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Faith Pop Culture Sermons

CRAVE

We’re made in God’s image, but we have bodies, while God is spirit. Are our bodies accidental? Are they temporary? Or are they good, vital and essential to our spirituality? How can we resist the cultural narrative that teaches us to hate our bodies?

Crave is a series of messages I delivered at Mount Vernon Nazarene University’s Fall 2013 Revival.

The first message, Our Bodies Are Good, begins with the reality that we hate our bodies. We’re taught that our bodies are bad, temporary and accessory to our spirituality. But according to the Scriptures, our bodies are good gifts from God, essential to our personhood and vital to our relationship with God and others.

The second message, Don Draper Stole Our Imaginations, explores why we’re taught to hate our bodies. Our main source of dissatisfaction with our bodies is media. Led by ad men, who make billions from our self-loathing, the media steals away our imaginations. How can we steal them back, make our conceptions of beauty functions of virtue again?

The final message, Better Bodies, Better Stories, takes on the American Beauty Culture. Though it seems monolithic and invincible, it’s not. Sir Mix-a-Lot’s hip-hop classic “Baby Got Back” is an example of a prophet who reshaped our cultural imagination. Sir Mix-a-Lot redefined what counts as beautiful in our culture. If he could do it, so can we!

Take a listen and let me know what you think!

By JR. Forasteros

JR. lives in Dallas, TX with his wife Amanda. In addition to exploring the wonders that are the Lone Star state, JR. is the teaching pastor at Catalyst Community Church, a writer and blogger. His book, Empathy for the Devil, is available from InterVarsity Press. He's haunted by the Batman, who is in turn haunted by the myth of redemptive violence.