Conflicting Messages About Our Bodies

When I was a child, I was the one who came last in pretty much every race (occasionally I beat my best friend); I was the one chosen last in team games. It didn’t matter what sport it was (except swimming, where I made it to average), I was hopeless.


But on New Years Day, 2009, I decided to try one more time. I made a resolution to try skiing. I first went skiing in 1978, and hated it. The next time was 1994, and it wasn’t much better. But this time, it took. With the help of good instructors and recent advances in ski design, I’ve finally discovered a sport that I love and can do moderately competently - and have experienced that wonderful sense of having my body function as it was created to do, with strength and (relative) grace.


What does this have to do with theology? For many of us, our bodies are something that we leave out of the faith equation. What we believe involves our minds and hearts and souls - but we often treat our bodies as if they are a necessary evil, to be controlled and endured.


We live in a society that sends us conflicting messages about our bodies, and our faith is no better. Scripture is at best ambiguous. God creates human beings, male and female, and they are part of the good creation. But the first casualty of the fall is the body ― Adam and Eve cover themselves, because they are ashamed. In Leviticus, laws protect people’s bodies from abuse, but certain essential parts of the body ― such as blood ― can make people unclean. The Song of Songs celebrates human love in its bodily expression; in other writings, denying bodily needs and desires ― whether it’s food or sex ― is a sign of faithfulness. In the New Testament, the body is both the temple of the Holy Spirit and an obstacle to union with Christ; physical needs are to be met, but desires often to be suppressed for the sake of the gospel. No wonder we are confused!


But there is one exception, and it’s the exception at the heart of our faith: Jesus Christ himself. The very act of incarnation tips the scales decisively in favor of the body. What in Genesis was just speech ― that all creation, including human beings, is good ― in Christ is an event: God made flesh, come among us. There is no inherent contradiction between the goodness of God and the status of the body. If God took human form, then human form ― our existence as embodied beings ― must be inherently good. That’s the gift of the incarnation.


That means our bodies are good. They are the means by which we live out our lives of faith, the ‘strength’ with which we love the Lord our God, along with our hearts and minds and souls. So go ahead - ski! - or walk, or kneel or run or garden, and know the presence of the God who created you and knows that you are very good.