Feb 25, 2019
Focus readings: 1 Corinthians 15:12–20, Luke 6:17–26
There is a temptation to see today’s readings as being about life beyond this life, or about what happens in some far but glorious future. The Corinthians reading is focussed on the future and the resurrection of the dead at the end of time. Jesus’ words about the hungry being fed and about how those who weep will laugh sounds like something in the future. I want to argue that they are also about how we live now. The poor are blessed and Jesus says “yours is the kingdom of God”. Paul is talking about how Jesus has already been raised as the “first fruits” (1 Cor 15:20). If there is no resurrection then our life and faith has been in vain but if there is a resurrection then our life and faith takes on eternal significance. Just as our gospel reading begins with the power of God in Jesus healing all who would come, so Paul begins his argument with the risen life of Jesus at work in us. I shared with Bob recently that I am a glass half full person, a bit of a pessimist, but I am also a believer the the resurrection. I see all the problems but I know that God brings new life, laughter for tears, and satisfaction for hunger. Yes we do have a hope for the future but we have a hope for the here and now as well, because by the Spirit, Jesus raised from the dead is with us.
*****************************************FULL SERMON TEXT:
On Wednesday this week I made a confession to Bob out new Church Council chairperson that I am a glass half full person. I tend to expect the worst in almost everything. When I was a teenager about 14-15 constantly facing bullying this tuned into paranoia. If a school mate said to me “how are you?” or hello, I would respond with “what do you want!” I am currently very depressed about the state of the world. I shared with you about my views on climate change and said some weeks back that I am not a skeptic. I don’t know if the worst predictions about climate change are correct, because I do not understand the science enough to know, but I fear the worst and wonder if my children will have a future. I was listening recently to radio panel discussion on the rise of Chinese power and how the USA was resolved to confront that and the panel seemed to be saying there could be a real risk of war. This would be a return to the fears of the cold war with a possible nuclear conflagration descrying us all even before global warming poisons our oceans and makes our planet incompatible with human life.On Wednesday this week I made a confession to Bob out new Church Council chairperson that I am a glass half full person. I tend to expect the worst in almost everything. When I was a teenager about 14-15 constantly facing bullying this tuned into paranoia. If a school mate said to me “how are you?” or hello, I would respond with “what do you want!” I am currently very depressed about the state of the world. I shared with you about my views on climate change and said some weeks back that I am not a skeptic. I don’t know if the worst predictions about climate change are correct, because I do not understand the science enough to know, but I fear the worst and wonder if my children will have a future. I was listening recently to radio panel discussion on the rise of Chinese power and how the USA was resolved to confront that and the panel seemed to be saying there could be a real risk of war. This would be a return to the fears of the cold war with a possible nuclear conflagration descrying us all even before global warming poisons our oceans and makes our planet incompatible with human life.
Yet I do not lose hope and I do not give in to fear although
hopelessness and fear very often haunt me. Why? How is it that I
can keep going? It is because with Paul I believe in the
resurrection. I believe that Jesus was raised from the dead. I
believe the tomb was empty and that even now Jesus is both with us
by the Holy Spirit and also bodily in the presence of God the
Father. He is the first fruit, the advanced sample, of the
resurrection. He is the sign that God is indeed creating a new
Heaven and a new Earth. A time is coming when just as the body of
Jesus was recreated so too will heaven and earth be recreated, and
joined together as one. As part of that, we too,
will be recreated. The old creation will not be done away with. It
will be remade. Just as the body of Jesus was recreated and so the
tomb was found empty, the same will happen with all creation
including ourselves.
At first this may sound very impractical, pie in the sky when you
die, but I think there are two immensely practical outcomes of a
belief in the resurrection. First, it says there is a future and so
even when things seem bleak we can go on, we can put one foot in
front of the other. All may seem lost but even in this life even
before the new creation comes in its fullness.
Like the children’s story, it may be that the last tree has been
chopped down, but there is a green shoot that has popped up, a sign
that there is a future, that everything has not been in vain. That
shoot is the risen Jesus, the first fruit, of the new creation. So
we have a future hope. And that hope enables us to go on. That in
part is what Jesus is getting at when he says those who weep will
laugh and those who hunger will be filled. When the cosmos is made
new and all the dead are raised every tear will be wiped away. If
that is so there is hope!!!
I will have to have yet another one of my rotten teeth extracted
soon, and apologies to Warwick (a dentist in our congregation) but
I am not looking forward to that visit to the dentist, for two of
the last three extractions I have had I have gone into shock,
become faint and nearly passed out. Yet I know that my future will
be better without that rotten tooth. Firstly I believe that when
the new creation comes and I am raised from death I will have a
mouth full of perfect teeth, but I know that even in this life I
will be better off without that tooth. There will be no more
discomfort. I will not become ill because the infection from the
abscess starts to affect the rest of my body. I will have a fuller,
richer life.
It is like that with the resurrection of Jesus too. If he has been
rased then his risen life is at work in the world now. In at least
some ways the world is more like heaven more like eternal life than
it once was. World wide far fewer women die in child birth and far
fewer children die in infancy. Slavery in many parts of the world
has been abolished. There is greater equality between women and
men, people of different races and classes. Paul’s words from
Galatians that there is neither Jew nor Gentile, Slave nor free,
male nor female, is not true just in heaven with Jesus, it is
becoming true here and now. The percentage of the world in abject
poverty is actually declining. Polio has been eradicated world
wide. As we speak, a disaster recovery team is hard at work in
Townsville. It lrgely staffd and co-ordinated by Lifeline which is
an agency of the Uniting church, throgh counselling, distribution
of money and goods, and information, they are literally saving
lives. Making that hell just a tiny bit more like heaven.
So in many, many cases the Christian church ha played a leading
role in these causes. Why have we played this role? It is because
we have a vision of the world in which the hungry are fed, those
who weep are transformed into those who laugh, the Kingdom of God
belongs to the poor and the dead are raised. This is a future
thing, but it is not only a future thing. It is also a here and now
thing. Notice Jesus says blessed are the poor for theirs is the
kingdom of God. He does not say the poor will be blessed for theirs
will be the kingdom of God. It is a here and now thing as well as a
future thing.
One of the signs of this is seen in the start of the Gospel passage
today. Be fore we hear Jesus say “blessed are” we hear that those
who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured and that he
healed all the sick who were brought to him. In other words the
poor received the Kingdom of God and in just under three chapters
the hungry will be fed in the feeding of the 5, 000. The
Resurrection of Jesus is the greatest sign of this blessing being
at work now. He is as we have already heard the first fruit of the
new creation.
If we think of our experience of life, and faith and God at work,
we know that this is true for us too. I have not heard all the
stories in this church and I probably never will but I know there
will be stories of healing, of light breaking into a darkened
situation, of new beginnings in work, in marriages, in families.
Sories of hope and strength in the midst of grief. I know that this
has been your experience. If you are going though some darkness, or
even if you are just like me and have a bit of a pessimistic turn
of mind. Let me remind you, Christ is risen! The Hungry will be and
are being fed, those who weep have had their weeping turn to
laughing, and the Kingdom of God, even now, as well as in the
future belongs to the poor.
So like me, put one foot in front of the other, do as Christians
have done for 2, 000 years, live out the hope of the resurrection
even in the darkest of times by engaging with the needs of our
community. Share stories of the hope you have within you, do your
bit to fed the hungry and bring laughter to those who weep. You
won’t be able to do it all, but the risen Jesus is alive in you by
the power of the Spirit and so the Kingdom of God is coming but it
is also among us and in us. Amen.