Living "After Easter"

I was at the store the other day. My family had been lamenting the LACK of Easter candy in the house, so I had told them that the next time I was at the store, I would pick up some discounted Easter candy. As I was picking through the remaining display of candy, I noticed the multitude of chocolate crosses and bunny rabbits. It invited me to wonder about chocolate crosses for Easter….anyway…

Here we are at the third week of Easter. Remembering that the “after holiday” sales usually are focused around getting rid of the extra merchandise, I started thinking about how long the holiday – Easter, in this case - stays in our minds after the candy is gone. Now Easter may stay in our hearts all year as a foundational piece of our faith. We refer to it in our hymns, and traditions. But I wondered how often is it in our minds, in our thinking?

What do the days after Easter represent for us? Sometimes I think the days after Easter are represented by a bag full of holiday discount candy and perhaps some left over ham. Sometimes when Easter is over, we do not often talk about the “what next?” part. We hold the Easter story as an important part of our faith, but do we intentionally think about what is next? What does it mean to live post-resurrection?

Facebook often offers all kinds of holiday links, this is one that I received this year that I thought was pretty interesting to think about.

http://vimeo.com/10639312

Perhaps can we answer the question of “what is next?” with the statement, “it has only just begun.”

“But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.”
I Corinthians 15:20-24

Remember: Live creationally
Let’s talk about Corinthians for a few minutes, and then talk about how Paul’s reference to “first fruits” might be something to consider for us today.

In Corinth we find wisdom and eloquence the values of the day. We see in chapter 3 the Corinthian church contained people at odds with each other and with Paul on various issues. Amidst the divisions, Paul begins the letter by unifying the Corinthians. He addresses them as sanctified and called to be holy, gives thanks for the grace on them – expressed in spiritual gifts.
We see themes of the common life of the congregation and the centrality of Christ’s death and resurrection. The main problem was that these divisions manifesting themselves in quarrels.

The issues Paul addresses are varied, yet hold a common theme; what community should look like as our minds needs to be renewed and changed. Actions were to be creational – life giving. The Corinthians had cultural values that were anti-creational: boasting, competition, self-seeking, etc. Paul identifies these among others, and within the letter contrasts them with creational values, calling the local church to maturity in these areas, evidencing through spiritual gifts and in love.

Live creationally – what is it?
Offering life, not death.

The first issue discussed is an example of not living creationally or in a life giving and affirming manner. In the first few chapters we see the issue to be around which leader people were following. Scholar Ben Witherington shares this: “Corinth was a city where boasting and self-promotion had become an art form.” With its reputation of being highly competitive, the clubs attended and organizations joined were a matter to boast about. It has been suggested that Paul was concerned that the church was falling in to the same pattern by boasting about which teacher they each followed and were thus behaving, not as God’s people, but as a Roman social club. We can also see where this extreme competitiveness would play out in the manner in which the Corinthians viewed their spiritual gifts. Paul states that the boasting that was occurring, was due to a lack of maturity. This boasting was not life giving to the community, within and without of the church.

In chapter 5, we see a response to a report of a relationship between two family members that would shock even the pagans. Paul is very firm - this is not offering life to the participants as well as life to the community as a whole.

Some of these issues are about “being right;” having human wisdom. Some are about “having rights;” freedoms that exist through our relationship with Christ. How does “being right” and “having rights”, have to do with Christian common life theme?

If it isn’t about “having rights” in Christ, what is it about? Loving one another, and giving up your rights for your neighbor. We see this culminate in chapter 13.

The idea of love
Paul gives us a working definition of “love.” NT Wright says that the highest virtue, the greatest quality, the most Jesus-like characteristic we can have is Love.

Paul says that one can “know” all the right things (which “puffs up”), can do all the right things, can exercise all the freedoms that they have in Christ, but if they do not have love, it is nothing. (1 Cor. 13)

Witherington suggests that for “Paul the essence of true spirituality is self-sacrificial love, not gifts, knowledge, or miraculous power.” What a shift for the Corinthians, who were certain that gifts, knowledge and power WAS spirituality.
Paul compares love (patient, kind, does not boast, not self-seeking, doesn’t keep track of wrongs) to what he has just shown the Corinthians to be (prideful, boasting, keep track of wrongs, etc). Paul ultimately believes love, instead of freedom) not freedom or knowledge, is the key for Christians, both to understand the mysteries of faith and as a guide to behavior.”

In Christ(both in death and resurrection,) being “right” (having human wisdom) and having rights (freedoms that exist through our relationship with Christ) are trumped by:
1) Love (13:1 – If I speak with the language of angels, but don’t have love…I am but a banging gong.)
2) through being in relationship with one another, through the work of the Spirit in ourselves and in each other producing mature believers able to do Christ’s kingdom – missional work.

What does this mean for us today?
Imagine with me, what this creational manner of living might look like today.

In reading Paul’s first letter to the Church at Corinth we notice the language of creation Paul uses in “firstfruits.” “Firstfruits” are the first fruits of the season, the choicest of the harvest. Interesting enough – the Jewish festival of first fruits begins the third day of Passover, which was also the day we celebrate as Easter.

First fruits refer to the first of the harvest, and it carries with it an implication that there is more to come. Christ is the first fruits, we are the “more to come.” So, how do we, as the “more to come,” participate in offering life? In living in a creational fashion?

In Corinthians we find Paul encouraging the people of God to join in re-creation, God's restoration of humanity. We also see that Paul corrects those who behave in "anti-creational" ways - things that do not offer life to self and the rest of creation. How do we partner with God’s restoration of humanity? What are actions we can take that offer life? What do we do that is not life giving? How do we, representing the "more to come" participate in God's mission?

In the video we heard, “God has not given up on this world, because this world matters.” Christ came in order to restore his creation to God's own self. This is what Easter is all about. Now that we are on “this side” of the resurrection, and as the church, we are part of God’s restorative project of humanity, what does that mean for us? How do we participate with him? How does it look in every day life?

“We are living in a world in the midst of rescue…when you find your self assuming that it is over, lost and gone and broken and it can never be put back together, is has been destroyed and you swear that it can never be rebuilt, hold on a minute because in fact in that moment, things will have just begun.”

If God has not given up on this world, how can our actions partner with God to restore creation? Everything we do…matters. When we think it (the world) could never be fixed, “hold on because in that moment, things have just begun.” How do you respond to “everything we do…matters?”

Bell states “things have just begun.” The cross was “the beginning” of God’s restorative action on behalf of humankind. How do you respond to an invitation to participate in God’s project restoration for humankind?

I love this quote from N.T. Wright’s book, Surprised by Hope:

“You are – strange though it may seem, almost as hard to believe as the resurrection itself – accomplishing something that will become in due course part God’s new world. Every act of love, gratitude, and kindness; every work of art or music inspired by the love of God and delight in the beauty of his creation; every minute spent teaching a severely handicapped child to read or to walk; every act of care and nurture, of comfort and support, for one’s fellow human beings and for that matter for one’s fellow non-human creatures; and of course every prayer, all Spirit-led teaching, every deed that spreads the gospel, builds up the church, embraces and embodies holiness rather than corruption, and makes the name of Jesus honored in all the world – all of this will find its way, through the resurrecting power of God, into the new creation that God will one day make. That is the logic of the mission of God.”

(N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection and the Mission of the Church, p. 208)
I believe Wright starts to paint a picture of our part in the mission of God. We are challenged to consider that everything matters.

1) Every act of expressing love, gratitude, and kindness;
2) Every work of art or music inspired by the love of God and delight in the beauty of his creation;
3) Every minute spent teaching another.
4) Every act of care and nurture, of comfort and support, of creation.
5) Every prayer, all Spirit-led teaching, and every deed that spreads the gospel, builds up the church,
6) Every action that embraces and holiness, honoring the name of Christ works through the power of the resurrection into the re-creation, the new creation God is making.

This is the mission of God. This is our opportunity to participate. This is what it means to live creationally – be be life giving and life affirming in our actions and words. What will our intention be for the week? How can you, how can I choose to live into the mission of God. How do we choose to live creationally – and live "after Easter?"

Spring is at the porch. Graduation is close, as well as the end of internship. Conversation is starting back up soon...