Grace Congregational UCC

“Jesus' Resurrection and Ours”
I Corinthians 15:12-20
Luke 6:17-26

February 11, 2007 - Kim M. Henning

One Sunday morning, two women woke up convinced that nothing had changed overnight. Two women fell asleep knowing that one day equals twenty-four hours. They woke up believing the same. Two women went to sleep knowing that the sun predictably rises and sets every day. They woke up believing the same. Two women went to sleep—knowing that life begins with birth and ends with death 100% of the time.

One Sunday morning, two women awake at dawn. It was still dark outside. They had spoken the night before, they were going to pay their respects to a beloved friend of theirs and anoint the body. They were full of grief because in a very short period of time they had loved this man so much and they had hoped he would redeem Israel.

But now he was dead. Like it or not, they had to adjust because death is the end. But then one of their life-realities changed. When they came to the tomb, they found that the stone had been rolled away. They tentatively went in, but did not see the body. When suddenly an angel appeared and said, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.”

One Sunday morning, something dramatically changed for two women. Death was not the end.

The story of Jesus’ resurrection is central to our faith. This we believe. But beware: this story requires of us great courage because this story, the story of Jesus’ resurrection sets us at odds with a fundamental law of life—that life ends with death. This story has never been easy.

Paul makes that clear in I Corinthians 15. “Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?” “ If there is not resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been 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.”

(Listen to the careful argument Paul is posing.) He goes on, “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 died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.”

Do you hear Paul? Paul is working so hard with that church in Corinth. They are confused about the cross, he talks about that. They are confused about grace. He talks about that. They are not operating as a church at all—struggles, ego-struggles galore. They were confused about sexual ethics and how to dress appropriately. Paul says somewhere that they are simply, “contentious.”

Do you remember the great Russian author, Dostoevsky? He writes, “The ant knows the formula of her ant-hood. The bee knows the formula of her beehive. Only (the human) do not know their formula,” Dostoevsky writes. The human is always human on the go. (The human) can gain everything, but he can also lose everything. He can find heaven and he can find hell as well.”

Humans do not know their formula. Can you think of a more truthful statement than that? The Apostle Paul knew that the Corinthian Church did not know their formula–what is the good life? What is the meaningful life? What is the faithful life? Every generation must discern and figure it out.

In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul talks about the human formula in many ways.... and here in fifteenth chapter he opens some windows that had never before been opened.

“How can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?” “If Christ has not been raised.....your faith is futile.....”

“If Christ has not been raised, that our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain.”

Paul is preaching. He doesn’t stop. Paul, a believer in Jesus Christ, is convinced that life is more, much more than those two dates that are etched upon the tombstone. “If Christ has not been raised, then the dead are not raised.” “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people, most to be pitied.”

Paul preaches resurrection: Christ’s resurrection and ours. A basic law of our humanity has been changed. Resurrection takes us outside the box of human mortality and says....imagine, just imagine life more than cancer; image power greater than weapons, power greater than the sword.

When this building was designed by an architect, it was designed with a copula above the chancel. In designing that copula above us, we meant to incorporate the thought of Karl Barth who said that worshipers ought always to look up and behold the glory of God. When we confess Jesus Christ, the human formula grows, stretches beyond the finitude that our world is constantly placing upon us. “Eye has not seen, ear has not heard....neither has it entered human imagination what God has prepared for those who love him....”

In Philippians, Paul writes, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his suffering by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection of the dead.” And then Paul says, “our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

It is a noble thing to proclaim, “I believe in the resurrection of the dead.”

When we say, “I believe in the resurrection of the dead” we believe we are accountable for the lives we lived here on earth. We are accountable and responsible.

Jesus tells the story of the rich man and Lazarus, both of whom had passed from this life to the life hereafter. The rich man begs for mercy in the hereafter. The rich man, in the heat of Hades begs that Lazarus come over to wet his tongue. And the paraphrased response that comes back is, ‘what you have sown on earth, you have sown for eternity.’

When we proclaim, “I believe in the resurrection of the dead” we pray for wisdom to live life rightly.”

When we say, “I believe in the resurrection of the dead” we also proclaim that the sufferings of this life are not ultimate. The sufferings are not ultimate. The diseases, the worries, and none of the crosses we bear are ultimate.

I have been preparing, since Christmas, a Lenten devotional that will soon be distributed. Every year, I try to focus on something different for that devotional. In years past, we have read several gospels from beginning to end; we have gone verse by verse through the Sermon on the Mount. Every year, something different. This year, I’ve chosen because of my own curiosity, Romans, chapter 8.

In the center of Romans 8, Paul proclaims, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.” There’s quite a statement.

I believe in the resurrection of the dead. A story..... Joni Eareckson Tada was rendered a quadriplegic by a teenage diving accident. She has spent the last two decades in an immense amount of discomfort, and she knows about living in a body that is lowly and hurting.... Listen to Joni ....

“Somewhere in my broken, paralyzed body is the seed of what I shall become. The paralysis makes what I am to become all the more great when you contrast atrophied, useless legs against splendorous resurrected legs. I’m convinced that there are mirrors in heaven, the image I’ll see will be unmistakably “Joni,” although a much better, brighter Joni. So much so, that it’s not worth comparing....I will bear the likeness of Jesus, the man of heaven.”

I believe. Can you say those words with me? “I believe.”

I believe in Christ’s resurrection. “I believe in Christ’s resurrection.”

I believe in my resurrection. “I believe in my resurrection.”