Lust
Stories
Lectionary Tales for the Pulpit
Series VI, Cycle C
Object:
Remember the furor that arose a few years ago when Jimmy Carter was interviewed by Playboy magazine and was asked if he had ever had any extramarital affairs? He said that he never had but admitted to lusting "in my heart," which as Jesus made clear, was just as bad as actually committing adultery. Now, whatever one might think about Jimmy Carter's presidency, everyone would agree that he was and is a most committed Christian. If someone like Jimmy Carter would admit to a problem with lust, I suspect that very few Christians would deny having to struggle with the problem, at least at some time or another in their lives.
For most of us, when we hear the term "lust" we think of sex, but we know there is more to lust than that. We know we can "lust" after all sorts of things -- money, power, fame, whatever. Frankly, when the early translators of scripture used the term "lust," they had just that wide a perspective. But for most folks, the "inordinate desire for carnal pleasure" of which a dictionary might speak is what comes to mind when we hear of "lust."
Our society has been bombarded with sex to such an extent that now we tend to take it for granted. Anyone who objects is called an old fogey or a blue-nose. Truth be known, this is one of the reasons why other cultures in the world have no interest in emulating American freedom -- they see it not as freedom but as license.
Perhaps Shakespeare was right on the mark in comparing lust and love in his poem "Venus and Adonis":
Love comforteth like sunshine after rain,
But lust's effect is tempest after sun;
Love's gentle spring doth always fresh remain,
Lust's winter comes 'ere summer half be done;
Love surfeits not; lust like a glutton dies;
Love is all truth; lust full of forged lies.
Discounting the rhetoric of that, what Shakespeare makes clear is that lust is deadly because it looks so much like love, because it can masquerade as love. They sometimes look so much alike that we cannot tell the difference, at least in ourselves. But most assuredly there is a difference.
Consider this: the Bible says "For God so loved the world that he gave ..." (John 3:16). But many people so love that they take. If I really love another person, I am at least as anxious to give as to take. Nothing reveals lust more than the selfish desire to run roughshod over the needs and claims of the other. If a man truly loves a woman, nothing is so important to him as her welfare, her peace of mind, her dignity as a human being. And for that, no restraint, no delicacy, no sensitiveness, is too high a price to pay. The same holds true of a woman's feeling for her man.
In lust we turn sex into an abstraction, an "it," a thing, that is somehow detachable from personality, and in some unique way, it is ruined. No longer is it a tender and beautiful expression of one person's commitment to another. It is simply a fact of human existence. The meaning is gone. The sharing of something unique within the bonds of marriage is no longer possible. It can be shared, but there's nothing special about it anymore. It's no wonder that marriages break up over the unfaithfulness of one of the partners. The specialness is gone.
The scripture is full of material that makes God's position on the matter of sexuality very plain. First of all, God thinks that sex, in and of itself, is fine. God created it. That means it is nothing to be ashamed of. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh" (Mark 10:7-8). Sex was meant to give expression to the concept of unity between husbands and wives that words alone could not describe. It was meant for procreation. The gift of bringing children into this world is one of the most precious things God ever gave us. It lets us in on the creative process and gives us feelings like God must have felt at the creation of the universe. God made that creative process a part of our sexuality. If nothing else told us, from that alone we should know that sex is not to be trifled with.
William Temple, the Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote, "It is to be recognized that sex is holy as well as wholesome ... Anyone who has once understood that will be quite as careful as any Puritan in making jokes about sex -- not because it is nasty but because it is sacred. He would no more joke about sex than he would about holy communion -- and for exactly the same reason. To joke about it is to treat with lightness something that deserves reverence."
But we know more than that as well. Very early on, the one who was instructing ancient Israel on the creation of a just society said, "You shall not commit adultery." God did not make sexual purity optional. God did not say, "It would probably be a good idea." God said, "Don't!" And because people began to trivialize the commandment, Jesus went even farther: "I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matthew 5:28). That's what Jimmy Carter was talking about. In our text in Galatians, we read that things like sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery are some of the reasons that people miss out on the kingdom of God. The Lord's position is very plain -- don't fool around!
To be sure, the church has thundered that out for centuries. But it hasn't made much difference, has it? One is reminded of the question once put to Calvin Coolidge when he got home from church: "What was the sermon about?"
"Sin."
"What stand did the preacher take?"
"Against."
To be honest, where lust and sexual immorality are concerned, the church's condemnation and denunciation will accomplish nothing. Perhaps what we should concern ourselves with, if we would really be interested in helping folks with the problem, would be to look to causes and cures rather than be content with thunderous oratory.
Think of the way Jesus handled things. He took much grief because he was perceived as a friend of "tax collectors and sinners," those who would have been considered "immoral" the way most folks understand the word. What he was trying to do with those unusual friends of his was to point the way to life on a higher level, life characterized by those words that Paul would hold up to the Galatians: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" (Galatians 6:22-23). Such a life is so attractive in the way it is lived that people just naturally want to follow along. If the church could convince itself that this might be a better way to cure some of the moral ills of society, perhaps we might have better success.
For most of us, when we hear the term "lust" we think of sex, but we know there is more to lust than that. We know we can "lust" after all sorts of things -- money, power, fame, whatever. Frankly, when the early translators of scripture used the term "lust," they had just that wide a perspective. But for most folks, the "inordinate desire for carnal pleasure" of which a dictionary might speak is what comes to mind when we hear of "lust."
Our society has been bombarded with sex to such an extent that now we tend to take it for granted. Anyone who objects is called an old fogey or a blue-nose. Truth be known, this is one of the reasons why other cultures in the world have no interest in emulating American freedom -- they see it not as freedom but as license.
Perhaps Shakespeare was right on the mark in comparing lust and love in his poem "Venus and Adonis":
Love comforteth like sunshine after rain,
But lust's effect is tempest after sun;
Love's gentle spring doth always fresh remain,
Lust's winter comes 'ere summer half be done;
Love surfeits not; lust like a glutton dies;
Love is all truth; lust full of forged lies.
Discounting the rhetoric of that, what Shakespeare makes clear is that lust is deadly because it looks so much like love, because it can masquerade as love. They sometimes look so much alike that we cannot tell the difference, at least in ourselves. But most assuredly there is a difference.
Consider this: the Bible says "For God so loved the world that he gave ..." (John 3:16). But many people so love that they take. If I really love another person, I am at least as anxious to give as to take. Nothing reveals lust more than the selfish desire to run roughshod over the needs and claims of the other. If a man truly loves a woman, nothing is so important to him as her welfare, her peace of mind, her dignity as a human being. And for that, no restraint, no delicacy, no sensitiveness, is too high a price to pay. The same holds true of a woman's feeling for her man.
In lust we turn sex into an abstraction, an "it," a thing, that is somehow detachable from personality, and in some unique way, it is ruined. No longer is it a tender and beautiful expression of one person's commitment to another. It is simply a fact of human existence. The meaning is gone. The sharing of something unique within the bonds of marriage is no longer possible. It can be shared, but there's nothing special about it anymore. It's no wonder that marriages break up over the unfaithfulness of one of the partners. The specialness is gone.
The scripture is full of material that makes God's position on the matter of sexuality very plain. First of all, God thinks that sex, in and of itself, is fine. God created it. That means it is nothing to be ashamed of. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh" (Mark 10:7-8). Sex was meant to give expression to the concept of unity between husbands and wives that words alone could not describe. It was meant for procreation. The gift of bringing children into this world is one of the most precious things God ever gave us. It lets us in on the creative process and gives us feelings like God must have felt at the creation of the universe. God made that creative process a part of our sexuality. If nothing else told us, from that alone we should know that sex is not to be trifled with.
William Temple, the Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote, "It is to be recognized that sex is holy as well as wholesome ... Anyone who has once understood that will be quite as careful as any Puritan in making jokes about sex -- not because it is nasty but because it is sacred. He would no more joke about sex than he would about holy communion -- and for exactly the same reason. To joke about it is to treat with lightness something that deserves reverence."
But we know more than that as well. Very early on, the one who was instructing ancient Israel on the creation of a just society said, "You shall not commit adultery." God did not make sexual purity optional. God did not say, "It would probably be a good idea." God said, "Don't!" And because people began to trivialize the commandment, Jesus went even farther: "I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matthew 5:28). That's what Jimmy Carter was talking about. In our text in Galatians, we read that things like sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery are some of the reasons that people miss out on the kingdom of God. The Lord's position is very plain -- don't fool around!
To be sure, the church has thundered that out for centuries. But it hasn't made much difference, has it? One is reminded of the question once put to Calvin Coolidge when he got home from church: "What was the sermon about?"
"Sin."
"What stand did the preacher take?"
"Against."
To be honest, where lust and sexual immorality are concerned, the church's condemnation and denunciation will accomplish nothing. Perhaps what we should concern ourselves with, if we would really be interested in helping folks with the problem, would be to look to causes and cures rather than be content with thunderous oratory.
Think of the way Jesus handled things. He took much grief because he was perceived as a friend of "tax collectors and sinners," those who would have been considered "immoral" the way most folks understand the word. What he was trying to do with those unusual friends of his was to point the way to life on a higher level, life characterized by those words that Paul would hold up to the Galatians: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" (Galatians 6:22-23). Such a life is so attractive in the way it is lived that people just naturally want to follow along. If the church could convince itself that this might be a better way to cure some of the moral ills of society, perhaps we might have better success.
