Sermon: "Easter People"

1 Corinthians 15:1–11 - Intro

In Paul’s time, the city of Corinth was the largest and most influential city in southern Greece.

Its key geographical position on the east-west sea route between Italy and Asia Minor made it not just a thriving commercial center but also a hub of missionary activity.

While the church in Corinth struggled to contend with the influences of multiple religious and cultural traditions and beliefs,

it was also experiencing infighting amongst competing factions of Christians,

each of which promoted different beliefs and practices within the church.

The letters we have from Paul give us only one side of a conversation.

But given Paul’s words to the church in Corinth we can deduce that the people there were having a serious issue with competing beliefs about the resurrection.

In fact, Paul spends more time on this topic than any other topic in the letter.

The people in Corinth were wrestling with some of the same questions that we have.   

Is it possible for a human being to return from the dead?

Why would God choose to raise one person over all others?

Couldn’t we just follow Jesus’ teaching without talking about resurrection?

Belief in God’s ability to raise people from the dead was a core belief for some Jewish sects in Paul’s time, but they believed God would raise everyone, at the same time, on the Day of Judgment, at the coming of the Messiah.

Why raise just Jesus? 

And why at that time, when clearly the last days had not arrived?

For Paul, there is no Christian faith unless God has raised Jesus from the dead.

You can almost hear the pleading in his voice in this letter as he makes his case for belief.

We are a people of the resurrection. An Easter People.

If God has not raised Jesus, if God has not claimed victory over death,

writes Paul, then why believe in the gospel at all?

What is the Good News if Jesus does not live?

 

The Rev. Maureen R. Frescott

Congregational Church of Amherst, UCC

February 10, 2019 – Fifth Sunday after Epiphany

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

“Easter People”

What does it mean to be a people of the Resurrection?

What does it mean to believe in restoration and renewal?

What does it mean to believe in redemption – to have faith in second chances – or even third, fourth and fifth chances at new life?

Those of us who live in New England know a thing or two about restoration, renewal, and redemption.

We live in a climate where every year the trees and plants and flowers die off, shed their leaves, or go dormant, plunging us into a frozen and bleak landscape colored only in shades of white, black, grey, and brown for six months at a time.

Our Puritan and Pilgrim forbearers had no choice but to learn how to survive under these conditions – as they strived to make food, supplies, and resources stretch through the cold dark days of winter –

and waited for the world to restore itself with the coming of spring.

A few years back, the editors of Yankee Magazine devoted an entire issue to "Yankee frugality"- the strong cultural drive handed down by our forbearers that compels us to hold onto resources, recycling and repurposing them as needed, in an effort to eek out every last bit of usefulness.

The magazine asked its readers to send in tips, stories, and anecdotes about personal or family thriftiness or prudence and offered a free subscription to whoever had the best tale to tell.

The editors received hundreds of responses – many of which were written on the back of envelopes, on brown paper bags, or on recycled computer paper.

People sent in tips on what to do with worn-out socks and panty hose,

how to continuously reuse tea bags,

and creative ways to repurpose dryer lint and the little balls of cotton that come in pill bottles.

We New Englanders are experts in making things last.

One woman wrote, “I’m so frugal I’ve even kept the same husband for 48 years!”

One reader said before going to bed each night he stopped every clock in his house and then restarted them in the morning, to make the internal workings last longer.

Another wrote about the shoeshine rag he bought for 15¢ the day he joined the army — October 12, 1948.

He used the rag every morning for 15,638 consecutive days.

He wrote: “According to my calculations, my cost is approximately $.0000095 cents per day — a fair return on my investment.”

But the winner of the Yankee Magazine frugality contest was a man who shared a story told by his wife’s grandmother.

While attending a church supper near her home in Massachusetts, she saw an older woman seated near her slap her knee with both hands, and then firmly squeeze her hands together.

After a few moments the woman reached discreetly under her dress and pulled out a dead mouse.

She looked at it thoughtfully for a moment,

then retrieved a used napkin and wrapped the mouse in it saying,

“I’ll take that home for my cat.”

It may be a sign of Yankee frugality to show a reluctance to throw away or let go of something that we feel still has value, purpose, or life left in it.

Might we then say it’s a sign of spiritual frugality to be reluctant to throw away or let go of a belief, a dream, a relationship, or a human life that still has value, purpose, and vitality left in it?

Tales of spiritual frugality are all around us.

Take Jermaine Wilson, the Mayor of Leavenworth, Kansas.

Before he became Mayor, Wilson started a free legal program for those who’ve served time in prison for petty crimes and drug offenses,

to help them have their records expunged,

to make it easier for them to get jobs, rent apartments, and get a fresh start in life.

Jermaine Wilson knows what it means to be given a new life.

As a young man, he had spent 3 years in prison himself for a drug conviction.

After turning his life around he found there weren’t many doors open for young black men who have criminal records.

While it is possible to have minor offenses expunged it can cost thousands of dollars in legal fees to do so,

which means once again, those who have the least amongst us are denied the opportunities that those with money and means are given –

even when what is being offered is restoration and redemption.

I suspect that the reason why Paul was so insistent that his fellow Christians believe in the possibility of resurrection was because he had experienced it himself.

Not only because he claimed to have witnessed it,

in the vision he had of the risen Christ on the road to Damascus,

but also because Paul himself was living proof that restoration and NEW LIFE in Christ was possible, for those who believed it to be true.

When we read these ancient letters that were sent to the early churches it helps to know something about the community Paul was writing to,

but it also helps to know something about Paul.

Paul was not one of the early adopters of the Christian message.

He was not there at the beginning walking side-by-side with Jesus’ disciples putting in the sweat equity to get the fledgling faith off the ground by recruiting followers and building churches.

For the first few years after Jesus’ death he did the exact opposite.

Paul was a Pharisee, and he loathed the followers of Jesus and everything they stood for.

He thought they were unnecessarily dividing the Jewish community by promoting a false messiah.

And he went out of his way to spread misinformation and propaganda,

painting this new sect of fellow Jews as backwards and barbaric.

We might imagine him whispering in the ears of those he knew could be counted upon to spread doubt and fear:

Did you hear that the followers of Jesus believe they are EATING the body of their messiah, and DRINKING his blood? 

Do you see the way they gather in insular communities, pooling their resources, and ignoring the social and religious customs and structures that we all hold dear?

Do you hear how they talk about their messiah being raised from the dead,

as if that were actually possible and as if they expect educated and devout people of the true faith to actually believe it?

But Paul went beyond spreading distrust and misinformation about the Christian communities forming in his midst.

He openly persecuted them.

He sent spies into the catacombs and backroom gatherings of those who claimed to be following The Way of Jesus. 

He intercepted personal letters and gathered names, making lists of those who belonged to this cultish community or professed its beliefs.

He had them dragged out of their homes, beaten, and thrown in jail.

The Book of Acts tells us that Paul was not only present at the stoning of Stephen, the first follower of Jesus to be killed for his beliefs,

but Paul was the one who ordered it.

To go from stoning Jesus’ followers to building churches in Jesus’ name was a huge shift in Paul’s life trajectory.

To go from devoting one’s life to perpetuating fear and discord to devoting one’s life to spreading a message of love and peace is a true example of restoration and redemption.

One might even say it’s a true example of resurrection.

Paul DID believe that Jesus rose from the dead and he based his entire system of faith upon it.  How could he not?

Given what he had seen, and what he had experienced with his own change of heart.

Nothing short of a miraculous resurrection could have done that.

Paul counters the disbelief of the people of Corinth by reciting a lengthy list of witnesses, including the disciples themselves and 500 additional people 

(many of whom were still alive by the way if anyone wanted to go ask them themselves) – but Paul recites this list with a sense of frustration in his voice.

As if he’d grown tired of having to do it,

as he’d likely done many times before.

If the people of Corinth, and the other early Christian communities,

had trouble accepting the resurrection as truth, when they lived amongst those who claimed to have seen it with their own eyes,

what hope do we have?

We have no choice but to take it on faith – that 2000+ years ago, a man named Jesus walked the earth, took a lot of risks in the name of love,

ended up being killed for his efforts, and then rose from the dead –

as living proof that love cannot be conquered by fear –

that life is stronger than death…

And that every life – no matter how broken, misused, or abused –

brings with it the possibility of renewal, restoration, and redemption.

Presbyterian minister, the Rev. Lewis Galloway writes:

Whenever Christ turns a life around, heals a relationship,

transforms a bitter heart, forgives a wrongdoing, teaches a fearful person to love, or shows a self-centered person how to give, there is a witness ready to take the stand to tell the good news of God’s grace.

Paul was just such a witness, as are we.

Think about a transformation you’ve experienced

or witnessed in your own life.

How has the GOOD NEWS of the possibility of such a resurrection changed you? 

And how does it continue to change you?

We are witnesses of the power of restoration, renewal, and redemption.

We are an Easter People.

Thanks be to God, and Amen.