“I suppose you want to hear all about my sex life, like all the others,” she began.

“Well, I would rather hear about your prayer life.” He answered.

You see both prayer and sex open up the same part of our lives: our capacity for intimacy. In true love making, we open our bodies and souls up to another human and allow them into our most private areas. In prayer we open our hearts and souls up to the Lord of the universe, and invite him into our darkest sins and secrets.

In both prayer and lovemaking, we invite someone else into our deepest places and there we give and receive grace.

This very fact explains why casual sex is so damaging and destructive. You invite someone in, reveal yourself and they use you and leave. For those of you unmarried, I hope this sermon does not inflame your desire for immorality, rather I hope it reveals the need to protect this precious gift.

1. Divine Intimacy

Does it seem impossible and clearly inappropriate to even talk about our relationship with God in this kind of intimate capacity? Is it appropriate to link our sexual relationship with our relationship to Christ.

At first it probably seems strange. The world has preached to us a very selfish message about sex – sex is a place we go to have our own needs and desires met. Christ’s love for us is not selfish, nor is it dirty. So how can we say he wants intimacy with us?

First, notice that God forces us to think this way.

Eph 5:31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

So, the question cannot be does Christ want to become one flesh with us, but how? So let’s think about love making for a moment. What is it? It is an unveiling, we reveal ourselves to our lover. And it is a partaking, we receive the body of another.

Look back at the Song of Solomon.

1. The Unveiling.

7:1 How beautiful are your feet in sandals, O noble daughter! Your rounded thighs are like jewels, the work of a master hand. 2 Your navel is a rounded bowl that never lacks mixed wine. Your belly is a heap of wheat, encircled with lilies.

The translators agree, she is dancing before her husband here and revealing her body entirely. That is a difficult thing to do. We know from the first verses of Song of Solomon that she was shy about her body and insecure. She cried out to the women around her – do not look at me, for my skin is dark.

Now she unveils herself and her husband looks upon her. Not only does he look, he blesses. He rejoices over her with loud singing.

She reveals the parts of her that embarrass her, and he praises those very things.

What does Jesus beckon us to do? Don’t be crass, obviously not dance naked. He beckons us to reveal our hearts. What embarrasses you, what sins still make you shake your head and tear up. What can you not believe you did? He asks us to unveil those things – so he can bless us.

I heard a story of a woman with a radical mastectomy. Both breasts were removed. She felt like she was no longer a woman, the very embodiment of her ability to nurture and be feminine was taken from her. She hated herself until her husband took her into the bedroom, removed her shirt and kissed her scars.

That is what Jesus wants to do for you, he wants to see you unveil the things that hurt and embarrass you most, so he can kiss your scars. Will you let him?

1. Receiving another

But what about the other part of lovemaking, we do more than just look at each other, how does that have anything to do with Christ?

How do these lovers describe their intimacy?

7:7 Your stature is like a palm tree, and your breasts are like its clusters. 8 I say I will climb the palm tree and lay hold of its fruit.

They describe lovemaking like eating fruit, entering a garden and taking the fruit into their bodies.

What does Jesus demand that we do? He demands that we not simply leave him out there. He demands we do more than simply learn his teachings or follow his traditions. He demands the most personal relationship possible, we must eat his flesh:

John 6: 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.

Again, if you think of sex as dirty or selfish this will only make you snicker. But if you allow God to show you how beautiful this creation is, then it will make you absolutely shocked that the Lord of the Universe wants to be one with you.