Sermon - A More Beautiful Gospel - Death and Rising

we have been spending the next or the past few weeks talking about beliefs,

theology doctrine,

all of that really,

really fun stuff and actually I think it has been a really great series,

we've got to hear from a variety of preachers and teachers on these really,

really interesting fascinating subjects.

So just by way of summary um I kicked us off in our series.

We talked about the Gospel in chairs and the two ways that you can tell the story.

One way God is judge,

who has to figure out a way to condemn sin or we can talk about the story as a way of God,

as a healer,

as a physician,

as a good doctor,

bringing healing to the world and you can't punish sin but you can't feel it.

Pastor to Netta talked about divine revelation and how we know anything about God.

Heidi Mills explored the trinity,

this beautiful reality of one god in three persons inviting us into their community.

Pastor Richard talked about the character of God scripture reveals that God's character,

that God is love and all the implications of that which we are still mining and figuring out after 2000 years erin byrne our our table kids director preached on creation and new creation and how scripture reveals that God is pulling us into the future.

Last week we had a guest preacher,

Amira Salami Joyner who gave this incredible sermon,

I encourage you to go back listen to any of these,

but last week Mira gave this really personal story about incarnation and the implications of what it means for our bodies to be called good and not inherently evil and this week and next week I get to preach on death and resurrection and heaven and hell and universalism.

It should be a breeze.

Alright,

So before that I need to do a whole bunch of like metaphorical throat clearing,

my voice is fine,

but like just I want to remind us of some things.

When we talk about beliefs and doctrine and theology,

what does believing something do?

The Apostle paul puts it like this in his first letter to his student timothy,

he says this in first timothy,

one versus three and five,

he says,

I asked you timothy to stay behind in the city of Ephesus so that you could instruct certain individuals not to spread wrong teaching.

And from the very beginning we get this idea that what we teach matters,

they shouldn't pay attention to myths and endless genealogies and the memes that their grandparents pass on facebook.

No,

instead they're teaching only causes useless guessing games instead of faithfulness to God's way of doing things.

This is the this is the part that's folded in my notes.

The goal of instruction is love.

The goal of instruction is love.

The whole point of any of them.

My preaching,

anybody's preaching talking about doctrine.

Theology beliefs.

The whole point is is it creating more loving people at their worst beliefs can become dogma a multiple choice test for deciding who can and can't belong.

You draw your circle,

you ask your questions and you decide who's in the circle,

who's out of the circle,

who belongs and who doesn't,

that's beliefs at their worst at their best their formation als they help us to grow into the kinds of people that are known for love and joy,

peace,

patience,

kindness,

goodness,

faithfulness,

gentleness and self control.

If our beliefs are not leading us towards becoming those kinds of people,

people who can be described in that way,

then they're bad beliefs,

their destructive beliefs and the question is less about are you in or are you out?

But rather what kind of person are you growing to become now that said these conversations so freaking hard because there are times in a community where you have to say no,

not here,

you won't.

If the table,

our congregation wants to create a community that's safe and vibrant and challenging and healthy and growing and if we desire to have that community be a safe place for people who have been historically kicked out of church spaces.

That means that there are times when the leaders and the congregation needs to say yeah,

that talk,

that behavior is not going to be ok here.

Our beliefs make a difference with this stuff.

Someone once asked me if it was okay for them to be part of our community that they didn't believe in,

the physical historical resurrection of jesus,

I know there are others who are present with us,

who,

they're not sure about the existence of God at all.

And my answer is of course,

yes,

jesus followers must begin with the assumption that nothing can separate us from the love of God.

Pretty sure there's a bible verse about that somewhere.

And since that's true,

I have no right to exclude someone from a faith community because their answer on the multiple choice exam is different than mine.

Nothing can separate us from the love of God,

neither height nor depth,

angels or demons.

Things above the things below the earth except bad grades on your theology degree.

No,

that's not it.

However,

if someone's beliefs are about who to exclude and who to kick out and to hurt,

then we have to have a different conversation.

I don't believe in the physical resident direction of jesus because someone might say,

I believe all bodies are inherently evil and therefore we should avoid using medicine or vaccines or therapy.

Well then,

yeah,

we need to talk because that belief is going to hurt people.

And no,

it won't separate you from the love of God,

but it may need to separate you from the people.

You could hurt.

It's okay for a community at church to set a boundary that says your belief will cause harm.

We can't let you do that here.

Our church.

The table has as a non discrimination statement baked into our bylaws,

our governance.

If our elders,

pastors or employees discriminate someone because of their race,

sexual orientation,

gender expression,

age,

disability,

marital status or citizenship,

then they can be disciplined or fired.

Now some of these harm causing beliefs are obvious,

Some are not today.

And other weeks before we've sing,

we sing songs are written by churches or songwriters who would deny the rights of anybody.

I just listed in that discrimination statement,

Are we hurting people by singing those songs?

Some say absolutely yes,

get them out of here.

Others say no,

we're not gonna let queer phobic songwriters ruin our time of worship.

All that to say that this is tricky stuff And sometimes it makes me want to throw up my hands in the air and give up in this organized religion stuff.

But I'm also pretty convinced that in groups of like minded people come together,

we can make the world a radically more just and beautiful place.

So I'm not giving up.

Yeah,

all that to say.

But these next two weeks of topics death,

resurrection,

heaven,

hell,

we're venturing deep into one beliefs that have been used to harm and control people.

If you don't believe this,

you will burn forever if you don't believe the right way,

you will suffer for all eternity.

A fear based sort of belief system and two,

we're venturing deep into the weeds of fundamentally unknowable things.

If anyone gets real dogmatic,

real certain about what happens to you when you die,

what heaven is like and the end of the world is a pretty clear sign to back away slowly.

The best I or any preacher can do is teach you what has been believed by most christians in most places.

At most times.

I'm not really here to convince,

I'm here to proclaim,

that's not to say I don't believe there are good philosophical and logical reasons for all the things I'm gonna say tonight and the next week do there are preaching has historically been about the act of proclamation,

proclaiming a message or a tradition handed down through the ages ages.

And the nice thing about proclaiming what's been believed by most christians in most places at most times is that it's actually a relatively small list of things,

ironically one of the things that most christians are believed in most places at most times is we don't agree on a lot and we don't have to,

there's this fabulous passage,

I promise we're gonna get to heaven and hell,

But like I said,

metaphorical throat clearing,

there's this fabulous passage in romans 14 about what to do about no joke vegetarians.

Okay,

seriously,

now there wasn't just about vegetarians is about really any sort of opinion that was based on conscience.

So paul writes this in romans 14 gives the example.

One person believes in eating anything while another person eats only vegetables,

those who do eat meat must not look down on those who don't and the ones who don't eat meat must not judge the ones who do,

because God has accepted them.

Who are you to judge God's servants.

One person,

he gives another example,

consider some days to be more sacred than others.

While another person considers all days to be the same.

Each person must have their own convictions.

Why do you judge your sibling?

Why do you look down on them?

Each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.

And lots of people,

religious people love to quote that verse.

Each one of us are gonna give an account of ourselves to God and they use it to condemn they skip the next verse.

So stop judging each other instead.

This is what you should decide.

Never put a stumbling block or an obstacle in the way of your sibling.

In other words,

if our beliefs cause someone to stumble to trip up in their their faith,

their life,

we need to think through of holding that belief is worth it,

or if it's worth forcing others to believe it romans 14 further down,

even says cultivate your own relationship with God and don't impose it on others.

Now,

I'm not saying you can't talk about your beliefs with others,

I'm not saying that you shouldn't invite people into a good and beautiful community of practice and a way of life.

If you've discovered a way of relief that leads you to become a more loving and justice oriented person,

then of course you should share it,

of course you should invite others into it or for the love of God,

don't impose it on other people.

You see the difference.

Are you with me?

Yes,

Alright.

The reason I bring this up honestly is I'm pre I'm preaching to myself,

I I grew up in an environment of fundamentalism,

fundamentalism isn't only a matter what you believe,

but also how you believe it.

It's good to be strong in your convictions.

But when you combine that conviction with a lack of generosity and a good dose of authoritarianism,

then you end up with corrosive destructive beliefs.

And although my beliefs have changed dramatically since I was a teenager,

I can still sense this unsanctioned Ified part of myself that's drawn to a new kind of fundamentalism.

Okay,

so there was a lot of throat clearing,

we are gonna get in today's topic.

Unfortunately I've got two weeks in a row so I can take my time.

Here is the main point,

here's the main point about life,

death and resurrection.

I want to get across today,

there's no slides.

So if you wanna take notes,

go free.

As someone once said about one of my sermons,

it was so good.

I almost took notes.

So hopefully that is as good as we get today.

The main idea is this what happened to jesus will happen to us.

Therefore get to work.

What happened to jesus will happen to us,

therefore get to work.

The main text for today is first Corinthians 15.

So if you have a physical bible,

a bible on your phones or tablets,

you can go ahead and flip their page.

They're tapped.

Their first Corinthians chapter 15 Paul The Apostle,

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

The Church Planter is is writing to a community that has begun to believe that spiritual things matter more than physical things,

a type of theology that says bodies all die and bodies are inherently bad.

All that matters is spiritual stuff.

This really leads to some real dicey situations in the Church of Corinth for instance,

there's a story about a man,

I'm gonna kind of obscure my language a little bit today since we have kids in the room.

But there's a story about a man who's having a non consensual physical relationship with his stepmother and the church in Corinth is like,

cool way to go.

There's another instance of the rich people in the church are letting the poor people literally starve to death and then they begin to wonder,

I wonder why the poor people don't want to have communion with me.

That's weird.

It's messed up what beliefs can lead people to do part of their theology is this idea that there's no such thing as resurrection of the dead and you can kind of see their logic either way,

you could,

they start with the idea bodies don't matter.

Therefore,

why would God bother with resurrection or there's no such thing as resurrection.

And so we can see that bodies don't matter something along those lines.

Regardless,

it's led to real life and death problems in the church.

So fortunately for us,

reading 2000 years later,

paul was laying out this real back to basics teaching guide in first Corinthians 15 for what the apostles were teaching about death and resurrection in the first couple of decades after Jesus's life.

So if you want to read along,

this is what it says.

Uh he lays out a summary of the gospel.

He says,

brothers and sisters,

siblings.

I want to call your attention to the good news that I preached to you,

which you also received and in which you stand,

I pass on to you as most important,

what I also received received by the way is this kind of technical educational word.

It means a tradition that has been handed down passed down,

christ died for our sins.

In line with the scriptures,

he was buried and he rose on the third day in line with the scriptures.

That's repeated and for emphasis,

it's important.

He appeared to Cephas.

Cephas is another name for Simon Peter.

Simon Peter has lots of names in the bible,

I'm sorry then to the 12 and then he appeared to more than 500 brothers and sisters at once.

Most of them still alive to this day though some have died.

Your translations might say somewhere asleep,

it's a euphemism for death,

and then jesus appeared to James then to all the apostles,

and then last of all he appeared to me as if I were born at the wrong time,

skip ahead a little bit.

So then whatever,

whether you heard the message from me or them,

this is what we preach from,

this is what you have believed.

So,

to summarize this is paul's outline of the gospel,

it's a story.

Christ died for our sins.

In line with the scriptures,

he was buried,

he rose on the third day,

in line with the scriptures,

he appeared.

So it's not a it's not a series of proposition,

all statements,

it's a story,

it's a narrative and it's unavoidably connected to the story of Israel God's people,

the Israelites we read about in the old testament,

the Hebrew scriptures.

That's why Paul repeats this in line with the scriptures,

it's connected to this grand arche narrative.

So then all gets into his theological problem with the Church of Corinth in verse 12,

he writes.

So,

if the message that is preached says that christ has been raised from the dead,

then how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead,

If there's no resurrection of the dead,

then christ can't have been raised either.

So paul is making an argument,

you say that in general there's no such thing as resurrection of the Dead.

If that's true,

that means that this fundamental core aspect of what I taught you,

what it was handed down to me also can't be true if there's no general resurrection,

if it's not even a possibility,

physically,

then how can we say it's true of jesus and mistakes for paul are really high verse 14,

he says,

if christ hasn't been raised,

then our preaching is useless and your faith is useless,

we are found to be false witnesses about God,

because we testified against God that he raised the messiah,

the anointed one,

the christ,

when he didn't when he didn't raise him,

if that's the case,

then the dead aren't raised.

If the dead are not raised,

then christ isn't raised either.

If christ hasn't been raised,

your faith is worthless,

you can feel paul most stumbling over his words,

just how frustrated he is.

You're still in your sins and what's more those who have died in christ,

believing in jesus,

they're gone forever.

If we have a hope in christ,

only in this life,

then we deserve to be pitied more than anyone else.

Now,

you may disagree with paul and I know I know I'm very conscious of the fact,

but there are folks who are here who have profound honest reason to maintain their connection to the faith,

the church,

the religion of Christianity,

even not believing in the resurrection.

So you may disagree with paul and again,

I'm not here to argue or convince,

I'm just trying to express what paul was expressing,

what's been passes down from paul's perspective,

he had staked his life,

his privilege,

his wealth,

his power,

his health,

and physical safety on the bet the resurrection happen and will happen again.

The first christians were all jews and these jews were making these outrageous claims that a stonemason named Jesus of questionable birth from a backwater town named Nazareth had been executed by the empire,

but was in fact God in the flesh had put an end to the exile and had started off God's kingdom Come,

God had,

shockingly surprisingly astound,

Astoundingly did exactly what God said,

he was gonna do through jesus.

And by making these claims,

the first christians would lose their family and their friends,

they would become homeless or vagrants and some of them would end up executed.

So what could lead them to make such a claim?

Even if historically you can't prove the resurrection of jesus,

the records are pretty darn clear that these first christians believe in the physical resurrection of jesus.

So when paul catches wind that there's a church that's saying there's no such thing,

which was also the default belief of Greeks and romans over time,

paul is understandably confused.

Then what on earth are we all doing here?

If there's no resurrection,

there's no point and all this hardship,

the first christians are facing,

Paul even says this in verse 32 If the dead are not raised,

let's eat and drink because tomorrow we die.

In other words go wild,

paul does believe jesus was physically resurrected and this has implications for the rest of creation,

paul says this in verse 20 he says,

but in fact christ has been raised from the dead,

he's the first crop,

your bibles might say first fruits of the harvest of those who have died and this is crucial,

Jesus's resurrection wasn't this one off party trick that God could show off the resurrection isn't a nice epilogue to the real story,

which was the cross.

No,

it's for paul resurrection or bust resurrection or it's worthless resurrection because jesus's resurrection is what we all have to look forward to.

A crucial idea of christian theology and belief has been this,

what's true of Jesus is true of us,

What's true of Jesus is true of us.

Jesus makes this clear in his prayer before his crucifixion,

john 17,

jesus says,

I ask he's praying to God the father.

I ask that they may all be one as you father are in me and I am in you may,

they also be in us,

I and them and you and me that they may come completely one,

it's this idea of immunity with Jesus with the divine paul says this even more clearly in romans six,

we were buried with jesus by baptism into death.

So that just as christ was raised from the dead.

So what we might also walk in the newness of life since we've been united with him in a death like his,

we will also certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his,

since we died with christ,

we believe that we also live with him,

what's true of jesus is true of us.

So in the same way we can take a look at what happened to jesus after his death,

have some preview of what will be true of us.

If you look at the resurrection stories of jesus,

you don't see reports of a spirit or a ghost haunting the disciples wrapping his arms around them and teaching them how to make pottery.

Sorry,

if you don't get that 90s movie reference,

you get this instead Because this is Luke 24 because the disciples were wandering,

wondering and questioning in the midst of their happiness,

Jesus said to them,

do you have anything to eat?

And so the disciples give Jesus a piece of baked fish and taking it,

he ate it in front of them or John chapter 20 Jesus said to them come and have breakfast and so Jesus came and he took bread and gave it to them and he did the same with the fish and they ate breakfast together.

John 20 · chapter mention

There are more references to touching jesus's body and grabbing his feet and embracing and holding him,

so it's not a ghost that shows up,

it's,

it's a body,

there are references to to jesus still bearing the marks of one who had been crucified and tangent,

but this important tangent,

this has implications for how we understand disability in the New heavens and New earth and resurrection bodies.

Nancy Iceland was a disabled theologian and professor who wrote the disabled god,

a liberal liberation theology of disability,

and she notes the scenes of the resurrected jesus showing his wounds to his disciples.

She writes,

the resurrected christ is a disabled god,

one who understood the experience of the others.

In my bible study in the rehab center,

Jesus as a living symbol of the disabled god shares in the human condition he experiences in his body.

All our vulnerability and flaws in emptying himself of divinity,

Jesus enters the arena of human limitation and helplessness.

Jesus's own body is wounded and scarred,

disfigured and distorted.

Of course,

the scriptures do promise a new world without pain or tears without the curse of corrupt creation gone awry.

But perhaps we shouldn't be so fast to say that the things that we call disabilities or neurotic divergence,

or all the variations of the human body or a sign of something gone wrong or unavoidably connected to pain.

All of that.

To say that Jesus was resurrected as a body,

a physical body with flesh and bones and wounds and even scars,

but it's a new kind of body,

what Paul says is a spiritual body.

In other words,

it's a body fit for new creation,

this is first Corinthians 1542,

if you fill your bibles open says with the resurrection of the dead,

a rotting body is put into the ground.

But what is raised won't ever decay.

It's degraded when it's lowered to the ground,

but it's raised in glory.

It's weak when it's put into the ground,

but it's raised in power.

It's a physical body when it's put into the ground.

But it's raised a spiritual body.

Yes,

spiritual,

but still a body.

Listen paul says,

I'm telling you a secret,

all of us won't die,

but we will all be changed in an instant in the blink of an eye at the final trumpet,

the trumpet will blast and the dead will be raised with bodies that will not decay and we will be transformed.

Now,

workers in theology has kind of gone astray in the past couple of centuries is this idea that our hope is in heaven by heaven.

I mean this merely spiritual place somewhere apart from her.

When we die,

our personalities,

our souls,

whatever you wanna call that persist and go and live in this nonphysical place called heaven for all eternity.

But this is like 1% of the story,

1% of the answer lops off the other 99% and hope,

no one notices.

It's escapism Yes,

christian theology has taught that we have this soul that goes on after our physical bodies die now that soul will rest in the presence of God.

But the story doesn't end there,

We don't stay in heaven in this ethereal spiritual place forever.

The message of jesus was not how to get to heaven when you die,

but rather than news that heaven,

the abode of God,

the place where God's will is done is coming to earth.

God's kingdom rule domain.

The place where justice can make its home is coming here in the hope of christian theology is not going to heaven when you die,

but rather the relaunching of all of physical creation of our souls being reunited with our bodies free from death and decay.

In fact,

all of creation is awaiting its renewal and recreation roman date says this.

The whole creation waits breathless with anticipation for the revelation of God's Children.

Creation was subject to frustration but creation hopes that itself will be set free from decay and brought into glorious freedom.

We know that all creation is groaning together and suffering,

labor pains up until now.

So going to heaven when you die sure,

life after death,

but being part of the new creation after heaven,

that's life after life after death.

Our hope is not merely heaven.

Our hope is bodily resurrection.

New creation,

resurrected bodies restored,

creation no longer subject to death and decay,

which for me dramatically changes the mental image of what heaven is,

Heaven is not standing in front of God's blazingly bright throne for an eternal Hillsong concert.

It's not,

it's not clouds and harps of various sizes and mansions that are smaller or larger depending on how good you were when you were alive.

Christian hope is a restored heavens and earth,

a renewed universe free from death and decay of despair and free for infinite possibilities.

But let's remember what I said.

Our main idea is for today,

what happened to jesus will happen to us.

Therefore get to work.

You mean get to work.

If God is just gonna reboot everything like a 90s sitcom made into a gritty reboot,

then why not just sit around and wait for that?

But listen to how paul concludes our chapter of Corinthians is the very last paragraph first.

Corinthians 15 paul says,

thanks be to God who gives us this victory through our Lord,

jesus christ as a result of this my but loved siblings,

you must stand firm,

unshakeable excelling in the work of the Lord as always because you know that your labor isn't going to be for nothing in the Lord escapist theology,

waiting for heaven,

waiting for us to die so we can go to heaven says,

Hey,

just let the word world burn.

But the theology of Kingdom come,

says your Kingdom come,

your will be fun.

Black liberation theologian James cone says this,

he says,

If we merely put our hope in the afterlife.

It's actually a lack of hope.

Such an appeal implies that absurdity has one and one is left merely with this unrealistic gesture towards the future.

Heavenly hope becomes a grasp for another reality because we can't figure out a way to live meaningfully amid the suffering of this world,

but he goes on,

it doesn't have to be this way.

Our view of the end must challenge the present order.

The power of christian theology is rooted in the resurrection of jesus christ and it is that that introduces the possibility of change within the historical experience of the oppressed God has freed us to fight against social and political structures while not being determined to buy them.

Liberation is not simply what oppressed people can accomplish alone,

it is what God has done and will do to accomplish liberation both end in and beyond history.

In the resurrection of jesus,

God has broken into history,

God has relaunched the entire human project and that then launches us into the world to be ambassadors of the new creation which is ever so slowly making its way onto the scene.

A clear understanding of the end gives us a clear idea of what we are meant to do today as christ followers,

we are temples of God's spirit filled to the brim with the stuff that will make up the renewed creation.

We are to live as if we are time travelers visitors from God's glorious future putting into place the very things that make that future possible and this for me is one of the most challenging things when both the hebrew and christian scriptures describe the restored creation were given these very clear images.

Isaiah Chapter two says they will beat their swords into iron plows,

their spears into pruning tools.

Nation will not take up sword against nation will no longer learn how to war.

So what does that mean for us to be nonviolent,

to not learn war,

to work towards an end of war without using the weapons of war?

Jose A two says on that day,

I'm gonna make a new covenant for them and for the wild animals,

the birds in the sky and the creeping creatures of the ground,

I will do away with the bow and the sword and the war,

I will make everyone lie down in safely.

Isaiah 11 says the wolf is gonna lie with the lamb and the leopard is gonna lie down with the goat and the calf and the lion are gonna eat together and a little child's gonna leave them,

the cow's gonna graze with the bear and the young is gonna lie down with all of these wild animals and a nursing child is gonna play over a snake's hole and toddlers are gonna reach right over the serpent's den and it's gonna be fine.

My translation,

so what does that mean for me?

A meat eater to know that God's future includes peace towards animals.

How do I extract myself from systems of industrial farming and animal cruelty,

knowing that God intends to redeem even animals from fear and suffering.

Isaiah 61 which jesus,

jesus preaches and luke four,

he has sent me to bring good news to the poor to bind up the brokenhearted,

to proclaim release to the captives and liberation for the prisoners.

If God's world means no poverty,

no prisoners,

no slaves,

no refugees,

how do I work towards that today?

I personally think Isaiah 65 says it's almost beautifully.

This is God speaking,

saying,

look,

I'm creating a new heaven and a new earth past events are not gonna be remembered,

they won't come to mind the painful ones.

Cotton,

be glad and rejoice forever.

And what I'm creating,

no one will ever hear the sound of weeping or crying again no more.

Will babies live only a few days or the old fail to live?

They will build houses and live in them.

They will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

They won't labor in vain nor bail Children to a world of horrors because they're going to be people blessed by the Lord.

So the question for us is not,

how long do we have to wait to get there?

The question is,

how do we begin to reveal that sort of place today?

The one thing I know because I am dedicating my life to creating communities of practice where we give these ideals flesh and blood as the late pastor and writer Eugene Peterson Woodson.

So why church?

The short answer is because the holy spirit formed it to be a colony of Heaven in the country of death.

An appointed gathering of named people in particular places who practice a life of resurrection in a world in which death gets the biggest headlines.

The practice of resurrection is an intentional,

deliberate decision to believe and participate in resurrection.

Life.

Life out of death.

Life that trumps death.

Life,

that is the last word,

jesus life.

So for practicing resurrection,

what about everybody else?

So one more verse,

One more reverse.

I didn't read in first corinthians 15 verse 22,

1 Corinthians 15:22

which reads in the same way that everyone dies in adam.

So also everyone will be given life in christ.

So to the topics of how and universalism we turn next week,

would you pray?