If this
works better, or rather, if this is what you needed to hear today, you have 8
o’clockers to thank for the improvement.
I knew I needed to discuss the Resurrection. That was never seriously an internal debate,
at least until Friday. The problem was
that I was boring myself. Those who have
been here a while and heard me preach know the danger of me preaching on a text
with which I am too familiar. In
reality, that’s only Job, 1 Corinthians, and Mark. I did a Masters on Job and have translated
the latter two. I can write a mean
academic report. But those put
congregants to sleep. My job is to
excite you, cajole you, comfort you, and do anything but put you to sleep when
it comes to God’s Word. But imagine the
familiarity with the text when one has declined every single noun and
adjective, conjugated every single verb and verbal, dealt with all the idioms,
and then chosen how to translate each word into English. That’s my preparation on those three books.
I have
discovered over the years, though, that my work in Corinthians has given me a .
. . let’s call it a deep understanding and appreciation . . . for the
systematic theology spelled out by the Apostle Paul. That appreciation and understanding, of
course, has led me back, time and time again, to the systematic theology of the
torah. One cannot read one without the
other. If we read Paul without that
zealous commitment to the torah, we miss much of what it is exactly fulfilled
by the life and ministry of God’s Anointed, Jesus. Similarly, if we fall victim to that
nonsensical idea that Paul was not work and not writing as one empowered by the
Holy Spirit, then we lose the perspective that what Paul was doing was truly
God’s work. In a nutshell, Paul was
fulfilling God’s promise made to Abraham and Sarah however many years ago, that
God’s people would be a light to the world, a nation of priests. There is a myth in parts of the Church that
Pauline theology is somehow unattached to or a misreading or a misappropriation
of the message of Jesus of Nazareth.
There’s a myth that Paul took parts he like about Jesus’ teachings and
buried parts he did not like in order to create a religious system in his own
image. Heck, I have seen “experts”
declare that the Christian religion is more based on Paul than on the life and
teaching of Jesus of Nazareth. I see the
nods. You’ve heard and seen them, too.
Paul’s
letter to the church in Corinth could easily be a letter to the church in
Brentwood. Corinth, as many of you know,
was a city of some means and privilege.
Oh, none of us would want to move back there. The hotels were made Motel 6’s look good; the
restaurants were not what we are used to; the plumbing needed more invention;
there was no electricity; modern conveniences were simply lacking. But, in that context at that time, it was a
great place in which to live. Those
chartered to settle the city were made Roman citizens. Those of you who have seen maps assume that
everyone was a Roman in the Mediterranean Basin. At its geographic height, there were only
120,000 or so citizens. Corinth’s
founders were granted citizenship by Caesar as a reward for their military
service. So they had that privilege going.
In most
places in the Roman world, there was a great disparity between the lower class
and the ruling class. Corinth, though,
had a pretty good sized middle class.
All kinds of businesses thrived there because of the portage businesses. Corinth made a living transporting cargo or
entire ships from one side of town to the other. The 3.3 mile portage saved as much as a full
month at sea, and the risk to cargo.
But, that meant portage businesses needed to be established. And restaurants. And hotels.
And . . . all kinds of service industries. Tailors had a thriving business. Home builders did just fine. Shipbuilders had an opportunity to do repair
work. You get the idea. Corinth was a bustling community.
By virtue
of its businesses and wealth, it was also a place where a number of religions
found a purchase. All the Roman gods
were, of course, honored there. Other
Mediterranean gods also found a home in Corinth. Given his travels around the basin, it is not
that surprising that Paul found himself there and aware of the problems facing
the fledgling church. An easy but
disgusting example was the apparent willingness of affluent Romans to gather
and eat feasts in front of those who could not afford food. Another was the tolerance of a man sleeping
with his step mom. Another was the
Corinthians penchant for ranking the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and so on. Paul had much to say about all these issues
facing the Corinthian Christians, much as he has to say to us
Brentwood/Southern Nashville Christians on those same issues.
If you
read the letter, Paul spends a great deal of time addressing these pastoral
issues and detailing the proper attitudes and behaviors that should be found in
disciples of Christ. What makes Paul’s
teaching so interesting is that he can appeal to the various factions within
the church at Corinth and show why allegiance to Christ trumps all else. You
think it great you are a Roman citizen? This
is not our inheritance. We are just
passing through like Abraham. You have wealth and so think yourself
blessed by God? If you let brothers
and sisters starve before you or go homeless before you, you have received your
reward. Paul does a masterful job, we
might say Spirit-empowered job, addressing the behaviors and underlying
attitudes and the expectant result of those who claim Christ as Lord, and he
does so as an equal. The things they
value, he has cast aside because of the Resurrection of his Lord Jesus.
It is
that Resurrection, of course, upon which everything in his letter turns. It is the Resurrection also that causes much
of the scandal in the world around us when they hear the Gospel. I am often amazed at the number of clergy in
churches that reject the Resurrection because science has taught them better. There are tons of better paying jobs with
much better hours and far less emotional and spiritual weight than being a
clergy. How someone does it without the
hope of the Resurrection is way beyond my grey matter. But there are far more people who claim to be
Christian sitting in pews, or likely at home, who share in that disbelief. We think we know what we know, and we
disregard whatever does not fit in our epistemological boxes. Of all the testimony about Jesus, the
Resurrection is the most outside those boxes.
Those of
you in church in January probably remember the appointment of Dean John to
replace Archbishop Bernard as ambassador for Justin and Francis. Dean John famously preached to his
congregation in Perth that they needed to move beyond the literal belief that
Jesus of Nazareth was raised from the dead, that God could not contravene the
laws of science He put in place. Those
working toward closer relationships between the Anglicans and Romans were
utterly shocked that such a man could be tapped to serve as the bridge between
the two. Sadly, his view, whatever it is
in light of his subsequent retraction/clarification, is not that unusual in the
Church.
The world
is nervous about such things as well, though it does not necessarily recognize
its nervousness. Most of you know I am a
nerd and, thanks be to God, I have some nerd children. We watch and read a lot of science fiction
fantasy in our house. How does science
fiction fantasy feel about Resurrection?
In truth, it’s a struggle toward which many strive but a possibility
that many fear. Take for example
ST:TNG. In a famous episode, a
scientist, who married a former love of Captain Picard, succeeds in overlaying
his cognitive functions on Data’s positronic brain. In short, he takes over the body of Data. How does that go? Though the writers do not explore the fear as
much as I would like now, the scientist is truly disembodied. He loses his sense of humanity and
humility. He thinks he knows, better
than all those around him, what they are feeling, wanting, desiring. In the end, of course, he becomes a monster
possessed of great strength and super human intelligence.
How about
the movie that starred Johnny Depp as a great scientist? That story is more of a love story, but
similar to the one from Star Trek.
Depp’s character succeeds in uploading his consciousness into a
mainframe built for that purpose. He
recognizes that, for all his accomplishment, he is limited by input and ability
to act. He fashions . . . what,
androids, to accomplish his tasks.
Sensors go up everywhere to provide him with information. Again, the disembodied scientist ends up at
enmity with all those on his team and, most especially, his girlfriend.
I share
these episodes not because I think they are great Emmy or Oscar worthy
narratives, but because they capture two fundamental truths about the human
condition first revealed by God. (1) We
are embodied creatures. Period. You and I were created to inhabit a
body. Bodies are somehow essential to
what it means to be human, at least in God’s eyes. This should not surprise you at all. When God created each thing, what did He say
about it? That’s right! It is good.
At the end of each day, when God finishes His assigned task, He
pronounces it good. Unlike all the other
ANE religions, and even most of those from elsewhere in the world, God says
matter is good. For all the other
cultures, matter was, at best tolerated, and, at worst, considered “yucky.”
You and I
are descended mostly from Greco-Roman stock.
How did our cultural ancestors view matter? It was yucky.
It was distasteful. To this day
we think spirit is somehow better than matter.
It’s invaded all parts of our thinking, even our thoughts on the
afterlife. How many of you think or
thought that, upon your death, part of you will float up to be with God? How many of you assume you will drift to an
empty cloud to play a harp? You are
laughing, but we all know we have heard it, right? We all know that story. The body is bad; the spirit is good. Heck, why do you think people in the Ancient
Near East found the idea of the Incarnation so scandalous? God becoming human? Why would a god want to become human? Sure, they could take on a form to impregnate
a beautiful girl or to dally with a handsome man, but become human? No god in his or her right mind would ever do
something that disgusting. They were
incorruptible and our bodies were the definition of corruption. We get old and die. We get sick.
We experience pain. Who wants
that? Certainly not a god.
If we are
embodied creatures, if we truly are meant to have bodies, what do you think
eternal life will look like? That’s
right, (2) there will be bodies. Jesus
clearly had a body upon His Resurrection.
The passages where Jesus eats with and drinks with His disciples is to
demonstrate He is not a ghost. There is
something real and tangible about Him.
To be sure, He can travel hundreds of miles in a blink of an eye and
pass through locked doors, but there is a body doing those things. There is a body in which Thomas declines to
stick his fingers. There is a body to
which Mary tries to cling that Easter morning.
There are bodies which are not given in marriage in the age to
come. Over and over and over, Jesus and
His disciples remind us that our bodies are truly part of us. They belong to us.
It is at
this point that folks start wondering what the body will be like. I tell them “Better than we can ask or
imagine.” I joke somewhat about my
experience. When I met Karen, I had a
good body – she was not cooking for me then!
But I was lifting lots and exercising.
I had arms. I also had an orange
streak of hair because I was downwind of some chemicals before we met. So, when I tell people what body I want, I
want that body with normal colored hair.
And, if Karen overhears that, she adds “with real hair, not that buzz cut.” She’s nodding. What can I say, it was easy to care for!
Even Paul
understands the Resurrection will involve a body. Paul’s understanding is, to me,
fascinating. Paul was the chief
prosecutor and persecutor of those who first followed the Way. His zeal for the law was famous, and the
Temple authorities gave him carte blanche to root out this teaching and
preaching that Jesus was the Anointed of God.
Paul truly believed he was doing God’s work. Paul truly believed he was doing what God had
commanded all the people of Israel.
All that
changed, of course, on the road to Damascus.
Critics here will want to say But,
Brian, he really only heard the voice and was blinded by the glory of God. He did not really see the body. Horsecrap!
What do you think blinded him?
Paul knew, once Jesus identified Himself, to whom it was he was
speaking. And it was that knowledge that
changed everything for Paul!
One of
the reasons we go to seminary for three years is that Paul spent three years in
the desert reordering what he thought he understood about God. How could God become human? How could God suffer and die? How could God raise the dead to life? And about a billion other questions. Paul had to reconcile what he had learned
studying under Gamaliel with the reality that Jesus of Nazareth stood before
him AFTER dying on the Cross. Words
cannot explain the mind-blowing experience.
Paul was forced to examine everything taught by Moses, the prophets, the
psalmist, and the wisdom literature authors in light of the Incarnation, death,
and Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.
This was the game changer, to way way way way way oversimplify our
understanding, of salvation history!
No wonder
it is so hard for some among us to accept it.
Heck, it was hard for the folks in the ANE and even in Corinth to accept
the truth of the claim. How does one
explain the Resurrection in terms that people can understand, absent that
encounter experience by Paul or Peter or Thomas or Mary? Paul turns to agriculture. The seeds we plant are nothing like the
plants that spring forth from them. Does
the wheat grain look like the plant? A kernel
of corn like the plant? A mustard seed
like the plant it produces? Of course
not. We readily accept that those seeds
produce those plants, but heaven forbid we think faith in Christ will give us a
new body, right? That’s part of Paul’s
argument. The people in Corinth have an
agricultural example that explains, in part, what will happen to them.
At some
point they, like us, will die. Their
bodies will be buried . . . like a seed.
At some point in the future, when God gives the growth, a new,
imperishable, glorious body will replace the dishonored and sinful body we now
inhabit.
Paul
tries to explain it to them and us using image of God language, too. Adam and Eve were created in the image of
God, that’s a fundamental truth revealed at the beginning of Scripture. Each of us bears the image of the generations
who came before. We are like bad copies
or bad copies of bad copies (with a lot of copies in between), of our ancestors
Adam and Eve—these bodies are corruptible.
Now, however, we are heirs of the Man of heaven. By virtue of our baptism, we have died to
self and are promised a share in all Christ’s inheritance. He is the Son of God, the firstborn to use
Paul’s language, but we are all heirs.
In everything. Period. That includes a Resurrected, imperishable,
glorious body! It is that promise that
gives us great hope, to use Paul’s language and teaching from earlier in the
letter. It is that realized body that
will allow us to remove the veil and see each other and God as He created each
of us.
Paul
lived in a world that understood the human condition. Sometime, depending on those with whom I
speak, I think those in Paul’s world understood the human condition far better
than we. But I know, I know in my
deepest parts, that people are people.
There were wise folks and foolish folks and all kinds of in between
folks, just like there are today. Paul’s
teaching speaks to all them, regardless of the age in which they live and the
location. I handed on to you as of first importance what I had, in turn received:
that Christ died for our sins, and that He was buried, and that He was raised
on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. If we deny the Resurrection, brothers and
sisters, we are denying our faith and dishonoring God. So important is that understanding that Paul
spends nearly two full chapters discussing its implications. For Paul, and us, the Resurrection is the capstone
event of salvation history. It is the
one thread upon which all the other threads in the tapestry are based. Pull it, and the tapestry falls apart. But if it is true. If what Mary and Peter and Thomas and Paul and
all the experienced was true, what a tapestry!
What a hope! And the truth of
that event, of course, is enshrined in our liturgy. Each and every time we gather, we remember
His death, we proclaim His Resurrection, and we await His coming in glory. Those words of first importance, those words
of proclaimed mystery serve as the basis for the Thanksgiving we celebrate each
and every time we gather as His people.
Like us,
the ANE had lots of examples of suffering.
Prometheus was famously tortured for giving humanity the gift of
fire. Sisyphus was famously condemned to
a futile task. Over and over again, ANE
theologies discussed suffering and its meaning.
Over and over again, ANE theologies, in particular, came to understand that
our reaching for the gods was threatening to them. There were even stories of gods dying and
rising again, but they died gods and were raised as gods, emulating the seasons
of the earth. Only one story, however,
told the story of God reaching down to humanity. Only one story told the story of God wanting
His people to dwell with Him. Only one story
told the story of God tabernacling with His people. Only one story told the story of God
redeeming His people. And that story, my
brothers and sisters, is our story. There
is a reason that the story was shared and shared and shared, despite
persecution and the possibility of death, until an emperor, nearly 300 years
later, heard it and converted. There is
a reason that story continues to be shared today, comforting and scandalizing
folks as it did nearly two thousand years ago.
What makes
the story the Gospel, what makes it truly THE GOOD NEWS, is the
Resurrection. If God has power to redeem
that over which you and I have no power, namely death, what else can He not
accomplish for us? So important is the Resurrection
that Paul claims it is the hope from which all our hopes hang, and it is that
hope that is of first importance of our faith.
8 o‘clockers teased me gently this morning that I was a bit adamant
about the truth of the bodily Resurrection.
One attendee wondered if my experience of seeing God raise a dying man
as a result of my prayers gave me different perspective. Perhaps.
But he was raised to die again.
Neither he nor his wife nor I nor the doctors nor the nurses thought he
was in an imperishable body. What I
experienced was more like the experience of the widow at Nain or at the tomb of
Lazarus or at the raising of the widow’s son for Elijah. What God promises is exponentially beyond
those experiences! He confirms His power
to keep that promise in the Resurrection of our Lord Christ, and He extends
that promise to all of us who claim Him as Lord.
I know I
have bordered and maybe crossed over the edge of a rant a bit this
morning. If you believed the
Resurrection and had no issues before today, then I apologize for your wasted
time. But for those of us who wrestle
with faith and wrestle with God, what are your thoughts on the Resurrection? Do you find it too fanciful and simply too
good to believe? Do you discount its
importance and, so, undermine your own testimony about God’s redeeming power to
others? Or, like Paul, and all who
profess the faith of the Apostles and disciples, do you believe the
testimonies? Do you believe that He was
raised from the dead? Then, as He
promised Thomas and others so long ago, you are already among the blessed. Jesus recognized the difficulty and declared
that those who have not seen and yet believe as blessed by God. How are we blessed, even though we still live
in this world in these bodies? Thanks to
the Resurrection, we know Jesus’ teachings and promises are trustworthy. Thanks to the Resurrection, we know that the
sacrificial life He calls us to live can be redeemed, even if that sacrifice
asked of us is our very lives. And, for
those who love justice, thanks to the Resurrection we know that God, who is
justice and love and whatever great adjective we use in our descriptions, that
He can vindicate us even as He condemns those who reject Him. So, my brothers and sisters, what say you
about the Resurrection? Do you believe?
In Christ’s Peace,
Brian†
