April 11, 2021

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O LORD, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on m tongue,
behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.

For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them.
The days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them. Psalm 139:1-6 and 13-16

Intro: I’m going to begin with two quotes:

“. . . if we would pay more attention to those bodies as we live them from the inside, instead of thinking of them only as we see them from the outside, we would know more about ourselves than we now do.”
“The body speaks clearly to those who know how to listen” “The multifaceted language of the body depicts a lifetime of joys, sorrows, and challenges, revealed in patterns of tension, movement, gestures, posture, breath, rhythm, prosody, facial expression, sensation, physiological arousal, gait, and other action sequences.”
– I’ve quoted first a pastor and professor of theology, Arthur Vogel
• and second a psychotherapist researcher and clinician, Pat Ogden
– it takes science a little while to catch up with scripture
• I’m not entirely joking when I say that
◦ for centuries we’ve had in the Psalms, poems of joy and sorrow
◦ we have seen how the poets locate these emotions in their bodies
• now scientists tell us our bodies have their own language
◦ that without words, the body reveals its feelings and emotions
◦ for instance, “guilt written all over your face” is not just something Mom said to get us to confess
Joe Dispenza, “Every time you have a thought, there is a biochemical reaction in the brain—you make a chemical. . . . the brain then releases specific chemical signals to the body, where they act as messengers of the thought. When the body gets these chemical messages from the brain, it complies instantly by initiating a matching set of reactions directly in alignment with what the brain is thinking. Then the body immediately sends a confirming message back to the brain that it’s now feeling exactly the way the brain is thinking.”
– the body not only manufactures and is aware of these feelings
• but it also gives expression to them through posture, gestures, and other nonverbal signals

Would you agree that Psalm 139 is a classic?

The poet is fascinated and in over God’s thorough knowledge of him
– every movement and motion – every word spoken
• from before he was born to the day he will die
– there is no escaping or hiding from God
• not that he wants to get away from God
• rather, he is comforted by the knowledge wherever he goes, God is there
◦ and he is there for him

I’ve chose a section of this psalm that focuses on body parts in general
– the New Testament refers to body parts as “members”
(to be dismembered is the removal of all the body parts)
• limbs: hands, arms, feet, legs, etc.; and organs: heart, bones, kidneys, etc.
• here the poet reflects on his embryonic gestation
v. 13, God formed (made) his inward parts, a reference to his kidneys (center of the inner-self)
he was knitted (like weaving a basket) – in his mother’s womb
v. 15, his frame (bones that give the body its structure and keeps it upright)
made in secret and the depths of the earth are metaphorical references to the womb
v. 16, unformed substance refers to the embryo
◦ the Hebrew word here is an interesting one, because it means rolled up, and if you’ve every seen photographs of a fetus, you can notice how early on the body looks rolled up, and its unwrapping occurs as it continues to develop
– no wonder the poet says he has been fearfully and wonderfully made

I have read a couple of text books on Clinical Neuroanatomy
– and understood maybe five percent of what I read
• when I came to the section on ears and eyes I was bowled over
◦ both organs have minute parts that are moved by tiny muscles
◦ the iris dilator muscle is minuscule, and enervated by an even more minuscule nerve
The hearing ear and the seeing eye,
the LORD has made them both (Pr. 20:12)
• and he made them fearfully and wonderfully well
– something I’ll explain at this point, and keep reminding you
• when scripture mentions body parts, it refers not only to limbs and organs,
◦ but also to their function, and sometimes the function is used as metaphor
◦ for instance, the eyes see the world, but can also refer to vision itself, but can also refer to mental perception

In scripture, the body, like life itself, is a precious gift

In Genesis chapter 2 we read,
then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (Gen. 2:7)
– “formed” here translates the Hebrew word yaw-tsar;
• this is the first time it is used in scripture – until God has been creating and making
◦ later on, yaw-tsar will be used of potters shaping clay into something
◦ for humankind, God rolled up his sleeves, got his hands dirty, and sculpted a body, into which he breathed life
• in the New Testament, the body is both a “tent” (temporary shelter) and a “temple”
◦ Paul’s references to the body cover the entire ministry of Jesus
John A. T. Robinson, “One could say without exaggeration that the concept of the body forms the keystone of Paul’s theology. In its closely interconnected meanings, the word (soma) knits together all his great themes. It is from the body of sin and death that we are delivered; it is through the body of Christ on the Cross that we are saved; it is into His body, the Church, that we are incorporated; it is by His body in the Eucharist that this Community is sustained; it is in our body that its new life has to be manifested; it is to a resurrection of this body to the likeness of his glorious body that we are destined. Here, with the exception of the doctrine of God, are represented all the main tenets of the Christian Faith . . . .”
– the body is so important, that our resurrection bodies are built for eternity
For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Cor. 15:53-54)

Fearfully and wonderfully covers all of the body’s capacities

To know and feel and do
– the capacity to suffer, both physical pain and mental anguish
• our reflexes, responses, and reactions to the world
◦ our responses and reactions to other people
• and all of our feelings, emotional and physical, are produced by the body and experienced in the body
Antonio Damasio, “Even in the most typical course of events, the emotional responses target both body proper and brain. The brain produces major changes in neural processing that constitute a substantial part of what is perceived as feeling.” “The current evidence suggests that most feelings probably rely on all sources—skeletal and visceral changes as well as changes in internal milieu.”
◦ that last line comes very close to the biblical view of the body’s experience of feeling in bones and viscera
– we frequently read of the way poets and prophets were aware of emotions,
• and where they were located in their bodies
• which is also something that we tend to ignore

Our bodies have a story to tell

They carry the history of our past
Pat Ogden, “We remember the past not only in words, images, and stories, but also through chronic habits of tension, movement, and posture.”
– you may know that my wife Barbara is a physical therapist
• she has excellent skills at reading the bodies of her patients
◦ she can read an illness or injury by looking and observing the patient’s posture and movements
◦ and sometimes touching or having the patient perform a simple task
◦ she will also ask questions about what they feel with certain motions or when they stretch a limb
• these things are not only effects of injury or illness, there are also imprints of their personal history
◦ we may have developed a protective posture as children
◦ what we do not realize is that our childhood posture became a habit,
◦ and our body automatically repeats it when we feel threatened or insecure
– my son, Scotty, has a neighbor who I noticed,
• that when walking to her car, she looks like she carries the weight of the world on her shoulders
• a couple weeks ago I had a brief conversation with her
◦ I then learned she is not only a single mom raising an adolescent son, but she is deaf
◦ talking with her, I realized how difficult it is for deaf people to find resources that are available to them on their own
◦ no wonder this woman walks slightly bent forward with her head down
Pat Ogden, “. . . the way we move, stand, sit, and so forth, is the result of personal history interacting with immediate circumstance. . . . Our posture, movement and sensation fluctuate moment-to-moment depending on the present situation and the people we are with as well as our internal state, predictions, and expectations.”
“. . . often we do not understand the original wisdom of these physical reactions and do not realize that being aware of and changing them can help us to move beyond the confines of the past.”

Now I’m going to tell you what mischief I’m up to

A few years ago, I spent several Sundays exploring the body in scripture
– I have learned a great deal more since then – I want to revisit that theme
• we live with God inside these bodies
• I’m convinced we need to know their spiritual significance
◦ how we’ve let them develop or have constrained our growth within them
◦ how we know and serve God in them and through them
Pat Ogden explains that the body serves us in a practical way, “not only as a guide to help heal from the wounds of the past but also as a roadmap for discovery and growth in the future.”
– this is a fascinating adventure and well-worth exploring
Pat Ogden, “The sensation and movement of the body is a laboratory that is always available to teach us more about the hidden recesses of the self, expanding our understanding so that we can try out new ways of living and relating.”
– we’re going to learn the wisdom of the body
• how doing things differently with our body,
◦ can help us break free from the past addictions that linger
◦ and walk through life with a new energy and confidence in God

Conclusion: Alright–slowly draw into your body a deep, cleansing breath

Notice your body – are you sitting up straight? are you relaxed?
– your body is how you first present yourself to the world
• what does it say about you?
• do you embody love? acceptance? openness?

I hope you will gain insight into this wonderful body of yours,
that you will find its undiscovered resources and strengths
The body is meant for the Lord and the Lord for the body (1 Cor. 6:13)
You are not trash, you’re a temple;
the object of God’s love and desire