Sex Au Naturel by Patrick Coffin

has never been preached on, even by the most daring preachers!)
     
    Whenever sexual perversion is treated in the word of God, the language tends to be graphic, sordid. We read of “uncovering nakedness” (the Hebrew word is galah , a blunt term meaning to denude or forcefully strip.) Then there is “nakedness” in a shameful sense (e.g., Gen. 9:21–23; Is. 47:3; Ez 16:37). 8
     
    A whole study could be done on the Bible’s language for sexual sin. But for our purposes, it is enough to note that the nth degree of this verbal bluntness is reached with the use of the Hebrew verb shagal , which is found in Deuteronomy 28.30, Isaiah 13.16, Jeremiah 3.3, Zechariah 14.2, and nowhere else in Scripture. Shagal is the Hebrew equivalent of the vulgar term in English for sex (the one that begins with an f.) As a result, when shagal was read aloud, the Jews substituted it with shakab , meaning violate. 9 Shakab also appears in Genesis 19:34-35 to describe inter-generational incest.
     
    By contrast, whenever Scripture speaks of wholesome sexual activity, it invariably uses gentle, poetic terms that respect the private nature and true dignity of sex as God intended it. There is the beautiful eroticism of the Song of Songs, of Adam “knowing” Eve to produce their son Cain (Gen. 4:1), and the Blessed Mother’s reply to the angel, “How can this be since I have no husband?” (Lk. 1:34).
     
    One of the last books of the Old Testament, the Book of the Prophet Malachi, harkens back to the first, Genesis. Malachi reminds his hearers that marriage is not merely a social contract but a covenant, a sacramental exchange of persons with children as its fruit:
     
    The L ORD was witness to the covenant between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. Has not the one God made and sustained for us the spirit of life? And what does he desire? Godly offspring. (Mal. 2:14–15)
     
     
    The final passage of Malachi’s last chapter points forward to the arrival of John the Baptist, the “hinge” between the two Covenants, and to the coming of the New Moses, Jesus Christ. The restoration of families is expressed—not unlike the Book of Leviticus—in language that manages to be at once tough and tender:
     
    “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and ordinances that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the L ORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse.” (Mal. 4:4–6)
     
     

Everything New Is Old Again
    The New Testament carries forward the implicitly anti-contraceptive outlook of the Old Testament. To borrow from the popular adage, Jesus Christ had a preferential option for children. He pointed to children as models of Christian maturity, and stressed the hospitality we must bear toward them. “Anyone who welcomes a little child like this welcomes me.… See that you never despise any of these little ones, for I tell you their angels in heaven are continually in the presence of my Father in heaven” (see Mt. 18:1–10; 19:13–15; Mk. 10:13–16). The theme of childlikeness is key to Christian identity and is a constant in the writings of the saints and doctors of the Church.
     
    One of Jesus’ most pointed rebukes to His disciples concerned welcoming infants. “Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them; and when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God” (Lk. 18:15–16).
     
    In biblical studies, the term sensus plenior (Latin for “fuller sense”) refers to the deeper meaning God intended by a passage, which is rooted in—but not limited to—what the human author intended. Might not