Death Swallowed in Life
SENIOR BLESSING
1 Corinthians 15:1-10a, 51-57
Watch the video:
...or listen to audio:
...or download a printer-friendly PDF file [click here]
...or read it online here:
We’re bearing down on the end of the Easter season.
Next week Pentecost marks the official end
of Easter season in the church year.
So I’m glad Sam chose two joyful Easter hymns today.
We already sang one, and there’s one more coming.
1 Corinthians 15 is often called the “resurrection chapter.”
It’s an inspiring, encouraging, hopeful case for resurrection,
and . . . it’s always been a little hard to get hold of.
Just speaking for myself,
1 Cor. 15 is challenging for at least two reasons.
The first reason has to do with
the historical context of the church in Corinth.
The second has to do with our context.
So first, Corinth.
We don’t really know the precise questions
causing conflict in the church at Corinth,
to which the apostle Paul was so forcefully responding
in this chapter on resurrection.
We do know these questions were dividing the church,
and we know Paul was passionate in his response,
and we know Paul felt the very ground of their faith in Jesus
was at stake.
We can guess, but we don’t know with any precision,
the actual argument in the church, around resurrection.
So that alone makes this chapter a bit challenging.
But then add our context into the mix.
We live in an age and a culture shaped deeply
by a scientific and rational world view,
where our default posture toward resurrection
is to make it a kind of metaphor for life,
or at least to spiritualize it.
So our approach to resurrection
doesn’t mesh very well with Paul’s pointed words
in 1 Corinthians 15.
If we, today, would walk around town,
saying out loud to random people
the things Paul says in this chapter,
people would likely turn away,
avoid eye contact,
and assume some kind of mental disturbance.
Especially some of parts we skipped over between v. 10 and 51,
where Paul points to baptism on behalf of the dead,
as evidence for resurrection,
or to his fighting wild animals at Ephesus as more evidence.
Or Paul’s philosophy that there is one kind of flesh for humans,
another kind for animals, another for birds, another for fish.
It’s all just a little incomprehensible.
Even Paul’s last joyful and triumphant refrain,
stretches our rationality—
“when the last trumpet sounds,
our perishable bodies in the grave will
clothe themselves with the imperishable, and be raised.”
It’s all just a little hard to talk about in a way that makes sense,
unless we speak of resurrection as a spiritual reality,
some high-level metaphor for life.
But Paul isn’t saying that.
It won’t surprise you that scholars don’t agree entirely,
on how to read this chapter.
But it is safe to say,
resurrection was a very real argument in Paul’s day,
an argument that followers of Jesus were deeply invested in,
from very early on.
Why?
Most people, the apostle Paul included,
believed that Christ’s return to earth, the end of the age,
would occur in their lifetime.
So resurrection was something that needed sorting out.
It was a justice issue. A fairness issue.
It wouldn’t be fair, when Jesus returned, very soon,
if it was only those still alive,
that got to be part of the heavenly kingdom,
and got to rule with Christ on David’s throne.
While, unfortunately,
those who died in the 20+ years since Jesus was around—
maybe even died a martyr—
would just miss out on this new kingdom.
That wouldn’t be right.
So early on, among Jesus’ followers,
a core message of their preaching,
was that we shared with Jesus, not only his humanity.
We also shared, and partook of his resurrection.
We shared in Jesus’ heavenly nature, in his immortality.
For early disciples, belief in resurrection led directly to
a firmer trust in God’s goodness,
in God’s just and righteous nature,
and a stronger commitment to follow Jesus, no matter the cost.
Because if they believed their own resurrection was coming,
they would be more willing to risk their lives.
When the heat was on, they would stay faithful to Jesus.
_____________________
It seems to me that in our context—
with our scientific and evidence-based worldview,
and with our relative wealth, and comfort, and safety,
and freedom, and choice,
resurrection doesn’t have the same gravity for us.
Compared to the first followers of Jesus,
we don’t have as much skin in the game.
And I think the same is true,
if we compare ourselves to our 16th-century Anabaptist ancestors.
_____________________
So where am I going with all this…?
How should we read this chapter today,
so that it actually makes a difference in how we live our lives?
It made a real difference for Paul’s readers,
who were expecting, in their own lifetime,
for Jesus to come back and set up the new kingdom in Jerusalem.
Without a theology of resurrection,
the world wasn’t fair,
Jesus’ promise of a new kingdom was a hollow promise,
and their faith was in vain.
But with a robust theology of resurrection,
they had reason to keep the faith, to stay engaged.
So what is the practical difference for us today,
who realize the Kingdom of heaven has a long timeline,
who live in a scientific and rational world,
and who have a secure and comfortable life in the here and now?
Is there a theology of resurrection that still matters,
on a daily basis?
Do we still need resurrection?
Do we still have skin in the game, so to speak?
_____________________
I believe we do.
For me, it’s not a physical argument.
I really don’t feel like I have a lot invested in being right
about the mechanics and nature of physical resurrection,
or about what an imperishable body looks like,
compared to a perishable one.
For myself, guided by my understanding of what this actually meant
to Paul’s first-century readers,
it comes down to this:
Resurrection is a theology of hope.
To believe in resurrection is to assert
that God’s purposes are sure,
and that God is not yet finished with us and the world.
If 1 Corinthians 15 helped followers of Jesus stay hopeful enough
to keep the faith,
to stay engaged in the struggle,
to work to make their world a better place,
then there’s no reason it shouldn’t do exactly the same for us.
A theology of hope,
a theology that trusts God’s purposes,
a theology that God isn’t finished with us, or the world,
is exactly the theology I need
to live courageously in a world like ours.
For me to stay engaged,
I need to know God’s work is not yet finished.
I need to know there is goodness in the universe
beyond my own small existence.
I need to have hope.
In the face of a world full of death,
I need to know that death isn’t the last word.
Or, as Paul put it, in a fascinating turn of phrase . . .
“death has been swallowed”…swallowed.
Paul could have used a more straightforward phrase like,
“death has been defeated” or “destroyed” or “done away with.”
But here, he says, “death has been swallowed” by life.
In Paul’s world, followers of Jesus just kept on dying.
Paul and his fellow travelers lived with daily threat of death.
And all “Easter people” still deal with the harsh reality of death,
and other life-draining evil, all around them.
I think Paul wanted to tell everyone, us included,
that resurrection life does not do away with death—it swallows it.
Life overwhelms death.
Life eats death.
It swallows it, consumes it, digests it,
lets it be transformed into something new.
It puts death in its place.
You might say in this resurrection chapter, 1 Corinthians 15,
the God of life is defining the narrative.
Death and the grave have no power to control the narrative.
They have neither the last word or the first word.
We are invited into a narrative of life.
And into a community that lives by that narrative.
Resurrection may not be rational or empirical.
But it is an overarching narrative that redefines the universe.
_____________________
So this morning I say to our graduating high school seniors,
and I say to us all:
We have real choices about how we turn and face into a world
where death seems so powerful and prominent,
and is in our awareness constantly.
We need not despair.
We need not run from death, or run from suffering.
In hope, we can proclaim the truth of God’s victory over the grave.
We can proclaim, with Paul,
that death has been swallowed by life,
and then live like we believe it.
May God help you, Hannah, Sophie, Silas, and Eleanor.
And may God help us all.
—Phil Kniss, May 12, 2024
[To leave a comment, click on "comments" link below]
No comments:
Post a Comment