Commemorate Palm Sunday with us on Sunday at 6:00 PM
This Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week, as we commemorate Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem. It’s often talked about as the “triumphal” entry into Jerusalem, because Jesus appropriated much of the pomp and circumstance of a Roman triumph, but we shouldn’t take that to mean that this is a day of Christian conquest. Jesus’s entry into the city mocked and showed the silliness of political display, and required that believers look beyond politics to find reassurance and meaning. In a sense, he wasn’t entering the broken-down, divisive city, but the heavenly city, and showing us how to live in it.
Worship & Dinner
6:00 PM
Saint Stephen’s (30 W. Woodruff Ave.)
Maundy Thursday and Good Friday Services will be at 7:00 PM on each of those nights!
Interfaith Dialog on Thursdays at 3:00 PM in the Union Coffee House
This past week we talked about the spirituality and ethics of sex. Some of you who couldn’t be there have asked for notes on the discussion, and I provide them below. We won’t be meeting this coming week because of Maundy Thursday, but will resume on Thursday, April 9th with a discussion of vengeance.
Three questions to consider in terms of a spiritual and ethical approach to sex and relationships:
Until the 18th c., The Song of Songs was the second most commented book of the Bible, second only to John’s Gospel. People like Origen wrote theological treatises on The Song of Songs, preachers such as Bernard of Clairveaux preached one each and every verse, and mystics such as Teresa of Avila used it as a vehicle for teaching about the spiritual life. They all read it as an allegory on the soul’s relationship to God. 18th c. Biblical criticism brought an end to allegorical interpretation, and The Song of Songs fell out of favor, as the consensus became that it was erotic poetry rather than a mystical allegory. Can it be read as both a passionate love song between human lovers, and a song of love sung between the soul and God?
In The Erotic Word, David M. Carr writes that “in recent years, sex has been separated from spirituality by a completely different way of viewing it: as a commodity to be exchanged between consenting adults. In the past, sex had been viewed mostly as an affair of power (males over women or younger boys), payment (prostitution), or love. But especially during the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, more people began to see sex as something that could be freely given between two adults who were not necessarily ‘in love’ with one another. At a time when religous authorities had largely lost their hold on the enforcement of specific sexual mores, much sexual behavior was modeled on the trade of economic goods, which increasingly dominated the rest of society.” Do you feel that Carr is right, and if you do, is the commodification of sex something that the church should resist?
Lisa Fullam suggests using a virtue ethics approach to sex and relationships. What is the telos that we seek in our relationships, and what telos should we suggest as appropriate to our students? Fullam suggests that there are three dimensions of excellent sex in a Christian context: a feel for incarnation; intimacy; and insight. Does the sex we have lead un into a deeper understanding of what it means for us to be bodily beings? Is it intimate, a true sharing of our deepest selves? Does it help us to know ourselves better? What do you think of Fullam’s call to a telos of excellent sex, and her tripartite understanding of how to arrive at it?