Sunday 16th February 2025
Jeremiah 17: 5-10
Psalm 1
I Corinthians 15: 12-20
St. Luke 6: 17-26
“But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.”
I Corinthians 15: 20
For today’s second reading, it’s helpful to have an overview of the Letters to Corinth… Paul was a key figure in establishing a Christian congregation in the city of Corinth, in what is now Greece. Many people were converted through Paul’s ministry – but it becomes clear that this congregation faced some challenges. It’s a little bit like being the parent of an overtired 3 year old – we don’t quite know what he or she will come up with, and although we love them dearly, their behaviour at the moment is quite frustrating…
Evidently there were some people in the congregation in Corinth who didn’t like Paul’s leadership, and wanted to pay more attention to a guy named Apollos or even St. Peter. Over and against this, Paul pleads for unity in the Church – that disagreements will be resolved in a healthy way, with a common commitment to follow Jesus Christ, who is the Church’s true Head… So, that’s one issue with Paul and the congregation in Corinth…
But some of the Corinthians are writing Paul for guidance about some other questions as well… Bible teachers believe that Paul wrote 4 letters in total to the Corinthians, but only 2 of them have survived, and become part of the inspired canon of the Bible.
How do we know that Paul wrote more than 2 letters to the Corinthians?… By reading carefully the 2 letters we do have… Here’s one example: In First Corinthians 5, Paul writes in verse 5: “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral persons…” Verse 6: “But now I am writing to you…” (Clearly, there was a previous letter to the Church, before First Corinthians…)
In First Corinthians, then, Paul is writing in response to some questions the Corinthians have sent him… Paul spends some time explaining good practices about sharing Communion; about how the local congregation should deal with one of the members of the congregation behaving poorly (specifically, a young guy is sleeping with his own step-mother!); about resolving conflicts; and in chapter 15, Paul writes a long passage explaining about the resurrection of the dead. The resurrection of the dead… Today’s second lesson is a section from that long passage about the resurrection…
What were the Corinthians worked up about?… Well, it seems that a few people in the Corinthian congregation were asserting that there is no resurrection of the dead… We don’t know exactly what rumours they were passing around. Possibly they belonged to a Jewish group called the Sadducees, who did not believe in life after death as we understand it; nor angels…
Today’s passage begins with Paul briskly addressing the matter of life after death: “Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? (v. 12)…”
St. Paul masterfully writes about the resurrection in response. Paul is dismissive of being a Christian for this world alone. Without the resurrection, “our proclamation is in vain.” Instead, Paul unpacks our relationship with Christ himself…
The historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ is enormous – not just a nice feeling among the apostles; but rather a full-blooded, new, transformed life, through death, experienced by Jesus Christ, and demonstrated time and again to astonished people at various times afterwards. (If we want to read the historical evidence for ourselves, I suggest that Lee Strobel’s The Case for the Resurrection provides a very readable overview…)
So, the foundation of Paul’s argument begins with the resurrection of the Lord Jesus himself…
The second part of Paul’s argument is not only about the resurrection of Jesus… Paul goes on to explore what it means to say that we “belong” to Christ – that we are Christians…
Since Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, what does that mean for us, and the end of these mortal lives?… We have been incorporated, we belong to, Jesus Christ. Since Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, and we belong to him, what does that mean for you and for me?…
It means that we share in the resurrection of Jesus Christ in two ways: First, we are changed in this life. A change takes place in us, when we choose to follow Christ!… Paul develops this point more fully in his Letter to the Romans, when he writes about Baptism – the rite of Initiation at the start of our Christian lives… As we enter the water and emerge again, there is a parallel to our dying with Jesus Christ, and rising again with him to a new life. Romans 6: 3-4 reads,
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
St. Paul continues to explain that we are united with Jesus Christ in his resurrection:
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin.
But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
So, as we are Christians, we have a marvellous gift by the Holy Spirit: A new, risen life has begun in us…
Are we perfect in this life? By no means! We still have our bad habits and our foibles. Sometimes we take a tottering step or two forward, and then fall back. Growing mature in Christ is a process (Ephesians 4: 13), and we are given the gift of a lifetime to learn to respond and to grow in Christ…
St. Paul puts it this way in Colossians 3:
So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.
We need to be prepared to turn away from our old habits which do not honour the Lord, or people:
Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life. But now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another…
Positively, belong to the resurrected life of Christ means new priorities for us:
As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love…
So, as we belong to Christ, we share in his resurrected life in this life… But there’s even more!… One glorious Day, when heaven and earth are united by the fullness of Christ’s presence at his return, we inherit the resurrected life with Christ for ever… As our bodies are part of our identity, our identity continues, but we are swept up into Christ’s resurrected presence and love for ever…
St. Peter puts it this way, at the start of his letter:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you…
St. Paul concludes First Corinthians 15 by writing,
As was the man of dust (Paul is referring to Adam, at the beginning of the Bible), so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven.
Like a trumpet call in ancient battles, the final encounter with Jesus Christ is God’s final victory:
For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled:
‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’ ‘Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?’
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is proclaimed most frequently on the Sunday of Easter weekend, and understandably so… But the resurrection of Christ, and our sharing in his resurrection, are not just for one single day, nor just for the 50 days of Easter season. The resurrection changes the world for ever… Our lives are changed for ever. Let us give praise and thanks to God for ever; to whom we belong, in this life and the next; world without end.
Amen.