The 5th Sunday in the Lent; SEX AND SEXUALITY

ST. MARY FROM EGYPT (+ 1 April 530). She was born in Egypt and lived as a prostitute in Alexandria from the age of 12.

Arriving in Jerusalem on 14th September to venerate the Holy Cross, an unseen power prevented her to enter the church.In great fear, she turned to an icon of the Mother of God and begged her to let her to venerate the Cross, confessing her sin and promising to change her life. She crossed the Jordan river and spent 48 years in the wilderness in the greatest torments, in terror, in struggle with passionate thoughts. She begged the elder priest Zossima to bring her the Holy Communion. The following year Zossima came with the Holy Gifts to the bank of the Jordan, and stood in amazement as he saw her cross the river. In the following year, Zissima came again, found her dead body and in the sand was written: " Abba Zossima, bury in this place the body of the humble  Mary.  Give dust to dust. I passed away on April 1st, on the very night of Christ's Passion, after communion of the divine Mysteries".

SEX AND SEXUALITY.

"We are exposed to about 40 sexual massages a day. The vast majority of these sexual messages promote 'The Robbie Williams View of Sex'. In 2006, Robbie William released a song called "Sin Sin Sin' with a really catchy tune; the kind of song that yourself singing along to until you realize that he is talking about taking a random girl home for sex: 'Don't let your eyes tell your brain you should feel ashamed./ Everyone needs it baby and I feel the same/ Didn't quite catch your name/ Hush, hush, hush don't say a  thing/ Let's see what the night will bring/ It might be everything'. For Robbie Williams, sex is just a physical need, like eating. He doesn't even know the girl he's going to have sex with, he didn't quite catch her name. A recent survey suggests that over half of Australian woman have made a 'booty call' ( calling a man they know for casual, non- committed sex). The Robbie Williams view is a mainstream, as the most popular TV shows: Neighbours, Two and a half Men, Desperate Housewives, Sex in the City. Young people who have grown up in the church are often told that sex is something that Christians don't do, at least not until they're married. They are constantly encouraged to be 'children of light' who stand out from their non -Christian peer b their godly living. 

Is there room for designer sexuality? Sex is a profound gift from God for our benefit. It is not dirty, because it is designed by God himself; it is not just physical, because God designed it to be intensely emotional and profoundly spiritual as well. The sex that God made is something very valuable and precious, and not worth cashing in too cheaply.

Marriage is  the place for the best sex, as Bible shows(Genesis 2,20). First, man and woman are built for each other. Secondly, sex is intended to be used within a binding relationship. Look at what Adam says to set up the covenant, the binding promise, with Eve. She is part of me, we are one. We belong, we are tied together. I will not separate from you. And  that is why you will hear the minister say at weddings: ' What God has joined together, let not man separate'.  I think marriage is under attack in our society; people see it as a boring, restrictive and passionless arrangement. In their book ' The case for marriage', Linda Waite and Maggie Gallagher show that married people have more and better sex than unmarried people.

How do we wait well? The first thing is to be careful of the ways we think about sex; be careful what we fill our minds with, including the songs, the books we read and the magazines we buy. Gentlemen should train themselves for godly thinking by not diving into internet porn. One of the main reason that internet porn is bad for guys is that it trains them to think of woman as just pieces of meat, as body parts separate from their personhood and worth nothing more than what  they can  contribute to our sexual thoughts and  actions. But women are created in the image of God! Be careful what you watch on TV. We should watch with our brains turned on and tuned into whether the show is glorifying designer sexuality or trading it in cheaply. The way we talk to each other can also lead us either towards or away from designer sexuality. Be careful of touch - avoid passionate kissing and lingering cuddles.

It  is worth waiting well for marriage because marriage is where to find the best sex. After all, it' the place God designed for sex, where a man and a woman bind themselves to each other, where they form a new family, where they commit themselves to each other no matter what, where sex for them is not just a union but a re-union, where they become one. That is designer sex. Not just  physical, and definitely not dirty".( Scot Petty, Little Black Book: Sex, Matthias Media, 2010).

TO BE CONTINUED

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