What’s Cooking—Laminating the Recipe

1 Corinthians 15:12-20

February 15, 2004

   

SERIES CATCH-UP

We’ve been reading Paul’s instructions to Christians in Corinth

First he identified the spiritual gifts they needed (first part of Chapter 12)

                        Apostles > prophets > teachers > strong workers > healers > helpers > organizers

            Then he reinforced the importance of each spiritual gift (second part of Chapter 12)

                        The Church is a complete “body” with many parts > each one equally important

            And told them the best way to use their gifts (Chapter 13)

                        With faith > with hope > with love > and most important is love

            And then last week he heard him talk about the most important message he could give them

                        The message that had been passed on to him > and that he in turn passed to them

                        Message was this: Christ Jesus died and was raised up from the dead

                        This Good News he proclaimed to them so they would believe and pass it on

Today we’ll finish up study of 1 Corinthians by reading next segment > Read 1 Corinthians 15:12 -20

 

To help us apply Paul’s “recipe” for cooking up a strong Church to our lives . . .

we’ve imagined we were cooks > cooks in the kitchen

                        We checked to make certain we had every ingredient we need

We carefully measured right amount we needed for what we were making

We bound our dry ingredients together with some sort of liquid – a “binder” 

And last week we began to hand down our best recipes to those we love

Because our recipes are priceless > this week we will laminate it

Change it so it will last forever  

PRICELESS RECIPES

Laminated recipes last so much longer than paper recipes

I have used some of my recipes so much that I can hardly read the words on them any more

Mother’s Oatmeal Crispie recipe is practically transparent

I’ve dropped globs of Crisco on it over the years > words are almost obliterated

And this page from my Better Homes and Garden’s cookbook

Favorite recipe for pancakes and waffles > it’s in about the same shape

MY own carelessness has made it difficult to read > no titles at all

If I had known this would happen, I might have paid closer attention

                                    I could have been more careful about what I dropped on them

                                                OR

                                    Laminated them so the words and paper would not be damaged

                        But I did not pay attention > I didn’t realize how much they would be worth to me

                                    I did not think far enough ahead to realize they become priceless

                                    I didn’t know some day I would want to hand them down to my children

As priceless as these recipes are > humanity is even more priceless to God

            And thank God > God thinks farther ahead than I do!

            God thought of a way to preserve human life > we call that way “resurrection”

Resurrection is to this life something like laminate is to a recipe card

It is a fundamental change which makes life permanent  

PROBLEMS WITH RESURRECTION

Issue of resurrection must have been at the bottom of the Corinthian’s problems

Problem showed itself in a couple of ways > first way had to do with believing it

            It’s not that they didn’t believe God resurrected Jesus > they did believe that much

            It’s that they didn’t believe God would resurrect THEM

                        They lived in that magical Greek world controlled by many Gods

                        Otherwise unexplainable events filled the mythology they knew so well

                        It was not at all unthinkable that God would raise Jesus from the dead

                                    But would God also raise them? 

                                    That just couldn’t happen

                                                Everyone back then thought the human body was evil

                                                It was connected to the earth > and the earth was evil

                                                Only the spirit was good

if anything happened after death

                                                            it would be the spirit that was released to go back to God

                        So the Corinthians came to Christianity with baggage filled with false notions

                        Paul needed to teach them that their Greek mythology was only that > a myth

Richard Hays writes (First Corinthians John Knox Press, 1997, p. 279)

 “To affirm the resurrection of the dead is to confess that the God who

made us will finally make us whole—spirit, soul, and body.”  

            Yes, it was true [and still is] > because God raised Jesus, God will raise us too

                        God will finally make us whole—spirit, soul, and body

                        Death will not be the end of our lives > we will be changed, but not obliterated

 First problem that Paul addressed in these verses was disbelief about their own resurrection

Second problem was almost total opposite of disbelief > some over-believed

Some boasted that they already had achieved perfection associated with resurrection

Paul knew they would have to wait for that kind of perfection > wait until the end times

But some of them claimed they already had it

Remember the “Church Lady” on Saturday Night Live?

She believed she was somehow superior because she went to church

And her walk let everybody know of her superior status

Some of the Corinthians must have walked her “superior walk”

PROBLEM WITH PROBLEMS

Both their lack of belief and their “over-belief” led to the same result > which itself was a problem

            What was that problem?  Accountability

They did not live their lives with any thought of ever having to be accountable

Either  “Death ended life” > so how they lived didn’t matter > and they harmed their bodies

Or they had “already achieved resurrected status” > how they lived didn’t matter

            the truth lies somewhere in between > and creates a tension

and we have inherited the tension of that in-between

                        death does not end our relationship with God > or with each other

                                    We all began life as an extension of mother’s life and father’s life

                                    Two living cells joined together > continued an already incredible journey

                                    Every moment of every day since then > each of our bodies has been changing

                                                The way I look now is not the way I looked 30 years ago

                                                And the way I looked 30 years ago was not how I looked 30 years before

                                                And how I looked when I was born was not how I looked when conceived

                                                            But I am still me > I have always been me

                        Because I have always been me, I know I always will be me

                                    I will not look like I look today > but even my resurrected form will be me

                                    You will not look like you look today > but even your resurrected form will be you  

IN THE MEANTIME

Until that day that we are made perfect in spirit, soul, and body >  we are where we are

wherever it is that we are

and wherever we are > we have this Good News to hand down to a whole generation

            this Good News about humanity > death does not end our lives

Every day we have a choice about what we do with this Good News

            we can treat it casually, as if it didn’t matter

                        if we do that > the Good News will look something like these old recipes of mine

                        fragile > impossible to read > not worth giving to anybody

            OR we can preserve it > laminate is only one way to imagine preserving the Good News

                        It is ours to preserve so we can hand down what we have received

                        Even as Paul did so very long ago

What will your choice be?  What will YOU do with this Good News?