Consider this: Humanity’s tee-hee over “dirty language” and “dirty jokes” happens not because we are so at ease with our bodies and our sexual nature, but because of just the opposite: we are dis-eased. Uncomfortable. Feel foolish. Don’t even like to look at ourselves in the mirror. We’d prefer to be eternal spirits than to have to deal with the embarrassment our bodies present. And because we are so ill at ease, many of us end up with problems with sexuality, with distorted relationships, with obsessions and compulsions, with addiction to pornography, with fetishes and practices that we feel we must keep secret, because of the “shame.”

But could an alternative response be as simple as Luther’s suggestion: in the deepest possible way, what if in all our significant relationships, we “love and respect each other”? Wouldn’t that mean we also would love and respect our (bodily) selves?

I believe that since marriage itself is a public act, and not just a private agreement between consulting adults, that the church bears a large responsibility for promoting healthy sexuality. And the first healthy stage is coming to terms with who and what we are, and feeling no shame. The gospel applies not just to our souls, but even more, to our bodies. We are embodied. There is no honest way around that truth. “The Word became flesh (in-carn-ation, in flesh-ation) and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.” The bodily life was good enough for Jesus. It ought to be good enough for us as well.