As I promised in the middle of last Sunday’s sermon – here is the last cheeky sign from the new Oxford Terrace Baptist Church in Christchurch, New Zealand.
And as I was praying, in our prayers of intercession on Sunday, for the different rooms of our houses – particularly our bathrooms – and how God is present in all these spaces, I thought I should have been bolder and included this image then too.
Because humans live in bodies. And how we live in our bodies shapes so much of how we relate to ourselves and to others, and to God.
You might remember, from a sermon a few months ago, I referred to the work of aged-care chaplain Kerry Egan (mentioned in Julia Baird’s recent book bright shining – how grace changes everything) and her observation that what preoccupied people in the months before they died was the way, “they [had] viewed, and treated, their bodies as problems, or as sources of embarrassment, shame, sin and guilt.… the time wasted spent hating their bodies…abusing it or letting it be abused…until they were so close to leaving it….”
Their second biggest regret, according to Kerry Egan, was, “the wish of the dying that they had appreciated their bodies in the course of their lives….the feel of the water the first time they wet skinny dipping. The smell of their babies’ heads. The breeze on their skin that time they made love outside.” And what they regretted more than anything, she said, was that they had not danced enough! “If I had only known, [so many of them have said] “I would have danced more.”
Those words have been a wake-up call to me! You might think that in my mid 50’s I would have well and truly accepted that: 1. I am never ever going to have the body of a Love Island contestant; and 2. It really – REALLY – does not matter. That what matters is that I use my body (and enjoy using my body) to love the world around me, to love the people around me, to love and serve those God calls me to love and serve, and to love God.
We live in a world that is not kind to bodies. With so many bodies being hurt or abused or destroyed in our world, God’s wake up call to us to use our bodies to love and care for one another cannot come soon enough or loud enough.
So, as we prayed on Sunday:
In our bathrooms, Creating God, we give you thanks for making bodies.
With all the curiosities and delights and frustrations of being human — you call us ‘good’.
Give us a proper respect and love for our bodies and be with those who are sick in mind or body or spirit.
And this Sunday, please join us for worship and stay afterwards for a cuppa and a chat. That is something else we can enjoy doing as bodies!
Grace and peace,
Belinda