By W. Frank Harrington
Is any sex safe? The very question prompts other questions. Are we sexually liberated or enslaved? Are we fulfilled or frustrated? In his book, Wilt Chamberlain claims he has been intimate with 20,000 women. Since making that claim he has been seen on many network television shows sharing insights from his escapades. Was he telling the truth or just seeking to increase book sales? Whatever the facts, truth or sales, his behavior and the networks giving him a platform are bothersome to me.
Magic Johnson calls a news conference and acknowledges that he has "attained the HIV AIDS virus." Magic, sad to say, has come to the end of a progression. He is today dining at the table of consequences, by his own acknowledgement. It is to his credit that he has acknowledged that his behavior was wrong and that he has asked God to forgive him. He is trying, God bless him, to turn his plight into something positive. He is trying to speak a word of warning to others.
Advertisement
U.S. News and World Report in an article, "Teenage Sex, after Magic" had this to say:
"In the weeks after Magic Johnson burst onto the AIDS scene, the nation's youth reacted first with shock, then with concern. Then from all indications, it was back to risky business as usual ...."1
This society of ours is sending our teens a very mixed signal concerning sex and the values that undergird appropriate behavior. "We sell products with sex; we use sex in movies, TV music. Then we tell students just say NO'!"2
It is the peculiar responsibility for adults to model values, and perhaps the reason we are not modeling values is because there is no consensus or agreement among us as to what the real values are. It is against this background that I want us for a moment or two to respond to the lesson of the morning.
Near the dawn of all that is, God created man in His likeness and then He made woman. The Psalmist affirms that "we are a little lower than the angels" or, as one translation beautifully puts it, "a little less than divine." God, placing humankind at the apex of all He had created, breathed into him the breath of life and placed him in the context of joy, peace, and plenty. But something was missing! Man was alone, without companionship, without anyone to help. There was no one with whom he could share anything. Walt Disney to the contrary, man could not talk to the animals.
So God made woman. The lyrical beauty of this moment of creation still gives us a sense of wonder to read it. Adam went into a deep sleep (
2:21) and while he slept God made Eve from Adam's rib (
2:22). The women in my family say it was definitely "prime rib." When he woke from his dream, Adam was pleased. He said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh" (
2:23).
The expression, "this is now" in Hebrew, is an expression of delight. It is an exclamation meaning, "at last." To translate it into language that we all can understand, Adam when he saw her said, "Wow, look at that!"3
