Animals and Angels – How About Human?
The following is a sermon I preached at Marrow’s Chapel UMC while teaching through the book of Ephesians. It remains as one of the most talked about sermons I have preached.
Animals and Angels*
Ephesians 5:1-8
When you see this up close, or other animals entering into their mating rituals, you realize how primal it is – how powerful. You see how this is wired into their DNA – they are going to mate because it is in their blood. These birds aren’t walking around thinking, I would just really like to know that you love me for me and not just my body. They aren’t talking about how they want to make a difference in the world or the sorts of principles they want to instill in their future children.
Other than basic biological functions there is nothing else going on here. Pure instinct. No higher purpose or cause. Just biology. Period.
These birds remind me of college spring breaks. Things that go on in cities that you can’t talk about because as they say, “what happens Vegas, stays in Vegas.” Whether it be spring break or something else, the vibe is the same – it’s a few days to let oneself go, to lose yourself, to give into what ever cravings or desires or urges you have. Perhaps you have been there or seen the footage or heard the stories. There is this overwhelming sense that if something feels good, just do it. Nothing else matters. Biology takes over.
These scenes are not just about having a good time or hooking up or whatever, but they raise very important questions about what it means to be fully human. The temptation is to ignore your conscience or sense of higher purpose, sacrificing what it means to be human, leading us to act much like….an animal. We become no different than one of these crazy birds in a mating ritual.
Are we just the sum of our urges? Is that all we are?
In the ancient Greek world, the world Paul lived in, there was a phrase that was used to explain what it means to be human, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food.” They understood a person to be a collection of physical needs – you are hungry and there is food to satisfy that. Tired, there is sleep. They concluded that sex was like food, so when a man was hungry he would go to a prostitute saying, “Food for the stomach…”
Paul confronts this sort of thinking all throughout his letters. In 1 Cor. 6, for instance, he insists that our bodies are worth more than just fulfilling our urges but that they are temples of the Holy Spirit. A temple is a holy place – a place where heaven and earth meet. Paul is trying to elevate our thinking – to get us to see that we are more than just a collection of urges. We aren’t animals. We are human.
The “stomach for food” view is still a dominant view today. The assumption is that people are going to have sex because they can’t help it. This perspective is argued as true freedom and being honest with what comes naturally. But what it really teaches is that humans cannot transcend the physical dimensions of their existence. It views people much like animals.
Think about how abstinence programs are thought of these days. Or how the Jonas Brothers get laughed at for taking a vow of celibacy until they are married. Ever hear someone mock someone, even subtly, because they wish to keep themselves pure for marriage? People who criticize abstinence programs are usually presented as the voice of reason. They point out how naive and “cute” the abstinence programs are, but, come on, are people REALLY capable of restraint?
Aren’t we all really just animals?
But just as the animal impulse is destructive, there is another – one that swings the other way entirely. While one gives into every impulse, the other denies they exist and will not acknowledge that our sexuality is central to what makes us fully human.
I was recently in a conversation with some friends, who are also parents, and the subject of sex and education came up. We reflected on how we learned about the topic as kids and I was somewhat shocked to learn that none of us had a very healthy experience. For some of us, like myself, the conversation amounted to nothing more than a one on one with the parent of the same sex, a cartoon like book, a very awkward discussion and then, that was it. My dad spent more time teaching me how to properly mow the lawn than he spent teaching me about one of the most important aspects of my humanity. But before we say, “bad dad,” what he did was actually more than many of my friend’s parents did, maybe more than yours. Many of my friends said they never had that talk with their parents – ever. They learned what they needed to know from friends, or films, or books, or just on the job training, so to speak.
How can a parent ignore something this big?
Think about the woman who has just gotten married and is trying to figure out what it means to be true to her new husband yet doesn’t want to have sex with him. She’s got a million confusing messages about sex, and love and obligation, most of them from the media, and she’s nervous and scared and intimidated and instead of opening up and sharing these feelings, and learning and expressing this she just stuffs it.
And the new husband also has millions of pictures and fragments and ideas of what a woman is supposed to be and do for him and this woman he just married is supposed to do that and be that and deliver in this way and yet she isn’t. His temptation then is to deal with his frustration through channels that will only serve to drive the two farther apart.
Denying and stuffing and repressing our instincts and urges never works because it is a failure to acknowledge what is central to being human. We can pretend we are angels, but we are not.
Animals and angels. Two extremes. Denying our sexuality and being driven by it. And then there is the vast space in between.
In the Creation story of Genesis 1 God creates animals before humans. When humans are created something significant happens that did not happen with the animals – they are created in God’s image. We have a spiritual dimension about us that animals do not have. Whatever you want to say about this image, whether it’s a consciousness, a spirit, whatever, you must recognize that God made us distinct from animals.
Have you ever seen your dog reflecting on what it means to be a dog?
Ever seen a horse debating the merits of universal health care?
You and I are not animals.
Nor are we angels. The book of Hebrews says that an angel is a spirit. In the book of Psalms it says that humans were made a “little lower than the heavenly beings.” Angels have a spirit but no physical existence. Marriage and sex and procreation are not part of their existence. They have a different purpose.
When we deny the spiritual dimension of our existence we end up living like animals. When we deny the physical, sexual dimension of our existence, we end up living like angels.
Both are destructive, because God made us human.
So what is the way through? How do we keep being an animal or an angel?
You may remember several weeks ago I shared with a you a quote from one of the early church fathers who wrote, “The glory of God is a human fully alive.” The glory of God is a human fully alive. How are we fully alive? We learn to live in the reality that is true about us – that we are made in the image of God, beloved by God, desired by God, and that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit – they are places where heaven and earth meet.
Paul has laid this foundation from the beginning of Ephesians for us. He has told us the truth about who we are – we are God’s chosen ones. We are in Christ. We are part of an inheritance and the household of God. We are ambassadors for Christ. You are someone important in God’s eyes – but you are not an angel. You are human. And that is something wonderful, fearfully made.
In our text today Paul has some strong words for those who would continue in their day to live like animals – stomach for food. The Greek word for fornicator is porneau. From it we get our word pornography. This multi million dollar industry has fed off our urges, realizing that many in our world are content to live like animals – just food for the stomach. Paul tells this Gentile world, who lived in a culture not too different from our own, that they are children of the light – to not walk in darkness any longer. Try instead to find and do what is pleasing to the Lord, he says. You are not just the sum of your urges but someone with the Spirit of God living in you. You are a temple, the intersection of heaven and earth. Look higher than your base instincts, and do not fall prey to the urges that seek to steal your humanity. The glory of God is a human fully alive.
Paul also says something else to those of us who might be inclined to go the other way, and be like angels. In the midst of saying we should not be fornicators, greedy or obscene animals, living for our urges, he says, instead, “let there be thanksgiving.” It is hard to imagine these birds being thankful for the other after the fact, right?
Paul says we are to be thankful for our sexuality. Be thankful that we are not animals, nor angels, but humans. Yes, we have these drives. Yes, we have urges. Yes, we have thoughts and feelings that are real and they are sometimes overpowering. To give thanks is the opposite of denying or repressing or stuffing – we are not angels. To give thanks is not to indulge, either. Giving thanks is to be responsible. Giving thanks is to be open and honest, talking about what is going on rather than stuffing it. The church has long been guilty of making it impossible to do this. Rather than creating an environment where it is safe to be human we have made it seem like there is something wrong with you if you are not an angel. If that describes you, than on behalf of the church that has hurt you let me be the first and hopefully not the last to say, “I am sorry.” Friends, look to your left and to your right. Get a good look. There are no angels here, friends. Only humans. And that is good enough.
The glory of God is a human fully alive. May we come to live in the light of this truth.
*The bulk of this sermon, particularly the first half about the differences of animals and angels, is owed to Rob Bell’s excellent book, Sex God.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
