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For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but life to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men 1 Corinthians 1:17-25

Intro: My wife, Barb, and I were told something lives in our home,

Something bad – and invisible to humans
– so a guy came to our home with a small electronic device
• it could supposedly detect the invisible presence
• we had to take his word for it — I had no idea how his gizmo worked
– this was not a “haunting,” and the technician was not a psychic
• we had water damage to our home and it had to be treated for mold
• the mold detector collected and measured spores in the air

We accept this story because it is grounded in rational science
– we cannot say the same thing regarding 1 Corinthians
• if not grounded in scientific fact, what then?
• one page back,
Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God . . . . (Rom. 16:25)
and Ephesians
. . . the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ (Ep. 3:3-4)
– mystery in this context is not like a riddle – it is not a problem we can solve
• it is unknowable, because it belongs to another reality
◦ the only way it can be known is if it is revealed
• only way it can be trusted, is if we have a broader perspective of reality

Paul is leading the Corinthians into the realm of mystery

Christian education is not what we have be led to believe
– it is not Bible reading, Bible study, or Bible memorization
• it is not learning to decode clues that shed light on the end times
• it is not training in apologetics so we can defend the faith
– it is becoming conscious of another dimension of reality
• it is a process of coming to know God whom, we are told,
alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see (1 Tim. 6:16)
• the Bible is vital to our education, but it is not the goal
◦ if we do not wake up to God, we’ve missed the point
◦ we aren’t transformed, but stay same, only with a Bible education
(may God protect us from narcissists who are well-versed in scripture)

Paul is trying to bring the Corinthians along, but their growth was stunted
But I, brothers [and sisters], could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ (1 Cor. 3:1)
– in this first chapter, he begins to unfold the problem
• to me it feels like Christian Spirituality 101
◦ or as I introduced this series last week, “A Primer In Things Unseen”
• one of the first lessons that must be learned:
◦ our concept of reality is too narrow
◦ we have to be open to more than the eye can see or the ear can hear
– this means our standard methods of knowing our world will break down
• they won’t work in this new reality
◦ it’s sort of like quantum physics
◦ the physics of Isaac Newton do not work at the quantum level
• for instance,
But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord 1 Corinthians 1:27-31
God chose . . . things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are . . .
◦ that is not possible in our four-dimensional universe

Paul uses two well-known worldviews to illustrate the situation

The Jewish approach to truth and the Greek approach (vv. 22-23)
– we make similar distinctions: East/West, Oriental/Occidental
– Paul is addressing two systems of thought, that I will call, first:

A philosophical worldview – demands rational evidence

Paul says, Greeks seek wisdom, which is quite true
– sophia (wisdom) + phileo (love) = philosophy or “love of wisdom”
• wisdom to Greek philosopher covered all that existed
◦ therefore, in its entirety it was was beyond the capabilities of the human mind
◦ however, philosophers could know something of it
• they developed methods of reasoning
◦ Socratic dialectic – use questions and criticism to challenge and clarify ideas and concepts
◦ Aristotle’s syllogisms – a way to test a statement’s logical validity
– a belief had to be “reasonable” for a philosopher to accept it
• before coming to Corinth, Paul had been in Athens
◦ there he had an interesting experience
◦ he was invited to address Epicurean and Stoic philosophers
Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new (Acts 17:21)
• Paul began with their shrines and an altar inscribed “To the unknown God”
◦ he described the God revealed in the Scriptures
◦ but when he began talking about Jesus, the meeting broke up
Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” So Paul went out from their midst (Acts 17:32-33)
◦ he knew by experience that the message of Jesus crucified was foolishness to them

The journey of philosophy has progressed from then until now
– for the most part, it has moved even further from finding any kind of deity
• many cannot overcome arguments against God’s existence
• so all the wisdom of the philosophers has brought us no closer to God
– we cannot reason our way into God’s presence
• nothing in our prior has prepared us for the mystery of God–so get used to it
If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know (1 Cor. 8:2)

A religious worldview – demands supernatural evidence

We might assume the religious mind is more open than the philosophic mind
– but it can become biased and shut off to truth
• the central problem is that religion falls into human hands
◦ the tendency is to bottle spirituality – like a genie in a lamp
◦ then release it only under strict control – to grant wishes
• even our most wonderful spiritual experiences can lose energy
◦ but religion tends to hang onto those milestones of the past
◦ and then it suffers from a “hardening of the categories”
– institutions require management – but we cannot manage the Spirit
• so something new comes along, religion says, “prove it”
And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven (Mt. 16:1)
• it is often assumed that a miracle will win any argument
◦ but that is not what we see in the gospels
◦ Jesus’ miracles intensified the hostility of Jesus’ critics (Jn. 12:9-11)
◦ they credited his exorcisms to the devil, not God (Mt. 12:24)

Science was not on Paul’s radar

But we could add that worldview to our own challenge
– here I will only offer couple of quotation
• the subject has to do with the worldview of psychology
Arthur Deikman, “Freud’s view of reality and that of most contemporary theorists of psychotherapy is based on a nineteenth-century physical and biological scientific model that is far too narrow to encompass human consciousness. Consequently, certain sources of suffering cannot be dealt with from within a Western framework. We are faced with major problems that call for broadening our perspective and extending our science.”
“Human beings need meaning. . . . The religious framework that formerly defined meaning has been replaced by a scientific world view in which meaning does not exist. . . . According to this view, human beings are complex biochemical phenomena, of considerable scientific interest but not essentially different from anything else that science examines.”

Paul says that he was called to preach the gospel, but
not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power (v. 17)
– for Paul, worldly wisdom did not enhance his message,
• but undermined it – nullified its power
• we’ve inherited a legacy from the Reformation
◦ and that is the attempt to clarify everything
◦ but some of the most important things cannot be clarified
– learning to drive – when you first pressed your foot on the accelerator,
• were you ready for the car’s response?
◦ we did not learn how to drive by studying it in “driver’s ed.” or a book
◦ we learned by feel – and today we drive our cars by feel
◦ spiritual education is not the same, but it is similar
• we need to wake up to the fact:
◦ there’s more to universe and ourselves than we have known or experienced

Conclusion: How do we go forward?

In the first part of this chapter Paul refers to Jesus repeatedly:
Christ Jesus, our Lord Jesus Christ, and simply, Christ
– Jesus was the lens through which Paul first saw the invisible God
And Jesus is the lens through whom we will see both God and ourselves
Jesus walks us into mystery, enlarges our perspective, and shows us his kingdom
For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery which is Christ, in who are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:1-3)
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set you minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:1-3)

So now we are on our way,
and it is going to be a wonderful journey

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And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart Luke 18:1
– And he told them a parable –

Intro: Wednesday night, this was the first verse we read in our Lexio Divina meeting

Immediately I knew I would be reading it today, because of what had been on my mind
– Jesus gave people what they needed
• he gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf
◦ health to the lame and to the lepers
◦ he gave hope and forgiveness to the sinners
• and to everyone, Jesus gave parables
With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything (Mk. 4:33-34)
– Jesus used parables to introduce people to kingdom of God
• in John’s gospel, Jesus used “hard sayings” (Jn. 6:60)
• why did Jesus use these obscure ways to deliver his message?
◦ because he spoke of things outside their everyday world
◦ a reality that none of them had ever experienced
They had to learn a new way to think

There is something I would like you to know about me
– if we were to trace my spiritual journey it would be scribbled all over the map
• I’ve logged many hours in the Bible and commentaries, theology, and a dash of philosophy and physics
◦ I am deeply interested in psychology and neuroscience – especially theories of human consciousness
◦ besides all the rational stuff, I have at times revisited the charismatic experience
• all my exploration has been driven by one passion
◦ a desire to have a real and continuous awareness of God’s presence
◦ I have wanted to learn: Is awareness of God always a gift of grace
or is there an innate capacity in the human brain that can open to God’s nearness
and that can be developed?
– I have often thought about a footnote in the Old Testament
Formerly in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, he said, “Come, let us go to the seer,” for today’s “prophet” was formerly called a seer (1 Sam. 9:9)
• if you want to know about a seer – stories of Elijah and Elisha
◦ just knew things – saw more than human eyes could see
◦ was that given to them or was there a combination of potential and purposeful development
• during that same time we learn about a prophetic community
◦ the sons of the prophets – were they devoted to learning and developing spiritual sight?
◦ Arthur Deikman captures the question I have been asking 30 or forty years:
Deikman, “. . . is there any evidence supporting the idea that human beings can develop in themselves a new form of perception, one that is latent but requires special conditions for its development?” “Are we possessed at birth of neuronal circuits with a developmental potential for the kind of direct, intuitive knowing that mystics say is possible? . . . Can that potential be revived by specific exercises that would make special demands on the organism?”

A recent trend among a few theologians and Christian writers

They have adopted a materialist view of the human person
– we are a biological organism, that’s all – no spirit
• what can be said of them is same Deikman, regarding some psychologists
Deikman, “Western psychotherapy, in basing itself almost exclusively on the world view of scientific materialism, has impoverished its model of human consciousness and lost the meaning and significance of human life.”
• the biblical worldview is supernatural
◦ it reveals a larger view of the universe and larger view of the human person
Deikman, “. . . it is possible that the conclusions of scientific materialism are wrong. From time to time we sense a larger reality than the one science provides, a subtle perception pointing to a better, meaningful existence.”
– our normal methods of science, research, and education,
• cannot give us access to this larger dimension
◦ it is not like learning math or history
◦ Paul argued that God
determined allotted periods and the boundaries of [mankind’s] dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for
“In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:26-28)
• we need to develop a different kind of perception
◦ we need new eyes to see and new ears to hear

Chuck Kraft is a very rational theologian and anthropologist

I once heard him give a lecture on listening to God’s Spirit
– he emphasized that this requires a shift from our normal patterns of thinking
• I asked him how we could make the shift from the rational to nonrational
• he gave two answers:
◦ “a credible guide” can assist you in the process
◦ and, “analogy can be useful”
• Jesus used parables, riddles, metaphors, paradoxes, hard sayings
Kenneth Leech claims that an “essential feature” of mystical teaching is “the process of ‘illumination by metaphor’, that is, a way of knowing based upon an intuitive grasp of situations, an openness to the myths and symbols of experience. The spiritual guide speaks the language of myth and metaphor.”
– on the first day of 1988, I wrote on the first page of my daily journal,
“Heavenly Father, when I asked You for a credible guide . . . You spoke to me through Psalm 32:8,
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my eye upon you.”
• God’s Spirit is the teacher and guide who brings us along (Jn 14:26)
◦ but God has also appointed teachers in church (1 Cor. 12:28)
◦ Jesus has given us “shepherd-teachers” (Ep. 4:11)
• what I have in mind for us over the next few weeks is “A Primer In Things Unseen”
◦ a beginner’s course – Paul provides us with a foundation for the development we desire
◦ we can learn the basics – or at least have a reliable starting point

What can we hope to gain from a shepherd-teacher?

To awaken us to everything we have missed
– if we never see beyond the material world and our lives in it,
• we will be brainwashed by it and obsessed with it
I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? (Mt. 6:25)
• this “more” is the larger dimension that we have missed
◦ life is more than what sustains it
◦ the body is more than a biological organism

We may find that our teacher rejects us – this is not unusual
– the disciple is told, “This is not for you,” “You won’t be able to do it,” “You’re not qualified,” “You’re not strong (determined, sincere) enough”
– at first the student may argue or try harder, but will eventually fail
• sometime later the student returns to the teacher and says, “You were right, I cannot follow this path”
• and teacher says, “Now you are ready. I will take you on as my disciple”
“. . . choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” ¶ Then the people answered, “ . . . we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God.” But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the LORD, for he s a holy God. . . . And the people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve the LORD.” (Jos. 24:14-21)
◦ we have to realize that nothing in our past education prepared us for this new education
– a shepherd-teacher enables us to see what helps and hinders our progress
• we will be forced to look at our motives
Deikman, “Most people bring to meditation an acquisitive, self-centered orientation that is the cultural norm. According to the mystical literature, such an attitude determines the outcome of meditation. For this reason, the instructions that accompany the classical descriptions of meditation deal first with the necessity for ‘purifying the heart’–developing a selfless orientation–before aspiring to special powers.”
◦ notice, this is where Jesus begins his lessons in the Sermon On the Mount,
Blessed are pure in heart, for they shall see God (Mt. 5:8)
• our guide will question our basic assumptions
◦ just as Jesus challenged the religious assumptions of his hearers
You have heard that it was said . . . But I say to you (Mt. 5:21-22)
– our guide helps us see the limitations of the rational mind and overcome them
– our guide is someone who is where we want to be
• at least two steps ahead of us
– our guide can hear our questions, objections, and concerns
• and respond with the wisdom of that larger realm of understanding
• they answers may not be satisfying rationally, but they will be right
– our guide will help us discover our spirit–our aware self–and how to instantly return to that self
• we will be awakened to God, in whom we live and move and have our being
• we will discover how our spirit is a bridge, between the four-dimensional world and the spiritual dimension
– our guide will help us discern our most effective ways to pray
– our guide will challenge, console, and lead us to our own discoveries

Conclusion: We will follow Paul through 1 Corinthians

This will not be a “Bible study”
– we will be looking for specific insights into the life of the Spirit
– many Evangelicals are discouraged, disappointed, frustrated today
• they are longing for that larger dimension in God
• they are looking for a faith that, as Jim would say, produces lovers
◦ lovers of God, lovers of others, lovers of all that God has made
– this is where we can go when all the resources of what Evangelicalism offers have been exhausted,
and we are still hungry, thirsty, and desire more

I want you to imagine Jesus with Nicodemus
That poor Pharisee must have been so frustrated,
misunderstanding Jesus because he took literally what the Lord told him
But Jesus was patient, wanting Nicodemus to learn to see

God will provide us what we need
to find our way to a more certain experience of his presence,
that persists through every sort of situation
We will have to stick with the process,
until we get our breakthrough,
our miracle

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In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. . . . God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. . . . And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. . . .So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. . . . And God made the beasts of the eaerth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creep on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. . . . And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. Genesis 1:1-4, 10, 12, 16-18, 21, 25, 31

Intro: The Bible begins at the beginning – the story of creation

It is important that we read this passage as a story and not as a scientific account
(I do not have a problem with people trying to harmonize it with science, but that was not how Genesis was written nor how it was meant to be read)
– stories have a plot, characters, setting and mood
• in this story, the universe does not merely exist by itself
◦ it has an Architect, a Creator – and he has a purpose for it
• each new addition as it unfolds, is inspected and approved
◦ once the project is complete, all of it is very good
– the goodness of the created world is repeated and celebrated in the Old Testament
• in the Book of Proverbs, wisdom is personified and sings:
The LORD possessed me at the beginning of his work,
the first of his acts of old.
Ages ago I was set up,
at the beginning of the earth.
When there were no depths I was brought forth,
when there were no springs abounding with water. . . .
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
then I was beside him, like a master workman,
and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always,
rejoicing in his inhabited world
and delighting in the children of man (Pr. 8:22-31)
◦ also in the Psalms
The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof,
the world and those who dwell therein . . . . (Ps. 24:1)
You cause the grass to grow for the livestock
and plants to cultivate,
that he may bring forth food from the earth
and wine to gladden the heart of man,
oil to make his face shine,
and bread to strengthen man’s heart (Ps. 104:14-15)
◦ and on and on, the Hebrew Scriptures celebrate the created world
• the Catholic saint who caught this better than any other was St. Francis of Assisi
◦ in his “Canticle of the Sun,” he sings,
“Praise be to you, my Lord . . . through Brother Sun”
“Praise be to you, my Lord . . . through Sister Moon”
“Praise be to you, my Lord . . . through Mother Earth”

We are made of the same stuff as the rest of our universe

Our relation to the earth is organic
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return (Ge. 3:19)
– our spirit may belong to God’s realm, but the body belongs to the earth
– today I will conclude my series of talks on body parts
• what I’ve tried to stress is that our bodies are not only material, but spiritual
◦ not two different realities – but spirit belongs to another, larger dimension
◦ we are spiritual bodies
• today we’ll explore our embodied connection to the earth
◦ what will be our attitude to Earth? how will we treat it?

We know the world through our bodies

Our sense of direction, our orientation in world begins with the body
– so depending on what direction my body is facing,
• “north” can be to the right of me, the left, in front of me, or behind me
Arthur Vogel, “The fundamental role which being-in-the-world-through-our-bodies plays in our personal lives can be simply and convincingly demonstrated by the role played by prepositions in our thought. Such terms as in, between, over, under, behind, within, without, beyond, beside, are basic to our thinking, but they come to us from an experience of the world . . . The world of our personal embodiment.”
• with this basic knowledge, we can conceptualize other objects
◦ for instance, “Voyager has traveled outside our solar system”
◦ our body-knowledge is how we understand what “outside” means
– let’s bring this down to earth
• remember relief maps? colors are used to indicate elevation
◦ some were even molded with 3-dimensional mountains and valleys
◦ topography maps are similar, but more technical
• suppose you had to create a relief map using only words?
◦ a technical description of landscape; its height, depth, width, breadth, shapes and configurations?
◦ that would take some imagination

The Bible does this, using what we know from our bodies
And the east boundary is the Salt Sea, to the mouth of the Jordan. And the boundary on the north side runs from the bay of the sea at the mouth of the Jordan. . . . Then the boundary goes up by the Valley of the Son of Hinnom at the southern shoulder of [Jerusalem]. And the boundary goes up to the top of the mountain that lies over against the Valley of Hinnom . . . . (Jos. 15:5-8)
• two body parts used for the contours of landscape are obvious
◦ the mouth of Jordan and the shoulder of Jerusalem (the side of a hill or a slope)
• but there are other body parts not obvious in our English translation:
◦ bay is literally tongue
◦ top of the mountain translates a Hebrew word for head
◦ over against is the Hebrew word panyim, “faces” (in this instance, facing the Valley of Hinnom
• another familiar expression is the foot of Mount Sinai (Ex. 19:17)
– Old Testament maps were drawn up using analogies of the human body
• in Joshua, these maps were made to establish boundaries between the twelve tribes
◦ each territory was like a body, and the borders were like its skin
• do you see how the human body is superimposed over the earth’s body
◦ this is possible because we are alike
◦ in Genesis, the human body and earth are mutually dependent
The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it (Ge. 2:15)
. . . and you shall eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread . . . (Ge. 3:17-19)

Thinking about all of this, two of the Bible’s books came to mind

Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs – they appear side-by-side
– both are relatively short, and both are controversial
• when studying them, question that comes up most often is:
◦ “Why is this book in the Bible?”
◦ neither mention the name of Yahweh, and the Song does not even mention “God”
• Ecclesiastes is Utilitarian and pessimistic; the Song is Epicurean and optimistic
– I thought of them, because the backdrop for both is the created world
• if we ask, “What does it mean to be alive in the world?”
◦ each of these books gives a very different answer

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,
vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
What does man gain by all the toil
at which he toils under the sun? (Ecc. 1:2-3)
This is how Ecclesiastes begins and ends (Ecc. 12:8)
– the writer claims to be a descendent of David,
• and describes himself as “The Preacher” – “one who gather an audience”
◦ vanity is a poor choice for translators to make
• the Hebrew word hebel is your misty breath on a cold day
(cf. Jas. 4:14, For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes)
◦ it is nothingness, emptiness, futility
Robert Alter, “For the most part . . . his observations are properly philosophic, inviting us to contemplate the cyclical nature of reality and human experience, the fleeting duration of all that we cherish, the brevity of life, and the inexorability of death, which levels all things.”
Alter describes Ecclesiastes as a “radical dissent, in which time, history, politics, and human nature are seen in . . . a bleak light” and “the world is a theater of continuing frustration and illusion; that is the way that God/fate/the intrinsic constitution of reality has determined that it should be.”
– contrast this with beginning of the Song
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!
For your love is better than wine;
your anointing oils are fragrant . . . (Song 1:2-3)
• immediately we see the pleasures of physical love
◦ there is touch, and taste, and fragrance (soon all of the senses will be stimulated)
• for the lovers who sing to each other, the earth is teeming with life
◦ love thrives in its mountains and valleys, its vineyards and gardens
◦ it seems that everything in nature finds a counterpart in the human body
Ariel and Chana Bloch, “Nature is the mirror of the human lovers. . . . The poet’s metaphors keep shifting between the actual landscape, suffused with erotic associations, and the landscape of the body. The Shulamite waits for her lover in a garden, but she herself is a garden . . . .” “The images are not literally descriptive; what they convey is the delight of the lover in contemplating the beloved, finding in the body a reflected image of the world in its freshness and splendor.”
Robert Alter, “The Song of Songs is the great love poem of commingling—of different realms, different senses, and of the male and female bodies. . . . there are abundant cross-overs from the luxuriance of the landscape to the luxuriance of the human body.”

The Song and Ecclesiastes share same themes, but develop them differently
– the wind in the Song:
Awake, O north wind,
and come O South wind!
Blow upon my garden,
let its spices flow (Song 4:16)
– the wind in Ecclesiastes
The wind blows to the south
and goes around to the north;
around and around goes the wind,
and on its circuits the wind returns (Ecc. 1:6)
• what’s did the Teacher conclude about traveling in circles? You never get anywhere
• all worldly pursuits are a striving after the wind (Ecc. 2:17)
◦ Alter translates this, herding the wind
– the sun in Ecclesiastes describes the environment of human endeavor
under the sun (Ecc. 1:9, 14, etc., etc.)
• this is a materialistic worldview in which death makes everything irrelevant (Ecc. 2:15-17)
◦ even the sun and moon are eventually darkened (Ecc. 12:2)
• but the lovers see the beauty of sun and moon in each other’s body
Who is this who looks down like the dawn,
beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun,
awesome as an army with banners? (Song 6:10)

Conclusion: There’s so much more here to contrast and compare

If you’re interested, you can continue this study of the two books on your own
– my concern here is that we see these books as a challenge of two doors
• what happens if we take our bodies through door one?
• and what happens if we choose door two?
I am not a doomsday person
– and I do not spend my time in scripture trying to figure out the day and hour of Jesus’ return
• but anyone who happens to be noticing, can see that we have done great damage to our planet

If we commit our bodies to an Ecclesiastes view of life,
we will go on abusing Mother Earth
If we take a Song of Songs view of life,
there is hope for redemption for the earth body and the human body
• we share a destiny with our planet
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. . . . For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies (Ro. 8:19-23)

James Hall, “It is in the gospel stories of Jesus that we recognize how present and intimately available God is in creation. The story begins with Jesus’ birth in a manger-a place where animals were kept, most likely a cave in the hillside. God’s incarnation in human form begins in the earth itself. Years later, Jesus responds to the cry of John the Baptist, ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord.’ Then and now, John and his cry embody the undomesticated wildness of God. In that remote setting, Jesus was baptized . . . .”
– think of how much of Jesus’ teaching referred to nature
• seeds and soil, lilies and birds, fig trees and vineyards
• he is himself is the true vine and the Spirit is living water
Hall, “Throughout his ministry Jesus withdrew to remote mountain and desert places to pray. On the night before he was arrested, he went to a quiet garden to pour out his anguish and grief. For Jesus the most intimate moments with God took place in the desert, on the mountain, in the garden, among the wildness and beauty of God’s creation.” “. . . when we lay the written scripture, so full of images from the natural world, beside the scripture of the earth, our understanding of each is enhanced.”
“Only recently have we lost contact with the earth out of which we were made, and on which we depend for life and sanity. Some think that this is why we are blindly destroying our habitat. In our alienation from the earth, have we gone mad?”

If we are looking for the redemption of planet earth and our bodies with it,
– we will need to treat our bodies as part of nature’s song
• and treat our planet’s body with same care we give our own
• we will want to connect with the created world as Jesus did
◦ and like Jesus, pray with our bodies
Hall asks, “How do we learn to pray the prayer of embodiment with all creation? One way we can begin is by going to a less inhabited, natural place. . . . Such a place, if it is accessible and we go there often, will become a special and sacred place where we can meet God in the things he has made.”

What is required of us to have a role in redemption?
– perhaps re-learning how to be a child
Rachel Carson, “A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement . . . . If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world would be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things artificial, the alienation from the source of our strength.” (quoted in James Hall)

Our hope is to become as children,
enter the kingdom of heaven
and recover our sense of wonder–
for the Creator of this fantastic universe,
for the beauty and wonders of nature,
and for our own bodies
as we present them to God,
again and again,
living sacrifices

And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” Mark 14:22-25

Intro: While talking with an old friend recently,

I discovered something about myself – it was a senior citizen moment
– as I age, I experience nostalgia more intensely
• it is not that I would want to return to my past
• but I experience memories of it with a deeper resonance
– I graduated high school in 1969
• a couple weeks later, we put humans on the moon
◦ that doesn’t trigger moody memories or warm feelings
• a band appeared and disappeared that same year
◦ they left behind one album that reached the top of the charts in the US and UK
◦ a song from that album evokes nostalgia in me
“Come down off your throne and leave your body alone
Somebody must change
You are the reason I’ve been waiting all these years
Somebody holds the key
Well, I’m near the end and I just ain’t got the time
And I’m wasted and I can’t find my way home”
(from “Blind Faith,” written by Eric Clapton and sung by Steve Winward)

One interpretation of those lyrics is that Clapton was working through addiction at the time
– he began writing songs in which he spirituality and recovery
• “Come down off your throne” — stop getting high; stop messing up your body
◦ “Somebody must change” — and you, the addict, must make that change
◦ “Somebody holds the key” — someone else, a “higher power”
◦ “I’m near the end and I just ain’t got the time” — I can only do this for so long before I overdose
• a side note: on the same album included there is another song Clapton wrote:
“I have finally found the way to live – in the presence of the Lord”
– when I first heard the line “leave your body alone,”
• it struck me as being relevant to a body-obsessed culture
◦ the emphasis on one’s media image, the fashion industry, medical interventions that kept bodies alive
• other than drug use, hippies celebrated the body’s natural state
◦ they cared for it with health food, Chinese medicine, and naturopathic healing
This is what came to mind while preparing today’s talk
“Leave your body alone”

I began our current series of talks on Easter Sunday
– we began exploring the Scriptures,
• to see how our body parts experience our relationship with God
• we began with the head, then the face–eyes, ears, mouth, lips, tongue
◦ all the way down to our feet
◦ and inside to our blood, bones, and internal organs
• last week we explored the life of our body
◦ the soul – which is physical, the life-force of the body and its parts
◦ the spirit – the invisible part; the added dimension
this is where we connect with God
. . . you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God (Ro. 8:15-16)
– today’s talk won’t be as intense as the previous ones
• it will be more lab than lecture
• we will leave our bodies alone so they can experience Jesus for themselves

Jesus held in his hands the broken loaf, presented it to disciples

This is my body – I want us to hear this in a specific way
– we have collected all kinds of biblical information about our bodies
• but now we hear Jesus say, This is MY body
• we focus our attention on the bread in his hands,
◦ and on his hands holding the bread
◦ and on the eyes that search us and the lips that speak to us

The first thought that comes to me is “touch”

If Jesus is embodied and we are embodied, there can be touch
– Jesus touched people
• one of the first was Peter’s mother in law (Mt. 8:15)
◦ in fact, Jesus took her by the hand and helped her up (Mk. 1:31)
• soon after, a leper (Mk. 1:41)
• Jesus also touched Jairus’ dead daughter (Mk. 5:41)
• he touched the eyes of two blind men (Mt. 9:29)
• on the mountain where he was transfigured, Jesus woke his disciples with a touch (Mt. 17:7)
• he touched small children whose parents wanted his blessing (Mt. 10:13)
• another child he took in his arms (Mk. 9:36)
– Jesus used his body in extraordinary ways
• his feet took him over all kinds of terrain,
◦ even across the surface of a lake
• his hands were filled with healing and blessings
◦ in fact, the last thing he did for others was with his hands
And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven (Lk. 24:50-51)
◦ those hands were nailed to the cross

I have often wondered what Jesus’ touch would feel like

Jesus himself, was touchable

[Jesus] told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him, for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him (Mk. 3:9-10)
– there was the woman whose hemorrhage doctors could not resolve, but touching the edge of Jesus’ cloak did (Mk. 5:27)
• and the woman who kissed Jesus’ feet (Lk. 7:38-39)
• after his resurrection he appeared to the women who had come to the empty tomb
And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him (Mt. 28:9)
– one of my favorites, also after resurrection when Jesus appeared to the disciples:
See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see (Lk. 24:39)
• he invited his disciples to touch him
• and he invites us to touch him
◦ think of that when you hold the bread in your hands
This is MY body

The next thought that comes to me, is the role he gives us

Mark tells us that after blessing the bread and breaking it,
– he presented it to the disciples with one word: Take
• he did not hold it just out of reach
◦ he did not say, “Now you’re going to have to work for this!”
◦ their part was easy – all they had to do was receive it
• the Lord who gave us our bodies, now gives us his body
◦ we did not earn this gift,
◦ so we don’t have to worry that we may lose it
– still, we do need to take it – to receive it
• I think we have to learn receptivity as a spiritual exercise
◦ free will means we can choose
◦ we can receive or reject
• we have wisdom when we can discerning when to receive and when to resist
◦ James says this in his typically blunt way:
Submit yourselves therefore to God (receive). Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (Jas. 4:7)
– receptivity offers us a different way of going through life
• getting up in the morning, we can receive the day
◦ or we can reject it, fight with it
◦ but fighting only intensifies frustration, anxiety, disappointment
• we can receive each chore as it comes, or resist and complain
◦ if we remember, we can receive Jesus in each moment

And Jesus tells us to remember
This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me (Lk. 22:19)
– scripture tells us–you and I– that we are the body of Christ
• each one, a member of Jesus’ body
◦ this past year we have been dis-membered
◦ we’re here today so we can be re-membered
put back together
• the bread and wine put us together with Jesus
◦ and today it puts us together with each other
The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread (1 Cor. 10 16-17)
◦ Jesus’ body, entering our bodies, making us one body in Christ
– but why would he ask us to consume his body and blood?
• why would we want to?
• because we want his touch on our innermost self
◦ we’ve seen, internal body parts hold our deepest feelings
◦ emotions, motivations, needs, commitments, decisions
• we want his touch to reach down into the depth of our souls
◦ Jesus Christ within us, and taking us into himself
In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you (Jn. 14:20)

Conclusion: I want to make a suggestion for receiving bread and cup

We all know how to say something in sign-language
– you may not have realized this before
• the sign-language that we know is a way to pray with our bodies
• even if you’ve never made the sign yourself, you at least have seen it
Tertullian, “In all our travels and movements, in all our coming in and going out, in putting off our shoes, at the bath, at the table, in lighting our candles, in lying down, in sitting down, whatever employment occupies us, we mark our foreheads with the sign of the cross.”
– that is what I am suggesting that you do
Richard Rohr tells us that “we have this wonderful body language . . . practiced by the older churches that we call ‘the sign of the cross.’ . . . If you’ve never enacted the sign of the cross before, I hope you’ll consider its value. And if you’re familiar (perhaps overfamiliar) with the practice, I hope you can do it now in a conscious and trustful way.”
“First of all, the very ritual says that we can know something in our body—that our body has to be reminded in whose ‘name’ it lives and moves and has its being.”
Signing the cross “is often seen as both a shielding and an honoring of the body itself. We begin with the forehead, honoring our thoughts and minds as the source or the beginning point of all our decisions to act: ‘In the name of the Father’ is certainly offering our thoughts and our mind over to God as the Ultimate source.
Then we move directly downward, crossing over our heart, toward the solar plexus, or stomach, which is certainly blessing our own enfleshment and incarnation as the body of Christ: ‘And of the Son,’ we say.
And then, now trusting and enjoying the flow, we cross our body from shoulder to shoulder, again crossing the heart, and say, ‘And of the Holy Spirit.’ Note the sweep, the movement, and the fullness of both vertical and horizontal.”
“This is a way for the body itself to know holy things, to honor itself as the temple and container of the Mystery, and to live with an newly conscious and self-declared dignity.”
“If you’re used to doing it in a mindless and perfunctory way, try letting the rote go and breathe through it each step of the way . . .”

My suggestion is that you take the bread and the cup with this sign of cross
– the Communion ritual is all about the cross
• all about the broken body and the shed blood
– this is only a suggestion
• if it seems right to you, then sign slowly and mindfully
• practice receptivity
Receive the fullness of the gift of Jesus

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You clothed me with skin and flesh
and knit me together with bones and sinews.
You have granted me life and steadfast love,
and your care has preserved my spirit Job 10:11-12

Intro: When I first started reading all the way through the Bible,

I would dread coming to the Book of Job
– it seemed like I always got more depressed reading it, or bad things would happen
• but as I came to a better understanding of Job, I began to enjoy reading it
• I see Job as the hero of all who suffer–innocently
– Job stood up for himself – against his friends – against his culture
• he even stood up to God – of course, he didn’t win that one
◦ but he didn’t lose either
• his complaint here: “What’s the point of making and caring for me, just to tear me apart?”
◦ note the poetic description of his fetal gestation in verse 11

Job’s ordeal began with circumstances relating to possessions and family,
– but in the second round, the ordeal entered his body
• the Adversary’s challenge to God regarding Job had been:
Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life, But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face (Job 2:4-5)
– we have been itemizing body parts and their spirit dimension
• eyes, ears, mouth, head, neck and shoulders, hands and feet
• today I will talk the biggest body part of all: the skin and flesh

There are a surprising number of references to flesh in Bible

The first mention of it, connects the man and the woman
– remember, everything so far was affirmed to be “good”
while [the man] slept [God] took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh – from it God fashioned the woman – the man’s response, This at last is bone of my bones / and flesh of my flesh – then the storyteller adds a brief commentary, Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh (Ge. 2:21-24) — the original intimacy
• the next mention of flesh, however set a limit on human longevity
My Spirit shall not [contend with man] forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years (Ge. 6:3)
◦ that was because all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth (6:12)
◦ God determined to make an end of all flesh [and] to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven (Ge. 6:13 and 17)
◦ after the flood God made a promise, an everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth (9:16)
– the Hebrew word for flesh is basar
• and already we can see it has a variety of meanings
In its broadest sense, flesh can refer to all animal life (Ps. 136:25)
– the shared existence of creatures with skin and hides, feathers and fins
• but it can refer more specifically to all human life (Ps. 65:2)
Yahweh is the God of the spirits of all flesh (Nu. 16:22; 27:16)
◦ or a specific group of people (Ps. 56:4)
– basar is the bond of family relations (Laban and Jacob or Joseph and his brothers, Ge. 29:14; 37:27)

Flesh is the external part of the human body (Ex. 4:7; 28:42)
– and also what lies just below the skin
• so basar also means “meat” (Ex. 29:32)
– the law of Moses is very body-conscious – especially regarding what enters and exits the body
• this extends to the body’s coverings
◦ Leviticus 13-14, diagnosing a breach in body’s covering
◦ it moves outward through three layers progressively: skin, garments, and houses
Thomas Staubli and Silvia Schroer, “No illness is mentioned more frequently in the First Testament or treated at greater length than leprosy in the flesh (Leviticus 13-14). Those who suffer from that illness are counted among the dead, because they have to live cut off from the living.”
• being the external part of a person, the flesh can be superficial and disconnected from heart
◦ a ritual in the flesh should also affect a change in the heart (Jer. 4:4; 9:25)

People in Scriptures were acutely aware of psychosomatic distress
– they felt their emotions in their flesh
For my sides are filled with burning,
and there is no soundness in my flesh.
I am feeble and crushed;
I groan because of the tumult of my heart (Ps. 38:7-8)
When I remember, I am dismayed, / and shuddering seizes my flesh (Job 21:6)
My flesh trembles for fear of you (Ps. 119:120)
• regarding a positive psychosomatic response:
Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;
my flesh also dwells secure (Ps. 16:9)
– the flesh defines the limits and boundaries of human existence
Staubli and Schroer, “[the] word basar is the only one among the many Hebrew words for the body and its parts that is never applied to God, and is frequently contrasted to YHWH as the very symbol of all that is mortal . . . .”
• so we read:
The Egyptians are man, and not God,
and their horses are flesh and not spirit (Isa. 31:3)
– the flesh represents human frailty, weakness, and vulnerability
• we are not to put our trust in the arm of the flesh (2 Chr. 32:8; Jer. 17:5)
• we were not built to be impervious to wounds and injury
Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh bronze? (Job 6:12)
[God] remembered that they were but flesh,
a wind that passes and comes not again (Ps. 78:39)
◦ an unavoidable fact is that flesh is impermanent – it dies
A voice says, “Cry!”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
All flesh is grass,
and its beauty is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades
when the breath of the LORD blows on it:
surely the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever (Isa. 40:6-8)
◦ this is why our flesh longs for God
O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you,
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water (Ps. 63:1)
– in the Proverbs, wisdom can bring healing to the flesh (3:8; 4:22)
and a tranquil heart gives life to the flesh (Pr. 14:30)

Jumping to the New Testament

Flesh and blood refers to what is purely human (Mt. 16:17)
– so flesh can give birth only to more flesh (Jn. 1;3; 3:6)
• in other words, there’s no human way to obtain the life of the Spirit
• being limited to the flesh, we judge according to the flesh (Jn. 8:15)
◦ that is, according to our limited human standards, criteria, perception
– flesh can also refer to descent from an ancestor (Ro. 1:3)
• Paul noted that not all flesh is the same (1 Cor. 15:39)
• So, like the Old Testament, flesh can mean:
◦ the body (2 Cor. 4:11; Gal. 2:20)
◦ all animal life (1 Cor. 15:39)
◦ all of humankind (Acts 2:17)
– the most radical statement about human flesh in scripture
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth (Jn. 1:14)
• as such, Jesus could use his flesh as a metaphor–e.g., that it is like bread
And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh (Jn. 6:51)
• what prevents us from taking this literally?
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life (Jn. 6:63)

There is something I have come to see is of critical importance

It has to do with Paul’s teaching on life in the Spirit of God
– it is tricky, because he draws on spiritual wisdom,
• and that is not the same as rational knowledge
◦ it is not even the same as biblical or theological knowledge
• it turns out that flesh is one of the key themes in this teaching
◦ if we get stuck in the flesh, we cannot make spiritual progress
– think about this:
• our rational thoughts can bring us to knowledge of the Spirit
◦ but we cannot receive the Spirit through reason or the knowledge it yields

The way Paul uses flesh in this teaching; it is not a body part!!!
– however, it can influence what we do with body parts
For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members [body parts] to bear fruit for death (Ro. 7:5)
• this can be very confusing, because when we hear “flesh,” we automatically think of the body
• but Paul is using flesh as an analogy (as Jesus used bread as an analogy)
◦ the body can be demanding, adopt bad habits, and can be tricked
◦ these are characteristics of the flesh as well, only they are internal and mostly hidden
– in Paul’s dark use of the word, flesh is sort of like a psychological energy
• it is not a specific sin, but the source and potential of all sins
• the flesh it cannot be corrected, redeemed, or transformed
◦ it has to go – and that we can’t do by ourselves
But I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh (Gal 5:16-17) Read more on this in Romans 8:1-11

Yesterday morning I was meditating on 1 Corinthians 12
– I had in mind all I had read up to that chapter
• I am going to share with you the last paragraph of my meditation

Ultimately, Paul’s intention was that through his teaching he could bring the Corinthians to a new consciousness of God, Christ, and the Spirit. This would result in their maturation from their infantile concrete thinking to their adult experience of God. In their mature spirit-consciousness, they would arrive at a love that would fuse them to God in Jesus and erase the ego needs that drive individuals to think they are superior to others, separated from them by their greater knowledge, charismatic powers, or affluence. Mystics realize that when they have nothing, at last, they have everything.

Conclusion: There’s so much more to this!

For now, here is what I suggest:
Let the confusion we have relating to our (sinful) flesh and body become a reminder
That when we think the problem we have
resisting temptation,
fully trusting God,
remaining consistent in prayer,
being always mindful of God,
when we think the problem is with our body,
let’s bring our awareness to a larger reality
and open a door to the Spirit

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Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him John 13:1-11 (Please read the entire text)

Intro: Jesus is doing something rather dramatic in this passage

Look at the verbs! He busies himself with the menial task of a slave
– Jesus is teaching his disciple through a living parable
• he’s not telling a story this time – not explaining a truth
• he is acting out a lesson
– in the Synoptic gospels, Jesus explains the difference of how hierarchy is ordered in his kingdom
You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mk. 10:44-45)
• so here, Jesus shows them what that means
◦ you can be sure, Peter wasn’t only disciple that felt the impact of this lesson
• they would never forget the night Jesus washed their feet

In our Reflexion community we have a specific interest

Our shared spiritual journey
– ongoing progress in living more God-filled lives
• so let’s suppose you’re with us today,
◦ because you want to deepen or enhance your experience of God
◦ you want a greater awareness of him, greater sensitivity to his touch and to the sound of his voice
• so here you are, and I’m talking to you today about your feet!
◦ how disappointing! How ordinary and unspiritual!
– but if we cannot discern how we live to God through our feet,
• then it’s possible that we present our bodies to God in worship is just talk
Nicole Roccas, “In Orthodox Christianity . . . [we] sometimes burn incense, or use prayer ropes, or set certain corners of our homes apart for prayer. These rituals are not meant to be rote or mindless, but to nourish reverence and to remind us that we are incarnational beings—our bodies must learn to pray as well as our minds.”
• so the body part we’ll look for in scripture today is the feet

Being grounded begins with the feet

Pat Ogden, “The lower extremities of the body—feet, calves, thighs, and pelvis—provide our base of support and connection to the earth. As a somatic resource, grounding is the physical process of being aware of our legs and feet and their connection to the ground, and to directing our energy downward into the earth to sense the support of gravity. . . . To ground ourselves, we need to relax the tension in our bodies so we can let our bodies yield into the support of the ground beneath our feet, yet the muscles should maintain tonicity.”
– David was very much aware of his need to be grounded
He made my feet like the feet of a deer
and set me secure on the heights (Ps. 18:33)
You gave a wide place for my steps under me,
and my feet did not slip (Ps. 18:36)
• feet that slip or avoid slipping occurs a lot in Job and the Psalms
◦ slipping destabilizes people, makes them vulnerable (Ps. 38:6; 94:18)
◦ so firm grounding would be feet set on a rock (Ps. 40:2) or level ground (26:12)
◦ feet can also be steadied by God (Ps. 94:18; 121:3)
• enemies can set a trap for David’s feet (Ps. 140:4)
◦ God plucked his feet from one of those nets (Ps. 25:15)
◦ then enemy’s foot is caught in their own net (Ps. 9:15)
◦ in the end, God put enemy under David’s feet (Ps. 18:38)
• David rejoices when feet stand w/in Jerusalem’s gates (Ps. 122:1-2)
– our bodies need grounding and support
• Barb takes courses to stay on top of advances in Physical Therapy
◦ a current course is entitled, “When the Feet Hit the Ground, Everything Changes”
◦ it’s about the biomechanics of the foot and ankle when standing, walking, or running
• similar course was entitled, “Chain Reaction”
◦ when the sole of the foot comes in contact w the floor, it sets off a chain reaction
◦ from the ankle to the knee, from the knee to the hip, from the hip to the pelvis,
• all the way up to the brain, which reads all this information,
◦ and makes adjustments to maintain balance and stability
Jon Kabat-Zinn–when backpacking with his family in the Teton wilderness, “With each step, the foot has to come down somewhere. Climbing or descending over boulder fields, steep inclines, on and off trails, our feet make split-second decisions about where and how to come down, what angle, how much pressure, heel or toe, rotated or straight. The kids don’t ever ask: “Daddy, where to I put my feet? . . .” They just do it, and I’ve noticed that they find a way . . . .”

Feet have a wide range of meanings in scripture

LORD has blessed you according to my foot (Gen. 30:30)
– that is, how he managed his uncle’s flocks
God keeps the feet of His godly ones (1 Sam. 2:9)
– in other words, he guards their steps
To have no resting place for the sole of the foot (De. 28:65)
– means endless wandering, to be homeless
a place forgotten by the foot (Job 28:4)
– is a lost or abandoned trail
– stamping the feet (Eze. 6:11) can indicate intense frustration or anger
– the person who cuts off his own feet (Pr. 26:6) self-destructs
– if others try to trip up my feet (Ps. 104:4), they are trying to ruin me or catch me in their net
– the temple was no more than God’s footstool, the place of My feet (Is. 60:13)
– feet that run to do evil belong to people who do not exercise any impulse control (Pr. 1:16)
the wise son does not walk with them, but keeps his foot from their path (Pr. 1:15)
– similarly, God told Jeremiah that his people had not kept their feet in check (Jer. 14:10)
David, however, restrained his feet from every evil way (Ps. 119:101, NASB)
it helped that he turned [his] feet to God’s testimonies (Ps. 119:59)
– Jesus’ disciples were to shake the dust off their feet when leaving a town that rejected them (Mt. 10:14)
this may have been a way of affirming that they had not come there to take anything from anyone

The knees
to be born on someone’s knees refers to the first person to hold and care for the infant (Gen. 50:23; Job 2:7)
– upon the knees to look upon is to cuddle a small child (Is. 66:12)
– knees could be weak or strong (Job 4:4; Ps. 109:24)
– knees knocking refers to panic or terror (Nah. 2:10)
– kneeling in prayer was a way to be at God’s feet in spirit (1 Ki. 18:42; 2 Chr. 6:13; Ep. 3:14)

Ankles
have not slipped means to limp or be unsteady (2 Sa. 22:37)

Heel
In most instances the heel is used in reference to someone being chased (Jdg. 5:15; Job 18:14; Hab. 3:5)
– in other instances it refers to a person attacking someone (Ps. 41:9)

There are also references to the sole of the foot
– the lowest part of the body, opposite the crown of the head (Job 2:7)
– the body part that has direct contact with the earth (De. 11:24)

All these reference have to do with what we experience through our feet
– what our feet feel — what our feet do — what our feet express
– referring to the feat in this way brings attention to physical ways we experience life in this world

Sometimes the foot can represent the person to whom it belongs
Let your foot be seldom in your neighbor’s house,
lest he have his fill of you and hate you (Pr. 25:17)
– or it can refer to a person’s whereabouts
Go, make yet more sure. Know and see the place where his foot is, and who has seen him there (1 Sam. 23:22)
• the direction a person’s foot takes indicates
◦ behavior that is faithful (Job 23:11) or deceitful (Job 31:5)
◦ changing the foot’s direction changes behavior (Isa. 58:13)
When I think on my ways,
I turn my feet to your testimonies (Ps. 119:59)
I hold back my feet from every evil way,
in order to keep your word (Ps. 119:101)
Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path (Ps. 119:105)
◦ but feet that walk in darkness stumble (Jer. 13:16)
• wisdom can hold the foot back from the path of evil (Pr. 1:15)
◦ wisdom can also provide secure footing and protection (Pr. 3:23, 26)
• like the hand or the eye, the foot can cause us to sin (Mk. 9:45)
– moving from the moral significance of feet to the more practical:
• putting on sandals can be preparation to move out (Ex. 12:2; Ep. 6:15)
◦ the same as being told to get on your feet (Acts 26:13)
• encounter with the sacred requires removing sandals (Ex. 3:5; Jos. 5:15)
◦ meditate on that! Why must we approach God barefoot?

Many times Jesus healed lame or crippled feet
– he sent this message to John the Baptist as proof that he was the Messiah (Mt. 11:5)
• invalids were placed at Jesus’ feet to be healed (Mt. 15:30)
• Peter and John were later used to heal a beggar’s feet and ankles (Acts 3:7)
– the foot can be a measurement (Acts 7:5)
• a step can refer to progress (Pr. 4:12)
◦ or one stage of a journey (Isa. 41:2) or a plan of action (Pr. 14:15)
◦ steps can also refer to keeping pace (Gal. 2:14, in step with the truth)
• a step down could signify humiliation (Eze.26:16)
– steps could be footprints, where someone had walked (Job 29:6)
For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps (1 Pe. 2:21)

Many times people threw themselves at feet of another person
– this happened frequently with Jesus
• especially poignant are the instances of two women:
◦ every time Mary, the sister of Lazarus, appears in the gospels, she is at Jesus’ feet (Lk. 10:39; Jn. 11:2, 32; 12:3)
◦ then there was woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears (Lk. 7:38)
Thomas Staubli and Silvia Shroer, “With her actions of washing and drying, anointing and kissing Jesus’ feet the woman sets up a sign. She touches the human being and at the same time she touches the feet of God, who gives protection and mercy.”
– David prayed that the foot of arrogance would not step on him (Ps. 36:11)
Bruce Malina, Since ‘hands-feet’ refer to activity and power, to be set ‘under the feet of’ someone means to be subject to that person, to be under that one’s control . . . . Similarly, to put one’s foot on the neck of a person is to indicate total defeat . . . . The neck both holds up a person’s honor which is associated with the head-face (Isa 3:16), and is the channel of life because the breath-soul passes through it.”
• to be trampled by enemy was a severe humiliation (Isa. 26:5-6)
Staubli and Schroer, “The foot, much like the hand, had a symbolic power of its own in Israel: it was associated with subjugation, domination, and the seizure of others’ property. To ‘tread someone or something under foot’ was regarded even then as an act of the greatest humiliation. . . . Thus YHWH promises King David of Israel:
‘Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies your footstool’ (Ps 110:1).”
• Israel’s hope was to see God tread down their foes (Ps. 108:13)
◦ this, in fact, is God’s ultimate victory, first promised in Genesis
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel (Ge. 3:15)
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet (Ro. 16:20)
And [God] put all things under [Jesus] feet and gave him as head over all things to the church (Ep. 1:22; cf. 1 Cor. 15:25-27)

Conclusion: In 1 Corinthians Paul compares the Christian community to a body

We are all body parts – we belong to Jesus and to each other
– Paul tells us, the head cannot say to feet I have no need of you (12:21)
• the head may be top part of the body and the feet the lowest part
◦ but they need each other
• one person may be like the eyes, another like the ears, another like the mouth
◦ but we all have to be the feet
◦ that’s the point Jesus made when he washed his disciples’ feet

Go barefoot when you can – and pay attention
Your feet have something to say to you
about the earth on which you are walking
about its Creator – about others who share it – & about yourselfEXERCISE

EXERCISE:

I have left out several other aspects of legs and feet
– in particular, I have not mentioned walking
• walking with God is not a mere metaphor
And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day (Ge. 3:8)
Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him (Ge. 5:24)

The idea of walking can be expanded so that it refers to the course of one’s life
Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him (Col. 2:6)
If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin (1 Jn. 1:6-7)
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love . . . (Ep. 4:1-3)
Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us . . . (Ep. 5:1)

Pat Ogden, “The way we walk speaks volumes about who we are and how we feel. Whether we shuffle, stride, saunter, glide, traipse, or trudge with heavy footsteps, we are telling the world how we feel today, how we feel about ourselves and what we expect from others. We may plod along, dragging our feet behind us as if we have very little energy, giving the impression that we are tired or depressed. We may walk with a hurried, rushed gait, leaning forward, eyes focused straight ahead, giving the impression that we are preoccupied, busy, harried, and have not time to spare. If we feel afraid to be seen, we may walk cautiously and hesitantly; if we feel uncertain, we may slouch and shuffle with our eyes cast downward. We may stomp our feet with every step if we feel angry or bounce with a spring in our step if we feel joyful. Our gait changes with our mood, but our characteristic style of walking, like all our physical habits, is formed over time from a variety of influences.”
“Our gait changes depending on how we feel, the environment, and who we are with. If we are with someone with whom e feel good and who treats us well, our gait may become more confident, arms swinging, posture more aligned, and head lifted.”

I used to take the most wonderful walks with a friend of mine
We spent our whole time talking about Jesus, scripture, and God’s work in our lives

So here’s the exercise I am suggesting for you:

Imagine that you are taking a walk with Jesus
He’s not scolding you, not giving you all kinds of instructions with each step
The two of you are simply enjoying each other’s company

Where are you?

What do you notice about your pace?
Fast, slow, unhurried

What do you notice about your stride?
Big steps? Small steps?
Is there a rhythm you both fall into

What is different about the way you walk when you’re with him?
How does it feel in your body?
How does it feel emotionally?

Does it feel different than walking by yourself?

Does it feel different than walking with someone else?
If so, what is the difference?

How important is it to you that you reach a destination?

What do you notice happening in regard to your relationship with Jesus?

Now, at your first opportunity, take a literal walk with Jesus
Relax, breathe, take it easy
Be mindful
Notice whatever Jesus points out

Intro: In a moment, I will ask you to read Psalm 17

It is a simple prayer–and there are other psalms like it
– poet is petitioning God for justice – he begins and ends with sedek
• he is going to bring a case into God’s court, as it were
• in the first movement, he argues his integrity
◦ in the next, he petitions God to intervene
◦ next, he presents details of what his deadly enemy has done
◦ then he suggests the sort of punishment they deserve
◦ at the end, he makes a confident assertion regarding the outcome
[now, please read Psalm 17]

– I did not choose this psalm for its message
• I chose it, because every stanza mentions a body part: ear, lips, face, eyes, heart, mouth, etc.
◦ it illustrates how scripture makes use of the body;
◦ the drama of life is played out from head to toe

The poet mentions God’s hand twice – he specifies the right hand in verse 7
– the subject of today’s talk is the hand/s – and it’s a huge challenge
Hans Wolff, “By far the most frequently mentioned extremity is the hand (yad). The part of the body that grasps and can be grasped . . . .” (yad appears 1600 times in the Old Testament!)
• in many instances, hand is an obvious sub-theme
See Job 1:10-12, where Satan claims that Job is an upright man only because God has blessed the work of his hands, but if God were to stretch out his hand, Job would turn and curse him. God puts all that Job had into Satan’s hand, but with a command that against Job he was not to stretch out his hand.
– another example can be found in 1 Samuel 24:4-20
• when reading the Bible, and you come to the word hand,
◦ take note of how it is used – is it a subtle theme?
• in scripture, the hand is the agency of mind and heart
◦ how we externalize our intentions and imaginations
◦ how we make creative changes to our world
Thomas Staubli and Silvia Schroer, “Human action is concentrated in the hands. Action means ‘doing.’ Our doing gives information about our thoughts and desires; it is their expression. In our work we continue God’s creative task. Therefore doing/working is service to God. Work without reflection (heart) is only reproduction.”

In our English language, hand can represent variety of actions

If I have to hand it to you, I’m either handing you a literal object
– or I’m giving you a compliment; “You certainly know what you’re doing”
We can be dealt a good hand or a bad hand
– in a card game, or a specific situation, or in life in general
We can lend a hand literally,
– or by watching grandkids so their parents have a date-night
A handout can be cash we give to a panhandler
A hired hand is not an appendage,
– but someone who is paid to do a specific task

In the past year we have been reminded to wash and sanitize our hands
– more than ever before –
• we have been made aware that our hands can pick up more than the objects we grab

In the Scriptures, the hand is used to signify many different things

Of course, it is frequently the literal body part
– the tribe of Benjamin was famous for its left-handed soldiers (Jdg. 3:15; 20:16)
• but they could also be ambidextrous (1 Chr. 12:12)
In general, the right hand was favored (as in our psalm)
– the seat of honor was at the right hand of a king (Mt. 14:62; Heb. 1:3)
– priests were anointed on right ear, right thumb, and right toe (Ex. 29:20)
– God’s right hand is filled with righteousness (Ps. 48:10)
• and at his right hand are pleasures forever more (Ps. 16:11)
People are taken by the hand (Ge. 19:16; Mk. 8:23; Acts 9:8)
A person could die by the hand of someone else (Jos. 20:9)
– messages were delivered by the hand of servants (1 Sam. 11:7)
– and by the hand of God’s prophets (Hag. 1:3)
The main symbolic significance of the hand is power
(see Pr. 18:21, where “the yad [hand] of the tongue” is translated “power”)
If a hand fell upon someone, it could either
– harm them (Ge. 37:27; Ex. 9:3) or help them (Neh. 2:8)
To take someone one from the hand of another is a liberation
– the same with taking something harmful from the hand of someone (Ex. 2:19; Isa. 51:22)
To place a hand on one’s mouth is to silence oneself (Mi. 7:16)
Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you?
I lay my hand on my mouth.
I have spoken once, and I will not answer;
twice, but I will proceed no further (Job 40:4-5)
The hands can clap for joy and praise (2 Ki. 11:12; Ps. 47:1)
– the sound of clapping can even be heard in nature:
Let the rivers clap their hands;
let the hills sing for joy together (Ps. 98:8)
For you shall go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills before you
shall break forth into singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands (Isa. 55:12)
But clapping can also be a form of insult (Eze. 25:6)
– or a way to ward off someone else’s misfortune (Lam. 2:15)
– clapping can also signal a warning (Eze. 6:11; 21:14)
To shake the fist or wave the hand at someone can be a threat
(Isa. 10:32; Zech. 2:9)
Washing the hands could be declaration of innocence (De. 21:6; Ps. 26:6)
– Pilate’s futile attempt to absolve himself of Jesus’ blood (Mt. 27:24)
– the Pharisees’ ritual hand-washing did not cleanse their hearts (Mt. 15:1-20)
In my hand: to possess something (1 Sam. 12:5)
Into my hand: to be given something (1 Sam. 17:46)
Into your hand: to give something (Ge. 9:2)
Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” And having said this, he breathed his last (Lk. 23:46)
The work of the hands means something is handmade (Isa. 17:8)
– or it could also refer to manual labor (Pr. 12:14)
To open the hand is to give freely (De. 15:8)
If the hand falls limp, it signifies exhaustion (Isa. 13:7; 35:3)
To take a person’s hand can form an alliance
And when [Jehu] departed from there, he met Jehonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him. And he greeted him and said to him, “Is your heart true to my heart as mine is to yours?” And Jehonadab answered, “It is.” Jehu said, “If it is, give me your hand.” So he gave him his hand. And Jehu took him up with him into the chariot. And he said, “Come with me, and see my zeal for the LORD.” (2 Ki. 10:15-16)

In ritual contexts, hands can be lifted in prayer (2 Chr. 6:12-13; Ps. 63:4)
– it is as if the person is reaching out to God
• reaching like this reveals the direction one’s heart is going
The hand can be raised to swear an oath
(most frequently it is God or an angel who does this (De. 32:40; Is. 62:8)
– but it can also be used to get the attention of an audience (Acts 13:16)
A hand on the head of a sacrificial victim transfers sin and guilt (Lev. 4:32-35)
The hand is used to bless – e.g., a child (Ge. 48:14-15)
– when parents saw what Jesus did with his hands, they begged him to touch their children
And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them (Mk. 10:16)
• with upraised hands, the priests pronounced blessings on worshipers (Lev. 9:22)
Laying hands on people can be done to impart healing (Mk. 8:23; Lk. 4:40)
Laying hands on people can be done so that they receive the Holy Spirit (De. 34:9; Acts 19:6)

I wanted to mention the arms and fingers – I’ll cut this short

– we’re must not put our trust in the arm of flesh (1 Chr. 32:8; Jer. 17:15)
• fingers represent more dexterity than the hand that grasbs
• fingers appear in the design and sculpting of idols (Isa. 2:8)
Staubli and Schroer, “In a human hand it is determined whether a piece of wood or stone will be used for plowing, grinding grain, or killing someone [or manufacturing an idol] (Num. 35:16-17).” (also, see Isa. 44:9-20)
Wolff, “When idols are not only called the work of men’s hands but expressly the work of their fingers as well (Isa. 2.8, 17.8), they are no doubt thereby being exposed not only as being the works of man’s own powers and capacities, but also as being the products of his art, formed by the fingers.”
– we see God’s finger when inscribing the law on the stone tablets (Ex. 31:18)
• and again in his artistry when creating the heavens (Ps. 8:13)
• we learn what God can do with just one finger (Ex. 18:19)
◦ Jesus told his critics that if he was exorcising demons by “the finger of God,” then the kingdom of God had come
Staubli and Scroer, [Lk. 11:19-20) “Jesus’ words rely on their knowing the Exodus passage, for only then can one understand why Jesus speaks of the finger of God in this context. He uses a typical rabbinic move, from the lesser to the greater: Moses, with the finger of God, conquered a political power and thus brought liberation; Jesus, with the finger of God drives out demons, and where that happens the reign of God is breaking in.”

I have left out so much I could say about the hand of God 🙁
– it shatters and pulverizes, but also wounds and heals (Job 5:18)
– it supports the life of every living thing (Ps. 104:28; 145:16)
– with it God measures oceans in his palm and spans the universe with hand (Is. 40:12)

Conclusion: A nineteenth century preacher told a story

A boy whose dad was a doctor, asked him,
“Why didn’t God make all our fingers the same length? Wouldn’t it be perfect if they were all the same length?”
– his father handed him an orange and said, “Grab a hold of this”
• when he did, all his fingers, and also his thumb, were even as if they were the same length
T. de Witt Talmage, “You see the Creator makes no mistakes. The whole anatomy of your hand as complex, as intricate, as symmetrical, as useful as Gould could make it.”

The human hand really is amazing
The deaf and mute speak with their hands, especially their fingers
The blind read with their finger-tips
We can love with both hands
His left hand is under my head,
and his right hand embraces me! (Song 2:6)
We can wound with our hand
Blessed be the LORD my rock,
who trains my hands for war,
and my fingers for battle (Ps. 144:1)
By shaking hands, we can build a bridge of communication
Enter a new relationship, a new partnership, or a new friendship

We can bless with our hands
Henri Nouwen kept a journal in which described his visit to Canada
– he went to meet the people at Daybreak, a home for adults with mental disabilities
– a few days before he was to leave, one of the residents was hit by car
• it was touch and go at first for Ray
• the morning that Nouwen left Canada for home, he visited Ray
◦ Ray’s parents were there too
Nouwen, “I showed Ray’s father how to make the sign of the cross on Ray’s forehead. He had never done this before and cried as he signed his son in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. A father’s blessing is so healing.”

I would have thought only priests were qualified to do this
But whose blessing on a child’s life
could be greater than the parents?

A friend tells me that every time he passes my house,
he sends me a blessing
You can do that too – for your friends – for your neighbors
raise your hand toward their home and bless them with peace, with love, and with hope

Pray over your hands
imagine how God can use them

We need to realize, our hands are tools
God’s Spirit will train us in their best use
and he will empower them
to touch and bless the lives of others

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The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, “Son of Man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord GOD, you know.” [please read the entire passage] Ezekiel 37:1-14

Intro: When I say “Arlington,” what comes to mind?

The Arlington National Cemetery began as a solution to a problem
– after the Civil War, cemeteries ran out of space for all the remains of dead soldiers
• Arlington was offered for those who could not afford a proper burial anywhere else
• it also provided space for the remains of more than 2000 unidentified soldiers
– a friend who flew helicopters in Vietnam was nearly shot down when evacuating soldiers from a “hot spot”
• he told me, that when it seemed he was going to die, his last thoughts were of relationships
• that’s why there’s a Memorial Day,
◦ so that we don’t forget those whose last thoughts were of us

Ezekiel’s vision took him to a cemetery of sorts
– only without any graves – just a desert valley strewn with bones
• his prophecy is not about an individual resurrection
• it’s about the resurrection of a nation
– the people of Israel were beyond hopeless
• they had no country, no government, no landmarks
◦ all of that had been erased from the map
• all they had was a memory of what they had lost
◦ they had their memories, they had each other, and most important, they had God
◦ starting with their remains–dead, dry bones–God would reassemble the nation
◦ beginning with a bare bones frame, next he would add materials for life and movement
• and then he would breathe his Spirit into them and bring Israel back to life

Why are we spending all this time exploring body parts in scripture?
– because this is a way of bringing awareness to how we live with God
Do not present your members [body parts] to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness (Ro. 6:13, 19; and 7:5)
• thinking about how God claims for himself our eyes and ears, nose and mouth, neck and shoulders,
• gives us more objects to remind us to watch for how God moves in our lives
◦ and how we move toward him
◦ what we allow in our eyes and ears, and out of our mouths,
and what we do with our hands and where our feet take us
– among our body parts, scripture could not ignore something so important as our bones
• the skeletal system is the internal structure that supports the body
◦ it is what enables us to sit, stand, walk, and so on
◦ in scripture, the bones are also an essential component of our inner life

In the Bible we find that people were very concerned about their bones

Even after death, their bones represented a shared experience with the community
Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here” (Ge. 50:25)
– David paid respect to King Saul by providing his bones a dignified burial (2 Sam. 21:12-14)
• even for kings, to be buried in the tombs of their fathers was an honor (2 Ki. 16:20)
• to not be buried was a terrifying thought, and punishment (2 Ki. 9:10)
◦ a bone that was not buried was considered “unclean”
(and a source of ceremonial impurity; Nu. 19:16)
Thomas Staubli and Silvia Shcroer, “During life human bones are something like a barometer of health. . . . The more the bones are embedded in sound flesh, the healthier the person appears, and the more they show, the closer that person is to death (Lam. 3:4; 4:8; 5:10).”
– regarding bones “showing”:
Man is also rebuked with pain on his bead
and with continual strife in his bones . . .
His flesh is so wasted away that it cannot be seen,
and his bones that were not seen stick out (Job 33:19, 21; cf. Ps. 22:17)
• good health is judged by the soundness of one’s bones
One dies in his full vigor,
being wholly at ease and secure,
his pails full of milk
and the marrow of his bones moist (Job 21:23-24)
• poor health is felt in the bones
The night racks my bones,
and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest. . . .
My skin turns black and falls from me,
and my bones burn with heat (Job 30:17, 30)
There is no soundness in my flesh
because of your indignation;
there is no health in my bones
because of my sin (Ps. 38:3)

Sharing bone and flesh signified a bond with another or others

This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of Man (Gen. 2:23)
Staubli and Shroer, “Here and in many other places (Gen 29:14; Judg 9:2-3; 2 Sam 5:1; 19:12-13) flesh and bones express the closes relationship, such as is felt by members of the same tribe.”
– the bond Jacob shared with his uncle Laban (Gen. 29:14)
• the family connection Abimelech shared with the city of Shechem (Jdg 9:2)
• the affinity David had with the tribe of Judah (2 Sam. 5:1; 19:12-13)

Bones function with feelings and emotions of a person’s inner life

Job’s friend, Eliphaz, describing a nighttime vision
dread came upon me, and trembling,
which made all my bones shake (Job 4:14)
Staubli and Schroer, “The psalms have quite a bit to say about the terror that gnaws one’s bones, the dread of death that strikes a chill in the bones of those who pray (Pss 6:2; 22:14, 17; 31:10; 32:3; 38:3; 42:10; 102:3), and there are a remarkable number of sayings in the book of Proverbs that establish psychosomatic connections between one’s way of life or experiences and the state of one’s bones . . . .”
– examples of “psychosomatic connections” from the Proverbs:
trust and reverence in God
will be healing to your [navel]
and refreshment to your bones (Pr. 3:8)
the good that comes from encouraging, comforting, loving speech:
Gracious words are like a honeycomb,
sweetness to the soul and health to the [bones] (Pro. 16:24)
• we’ve learned that prolonged stress or anxiety can affect bones
◦ excess cortisol in response to ongoing stress diminishes bone density
A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh
but envy makes the bones rot (Pr. 14:30)
• the quality of life deteriorates from the inside-out
◦ envy and other negative emotions attack body’s internal structure
positive emotions can heal, negative emotions can harm,
A joyful heart is good medicine,
but a crushed spirit dries up the bones (Pr. 17:22)
grief overwhelms our body parts,
I hear, and my body trembles; / my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; / my legs tremble beneath me (Hab. 3:16)
Concerning the prophets [who were leading Israel astray]:
My heart is broken within me; all my bones shake . . . . (Jer. 23:9)
the emotional distress of sin and sorrow affects the bones:
Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am languishing;
heal me, O LORD, for my bones are troubled (Ps. 6:2)
For my life is spent with sorrow,
and my years with sighing;
my strength fails because of my iniquity,
and my bones waste away (Ps. 31:10)
For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long (Ps. 32:3)
the relief of forgiveness can bring a joy that heals the bones:
Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice (Ps. 51:8)
Pat Ogden, “Our sense of well-being is strongly tied into the core of the body, the spine, and the surrounding muscles, and particularly to whether the spine is aligned.” [Trauma or mistreatment in childhood can] “promote postural adaptations suited to unsafe, rejection, or critical conditions.”
“Posture has a powerful influence on emotions and well-being. Fixed postures, such as a chronically slumped spine or ‘military’ posture, can be viewed as positions from which only select emotions and behaviors can be possible.”

The bones speak, and like other body parts they have something to say

All my bones shall say, “O LORD, who is like you,
delivering the poor from him who is too strong for him,
the poor and needy from him who robs him?” (Ps. 35:10)
– David is listening to the basic framework of his body
• and his body’s core is telling him something
– to believe something down to our bones, is to be thoroughly convinced

The spine is what enables us to live an upright life

There’s a parallel between the body and God’s sacred tent
You shall make upright frames for the tabernacle of acacia wood (Ex. 26:15)
– upright has to do with the posture of the body and of a person’s character
See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes (Ecc. 7:29)
• in the Proverbs and elsewhere, the opposite of upright is crooked
• being bent over can happen as we age (Ecc. 12:1-3)
◦ but it can also be a punishment or curse (Ro. 11:9-10)
– in contrast to being bent, is our response to signs of God’s hand at work in the world
Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near (Lk. 21:28)
– previously, Jesus saw a woman who was bent over and could not fully straighten herself, so he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God (Lk. 21:28 and 13:11-13)
• in both passages, Luke uses the same word for “straighten [up]”
Pat Ogden, “Our posture is dependent on the core of the body–the spine and surrounding muscles. A strong but flexible core and aligned posture stabilizes us both emotionally and physically while also supporting our actions.”


Conclusion: Paying attention to our posture is a very easy discipline

If you find yourself rubbing the back of your neck,
– stretching your back or your arms or legs,
• you’re most likely responding to poor posture
• we forget about our posture when
◦ engrossed in writing, reading, working on a project with small details
◦ but the body will remind us when we’ve been treating it poorly
Ogden, “How we hold our bodies is rich with meaning, conveying to others our mood in the moment and providing hints as to how we feel about ourselves and the beliefs we hold. When we sit or stand slumped, upper back bowed, shoulders rounded, and head forward, we might appear detached, frightened, insecure, or compliant. Colloquialisms about being ‘spineless’ or having ‘no backbone’ testify that a collapse in the spine is associated with shame, low self-esteem, or difficulty with self-assertion. In contrast, when we have a rigid, tense ‘military’ posture, with head and shoulders pulled back, knees locked, and muscles tense, we might appear arrogant, intimidating, adversarial, or inflexible. Terms such as unbendable or ‘puffed up with pride’ describe a rigidly held spine and a core of the body characterized by inflexibility. But when we sit or stand tall yet relaxed, with our shoulders open and our chins level, we appear more focused, confident, and receptive.”

The Bible challenges us to live upright lives
– to carry ourselves with dignity, having nothing to fear and nothing to hide
• if we know that God is with us, our bodies will show it

Sometimes we cannot shake the emotions that rack our bodies
– we cannot rise to the fearless confidence that God is for us
• our rational minds resist the faith in our hearts
– one way to work at this is to move backwards
• instead of top-down, where we have to figure everything out in our heads before we can accept it with our heart,
• we work bottom up, where we carry our bodies as we would if “it all made sense”
◦ and all the help we needed had arrived

Developing a new habit of changed posture
will change our brains
will rewire them to what our bodies are saying
will reinforce our commitment to living upright
And quite possibly,
bring us to a greater awareness of God with us

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And you warned them in order to turn them back to your law. Yet they acted presumptuously and did not obey your commandments, but sinned against your rules, which if a person does them, he shall live by them, and they turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not obey Nehemiah 9:29

Intro: I apologize for where we jumped into this passage

It’s not enough to give you the context, so–a brief explanation
– Nehemiah had taken charge of a massive project,
• rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem and the spiritual renewal of the people
• for the renewal to occur they had to break with their past
◦ so he arranges a day for this long prayer, which is a confession of Israel’s sins
◦ it recounts a history of unfaithfulness
– the prayer tells a story, and like all stories, it’s build around a plot
• it’s easy to find the plot of a story, because it always involves a conflict
◦ some sort of tension and struggle takes place, creating suspense
• the conflict here is between a good God and his rebellious people
◦ Nehemiah’s goal that day was to surrender to God fully and end the conflict
◦ then to re-enter the covenant God made with them from the start
Because of all this we make a firm covenant in writing . . . (Neh. 9:38)

I brought us here, because of the two body parts mentioned in verse 29
– as a reminder, we’re exploring a biblical spirituality of the body
• philosophy and theology separated the spirit from the body
◦ philosophy stopped talking about spirit, because it is unknowable
◦ theology mostly postponed discussion of spirit until it enters heaven
• but in scripture, the body is spirit as well as flesh and bone
◦ it has a capacity to experience transcendence, intuition
Blaise Pascal (I think every Xian should hear about his experience at least once), “. . . from about half past six in the evening until about half past midnight. Fire. The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, not the God of the philosophers and the scholars. Certitude, certitude, feeling, joy, peace. The God of Jesus Christ. Your God will be my God. Forgetfulness of the world and of everything, save God.”
John Macquarrie explains that these are “words which try to express an ecstatic experience. Jesus Christ had become for Pascal the center of a mystical contemplation in which the truths of God and religion were opened to him in a way that he could not doubt. He goes so far as to say, ‘Jesus Christ is the goal of everything and the center to which everything tends. He who knows him knows the reason for everything.’”
◦ the invitation of scripture is for us to seek God, and to find him (Jer. 29:13)
– our bodies are limited–we cannot see, hear, touch, smell, or taste spirit
• so the body isn’t everything–but it’s enough!
◦ when God created the human body, stepped back and said, “It’s good”
◦ it was all he intended it to be, and nothing more or less
John of Damascus–an eighth century monk and theologian who argued the merits of sacred art, and icons in particular wrote, “I shall not cease to honor matter, for it was through matter that my salvation came to pass. Do not despise matter, for it is not despicable; nothing is despicable that God has made.”
• so today we’re going to consider the spirituality of our material neck and shoulders

There is not a great deal to say about the neck

It is the most vulnerable exposed part of the body
– Joshua had commanders symbolically affirm their dominance over their enemies (Jos. 10:25)
• the poet described his precarious situation as water rising to his neck (Ps. 69:1)
• Paul had friends who risked their necks for him (Ro. 16:4)
– in other passages:
• people who were haughty might walk with outstretched necks (Is. 3:16; cf. Ps. 75:4-5)
• the lover in the Song of Songs describes the beauty of his beloved’s neck (Song 4:4)
• the neck’s beauty is sometimes enhanced by necklace (Song 4:9)
• a gold chain could also represent royal position (Ge. 41:42; Dan. 5:7)
• the neck was a prime area for receiving affection
◦ greeting with kisses on the neck (Ge. 35:4)
◦ forgiving with kisses on the neck (Ge. 33:4)
◦ expressing love and joy of reunion with tears and kisses on the neck (Ge. 45:14-15)
– perhaps what we hear most often regarding the neck is when it was stiff
• not a muscular stiffness, but an attitude of stubborn resistance
◦ a vivid picture of this connects an internal condition with the external expression
King Zedekiah did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet . . . . He stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the LORD, the God of Israel (2 Chr. 36:12-13)
• the price Israel would pay for having a stiff neck was that a yoke would be placed their necks
therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you . . . . And he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you (De. 28:48; Jer. 28:14)
• the most dire punishment Jesus’ pronounced was against anyone who harmed a child
whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to [stumble], it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea (Mt. 18:6)

I want to add the jaw to this overview, because neck muscles are attached to it
– God’s fierce devotion to Israel and their protection poetically described:
his breath is like an overflowing stream
that reaches up to the neck;
to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction,
and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads astray (Is. 30:28)
• the same Hebrew word for jaw is translated cheeks
• and typically one or the other is receiving abuse
◦ the cheeks are struck (or a beard plucked from it)
◦ the jaws are hooked or bridled (Job 41:2; Eze. 29:4)
– a special case is that of Samson, when rushed by a troop of Philistines
• he found the jawbone of donkey nearby and used as a weapon
◦ he celebrated afterward with a poem worthy of a small child
With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps,
with the jawbone of a donkey
have I struck down a thousand men.
. . . And that place was called [Jawbone Hill] (Jdg. 15-7)
• I find this ironic, because in this scene Samson is the one who is heehawing

The shoulders in scripture are what we would expect

They mostly have to do with carrying heavy burdens
– a water skin or water jar (Gen. 21:14; 24:15) or stones (Jos. 4:5)
• the only way the ark of the covenant was to be transported (Num. 7:9; 1 Chr. 15:15)
◦ also other nations who carried their idols (Is. 46:7)
• in Nehemiah, the nobles did not put shoulders to the work (Neh. 3:5)
– shoulders could also symbolize carrying responsibility
• for instance, the responsible leadership (Is. 9:6; 22:22)
◦ or responsibility for the spiritual welfare of God’s people
And you shall set the two stones on the shoulder pieces of the ephod, as stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel. And Aaron shall bear their names before the LORD on his two shoulders for remembrance (Ex. 28:12)
• this is one of my favorite images of the priests
• it’s how I imagine Jesus always interceding for us
◦ and the reason I pray for you every week
– like the neck, people could turn a stubborn shoulder toward God (Zec. 7:11)

God is the one who relieves the burden from the shoulders of his people
I relieved your shoulder of the burden (Ps. 81:6)
And in that day his burden will depart from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck; and the yoke will be broken (Is. 10:27)

There is one more step I want us to take in the Scriptures

The neck generally refers to the body part that surrounds the throat
– the Hebrew word for throat (nephesh) is stretched in many directions
• it can be what we know as the esophagus and refer to eating and drinking
◦ by extension, it can be translated appetite, hunger, and even greedy desire
• it can be what we know as the trachea and refer to breath, breathing, and life
• it is also translated “soul” and refer to all that is felt internally, or thought, or willed
• nephesh can mean the person, the “self”
◦ but more on that in a later talk

The throat is one of those body parts that will tell you when something’s wrong
– for instance, when:
• it is tight or constricted–voice changes; nerves, anxiety
• you have a dry throat, itchy, or sore throat
◦ these can result from allergies or abuse
– the neck and shoulders will also tell us when something’s wrong
• with the jaw, these are the places where most of us carry the majority of our stress
Pat Ogden, “There are many ways our normal style of breathing can be less than optimal. Fear may cause us to hold our breath or breathe only in the upper chest, failing to fully engage the diaphragm to do its job. . . . Poor posture also contributes to poor breathing—if we are slumped, our lungs are compressed and do not have much room to expand as we [inhale]. We may habitually breathe shallowly if we experience depression. Fast breathing that emphasizes the inhale may contribute to panic or anxiety. The neck and shoulders, which should be relaxed during healthy breathing, may be tense and constrict more while inhaling our exhaling.”
• changing our posture can change our attitude

Our bodies tell us something about the burdens we carry
– listen to your neck and shoulders, your jaw and throat
• whose yoke are you wearing? Has God placed it on you
◦ did someone else lay it on you?
◦ are you going to let God lift it from you?

Conclusion: I want to bring all of this back to Jesus

Regarding the neck:
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Mt. 11:29)
Regarding the shoulders:
When the shepherd has found his lost sheep, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing (Lk. 15:5)
We can reject a yoke,
but we can also accept one
We can choose to resist or receive
We can lug our stress around on our backs
or we can let Jesus carry us on his shoulders

Our bodies speak
We want to be the ones to write the script
so that our bodies tell the world
our God fills our lives with love and grace

An Exercise

Notice any tension in your neck, your shoulders, or throat.
Focus your attention on the area that is tense.
• With your fingers, gently explore the tension
• Is there a central point of tension?
(Usually there is one spot that is the tightest or most sensitive)
• Describe what the tension feels like
(Dull pain vs sharp pain, achiness, restricted movement)
• Try tensing the muscles in that area and then relaxing them
(Don’t do this if it’s too inflamed or painful)
Notice the difference in the way it feels when tensed or relaxed
• Ask the area of tension why it is so tight
Does it answer with a specific physical cause? “I turned my head too fast”
Does it answer with a specific psychological cause? “I’ve been under a lot of stress”
Does it answer with a specific emotion? “I’ve been feeling sad”

But Moses said to the LORD, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” Then the LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.” Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses and he said, “Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do. He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him.”
And he said, “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles . . . . Exodus 4:10-16; Numbers 12:6-8

Intro: Some of you will remember when Jake Caldwell who spoke at Reflexion awhile back

Jake has written a book, Tending the Body, which provides training to keep the body supple
“. . . who doesn’t want to be supple? Who doesn’t want to be able to move with grace and ease? Who doesn’t want to be free of tension and restrictions?” “Pain is a picture that the body paints in order to say something to us. . . . all pains can be read for their messages.” “What is the body saying when it limits our suppleness? . . . Whatever else the body wants, it certainly wants our attention.”
– this is what we have been doing in these Sunday talks
• giving attention to our bodies – but not just for suppleness
• we are discovering the spiritual experience of life in a body
Thomas Ryan, in Reclaiming the Body In Christian Spirituality, “There are many ways in our culture in which we do honor our embodied nature–from skin creams to fitness centers. But rarely do we pay attention to our bodies with the intent of opening ourselves to God through the experience we are having in our bodies.” “When we pay attention to what we are living in our bodies and how that opens us to the flow of grace in new ways, the result is renewal.”
– we began with the crown of the head, and now we descend to the nose and mouth

The word nose does not appear often in the Scriptures

When it does, most often someone is putting a ring in it (Ge. 24:47)
I adorned you with ornaments and put bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck. And I put a ring on your nose and earrings in your ears . . . . (Eze. 16:11)
– if not a ring, then a hook or rope, to drag and control a person (2 Ki. 19:28)
• more often in scripture, we read of the nostrils
◦ this is the point at which we first received the breath of life
then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creatures (Gen. 2:7)
• Helmut Thielicke said we are constantly being told that humans are animals
◦ which, he says, is true biologically, but we are more than biology
◦ the human person is one-part soil and one-part divine
◦ the divine breath this is what it is to be “alive and kicking”
as long as my breath is in me,
and the spirit of God is in my nostrils (Job 27:3)
– nostrils, especially God’s, could propel a blast of air–as with a sneeze (Ex. 15:8)
• flared nostrils indicate anger
Thomas Staubli and Silvia Schroer, In the Old Testament “we read of an enflamed nose. This metaphor is based on the idea of angry snorting. . . . Of course the English Bible translations have ‘became angry’ or ‘was angry’ instead of a literal translation of the ‘enflamed nose’ expression, but in the process, as so frequently happens, the metaphorical and anthropological features of the saying are lost.”
• as sensitive receptors, the nostrils can become irritated easily
God says that people who say,
“Keep to yourself,
do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.”
These are a smoke in my nostrils,
a fire that burns all the day (Isa. 65:5)
– there are frequent references to what the nose does; i.e., “smells” (Lev. 1:9)
• it is not surprising to find the nose and mouth in same passage
◦ they give us a combined sense of smell and taste
How beautiful is your love, my sister my bride!
How much better is your love than wine,
and the fragrance of your oils than any spice!
Your lips drip nectar, my bride;
honey and milk are under your tongue;
the fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon (Song 4:10-11)
• in the sacred art of icon paintings, what seems like weird features, tell a story
Ouspensky and Lossky, regarding the way saints are depicted in icons: “An excessively thin nose, small mouth and large eyes—all these are a conventional method of transmitting the state of a saint whose senses have been ‘refined’ as they used to call it in the old times.”

The mouth is far more complex in scripture and recurs many times

Not only is the mouth mentioned many times, but also the articulators of speech
– how we form sound of words with the tongue, teeth, lips, and palate
• the mouth is a gift – an instrument with spiritual significance
• mouth to mouth is the most direct encounter
◦ two vocal partners in speech – a conversation
◦ this is really where Moses walk with God began
◦ a statement, then a question; an answer, then an objection; the objection overruled, and so on
– kissing signified respect, reverence, even worship
• it was always an act of devotion that expressed intimacy
◦ so with greetings and good-byes (Ex. 18:7; Ruth 1:9)
◦ and so with the most intimate relationship
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!
For your love is better than wine (Song 1:2)

The tongue could be a study project in itself
(it appears more than fifty times in just Job, Psalms, and Proverbs)
– it is used literally: to drink (Jdg.7:5), stuck to the roof of the mouth (Ps. 22:15),
and parched with thirst (Isa. 41:17)
• tasting food and drink is literal, but also sometimes metaphorical
Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! (Ps. 34:8)
◦ we also taste the future (Heb. 6:4-5) and taste death (experience it, Heb. 2:9)
• frequently the tongue can be weaponized
They make their tongue sharp as serpent’s teeth
and under their lips is the venom of asps (Ps. 140:3)
◦ having, as it were, a life of its own, the tongue can plot destruction and become a sharp razor (Ps. 52:2)
◦ a “tongue lashing” is a verbal whipping (Job 5:21)
◦ James 3 contains a poetic essay on the destructive power of the tongue
– but we also see the ambivalence of the tongue
A gentle tongue is a tree of life (Pr. 15:4)
The tongue of the wise brings healing (Pr. 12:18)
• in fact, the tongue can be “inspired”
The Spirit of the LORD speaks by me;
his word is on my tongue (2 Sam. 23:2)
My heart overflows with a pleasing theme;
I address my verses to the king;
my tongue is like the pen of a ready [writer] (Ps. 45:1)
• “tongue” can also mean a native language
◦ as the one human language was divided at the tower of Babel
◦ but in the New Testament the breach is repaired by “speaking in tongues” (a spiritual gift)
– I’ll have to stop myself here, because there’s just too much more to see
• but when you are reading your Bible, notice any references to the tongue
◦ and remind yourself of the importance of the words it produces

The teeth, like the tongue, can be used as weapons
My soul is in the midst of lions . . .
the children of man, whose teeth are spears and arrows,
whose tongues are sharp swords (Ps. 57:4)
Blessed be the LORD,
who has not given us
as prey to their teeth! (Ps. 124:6)
– there’s an instance of people grinding their teeth in rage (Acts 7:54)
• and the famous gnashing of teeth in frustration and regret (Mt. 8:12)

The lips have the same capacity for harm as the tongue and teeth
– they can contain venom (Ps. 140:3) or nectar (Song 4:11)
• unclean lips refers to everyday speech
◦ the lips require purification to be of use to God
• strange lips refers to a foreign language
• and lying lips are an abomination to the LORD (Pr. 12:22)
The mouth and articulators are mostly about their function; that is, speech

The Book of Proverbs has plenty to say about speech
Staubli and Schroer, Countless sayings in the book of Proverbs are devoted to the beauty and balance of speech, the art of proper and timely speech and silence, and especially just and unjust speech. . . . Again and again they admonish to honest speech, warn against glibness, lying, and the use of too many words or hasty speech.”

In the Proverbs we learn:
– timing:
For everything there is a season,
and a time for every matter under heaven . . .
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak (Ecc. 3:1, 7)
– appropriateness:
A word fitly spoken
is like apples of gold in a setting of silver (Pr. 25:11)
These clumsy feet, still in the mire,
Go crushing blossoms without end;
These hard, well-meaning hands we thrust
Among the heartstrings of a friend.
The ill-timed truth we might have kept–
Who knows how sharp it pierced and stung?
The word we had not sense to say–
Who knows how grandly it had rung?
(from “The Fool’s Prayer,” by Edward Sill)

– the cheapness and danger of flattery and “many words”
“Bad, bad,” says the buyer,
but when he goes away, then he boasts (Pr. 20:14)
When words are many, transgression is not lacking,
but whoever restrains his lips is prudent (Pr. 10:19)
A man who flatters his neighbor
spreads a net for his feet (Pr. 29:5)
– the value and blessing of right speech
Gracious words are like a honeycomb,
sweetness to the soul and health to the body (Pr. 16:24)

The mouth and hand work together
– the hand moves things around in physical space
the mouth moves things around in mental space
. . . you have kept with your servant David . . . what you declared to him. You spoke with your mouth and with your hand have fulfilled it this day (1 Ki. 8:24)
– more important is the connection of the mouth and heart
For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (Mt. 12:34, 36; see also Mt. 15:17-19)
• Jesus is reiterating the Beatitude, Blessed are the pure in heart
• our truest words do not come from the mind, but from the heart

I haven’t mentioned yet, the mouth of the LORD

What was remembered as coming from mouth of the LORD, was authentic and binding (Jos 17:4)
– like Jesus, our survival depends on what God speaks
man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD (De. 8:3)

At Reflexion, we’ve been concerned to train our ears to be more sensitive
– because God often speaks to us, not with thunder clap or roaring tornado,
• but in his still small voice – no more than a gentle whisper

I also haven’t said anything about the mouth of babies

Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength (Ps. 8:2)
Jesus quoted this verse, but from the Greek translation of the Old Testament
Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies
you have prepared praise (Mt. 21:16)
– their exuberance, heart-felt intonation, honest and innocent observation
– this brings us to the most important use of speech
• prayer – communication and fellowship with our God
• praise and giving thanks
◦ our bodies are receptors for God’s love, mercy, and grace
◦ but our mouths are for broadcasting his love,
for sharing his mercy and grace with others
I will bless the LORD at all times
his praise shall continually be in my mouth. . . .
Oh, magnify the LORD with me,
and let us exalt his name together (Ps. 34: 1 and 3)

Conclusion: One final thought

And it has to do with what the Scriptures say about “the full mouth”
– for instance, the mouth can be filled with laughter (Ps. 126:2)
– what I have in mind for you and I:
I am the LORD your God,
who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it (Ps. 81:10)
• this is one of the most beautiful promises I know
◦ God does not simply say, “Open your mouth,” but, “Open your mouth wide“

God is not stingy or miserly
He is generous with his children
If we hunger for more of his love and mercy
If we’re starving for more of his grace and goodness
If we cannot get enough of his presence
He tells us to open wide our mouths,
to stretch out our arms with open hands
so he can pour into us all that we are capable of receiving
If [we then], who are evil, know how to give good gifts to [our] children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! (Lk. 11:13)