1 Corinthians 15:12-20 | Göttinger Predigten im Internet

The Seventh Sunday after Epiphany | 20 February 2022 | 1 Cor 15:12-20 | by Samuel D. Zumwalt, STS |

21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. 24 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. 28 When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all. 29 Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf? 30 Why are we in danger every hour? 31 I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day! 32 What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.” 33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” 34 Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame. 35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” 36 You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. 39 For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 40 There are heavenly bod-ies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. 41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. 42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable.

HOLY BAPTISM: RAISED WITH CHRIST

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

In last Sunday’s reading from 1 Corinthians 15, we were reminded that our hope in Christ is not for this life only. This life is fragile. We remembered that everyone is one minute, one phone call away from having our fragile lives shattered. Those who have not learned this are most to be pitied, because the illusion of security and of safety is just that. It’s not cruel to say it. It’s Reality 101.

Many of us hope to grow old having our parents survive to very old age, having our children survive to have grandchildren for us, having no debilitating illnesses, and having no significant losses or disappointments. There are actually some people that seem to have had very few close deaths or heartaches. It’s foolish to consider that as normative. You may be envious of these folks, but their time is coming sooner or later. People who have few moments of pain sooner are simply on the balloon mortgage plan. Eventually, the bill for living and loving comes due. Always.

In Adam’s Fall We Sinned All

The New England Primer was published in the late 17^th century by Puritan printer, Benjamin Harris. This famous textbook was used to teach Calvinist children, by rote memory, not only their alphabet but especially an introduction to the depravity of unregenerate man. Thus, it began with “In Adam’s fall, we sinned all.”

While Lutheran Christians believe that we are born in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves, we do not share that classic American Calvinist belief that unregenerate man is totally depraved. We belief the imago Dei, the image of God, has been shattered but not obliterated by Adam’s rebellion. While we cannot by our own reason or effort believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him (contra the Arminianism of much of evangelicalism), we believe in natural law. We believe that a self-described atheist may well behave more ethically than a self-described Christian. At the Areopagus in Athens, St. Paul acknowledged that natural law made it possible to have some knowledge of God, even when that knowledge is not the same thing as having been called into faith in the revealed Son of God, the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ, who remains unknown until the Holy Spirit reveals Him to us.

Both the unbeliever and one who, at least, nominally confesses Christ Jesus may struggle with what Adam’s rebellion has to do with “me.” When one remains in the center that only belongs to God, it may seem quite a stretch that Adam’s fall has something to do with me. Again, Reality 101 teaches me I am mortal and no god. Since Adam, the consequence of not fearing, trusting, and loving God above all else is death. The metanarrative that begins with God creating humans and all things does not have planned obsolescence built into it. Genesis 3 declares that Adam’s rebellion over his creaturely status resulted in Reality 101. There is a God. That’s not you, Adam. The love and mercy of God is, then, severe in that death is the logical consequence for the creature who does not know his place in the universe. If “I” do not get what Adam has to do with me, I need only to ask if I am immortal with no beginning and no ending. Most thrillers include the villain surprised by his demise.

St. Paul’s point is that the first Adam gave us death. The second Adam conquers death and gives eternal life to those who have been baptized into His saving death and glorious resurrection. He is the firstborn from the dead. He is the firstfruits of the harvest to come. Martin Luther said, charmingly, that once the Head is born the rest of the Body follows easily. Moms and Dads have experienced this.

The Last Enemy

Perhaps you have noticed that those who have never had a close death are rather clueless about what an enemy death is. Yes, it comes sweetly to the older child of God who is ready to go. Yes, it comes as a relief to those who have had their own sharing in the crucifixion of Jesus through terrible pain. But those who wanted more time with a spouse or children know death is an enemy. Those who cannot imagine life without the beloved husband or wife or without that precious daughter or son or sibling know death is an enemy. Once you have gone through the finality of lowering the casket or pouring a bag of ashes into its earthly resting place, you go home to a new normal that keeps getting worse day after day. My Mom was widowed at 53 after 31 years of marriage. She said, “The second year was worse than the first, because now I knew what life was like without my husband.”

Bad Christian piety says, “I have to put on a happy face for everyone, because I am happy he or she is with Jesus.” But the truth is I am brokenhearted that he or she is not with me. The death of my parent, my spouse, my sibling, my child is the brutal ripping away of a huge part of who I am. It is not simply a matter of self-defined identity. It is a matter of how I will live. Death is the last enemy, even when I trust that Christ rose bodily, and so will my dearest ones, and so will I at the trumpet sound. As St. Paul writes to the Thessalonians, we grieve but not as those without hope in Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13).

The unrecognized Gnosticism of many American Christians results in a lot of talk about heaven, but the Christian faith is not that we will be eternally disembodied spirits someplace on the other side of the universe. The ancient creeds of the Church are the proverbial Cliff Notes for rightly telling the Christian story from the Bible. We believe in the resurrection of the body. Christ rose bodily with the marks of the nails, the proof of His victory on the cross, visibly noticeable in His hands and feet and the mark of the spear in His side. The Head was born first, and the Body will follow when Christ shall come with trumpet sound. Those who are in Christ will rise bodily, and pictures of us at our most vibrant youth may well be a hint of how we shall be and look in the resurrected body.

Raised Imperishable

Proxy Baptism of the dead has never been normative for Christ’s Church. Some present-day Arians attribute St. Paul’s mention of this as justification for such a practice, which seems to provide comfort for their converts. It’s very attractive to assume you can do something to help your long dead loved ones. Was Grandpa a drunk and an adulterer? Wouldn’t it nice to get him in the back door of eternity with you after the fact? Nothing in the canonical scriptures suggests this to be true. As the apostle makes clear in that text we hear each Ash Wednesday: “Now is the acceptable time. Now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). Too many false gospels want to waffle on this, because it is bad marketing to tell people the truth. Those who, like Adam, want to be in control of life and death get Godsmacked by Reality 101. Whoever would save his or her life will lose it (Matthew 16:25).

St. Paul warns the Church at Corinth repeatedly about spiritual arrogance. We are not free in Christ to live lives of calamitous indifference to the neighbor. We are not free in Christ to live self-indulgent lives that pick and choose from the ethical cafeteria of life. The apostle did not make many in the Church at Corinth happy. Today, the self-indulgent sniff dismissively at St. Paul for his many sins against the zeitgeist. How very 21^st century of the apostle not to affirm “me” in my deadness.

Just as a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies (where have we heard that before?), so when the Crucified Son of God is really dead and buried, then He is raised never to die again. Christ Jesus is in His humanity subordinate to the Father, for that is part of the nature of the Triune God. But in His divinity the Eternal Word of God is equal to the Father. For us Adams and Eves, He took on our frail flesh in order to suffer with us and for us. Having destroyed death by His innocent suffering and death, Christ is risen indeed in an imperishable Jewish body with the marks of His victory eternally evident. Because Christ is risen indeed, those who are in Christ will be raised in imperishable bodies.

Now, Adam and Eve and their descendants still know the wrath of God in the form of physical death and all its prior intimations. But those who have been buried and raised with Christ in Holy Baptism, do not grieve as those without hope. Christ is risen indeed! And we will be raised bodily to dwell with God in the new heaven and earth where there is no more sin, suffering, dying, or evil!

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

______

szumwalt@bellsouth.net

St. Matthew’s Ev. Lutheran Church

Wilmington, North Carolina USA