So We Proclaim

A Sermon Preached at Salem United Church of Christ

Higginsville, Missouri

4 April 2021

Easter

I. The Proclamation of the Good News

• On Resurrection Sunday, reading this portion of Paul’s epistle to the Corinthian Jesus People is obviously a good thing to do – throughout the 15^th chapter, the resurrection takes center stage – without the resurrection, Paul would have no reason to write – without the resurrection, there could be no good news – without the resurrection, Paul might still be Saul and unknown to us
• After dealing with whole host of troubles in the Jesus Community at Corinth, Paul turns to what might be the most significant trouble of all – if we look at the epistle to determine what the issues might be that led to it, we have to conclude that there are some in the community who deny, or at least doubt, the reality of the resurrection of Jesus
• Paul begins by reminding the Corinthians of the content of his message of the good news – this is important because it forms the foundation in which they all stand and provides an explanation of what God does through Jesus in order to heal them of their brokenness – this is the message that he proclaimed to them and in which they have trusted
• Paul says that he received this message and, most likely, we are to infer that he has received the message from God – Acts tells us that after Saul’s encounter with the resurrected Jesus on the Damascus Road, and after he meets the people he has gone there to persecute, Paul begins to evangelize enthusiastically (Acts 9.19b-22) – the apostle says in Galatians that he did not “confer with any human being” about what to preach, but went instead into Arabia, not to Jerusalem, for some unspecified period of time before returning, not to Jerusalem but to Damascus – it is three years before Paul actually goes to Jerusalem, where the Jesus movement began(Galatians 1.13-17)
• The apostle’s short rehearsal of his proclamation, which he says is of “first importance,” is simply this: Jesus died, was buried, and God raised him from death on the third day – the death and resurrection happen “in accordance with the scriptures,” but he does not say which scriptures he means – even if he had said, the references would probably be meaningless to most of the Corinthians because they would not be familiar with the Hebrew Bible – and there was no collection of Christian scriptures at the time, so the Hebrew Bible would be the only scriptures Paul would know
• What the reference to the scriptures does tell the Corinthians is that God is not a newcomer to the scene – God has been at work a very long time, in history and through the prophets, striving to call human beings to fidelity to the covenant, to remember that we are all God’s children and that God loves us all
• The question of the resurrection persists, however, so Paul names a number of people who have seen the risen Christ – some of the witnesses are people we know from the Jesus stories: Cephas (also called Peter), the twelve (disciples), James (probably Jesus’ brother) – there are also many we do not know because the apostle does not name them – there are five hundred brothers and sisters in Christ, most of whom are still alive, and all the apostles, which is a larger group than the twelve
• All of the ones who have seen Jesus after the resurrection lend credence to the reality of the resurrection, but not even they are proof
• Finally, Paul names himself as one of the apostles, even though by rights he should not be one – he persecuted the church of God and had a reputation as a fearsome opponent – he had not known Jesus before the resurrection, so he has no right to the title or office of apostle, except that God has made him one – by the grace of God he is what he is – even though he claims he has worked harder than any of the other apostles, only the grace of God working in him and through him has given the message to proclaim – so he proclaims and so the Corinthians have come to believe – and so have we believed and so we proclaim

II. So We Proclaim

• We do not have the privilege of knowing Paul personally – we do not have the opportunity to talk with all those who were witnesses to the reality of the resurrection – all that we have are stories and the Holy Spirit, and that is all we need
• We cannot prove empirically or scientifically that the resurrection occurred – believe it or not, that is a good thing – if we could prove it beyond any question then there would be no place for trusting in Jesus Messiah – faith, as belief and as a personal relationship with God through Jesus, would be unnecessary – we would have fact and to pretend that the facts do not exist would be pointless – so we have the stories of the Bible, the stories of the Church, the stories of our own congregation, and our own stories – and from them we proclaim the good news
• We have also to be careful with the Jesus story – as the apostle rehearses the story, we could read it as three distinct elements, that is, death, burial, and resurrection – but to separate them from one another does disservice, maybe even damage, to the story – they are in no way distinct – after Easter, we can never separate the crucifixion from the resurrection – the whole of Paul’s proclamation is one thing, as if deathburialresurrection were all one word
• Thus, I do not think that Jesus died to remove our sins or our brokenness – he died because of them – he died because human beings wanted him to die so that they could, they thought, hold on to their earthly power – Jesus went to the cross and endured death because of our trust in ourselves – and his death demonstrates the unimaginable extent of how much God loves this world – in Jesus’ resurrection, God says “Let there be life” – and it is so – Jesus lives for us
• What heals our brokenness, what demonstrates God’s forgiveness, is the resurrection – in the resurrection, God shines a light on the emptiness of the human desire for power – it brings our reliance on violence and control out of the shadows and into the light – it shows us the hubris and the futility of our trust in ourselves – the resurrection is God’s affirmation of life in the face of death and of our fear
• Having trusted in the Jesus of our stories, so we proclaim the resurrection to the world – we do not prove the resurrection because we cannot – even so, we trust it and it is the foundation on which we stand

IV. Conclusion

• We have heard the Easter message and so we proclaim – through Jesus’ resurrection, God brings life where we only see death – Easter is God’s declaration that life is God’s word to the world – and so we proclaim
• Hallelujah! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!