SCRIPTURE: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11
TEXT: 20But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died THEME: The reality of the Resurrection moves us into living in new ways. INTRODUCTION So far in Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth, there are a variety of people; Gentiles and Jews who make up the people of God. This means that there are varieties of culture, habits, practices, styles, values, understanding, perceptions and ways of believing and expressions that are all right. We don’t have to conform to be one way but can use our creativity, and imagination to express our faith. Through the Holy Spirit there are a variety of gifts for varieties of services. We all have something valuable and different to contribute to the work of God in our world and our life together. We are all special to God, and love God and each other, in our own unique and precious way. We all have a different relationship with God and with each other. We all have our own stories and adventures of faith with God to tell. So, in the new reality of resurrection from the dead, we all have a variety of ways to live our resurrection lives. SCRIPTURE This part of Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth is a “We are to be pitted” Sandwich. The bread on the top is “If Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? “With the bottom slice being “20But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.” The filling in between is “if there is no resurrection then Christ is not raised, If Christ is not raised then what we proclaim is in vain, if our faith is in vain then we have misrepresented God. If Christ is not raised, then the dead are not raised. If the dead are not raised, then Christ is not raised. If Christ is not raised then our faith is futile and our sins remain and the dead in Christ are dead, and we are to be pitted.” A pity sandwich. The second coming of Christ is taking longer than anticipated. Some of the faithful in Corinth have died, leaving them to wonder, with doubt and in need of an explanation. Paul’s theological hope is hinged on one solitary unseen, Christ is risen from the dead. APPLICATION The resurrection of Jesus creates a new reality for us in death. Our bodies reach a time when they can no longer keep living but we are raised imperishable. The resurrection reframes the way we look at our past, our present and our future. The resurrection creates a new way for us to think, a new way for us to be, a new way for us to understand who we are and what is important. The resurrection creates a new way for us to live as our future hope informs how we are living today. How do we manifest the resurrection in our lives? Think about it, Jesus was not trying to do Judaism better, but builds upon this foundation to create something new. This is where we begin to realize something new. We are good at preserving what we have. We like to keep thing the same. It gives us a sense of roots, and security and stability. We spend a lot of our time trying to recreate the golden glory days of our past. Almost like in the same way we want to return to our youthfulness. But what if God is calling us to move beyond the past and towards something new? Building on the foundation of the past, not trying to reduplicate it, but to create something with new imagination and vitality. From the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve inhabited the world. From the Homeland of Ur Abraham and Sara travel to the Promised land and establishment of a nation. From the threat of demise in Canaan the Holy family flourished in Egypt. From bondage of Egypt the people of God rediscovered their God and identity in the wilderness. From their captivity in Babylon Israel reestablished themselves in Judea to receive the Christ and a faith beyond the ruins of the temple. When does our resurrected life begin? We used to think that we have to wait until we died to begin to live our resurrected lives. Then maybe with forgiveness of sin we would be granted salvation and welcomed into heaven. This is dead talk. That is living as if the resurrection didn’t take place. That is if Christ was not raised from the dead then we are dead kind of talk. If when we die, we are given a resurrected body made of the imperishable stuff and are welcomed into eternal fellowship with God and the rest of the citizens of Heaven, because Christ is risen from the dead. Then Maybe we don’t have to wait for us to die before we begin to live forever. The relationship we have with God today, through Jesus, has eternal consequences. God’s grace is for us to use today, right now. Imagine being loved so profoundly by God that nothing we do could ever disqualify us from a relationship with God. This would move us away from an accounting of sin and debts to living into a deepening, relationship with God. We need only imagine ways of expressing our faith, listen to what God is calling us participate in, use the variety of gifts and talents God enriches our lives with to build and complete this church to love our neighbors. When the focus of our faith is on the resurrection, it takes the focus off of ourselves and our deficits of sin and frees us to focus our faith on living. When we focus on our sin, all we do is think about how to escape death. but when we focus on the resurrection, we can imagine the possibilities of living in relationship with God and others in loving communities. For a long time, the church has beckoned people to come inside, there is a shift where the church is taking to the streets and is going to where our neighbors are instead. One way has been by being on the internet. Iao UCC has been active during the pandemic with food distributions, PPE kits, having meals available, setting up a vaccination clinic and more. We continue to distribute food at our Food Pantry and continue the work to develop 48 affordable rental units on the Mission Grounds with our partners from the County, State, Community, EAH, consultant Hoku’Iwa, and developer PBR. We have had to form a relationship with a Law firm to help us navigate the legal challenges and we are continuing to look for an accountant to shore up our financial practices. In every relationship we enter into, we witness to the God who loves us and loves them. We are on our best behavior, showing diligence, hard work, respect and moving towards sharing God’s love in this way, through these relationships. CONCLUSION The certainty of resurrection gives us a confidence in living that helps us to take the focus off of our self-preservation and place our focus upon God and others. Love, mission, relationships become important elements in our lives. Helping our neighbor is part of this. I am running through my yard trying to keep my weeds out of my neighbor’s yards. Last night one of my neighbors had a loud yelling argument. I wasn’t going to go over to intervene, but I prayed for them. Last week a friend from the mainland called about a couple of parishioners he has who were vacationing here on Maui. Something happened that they needed help. So, I called them, let them know I was available to help, texted them a prayer and recommended a vendor who could help them. Maybe living a life with the certainty of the resurrection is like retirement. We can put aside one aspect of our lives and find that we now of the opportunity to be creative and imaginative in living in another way, not that I would know anything about retirement, but so I imagine. There are varieties of ways for us to live our lives today with the certainty of the resurrection.
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