Resurrection and Life Everlasting, Part 3
The Rev. Mark Sherwindt, Pastor
Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church
Easter 5: May 5-6, 2007
Selected texts from 1st Corinthians 15
We have spent the better part of five Sundays, and several sessions in our Adult Sunday School Class, focusing on the resurrection of our Lord. On the Festival of Easter, there was the challenge issued by Oscar Award winning film director James Cameron claiming that archeologists had found the bones of Jesus [April 8]. Last Sunday, it was Jim Fidler recounting the impressive history of martyrdom among first-century Christians, whose eyewitness testimony offered compelling and persuasive evidence both for the sincerity of their belief and for the truth of their convictions [April 29]. Before that, it was the meaning of the Signs of the Times given to Thomas and then to Peter with the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus [April 15 & 22]. Since none of us here, as a practical matter, are questioning the truth of Christian claims about the resurrection, these sermons may seem like overkill. But the Apostle Paul has made it very clear in 1st Corinthians 15 that the resurrection of our Lord is a non-negotiable core conviction of the first order. You've heard that crucial line several times: “If there is no resurrection and Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is false and your faith is in vain.” Paul was laying it on the line. There's no back-tracking from our belief in the resurrection of the dead.
I am fully aware of the fact that believing in the resurrection from the dead is one of those happy thoughts in life that we would want to believe, even if it weren't true. That's why persons who are not Hindu often refer to re-incarnation, and why popular movies, like Ghost [Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, 1990] and City of Angels [Nicolas Cage, Meg Ryan, 1998] and even It's A Wonderful Life [Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed, 1946] blur the distinction between death and life-after-death. We've all lost loved ones. We all know what comfort we sensed when sharing the Good News of God's promise of life beyond the grave. The very idea that God promises more than the passing blessings we experience on earth; the notion that the things we value and the people we love are not merely here today and gone tomorrow: these are huge when it comes to responding to the classic philosophical questions that all of us ask, “Is this all there is?” This is good, but our faith says that there is more. The Christian faith provides the force of enduring credibility for our decision to dedicate ourselves with the discipline and sacrifice that is needed to make of ourselves more than your run-of-the-mill hedonist who is satisfied with that short-term view, “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” For when that particular tomorrow comes, when we die, it's all over, including the music.
All that I am saying is this: if Jesus hadn't been raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, if God hadn't promised the gift of eternal life to all who believe, if there weren't an after-life to insure that good triumphed over evil, right over wrong, and true life over selfish living, then we would create something like it to believe in because the stakes are too high. On the other hand, Paul has made it clear that we don't have to make this up. Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. Of this we can be sure. There are eye-witnesses, whose testimony holds up, both because of the lives they lived and because of the deaths they suffered. It was Jim Fidler's point that the impressive history of martyrdom among first-century Christians adds statistical certainty to the legal force of their testimony that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead.
This resurrection confirms the truth of the biblical witness that promises resurrection for all as the structure of reality and the revelation of God's will. That's what Paul is saying in 1st Corinthians 15. Paul was groping for language to describe what he (and others) had encountered when they saw the Risen Lord. It wasn't like anything they had ever seen, or could ever have anticipated seeing. Paul wasn't entirely clear about what the transition from this life to the next would look like. He wasn't entirely clear on the sequence. He wasn't entirely clear on how long long was once we stopped measuring time and space by our earthly measures for time and space. Look, some thought that the Apostle John would still be alive when the kingdom came and heaven's glory began. Some thought that Christ would rule for a thousand years before the final end. Paul wasn't entirely clear or consistent on these details. But what he did know was this: Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, and we, too, along with those whom we love, along with those whom God loves, will be raised from the dead. Yes, I know, it sounds too good to be true. But it is true. It's the truth about God's will. It's the truth about Christ's life. It's the truth that is embedded in our Christian faith.
As a Pastor, I have read extensively on issues related to death and dying. I've learned a great deal from following Elizabeth Kubler Ross through the five stages of grief. I've learned from philosophical challenges that identify our denial of death as the deep-seated fear that drives us to make up myths, to spin webs of self-deceit, to plan all sorts of projects, personal and otherwise, simply and ultimately to convince ourselves that the grim reaper of time, when wiping away all evidence and every memory of what has come before, will overlook us and those whom we love. It's hard to believe that the hope we want so desperately to believe in is, in fact, true. But this is what Paul is saying. This is what our faith proclaims.
In truth, this is not an area where we have to read extensively to sense the significance of what's involved. All we need do is watch a little television and listen to the coverage of thirty-two killed at Virginia Tech. What does this say about hope? What does this say about meaning in life? Is there anything more to the meaning of their lives than the senseless massacre of their deaths? We certainly hope so. But is this hope just denial on our part? Can there be a more powerful assault on our hope for meaning in life than when those who are enjoying the sanctuaries we've created to allow for the free pursuit of knowledge about ourselves, the world we live in, and beyond are murdered senselessly, with the madness of death robbing us of those whom we love for no apparent reason whatsoever?
The annual ritual of mourning the deaths of four Kent State students thirty-seven years ago show how much we struggle with looking for meaning and for finding some purpose to be served when the people we love are taken and the things we value are tarnished by sin and stained with death. We want the lives of those whom we love to mean something more than, “Here today, gone tomorrow.” All that I am saying is that we are wired with the desire to attribute lasting value to the people we love and to the love that binds us together. We are wired with the desire to look for ways to sustain the significance of those whom we love, finding some larger purpose to serve so that we may honor their lives, and keep death from having the last word. There are signs everywhere around us, and deep within us, which make it clear that our hope for life's victory over death is the kind of conviction we'd make up if it weren't already a part of our Christian faith - and not just a part but it's very core, the cornerstone that secures its strength, the foundation upon which everything we believe as Christians is built.
Paul saw several things clearly when he encountered the Risen Lord. It was the revelation of God acting among us. It was the revelation of Jesus as the anointed Messiah, the Christ of God. It was the decisive sign that the kingdom of God had broken into our world with the reign of Christ. It was God's resounding endorsement of Jesus as the One. It was God's triumphant proclamation that life is victorious over death. It was God's affirmation of the truth about resurrection for Jesus and eternal life for us. It's all there in 1st Corinthians 15: the evidence of eyewitness testimony right there in the first paragraph, followed by rock-solid encouragement offered to weak-kneed Christians wavering before the undeniable reality of death, with warnings against slipping into our world's cynicism, and images about seeds sown in death and raised to enjoy the glory of life everlasting.
Here's how he ends his long discourse of the many issues that arise with the Good News of Christ's resurrection. “Lo, I show you a mystery - share a kernel of divine revelation, tell you plainly a sacred truth. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of God's eye. The trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall all be changed. For this physical body of flesh and blood must be clothed in the new life of the spirit; and this mortal nature must put on immortality. And when that happened, when it happens that our mortality is clothed in God's eternity, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, 'Death is swallowed up in victory.' Again, 'Death, where is your victory? Where is your sting?' For the sting of death is sin; and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Christ has won the victory, decisively and forever; and God has invited us to share in this victory. God has given us this victory, because God is that good and His Word is that true. God has promised this gift to us with baptism. He has given us a glimpse of this glory with the growth in grace we have experienced along the way. He has offered the down-payment of a foretaste of what will be ours in full when Christ returns in all his kingly glory and that moment comes when God is all-in-all … in Jesus' Name. Amen.
FIRST CORINTHIANS 15: 1-8, 12-20, 32-34, 35-37, 42-44, 50-57
Now I would remind you, brethren, in what terms I preached to you the gospel, which you received, in which you stand, by which you are saved, if you hold it fast - unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me….
Now if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is false and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead….
If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” Come to your right mind....
But some one will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” You foolish man! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body which is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain…. So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a physical body, it is raised to new life in the spirit….
I tell you this, brethren: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Lo! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and this mortal body is clothed in God's eternity, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.