Hello, Church Family!
As we prepare to celebrate Easter, read the New Testament lesson from the Revised Common Lectionary for this Sunday:
If it is only for this life that we have put our hope in the Messiah, we are more pitiable than anyone. But the fact is that the Messiah has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have died. For since death came through a man, also the resurrection of the dead has come through a man. For just as in connection with Adam all die, so in connection with the Messiah we will all be made alive. But each in his own order: the Messiah is the firstfruits; then those who belong to the Messiah, at the time of his coming; then the culmination, when he hands over the Kingdom to God the Father, after having put an end to every rulership, yes, to every authority and power. For he has to rule until he puts all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be done away with will be death.
This is 1 Corinthians 15.19-26 from the Jewish New Testament (1). Throughout this chapter, Paul writes extensively regarding the resurrection. I encourage you to take time to read the whole chapter in preparation for our celebration of Resurrection morning. Yet based on the reading above, as we prepare our whole selves – mind, body, and spirit – for this Easter, I want to recommend two things: as God's children living in our present social and political context, we can have confidence IN the resurrection and we can have confidence BECAUSE of the resurrection.
To the first point, throughout this chapter Paul emphasizes the fact of the resurrection. In his commentary on 1 Corinthians, Boykin Sanders makes the case that in the reading above Paul argues this reality by "signifying that Christ had been raised, is yet raised, and will forever be raised from the dead... [and that] the resurrection, already in progress, is irreversible." (2) Everything that Paul has taught throughout his ministry with the church in Corinth and thus far throughout his recorded correspondence with them hinges on the reality of the resurrection. In vv. 12-19, he makes the case that their shared faith itself is vain outside of this reality. The historical fact of the resurrection, proclaimed first by the women disciples who went to tend to Jesus' body in the tomb, is foundational for who we are called to be and become as God's children in this world.
This leads quite intuitively to the second point: that we can have confidence because of the resurrection. Paul himself makes this case, bringing his writing on the resurrection to its goal by stating that "So, my dear brothers, stand firm and unmovable, always doing the Lord's work as vigorously as you can, knowing that united with the Lord your efforts are not in vain" (1 Corinthians 15.58). Knowledge and assurance of the resurrection is not intended solely to pacify individual disciples regarding their own eternal state. It goes infinitely and immediately beyond this. The resurrection makes us confident in the fact that because the Messiah lives, the work to which the Messiah calls us to is not in vain. Because of the resurrection, our lives in this age can bear greater fruit as we fulfill God's call to participate in God's own ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5.14-6.1).
As such, Easter becomes a call to action. We people of the resurrection are not meant to live silently under powers of oppression, division, and death. Because of the resurrection, we are not meant to remain cold and lifeless to those things around us which devalue others by disregarding and disrespecting the image of God within them. Because of the resurrection, we are given new life to share with those around us as together we do justice, love goodness, and walk modestly with God (Micah 6.8, Tanakh). We are called to Jesus' ministry of liberation, inclusion, and abundance for all (Luke 4.16-19).
Knowing that we have confidence in the resurrection and confidence because of the resurrection, we still have work to do. As we gather this Easter for a Sunrise service at 7:00 a.m. and then worship in the Sanctuary at 8:30, 9:45, and 11:00 a.m., may we celebrate the reality of the resurrection and may we be revitalized for the resurrection work which lies before us.
(1) Included New Testament quotations come from the JNT.
(2) Boykin Sanders, "1 Corinthians," in True to Our Native Land: An African American New Testament Commentary, ed. Brian K. Blount (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2007), 300.
Easter Blessings and Resurrection Experiences,
Pastor Josh
