On the Way to Wonder

This week we finished 1 Corinthians 15.  Paul is winding down his letter.  He talks with the Corinthians and us about death but then goes on to talk about resurrection.  “After life”0 is an important aspect of all religions.  I remember in the 70s when the guitar was entering the church and Christian music was being written outside the hymn book.  One of our favorite songs was “I am the Resurrection by Ray Repp.  I loved it.  We made the whole alter rock!  May you listen and enjoy this flash from the past and this peak into the future.

CHORUS:

I am the resurrection and the life;

He who believes in me will never die.

I am the resurrection and the life;

He who believes in me will live a new life.

1. I have come to bring the truth;

I have come to bring you life;

If you (yes you), believe (I do), then you shall live.

2. In my word all men will come to know

It is love which makes the Spirit grow

If you (yes you), believe (I do), then you shall live.

3. Keep in mind the things that I have said

Remember me in the breaking of the bread

If you (yes you), believe (I do), then you shall live

I Am the Resurrection

 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

1 Corinthians 15:58, NIV

58 With all this going for us, my dear, dear friends, stand your ground. And don’t hold back. Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort.  1 Corinthians 15:58, The Message

Today was an exciting day here in Florida, Hurricane Helene has  been front news worthy for a couple days and especially this evening.  “Unsurvivable” winds and with waves bringing “devasting destruction” has been predicted for the Tallahassee area.  I live on the “dirty side” of the cone which I now know means the east side in central Florida.  I came home from a meeting to see the tree on the back far side of the house that was barely on the property toppled onto the neighbor’s new fence and roof.  This is all before the huricaine even reached land! Containers of water are on all our counter tops and we were warned to get our wash done and take baths before the storm…in case.  Have money cause if electricity goes out, gas pumps need cash.  News broadcasters are begging us to seriously prepare but out on the lake in front of my house a guy was wind surfing!!!

In my context here, today, I read these words at the close of chapter 15 of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians and his advice in the face of death.  “Stand Firm!!!”  Yesterday was sunny and calm and the news was calling to us to prepare.  In some ways Paul is doing the same thing.  It is so easy to be absorbed by the tasks of life and all it’s challenges but Paul reminds us that death is in the future for all of us and nothing done for the Master is a waste of time.

So what does standing firm look like to you?  Standing is certainly not lying down on the job. I doubt it is just watching life being lived out by others on TV, dreaming about who we might be.  It implies involvement.  It implies to me roots of relationship with God and others so we don’t get washed away when the wind blows. It implies preparedness and listening to our authorities.  Those are just a few ideas.

Let us pray for the many in the path of the storms of life whether they be environmental, political or social.  Lord, help us to stand firm and be consistent in our work for you.  Comfort the scared and grieving and all the helpers and caregivers at this time.  Lord have mercy!

It was sin that made death so frightening and law-code guilt that gave sin its leverage, its destructive power. But now in a single victorious stroke of Life, all three—sin, guilt, death—are gone, the gift of our Master, Jesus Christ. Thank God!

1 Corinthians 15: 56, The Message

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.(1 Corinthians 15:56, NRSV)

Perhaps some of you are old enough to remember the 7 Academy Award winning movie, “The Sting,” released in 1973.  Robert Redford and Paul Newman were two confidence men working together to deceive gang members in September 1936.  Who dun it to whom is not clear til the very end of the movie.  A more recent version, I think, was the Oceans 11 series, staring George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon.  Julia Robert’s was the female star.  This one is set in a Las Vegas slight of hand plot.  In both pictures the interplay of characters keep you guessing who the bad guys are and who exactly was going to win and how.

Apostle Paul, centuries earlier at the end of the first letter to the Corinthians , compares the interplay between sin, death, and law in a similar drama involving us and leaving us feeling guilty.  Humans were sentenced to death after the “garden of Eden” event.  The “law” explained how this all worked.  Our inability to love God and neighbor with our whole heart left us guilty no matter how hard we tried.  We are separated from God in this mortal life.  Only death, in a surprise twist, frees us from our mortality and allows us to enter eternity with God.  Jesus Christ, not George Clooney, is the lead character  and Paul says that this twist is in understanding death as a gift from God.  Satan tried to con us and convince us that we are lost but through faith in Christ we can be given eternal life.  Thank you, Lord, the good guys win and live “happily ever after.”  Praise God!

51-57 But let me tell you something wonderful, a mystery I’ll probably never fully understand. We’re not all going to die—but we are all going to be changed. You hear a blast to end all blasts from a trumpet, and in the time that you look up and blink your eyes—it’s over. On signal from that trumpet from heaven, the dead will be up and out of their graves, beyond the reach of death, never to die again. At the same moment and in the same way, we’ll all be changed. In the resurrection scheme of things, this has to happen: everything perishable taken off the shelves and replaced by the imperishable, this mortal replaced by the immortal. Then the saying will come true:

Death swallowed by triumphant Life!
Who got the last word, oh, Death?
Oh, Death, who’s afraid of you now?

1 Corinthians 15:51-57, The Message

When you think of a trumpet blast, what do you think of?  The first thing that came to my mind was taps.  Taps is the name for the trumpet or bugle song played at the end of the day to signal “lights out,” or is played at a funeral.  One version of its origin is that a Union  soldier in the Civil War found the tune in the pocket of his son killed fighting for the Confederate army.  It is also known as “Butterfield’s Lullaby”.  The story goes that General Butterfield had to bury a soldier.  They were too close to the Confederate line to shoot the customary three shots to honor a death and so he wrote this song of three notes.  We might know the words to the first verse but there were a couple other.

1.  Day is done, gone the sun,  From the lake, from the hills, from the sky;

 All is well, safely rest, God is nigh.

2,  Fading light, dims the sight,  And a star gems the sky, gleaming bright.

 From afar, drawing nigh, falls the night.

3.  Thanks and praise, for our days,  ‘Neath the sun, ‘neath the stars, neath the sky;

 As we go, this we know, God is nigh.

4.  Sun has set, shadows come, Time has fled, Scouts must go to their beds

 Always true to the promise that they made.

5.  While the light fades from sight,  And the stars gleaming rays softly send,

 To thy hands we our souls, Lord, commend.

Centuries before “Taps” was written, Paul writes about the sounding of the blast of a trumpet that will signal the end of day as we know it and will signal the honoring of the dead.  Let us spend time praying for the many caught in war zones in our world today or are being held as hostages.  Lord, have mercy!  Draw near to them in their hour of need.  Comfort their families.  We long for the day when fighting will cease, the dead will be honored and peace will reign. May death be swallowed by triumphant life!

35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” 36 How foolish!What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. 39 Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another.  1 Corinthians 15:35-39

Paul has affirmed that after death comes resurrection.  So the natural next question is to ask what that will look like.  Will we be reincarnated into a bug if we led selfish lives or an angel if we were good?  I was surprised at a teacher’s meeting to hear a lady telling another about her beloved cat that had recently died and that she was sure it was now her guardian angel.  The table chirped in with their various ideas of whatever  “after death” might look like.  We know from the resurrection of Jesus that the disciples recognized him, could touch him, his body was not bound by time and space like ours, and he did eat with them.  Paul suggests that even as we might throw out a handful of unknown seeds into our garden, we may not be able to predict what type of flowers or vegetables will grow.  In the same way our bodies now are like those seeds and what they will become in eternity is mostly unknown.  

I find it interesting that the last sentence includes “life” or flesh as a broader category that may include our beloved pets, perhaps fish for those who love fishing, and birds for the bird watchers.  I love Tales of Narnia where Narnia includes talking animals and mythical creature like unicorns.  We just don’t know but we can believe and trust.  Heaven before the fall was a beautiful, purposeful and interesting place to be and I cannot imagine heaven to come will be any less.

So rather than haggle over that which we just don’t know, let’s have some fun thinking of the maybe’s through the acrostic of “trust”. Perhaps heaven will include T- turtles, trees, tulips, tenderness…

T is for ______

R is for ______

U is for _______

S is for _______

T is for _______ 

Thank you, Lord, that we can trust you for the unknown.  We see all the trees and flowers and know you love diversity.  We enjoy our friends and know you love community and laughter, and joy. We read your law and know you value people and do not want murder, greed, jealously or covetousness.  Lord, you are good and help us to remember that.

“There is a nice symmetry in this: Death initially came by a man, and resurrection from death came by a man. Everybody dies in Adam; everybody comes alive in Christ. But we have to wait our turn: Christ is first, then those with him at his Coming, the grand consummation when, after crushing the opposition, he hands over his kingdom to God the Father. He won’t let up until the last enemy is down—and the very last enemy  is death!”

 1 Corinthians 15:21-28, The Message

Paul is coming to the end of his first letter to the believers in Corinth, a thriving international city in the Roman Empire.  Many religions lived side by side.  Paul has been answering questions about problems facing the early church that had no seminaries, no denominational history, and no written scriptures.  He is writing a letter that will be incorporated into the New Testament for generations to follow – you and me.  He now talks about death and resurrection.  Even today we disagree about whether Jesus actually died and then rose again.  Paul talks about the resurrection of Christ as being central to Christianity.  Offering human or animal sacrifices was a common practice for atoning for sins.  We understand this concept.  We pay fines for speeding.  We put people in prison to “pay” for their misdeeds. We grieve over the public shootings in schools by some person upset about something that they feel they need to kill about.  Horrible.  We wring our hands and lament.  Vengeance and sacrifice makes sense.  What we struggle with is resurrection.

Paul points to the symmetry.  Adam and Eve sinned.  God said the penalty for their offense is death.  All people will face death.  I would argue that God never intended that we carry the weight of the tree of good and evil and death was a mercy to set us free as much as a punishment.  In any case, we all must die. But likewise, it is possible for all people to have eternal life and reenter the Garden of Eden and live in God’s kingdom by believing in Jesus.  One man, Adam, introduced death and one man, Jesus, introduces eternal life.

I love those apps that allow me to take a picture of a sick plant and then the app tells me if I need to trim, water, add sugar, or even garlic to the plant for it to regain health.  In the slide of the app, the plant resurrects and becomes all it was meant to be.  What picture comes to your mind when you think of resurrection?  Let us thank God that he knows if we need sugar water or garlic water or trimming.  There is hope for the future.  Thank you Lord that we do not have to live forever carrying burdens you never intended for us to carry.  Blessings.

First Reading: Jeremiah 11:18-20

 18 It was the Lord who made it known to me, and I knew; then you showed me their evil deeds.

 19But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter. And I did not know it was against me that they devised schemes, saying, “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name will no longer be remembered!”

 20But you, O Lord of hosts, who judge righteously, who try the heart and the mind, let me see your retribution upon them, for to you I have committed my cause.

 21Thus they reasoned, but they were led astray, for their wickedness blinded them,

 22and they did not know the secret purposes of God, nor hoped for the wages of holiness, nor discerned the prize for blameless souls.

Psalm: Psalm 54

God is my helper; it is the Lord who sustains my life. (Ps. 54:4)

 1Save me, O God, by your name; in your might, defend my cause.

 2Hear my prayer, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth.

 3For strangers have risen up against me, and the ruthless have sought my life, those who have no regard for God.

 4Behold, God is my helper; it is the Lord who sustains my life. 

 5Render evil to those who spy on me; in your faithfulness, destroy them.

 6I will offer you a freewill sacrifice and praise your name, O Lord, for it is good.

 7For you have rescued me from every trouble, and my eye looks down on my enemies. 

Second Reading: James 3:13—4:3, 7-8a

13Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. 14But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. 15Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. 16For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. 17But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. 18And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.4:

 1Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? 2You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures. 7Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8aDraw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

Gospel: Mark 9:30-37

30[Jesus and the disciples went on] and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it;31for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” 32But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.

 33Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” 34But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. 35He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” 36Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, 37“Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”

CHILDREN’S SERMON: Six Blind Men and an Elephant.  We have looked at this tale before but it is worth review. We joke about the “elephant in the room” implying that there is an obvious problem or situation that no one wants to talk about.  The disciples have an elephant in the room in our text today.  Their Messiah is talking about dying.  But first the story.  Six blind men meet an elephant. One touches the nose and suggests an elephant is like a big snake.  One touches a leg and is sure the elephant is like a tree.  One touches its ear, one touches its tail, one touches the tusk and one touches the side of the elephant.  They each come up with a different idea of what an elephant is like.  One thinks it is a snake, or a tree, or a giant fan, or a rope, or a spear, and maybe even a wall.  If you were to describe an elephant, what would you liken it to?  If you were to describe Jesus in one word, what would you liken him to? 

Prayer:  Lord may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, my Rock and my Redeemer.

SERMON

Last week Jesus asked his disciples a question. “Who do people say that I am?” The disciples replied John the Baptist, Elijah and then Peter answered “the Messiah.”  Peter had the right answer but he did not fully understand.  It makes me think of the six blind men and the elephant.  They each saw a part of the elephant through their own experience but they needed the vision of someone who could see the big picture to put the pieces together to truly see.  The disciples had seen Jesus call people back to God and call people to repentance like John the Baptist. Perhaps Jesus was a New Testament prophet.  Elijah was a famous Old Testament prophet who raised a dead son and called down fire from heaven on the burnt sacrifice better than the prophets of Baal.  Maybe Jesus was a prophet like Elijah.  The Jews were looking for a Messiah who would come and restore David’s kingdom and the glory of Solomon. Peter suggests that Jesus is this very Messiah that has been professied.  Jesus affirms Peter but Peter only partially understands.  Jesus in our text is seeking to teach the disciples and broaden their understanding of who the Messiah is.  Even we come to understand who God is through our experiences and so we come to scriptures today to grow our understanding.

So I think it is fair for us to first reflect on who we think Jesus is.  Turn to your neighbor and share how you might describe Jesus in one word.

“The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, 

and they will kill him, 

and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” 

Houston, we have a problem.  Jesus uses three verbs here that just do not compute with our understanding of God.  How can we betray Jesus?  How can Jesus be killed and be a Messiah? And how does Jesus rise?  I rather think that like Peter I might rebuke Jesus for saying such difficult words or like the disciples I would probably be quiet, afraid to ask a stupid question.

Betrayal can be define as accidentally or intentionally sharing information that places another in danger.  Perhaps we roll our eyes when someone shares their testimony and comment under our breath, “really??”  Then again we might choose silence and go with the crowd into activities that make us feel uncomfortable and that might compromise our principles.  We just don’t live with integrity with our beliefs.  Peter said he did not know Jesus when under pressure at the trial and Judas chose money.  Most of us have bowed to peer pressure and not lived our faith as transparently as we might.

To think of Jesus being killed confronts our understanding that God is eternal.  Death is the great unknown and every religion has some theory on what happens whether that be reincarnation, nirvana, purgatory, paradise or heaven. We talk about “End Times” and how we think history will unfold but these disciples did not have the New Testament, or the Revelation of John.  Jesus is trying to tell the disciples that he will be rejected, persecuted and killed.  That does not sound like a Messiah.  Jesus is telling us also that faith is not an automatic guarantee of happiness tomorrow. The journey of faith will include some rough days, perhaps disease, perhaps persecution and most likely death.  Again it is hard to ask God about this as answers involve revelations or information we may not have language to understand.  We are called to faith and trust, just like a small child embracing its parent.  And often we are afraid to ask questions and cling to our definition of the “elephant” as we think it is.

The third word Jesus uses is a promise that he will rise again.  As a chaplain I have talked with patients who had “out of body experiences” where they knew they had died and watched as medical people revived their bodies and called them back to life.  We meet experiences we just cannot give a scientific explanation for so we listen but mostly we have trouble interacting and we choose not to ask questions.  We read that Jesus rose and is active in our lives and we hear testimonies but resurrection still remains a mystery.

 Betrayal, death and resurrection are hard to explain and talk about.  I choose to use the language of journey.  Jesus walked through all the experiences that we will be called to endure to show us that nothing can separate us from the love of God.  Romans 8: 38 assures us, 

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Messiah is a title that is greater than an earthly king and speaks into a future whose form we are not sure about.

“What were you arguing about on the way?” 

Betrayal, death and resurrection are big words that are hard to grasp unless we have a context. Jesus turns to the disciples and asks them what they have been arguing about.  Jesus is not asking because he does not know but because he is pulling the disciples into awareness of what he is trying to explain.  They had been “arguing about” who would be greatest in the coming kingdom.  Not only had they not been listening but they had been arguing about who would be greatest.  Jesus being Messiah was not just about establishing Israel’s glory.  The road to greatness is not about power and all those things our world values. We are challenged today to think outside our boxes.  The six men had to pool their information and form a picture none of them could imagine.

What do we think about when we think about greatness.  The disciples were arguing about “who.”  They were thinking individualistically and they were thinking about themselves.  James and John wanted seats on Jesus’ right and left side.  They were focusing on people and not on God.  Even though they were of the first century they may of thought in terms of the TV series like American Idol where ordinary people are discovered who have great talents and abilities that set them out as “special.”  This last week many watched the Emmys and rejoiced or cried over which project was chosen for acclaim.  We relate “greatness” with acclaim and recognition of some sort.

We might stop and ponder what makes someone great in our thinking.  Is it financial expertise or military prowess or outstanding beauty of body.  We know the quagmires of these hierarchies that can crush our self esteem.  The disciples had poured their lives into following Jesus and the question, What’s in it for me?, certainly must have played around in their minds and possibly ours.

Jesus sits them down and says bluntly.  In order to be first, we must be willing to be last.  Perhaps we can kind of understand this. To win the Olympics, we must be willing to put in hours of practice and we must enter competitions where we could well loose and be last.  But Jesus continues.  We must be willing to be the servant of all.  Just like betrayal, death and resurrection are conversation stoppers, so is servanthood.  Humanly we want to be in a big successful church with good programs, a fantastic choir and a gifted preacher.  Jesus challenges us today to look beyond these values and ask ourselves what makes church a great experience for us today.  In the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5:18-20 Jesus challenged his audience like this:.

18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Greatness in the kingdom of heaven is not related to individual talents but to practicing the and teaching the commands of God.  These are commands that center around loving God with our whole heart, mind and strength and loving our neighbor as ourselves.  Love is not only possible for the rich or the talented or the powerful, but is possible for all.  Love is an attitude of gratitude to life that God gives us and to the people and situations God puts in our lives.  We love because God loves us first.

Whoever welcomes…

We have now come to a word we can understand, “welcome.”  Jesus puts a child in front of the disciples and likens the word Messiah to welcoming a child, not to welcoming Caesar.  That is really a mind boggling picture of Jesus’ Messiahship.  Jesus is our Savior, our Healer, our Teacher, our Leader, a model to follow, a Friend, a Brother.  He is all the things the six blind men thought about the elephant.  The blind men standing on the road could not see the elephant carrying people or pulling a load or colorfully decorated for a bridal procession.  The men could not see the elephant partnering with humans, faithfully serving those who needed its strength.  The six men did not grasp their relationship to the elephant.

Jesus becomes OUR Messiah when we step into relationship with him.  We Lutherans believe that is at baptism but others believe it is at the conversion moment.  The text tells us that when we welcome Jesus into our lives we are then welcoming God who revealed himself in the Old Testament in the Torah but who has now given us the big picture by incarnating in Jesus.  The big picture is a picture of serving even in the face of betrayal and killing.  The big picture is resurrection reality with a Messiah who defeats the evil of this world not by war but by servanthood.  Like our six blind men, we need the incarnation of God in Jesus to show us the elephant in the room that returns love for hate, who speaks truth and not betrays, and who rises with us above death.  That is a Messiah worthy of our worship and service.  That’s the big picture.

Let the people of God say, “Amen.”

“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”  1 Corinthians 15: 10

We are starting to wind down to the end of the first letter to the Corinthians written by the apostle Paul.  He sums it up with the word “grace.”  He knew he had persecuted and been part of the death of early Christians.  It was God’s grace that rescued him.

Likewise, it is hard to talk about grace without thinking of the beloved hymn, Amazing Grace, by John Newton for a New Year’s Eve service in 1773.  It was published in 1779.  Newton was pressed into the Royal Navy and in a storm of the coast of Ireland, cried out for mercy and became a Christian.  After the navy he was involved in the Atlantic slave trade and like Paul was convinced he was wrong.  He turned to God and became a well known abolitionist-by the grace of God. 

This hymn tells the story of grace.  I chose this version of the hymn sung by Andrea Bocelli.  Please enjoy as you prepare your heart for worship tomorrow.

Blessings!

Andrea Bocelli Gives Stunning Performance of Amazing Grace! – Music Video

Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound). That sav’d a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,  Was blind, but now I see.

‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,  And grace my fears reliev’d;
How precious did that grace appear. The hour I first believ’d!

Thro’ many dangers, toils, and snares,   I have already come;
‘Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,   And grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promis’d good to me,   His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be.  As long as life endures.

Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,   And mortal life shall cease;
I shall possess, within the veil,  A life of joy and peace.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,   The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who call’d me here below,  Will be forever mine.

10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.  1 Corinthians 15: 10

This is one of the famous verses in 1 Corinthians.  Paul is summarizing his responses to their questions but ends on this personal note.  He keeps calling the believers back to their faith in Jesus, not other preachers, and to the challenge to live at peace with others.  Yesterday he summarized the basic principles of his faith and ended with the realization that he believed in Jesus after a personal encounter with him and after a time in his life when he was trying to kill Christians.  He knows he did not deserve God’s love.  He was aware of his unworthiness for the happiness he had found.  He sums it up today with the word “grace.” 

For many of us we can look back over our lives, especially if we are older, and realize the mistakes we have made but hopefully we can also identify many ways we have been blessed more than we deserved.  Let’s make an acrostic of the word grace, not to define it but to help us think of ways we have been blessed.  For example “G” might be for gifts that surprised us, or generosity that felt undeserved, or maybe just a goldfish that we enjoyed, or a good meal, or….

”G” is for ________

”R” is for ________

”A” is for ________

”C” is for ________

“E” is for ________ ….evenings with beautiful sunsets.  Thank you, Lord!

“The first thing I did was place before you what was placed so emphatically before me: that the Messiah died for our sins, exactly as Scripture tells it; that he was buried; that he was raised from death on the third day, again exactly as Scripture says; that he presented himself alive to Peter, then to his closest followers, and later to more than five hundred of his followers all at the same time, most of them still around (although a few have since died); that he then spent time with James and the rest of those he commissioned to represent him; and that he finally presented himself alive to me. It was fitting that I bring up the rear. I don’t deserve to be included in that inner circle, as you well know, having spent all those early years trying my best to stamp God’s church right out of existence.”

  1 Corinthians 15:3-9, The Message

Paul introduced this first letter to the Corinthians by introducing himself as a “called apostle,” an authorized leader in the early church and complemented the Corinthians on how he saw them growing in faith.  He then answered questions people had given him about what the journey of faith looks like and the different issues the people in the church were facing.  Now in chapter 15 he starts to wind down to the end of the letter.  He gives the Corinthians a summary of his beliefs. It may sound a bit wordy but again we remember that there was no New Testament scriptures to be researched and be taught from.  So what do we see in this long sentence?

First I see that Paul wants me to know that Jesus is the fulfillment of prophecy.  He did not just pop up on the stage of history but was anticipated for centuries.  The Bible is a story that grows and becomes fuller and richer through time.  The individual events contain lessons but there is a bigger revelation unfolding.

Secondly Paul documents that people, lots of people witnessed the life of Jesus.  He is not just a popular folk tale but a genuine incarnated human – God being.  Paul humbly self identifies as someone who did not believe and who persecuted early Christians but then came to believe and became a follower of Jesus.

So how would you summarize your story of faith?  What might be the important facts that ties your journey into the unfolding of history of humanity?  My daughter likes to hear our story of President Moi of Kenya visiting the school campus right after her birth.  As he walked in to eat, he paused and point his “rugs”, authority stick, at her and said, “Some day she too will go to this school.”  And she did.  Perhaps someone said, “You’re just like your …..”. Our lives are part of history.  Where do you fit in and what contribution would you like to make?  Pray about it.  Blessings.