Over the past several weeks, we have been reflecting
on the “Joy of Christ.”
At Christ United Methodist Church, where I serve as Senior Pastor, “The
Joy of Christ” has always been an important theme. For instance, it is proudly displayed on the
inside wall of our Family Life Center (gym).
We began this series of reflections by exploring how we can experience
the Joy of Christ through serving others. Last week, we discovered that the Joy of
Christ can lead to an abundant life, when we strive to live our lives
in a manner that reflects the teachings and ministry of Christ. This Sunday, we will conclude the series of
reflections by reflecting on ways in which the Joy of Christ can
give us confidence for the future.
Everyone
experiences fear and anxiety from time-to-time.
As unique, individualized persons, we experience fear and anxiety in
very personal ways. We are a unique,
individualized species with varying dreams and commitments. Yet, despite our differences, almost all
persons experience some fear and anxiety about one common thing: our individual death. Each of us knows that ultimately, we will
each die someday. And, we know that
there is nothing to prevent our ultimate death.
So, the typical human live must be lived with shadows of
our ultimate death lurking off on the horizon.
Yet,
Christians are not typical. Although we
certainly live with the reality that our death remains lurking ahead of us, we
also live with the promise of Christ that he will never abandon us; that we
will one day be resurrected, just as he was on Easter Sunday. For we have this promise that God’s love for
each of us is so deep and that God wishes to be in relationship with us,
forever. This promise is guaranteed by
God through the crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christ’s Resurrection offers the guarantee
and promise that God’s love for us will not be broken; that one day, we too
will be resurrected and transformed as children of God.
So, the
Joy of Christ should always include the confidence that
through the love of God, we do not have to fear or be anxious about death because
of Christ’s promise of life eternal.
The Apostle Paul elaborates on this confidence in his letter
to the Christians in Corinth:
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 no 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. 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. For since death came
through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a
human being…” (1 Corinthians 15:12-21)
Although twenty-first century Christians tend to ignore or
overlook it, the truth is that many people who were living at the time of the
early church doubted the resurrection of the dead. Greek and Roman views ranged from believing
that resurrection was impossible to allowing that perhaps resurrection could
occur in isolated miraculous events, such as the resurrection of a deceased
monarch. Similarly, within Judaism,
there were divided opinions. On the one
hand, the Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the dead, while the Sadducees
rejected resurrection. Among the
Corinthians, it seems likely that a great many of them doubted the possibility
of a general resurrection of the dead.
At the same time, it appears that all of the Corinthians believed in the
possibility of resurrection in some sort of miraculous manner, including the
resurrection of Christ.
As a former Pharisee, the Apostle Paul deeply believes in
the general resurrection. Further, the
Apostle Paul believes that the Resurrection of Christ marks a cosmic tipping
point in the history of the universe. The
Resurrection marks the in-breaking of God’s Reign here on earth. Obviously, when we look around at our world
today, it is sometimes hard to discern the reign of God. Yet, for Paul, we can be confident that the
reign of God has begun and will eventually come to fruition. God continues to be active in the world,
creating, re-creating, and redeeming. At
the end of time, when Christ comes again, God will transform us and all of the
world into a New Creation, existing in a new and deeper relationship of love
with God.
So, in his letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul
wants to convince them of the reality of a general resurrection which will
occur when Christ comes again and God’s Kingdom is fully established. To convince the Corinthians, Paul begins at a
point in which they all agree: the Resurrection
of Christ. He begins this passage by arguing
that if Christ has actually been resurrected, then it must follow that there
will be a generalized, physical resurrection of all his disciples. As the Biblical scholar, Paul Sampley, writes:
“For
Paul, the two claims–that Christ has been raised and that others will be
raised–are inseparable. The one leads ineluctably, but only later, to the
other; the latter is simply the yet-to-be finishing of what God has begun in
the former. So the future resurrection of the dead is a consequence of Christ’s
having been raised. God’s faithfulness assures that.”[i]
For Paul, the Resurrection
of Christ marks this cosmic tipping point.
In his resurrection, Jesus gives the faithful a foretaste of what is to
come for them; that they will experience a physical resurrection. At the same time, the Resurrection is also
God’s cosmic guarantee that God’s work of redemption will ultimately prevail
and all of Creation will be transformed into a New Creation.
Later, in this chapter,
Paul takes up an objection to his claim of a bodily, physical resurrection, which
he has undoubtedly already heard. This
objection concerns what we will look like, when we have been resurrected. For instance, what will a man who lives to a
ripe, old age look like, after his resurrection. Will he look like he did as a young man? Or, will he appear as he did in middle
age? Or, will he appear as he did at the
moment of his death? Paul responds:
But someone will ask, ‘How are the dead raised? With what
kind of body do they come?’ Fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And as for what you sow, you do not sow the
body that is to be, but a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a
body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.
Here,
Paul uses the metaphor of a seed being planted, to meet this objection,
concerning what we how we will appear after our physical resurrection. Yet, the seed metaphor goes even further than
simply meeting an objection about appearance.
When the seed is planted in the soil and then germinates and sprouts, it
has also been transformed into a plant.
Similarly, we expect that when God’s redeems the physical world at the
end of time, that all of Creation will be transformed into a New Creation.
As followers of Christ, we are called
to live lives of joyful confidence, knowing that even death itself will be
defeated by the love of God, and that we will be transformed into New Creatures
through God’s work of redeeming the universe.
When we live with this confidence, then we experience the Joy of
Christ at a newer, deeper level.
Experiencing the joy of Christ at this deeper level changes how we read the
Bible and the world.
When we read the Bible, we know and understand that no matter
what happens, in the end, God’s love will prevail; all wrongs and injustices
will be righted and all tears will be dried.
Further, when we come to accept that God’s plan for redeeming the world
extends beyond just humans to include all of life, then we realize that God’s
love is not restricted to just human life.
No, God loves all life. But, it
is only to human persons that God has also given the responsibility to care for
all of Creation. From this, it follows
that Christian disciples should view all life as sacred and to be cared for.
If you live in the Lincoln,
Nebraska area and do not have a place of worship, then I invite you to come and
join us at Christ United Methodist Church this Sunday, September 1st, where we
will conclude our series of reflections on the Joy of Christ, by focusing
on what it means live with confidence in the love of Christ.
Christ UMC is located at 4530 “A”
Street. We have three worship services
on Sunday mornings at 8:30, 9:45, and 11:00.
The 8:30 and 11:00 services feature a traditional worship format and the
services are held in our Sanctuary. “The
Gathering” at 9:45 is held in our Family Life Center (gym), and it is more
informal and interactive.
Come, join us. Everyone is welcome and accepted because God
loves us all.
[i]
J. Paul Sampley, Commentary on 1 Corinthians in
the New Interpreter’s Bible, vol 10, (Nashville,
Abingdon Press, 2002), CD-ROM Edition.
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