1 Corinthians 15.51-end

We use the language of mystery to talk of things that are not not known. To talk of a mystery is to talk of something unknown where the complete understanding of events and reasons cannot be fathomed. Like a murder, mystery, suspense film where what has happened looks impossible to discover, but eventually someone will unravel the clues and reconstruct events such that what actually happened can be understood.

When St. Paul uses the word mystery, he too is talking of something that has been hidden from us - something that has seemed unfathomable and unknowable, What will happen to us at the end? Paul uses the clue of the resurrection to paint a picture of events as they will be. Having seen the reality of Jesus alive, heard the stories of how his body was somehow transformed, having understood the promises he handed to his disciples, he pieces the facts together in a very concrete way. Yes, we must all be changed. The seed must become the plant , the butterfly the chrysalis. Is death the trigger point for this? There will be a moment, says Paul, when this will happen for everyone - alive or dead. Why? Because that's what happened to Jesus. That's the clue that reveals the answer to this most vexing of questions. We will become like Him and it will be achieved through an act of transformation by God.

But what does Paul mean by the phrase "this mortal body must put on immortality". This image conjures up the idea of the body being clothed - of sinking into a new garment. Could "put on" be better understood as going into - almost being translated into a different form in a different place? The physical into the spiritual? The picture by John REILLY seems to capture this wonderfully and captures the hope better than words...

1 Corinthians 15.35-50

Paul is being challenged about the nature of the resurrection body. What's it actually like? At one level Paul's argument seems very straightforward. He seems to be saying that we are very used to categorising the natural world around us. We categorise what we see according to the different properties things have - different 'glories' even. The stars are classified, different sort of animals and plants are categorised. Each is different and we are very used to diversity of the world around us. The spiritual and the physical are additional categories. Both with their own properties - 'glories'.
This argument works very well for those who have accepted that a new creation has taken place - that there is a 'spiritual man' who has been experienced. The logic is sound - there is now a new human being that is connected to the current human being in the same way that a seed is is connected to the plant. First the physical is sown and through growth and maturity becomes the spiritual man. The physical is the precursor to the spiritual, a necessary part of the cycle of growth. As a seed becomes a plant, as a chrysalis becomes a butterfly so physical man becomes spiritual man. This is a perfectly rational way of processing the additional experience of Christ.
Of course, it doesn't help people accept that there is a resurrected spiritual phase of humanity. But then the question of what the spiritual body will be like cannot be asked unless the possibility of a resurrected body existing at all has been considered.
Once our world view has accommodated the greater reality we have now experienced after the resurrection of Christ, we can then begin to explore the nature of that broadened awareness. After all, it is only once you have accepted that the world is round that you will venture to new shores to see what's there!

Luke 24: 35 – 48

There are three very clear statements in the closing passage of Luke’s Gospel.

First is a clear understanding that the death and resurrection of Jesus are essential. There was no way to avoid the suffering before the cross and no way that the cross and death would destroy Jesus. For all people today this message applies. And as we are ‘in Adam’ – of one humanity – so we will be ‘in Christ’. Jesus as the complete human being reveals to us that our own suffering and death is unavoidable, but so to is our resurrection. Death is not the end.

Second is that the message to be preached is one of repentance and forgiveness. We need to turn to God if we are to have the fullness of life that Christ has. This turning is less a condition in the way we would need to meet a legal obligation or match a set of criteria to qualify for a competition. The turning is placing ourselves in a place where we can receive. We receive forgiveness – we know that the seen we have just allowed ourselves to wake up to is forgiven – which of course is a great encouragement to come to terms with more and more as the fear of retribution dissipates. But we are to receive far more than forgiveness. Forgiveness is just the beginning.

Third is that the disciples will be clothed with power from on high. This is deliberately enigmatic of Luke. It is like the cliff-hanger at the end of the first part of the series that prepares the way for the sequel. Luke knows what this power is and is preparing the reader for his second instalment – Acts. The Holy Spirit is the promised power and it is through this blessing that the message will be delivered, but more importantly the Holy Spirit will be the power that breaks humanity out of its current self-destructive patterns and into the reality of the new Kingdom – the new humanity Christ has inaugurated for us. We will be changed.

So Luke sums up succinctly the Christian message of hope. This life’s journey, whatever it may bring is essential, even ordained, but the greater life is yet to come. We start our journey towards this new life with an act of repentance, by turning towards God and discovering that whatever sin becomes illuminated by the light of Christ as we do so, is forgiven. Our journey is sustained, powered and realised by the work of God’s gift of the Holy Spirit, His own power, His own Self, clothing us as we move onwards.

God is good!

1 Corinthians 15: 20 – 28

“Since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man”. The difficult thing about this is not understanding that in Jesus God did something unique in bringing in a new age, but the rooting of the argument in the idea that death came through a man and a literal reference to Genesis in the same context as the resurrection. And the contemporary challenge to Paul’s argument arises from how we take the different texts.

The first few chapters of Genesis are taken by most to be a different sort of a text to the resurrection accounts. They are stories aimed at explaining the state of the relationships between God and people; people and each other; people and the planet. To accept these stories as history takes us beyond what is reasonable in the light of our understanding of the natural world. That’s not to say that such understanding is aimed at placing the human mind above God, but rather that the gifts God has given to the human race has enables them to explore the universe to the point at which they can critically appraise preconceived or inherited ideas – including the literal acceptance of a creation story.

So does this changing worldview undermine Paul’s argument and understanding of what God is doing in Christ? I don’t think so. It’s a little bit like the writer of Hebrews saying that the cultic practices and laws were a mere shadow for what Christ has done literally. Christ the reality blows the stories and images out of the water. The same kind of thinking is going on here – just as the relationships between God and people have been understood as being broken through the decision taken by Genesis characters to turn away from God and to hide, so the reality of Christ has taken the relationship between God and people into a new phase. In the past we understood through stories (shadows) but now we understand through revelation in person – the real thing. Rather than undermining the contrast between the old and the new our deepening understanding of our world gives scripture here a deeper meaning. The analogy becomes more profound.

The difficulty is, of course, that we live in the time when the old and the new compete for space – both in the world and in ourselves as part of the world. We belong to Christ as Paul says, and in Him, the first fruits, the Kingdom is complete. But in His Grace God has allowed the dominions, authorities and powers to continue that they too (whoever they may be!) may become part of the Kingdom - not by force, but by choice. God’s gift of patient love has a high price but will win the highest returns.

1 Corinthians 15:12

Many things in Christian tradition and language can be thought of as symbolic. Jesus' great "I am" sayings are mostly powerful symbols of the closeness and completeness of His person with God's. The 'light', the 'gate', the 'bread of life' point to the revelation, the way and the means by which our journey to and in God are dependent upon Jesus.
But 'resurrection' is more a concrete, literal word. Jesus is the Resurrection - the One who brings in Himself the fullness of the Creation - the One who is resurrected and the One in whom we will be resurrected. It is not simply the case that we have been shown what will happen to us - 'as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive' - it is also in Christ Himself that we will be resurrected. In other words, the unity of Christ in God, the complete intimacy to the point of oneness that Christ has with God in His Resurrection will be ours too.
Being a Christian, following Christ into His death and resurrection is a life choice in real terms. To be "in Christ" is to who know that we will be one with God and as we await that time, we live out our lives in that context. This future hope shapes our present and gives our lives the meaning and purpose necessary to complete them.
Compared to the fullness of the Resurrection, though - this is nothing and what is harder to bear is that the decisions we make in the light of our hope, as opposed to the more mundane experiences of our competitive lives, will often look futile and ridiculous.
Deciding to act on the basis of our future hope is bth transforming and terrifying. It's what faith really is.