Holiness — Sermon Archives — Eucharist Church

Purity: Glass of Wine, Glass of Urine

Luke 8, Leviticus 15, Numbers 19

When you think of Advent and Christmas, what comes to mind?

Mangers? Sheep and oxen? Snow and hot chocolate? God with us?

All good answers. But we’ve talked about that stuff before! Let’s face it, after years and years (and years) of Advent, we could be tricked into thinking we’ve mined the depths of the season, and there is nothing left to discover.

But this, of course, would be a huge mistake… because there is always more to discover.

Advent is about the anticipation of GOD taking on FLESH. God coming entering into God’s creation, taking on our skin, purifying our world, and birthing something new in the midst of it.

And there’s something… deeply sexual about the whole thing!

So what if we explore that for Advent 2015? What might we learn about our relationship with God, with one another, with the creation and with our own bodies?

And how might it fill us again with wonder: Wonder at the Divine Mystery of the Incarnation!

This week we start with what it means to be pure and holy, and how it relates to sex, to God, and to Christmas!

2013.11.03 - COLOSSIANS REMIXED - Kevin Makins

DO NOT TOUCH

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Colossians 2:16-23, Matthew 5

This text is so weird. The sermon also starts out a little weird, exploring what these words might have meant to the original hearers, but much like the text, the punch comes with the subversive good news hidden in all the strangeness: the good news that we are more than our “do’s”, and are not defined by all our “do not’s” - this good news is far bigger and better than our actions.

The text:

Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.

Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

Targum written and read by Brett Klassen

2015.11.29 - Kevin Makins - Sexuality & Incarnation

Purity: Glass of Wine, Glass of Urine

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