Sunday 5C: Pilgrims of hope in this present moment and into the future (9 February 2025; 1 Cor 15:1-11)

A reflection on Christian hope in life after death, written and spoken by Kieran J. O'Mahony OSA.

www.tarsus.ie

Gentle piano music to close the meditation

Transcript

John’s Lane
D08 F8NW

9 February 2025
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Pilgrims of hope in the present moment and into the future. 

Welcome
A very dear friend of mine, a woman of deep faith, lost her husband some years ago. In the initial bereavement, she asked me intently and intensely where her husband is now. The question came from the heart. From a strictly faith point of view, it could be enough to say our beloved dead are with the Lord. I myself would not be unhappy with that. But of course from a perfectly normal human point of view, it would help if we could imagine or picture what lies ahead. A little less of the unknown would might undergird our faith just a bit more. 

Topic
This is exactly the challenge in front of St Paul as he wrote chapter 15 in his first letter to the Corinthians. 

Steps
What was going on in Corinth? It was a recently found Christian community in the large and beautiful city of Corinth, on the Gulf of Corinth in Greece. The community was full of energy and gifts, tensions and problems. In other words, they were alive and normal! Paul addresses many of the problems in his first letter to them. Specifically on the resurrection, it seems that while all in the community really did believe Jesus was risen from the dead there were some who simply couldn’t go on to believe that the dead would rise in Christ. The problem was partly one of imagination: they took their corpses seriously — and they just couldn’t see or imagine how a dead body could come back to life. You can see their point — death does involve a departure, a destruction and a kind of defeat. 

How did Paul go about helping them? In the course of 1 Cor 15, he takes three steps. The first step in our reading today: the founding experience of those who first encountered the risen Christ. He was reminding them, as he says, of their faith in Christ risen. This was the faith they received and in which they stood. He even quotes an early creed, which ran something like this: 

Christ died for our sins, 
in accordance with the scriptures; 
that he was buried; 
and that he was raised to life on the third day, 
in accordance with the scriptures; 
that he appeared first to Cephas and secondly to the Twelve. 

They actually already believe all this so Paul is just reminding the Corinthians of their faith, as a foundation for what he is going to say in the next two steps. 

Next, Paul treats them to a severe logic. Are you sure you want to say there is no resurrection whatsoever? In that case, not even Jesus is risen, your faith is a waste of time and my ministry is a delusion. Quite strong logic. It comes up in a shortened form next Sunday. 

In the third step, Paul tries to open up their imagination. Body doesn’t have to be just one thing — there are different kinds of flesh, different kinds of bodies, earthly bodies and heavenly bodies. And then he makes a bit jump: there will also be a spiritual body. An oak tree comes from an acorn — a huge transformation within a basic and obvious continuity. This loosening up of the meaning of body comes, again in a shortened form, on the Sunday afterwards. 

Conclusion
So, where does all that leave us today? We also can’t imagine how our beloved dead are in the Lord — we are like some in Corinth. Does it matter that our imagination is limited? Yes and no. Yes, it would help if we could imagine life after death — after all, we are only human. On the other hand, no, it doesn’t matter. Of course, we cannot really imagine something of which we have absolutely no experience. All we can do is notice some parallel experiences. A Church of Ireland priest put it well once in a homily: Just as the child in the womb cannot imagine life outside the womb, likewise we cannot picture “what God has in store for those who love him.” And still, the next stage of life is real and inevitable. 

For the next two Sundays, we have a chance to reflect on these mysterious things. Perhaps I could suggest that you take out chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians and read the full text, slowly and carefully for yourself. If you like music, you will recognise many passages because they were set to music by Handel in The Messiah.

Let us pray

Faithful and life-giving God, all we have and are comes from you and you hold out the gift of life in abundance, both now in this present moment and in the life to come. We thank you for giving us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.