From the Pastor |
1 Cor. 15:35-38, 42-50 & Luke 6: 27-38
Have you ever noticed just how many movies and shows there are that deal with the idea of resurrection? Well… not in the religious sense… but in a manner that seems to have grabbed the attention of so many people. I’m talking about the fascination we seem to have (myself included) with zombies. Ever since Night of the Living Dead premiered in 1968… right up to the very popular The Walking Dead series now… zombies have become extremely popular… and terrifying. Now… I don’t know what the people in the church at Corinth were thinking about when they questioned the idea that the time of resurrection would come… maybe they were thinking of zombies… Maybe they were thinking as the Jews did that the dead would rise in the exact bodies they had in life… or like others who believed that people would rise as spirits… ghosts. They wanted to know “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” There was enough confusion around the subject that Paul felt he had to address it in this letter. So… what will the resurrection of the dead be like? Will we be raised up… exactly as we are? Reanimated? Or will we simply be spirits… incorporeal… like a ghost? Paul’s answer… neither! Paul says that we are like a seed that is planted. That seed is not in the same form… the same body as it will have when it is grown. As it grows, “God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.” That is how it will be when the time for resurrection of the body comes. Like the seed… our earthly bodies are sown and something new will rise. What is sown… is what we are now… perishable… weak… a mortal, physical body. What is raised will be imperishable, raised in glory and power… spiritual. Paul goes on to clarify that when the body is ‘sown’… planted… is not when we are buried after death… but at our birth. We know this because of his comparisons of the first and the last man: Adam vs. Jesus. Adam was created from dust… and earthly being… as Genesis 2:7 tells us “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” … a living soul! A soul planted in a mortal body… subject to decay and limitations of a physical existence… perishable. Contrast this with Jesus… the “last Adam.” Jesus was an earthly being… subject to change and limitations… but he was able to do amazing things because (unlike most of us) he was in tune with the seed that was planted in his mortal body… his spiritual self. However, it was when he was raised from the dead… that we can truly see what resurrection will be like. Jesus became a spiritual being… He had a physical form… the disciples could touch him… feel that he was real and NOT a ghost of some kind… yet… he was different… changed. He was recognizable to those who knew him… but it seems the change was enough that they did not immediately understand that it was Jesus they were talking to… Consider Mary Magdalene… she first thought he was a gardener until he spoke her name… the disciples on the road to Emmaus spent the day with him and did not recognize him until the breaking of the bread… Jesus’ body was changed but his personality and memories were still intact… and now he was truly free from the physical limitations of the mortal body. This is what Paul believes will happen for us as well… “And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.” Our mortal bodies will fail, but one day God will endow our resurrected spirits with a spiritual body… just like Jesus… Please note that this is NOT reincarnation… we will be gifted with bodies that will be changed, but recognizable… a bodies that will be appropriate to our new, glorified existence… maintaining our memories and personalities. Free from the physical pains and limitations of our earthly bodies. We were created as earthly beings just like Adam, but it will be spiritual beings… the ‘new creation’ in Christ that will be raised at our resurrection. If that is not glorious Good News… I don’t know what is. What we need to remember is that the seed was sown… our souls were planted at the time of our birth… This planting does not occur when we die and are buried… it has happened. What we are now… is NOT what we will be, but that transformation has already begun. One day we will all be like Jesus… perfected in love… living as spiritual being in God’s kingdom. But the transformation… the growing begins here in this world… Just like a seed planted in the ground that slowly grows into a plant or tree… we grow and change little by little as we follow Jesus. Accepting Jesus as Lord… being baptized and beginning the journey of discipleship is the start… but that journey… that transformation into the new creation is an on-going, lengthy process. It is not a matter of declaring you believe and… BAM… your done… your changed… just waiting to enter the kingdom. No! This transformation from what we are now to what we will be is a journey that does not end in this life. Like that seed… we continue to grow… we slowly mature as Disciples of Christ when we care for and tend our “seed” of faith… when we follow where Jesus leads us… when we strive to follow his commands and live as he lived. Our scriptures clearly tell us how to do this… by living out the Laws of Our God… the Laws of Love… summarized by Jesus: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” [Matt. 22:37-39] And today he greatly expands the meaning of the second command… Love your neighbor… to include even those we would rather not… “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you…” After all… Jesus reminds us that loving those who love us is easy… even ‘sinners’ do that… doing good for those who do good to us is easy… even our worst enemy can do that… That is no big deal… but followers of Christ… those striving to become a new creation in Christ… they are called to be different… better… “love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High…” Living God’s ways is definitely NOT easy. The ways of the world are much easier… tempting us to turn away from those who do us wrong… hating those who hurt us… allowing our anger to push aside the need to forgive... When someone hurts us, we want to respond in kind… When someone takes from us, we want to take back. But the ways Jesus, tells us something completely different… it calls us to see one another as God sees us… realizing that we are all flawed, we all experience brokenness, and we are all in the need of forgiveness and healing. Now… this is not some excuse to let abusers off the hook. Those who have caused pain to others must be held accountable. However, this is about becoming the new creation… the inner transformation for ourselves… it is about letting go of the pain and anger that fills us and leaves little room for the love of God to grow… It is about not allowing the violence and pain to define who we are. When we follow the ways of Jesus… we choose differently for our own hearts and lives. The world wants us to conform… to respect and honor those with earthly power, wealth and authority… but the faithful listen to the Lord… doing the work of justice, healing, and restoration. For this is how the transformation from what we are to what we will be takes place… we allow God to begin the process of raising us to a new life of love, inclusiveness, understanding and grace. Here… now… today… in this life, we are embodied souls… souls sown in earthly beings… subject to the needs of the flesh… perishable… fragile… weak… imperfect. We are dim reflections of the Christ who lives in us. But when we are one day raised up… resurrected… we will be embodied spirits… free from the limitations of the earthly body… raised in glory and poser… perfected in love… we will see clearly and reflect the God who gives us life. Paul stresses the point that Resurrection is real… it is not about zombies or ghostly spirits… as real and wonderful as this life can be… Resurrection is even more so… But the real joy is that we don’t have to wait… the transformation is happening now… through Jesus, we have been given a glimpse of God… through our faith we have begun to grow and change… moving from what we are now… to what we will be… Amen
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Yeon Shin
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