you.

May your listening be attuned
To the deeper silence
Where sound is honed
To bring distance home.

May the fragrance
Of a breathing meadow
Refresh your heart
And remind you you are
A child of the earth.

And when you partake
Of food and drink,
May your taste quicken
To the gift and sweetness
That flows from the earth.

May your inner eye
See through the surfaces
And glean the real presence
Of everything that meets you.

May your soul beautify
The desire of your eyes
That you might glimpse
The infinity that hides
In the simple sights
That seem worn
To your usual eyes.

Grace and Peace. 

Fr. Tony+