The Resurrection Life
Easter 7B - NL 2
May 12, 2024
Our Savior’s, Faribault, MN
1 Corinthians 15.1-26, 51-58
Dick was a seminary classmate of mine at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. Fast forward several years later, Ron was a member of my congregation. Both of them shocked me in a way I wouldn’t have predicted but would have been home in the Corinthian church of Paul’s time. Dick and I were working together on a class project by constructing theology through the intersection of religion and science. (Our portion dealt with the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion.) At some point, Dick offhandedly commented, “Belief in the resurrection isn’t that important to me.” I was so stunned I didn’t know how to respond. I knew I would hear some unsettling things at seminary but that wasn’t one of them. How could someone be a Lutheran pastor and not believe in the resurrection?
Several years later, I was preparing to do the funeral of Ron, a faithful member of my congregation who was almost always present at worship. When meeting with his family, I was shocked when his son admonished me not to talk about the resurrection because “Dad didn’t believe in it. Church was all about being a good person.” For Ron, Christianity was the message, one of forgiveness, grace, hard labor, and human kindness. So, reluctantly, that was the Good News that I preached.
Today is the Seventh Sunday of Easter and we come down near the end of the Easter season, which will culminate in Pentecost next Sunday (wear red!). Today we continue to hear how the early church lived out the implications of Jesus’ resurrection. During this season, we have gone from the book of Acts to dipping our toe in the waters of 1 Thessalonians and have been in 1 Corinthians the last few weeks. The city of Corinth was (and still is) a diverse and strategic city in Southern Greece, the capital city of what was then the Roman province of Achaia. The young church at Corinth mirrored many of its characteristics in diversity. Paul has a special relationship with the church he founded and cares for it deeply. He replies to a series of letters they have written and not only responds to their questions but also addresses concerns of his own.
It’s hard to imagine churches squabbling over difference, but the Corinthian church has many internal divisions. These included disagreements about which of their favorite theologians to follow, whose baptism is better, and which spiritual gifts are the most desirable. Adding insult to injury, wealthier members have marginalized the poorer members by eating all the food and getting drunk before the poorer members are able to join them. That’s what Paul means in chapter 11 about eating the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner. So, Paul reminds them that they are to follow Christ who is not divided, that they have been baptized into Christ not a theologian, that all spiritual gifts are needed and celebrated in love, and they are to treat their poorer members with respect.
But Paul saves his greatest concern for last: that some in the Corithian church were denying the resurrection. It’s as if some of us were to say, “Easter was seven weeks ago, that’s old news. Let’s move on.” We don’t know exactly what they were thinking, but we can make some good guesses. The Greeks understood the soul and body to be two separate, distinct entities and that when the body died the spirit was left. So they thought that the resurrection meant a spiritual one, not a bodily one. They thought that Jesus’ resurrection already resulted in a spiritual resurrection for them and their bodies no longer mattered.
In a tour de force, Paul lays out a brilliant and forceful case for Jesus’ resurrection and its implications. Not only was Jesus’ bodily resurrection attested by many, he declares that those who are baptized into Christ will also be raised. He says that you cannot have one resurrection without the other. Paul goes on to speculate on how this might happen and what the order will be. But he ends on what is the most important point in his argument, that death has been destroyed forever.
Paul drives home the point that the resurrection is a cosmologically changing event. The resurrection is a pivotal point in history, one spanning from creation to consummation. In a deeply mysterious event, the resurrection, death has been swallowed up in victory won by Jesus. Death is not the last word nor is it the most important word. As Paul emphasizes in Romans, there is nothing that can separate us from God’s love, not even death.
So, where is this leading? What’s the point in all this? For starters, I hope that my classmate Dick discovered that the resurrection is vitally important to those whom he serves even though it isn’t to him. And I hope that people like Ron realize that there’s more to the Christian life than living a good life, as important as that is. In fact, it’s because of Jesus' resurrection and the promised resurrection for us that we don’t have to worry about our future. Because our future is secure we are freed up to live the resurrection life right now, not because our bodies don’t matter but because they do. What we do matters. Our bodies matter. On their best days, those mothers among us and those mothering parts of all of us understand this deeply. And the work of Habitat for Humanity, the Ministry Partner we are highlighting today knows that what we do matters. So, Siblings in Christ, continue to excel in the work of the Lord because your labor in the Lord is not in vain. Thanks be to God. Amen.
