A Hole in the Head
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Now I should remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain.
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to someone untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace towards me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them—though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.
Do you really believe in the resurrection? Do you truly, absolutely believe a literal, historical resurrection of Jesus from the dead actually happened? Don’t worry, I’m not gonna put anyone on the spot, and no one’s gonna get excommunicated for having any doubts when it comes to this truly unbelievable story— but it’s a question that we, in our more progressive-leaning churches, in these more… skeptical areas of the country have a tendency to avoid. It’s the cornerstone of this religion, but… do we actually believe in it? And if we don’t… why are we here? What’s the point? Is this all in vain?
Well, Paul certainly thinks so! If we read on to verse 12, Paul says, “Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?” So what’s happening here is that some of these new Jesus followers in Corinth are denying the resurrection happened—probably because of their own Hellenistic philosophical beliefs; after all, they believe in an immortal soul, and they believe the body is weak, so what need is there for a physical body to come back? I mean, yeah, good question. Paul attempts to answer this question for the Corinthians, by, essentially, telling them that seeing is believing—that so many people who are still alive today, even, witnessed Jesus defeat death. Jesus began by revealing himself to one—to Peter, if you believe Paul’s account, to Mary if you believe the Gospel account our youth beautifully read for us earlier—then he revealed himself to his twelve closest friends, then to hundreds more, then to all the believers, and finally, to Paul himself, despite the fact that Paul did not experience his conversation until several years after the resurrection and ascension, but by his account, and by his conversion story in Acts, Jesus did indeed appear to him. And so—maybe this resurrection, maybe this revealing of Jesus is sort of an ongoing revelation, an ongoing mystery of hope.
And yet, here Paul is, trying to prove us point by telling the Corinthians that there are a bunch of people still alive who can attest to Jesus’ resurrection… what does that do for us today? All of those people are long dead, so this argument isn’t especially compelling for us, is it? But this letter to the Corinthians is a long one, and it wasn’t just about convincing them that a literal resurrection happened— this group of new believers were also using spiritual gifts for manipulative and self-serving means—they were speaking in tongues, claiming prophesy in order to lift themselves up, in order to gain higher status within their new group, while putting down others. They were using this brand new faith that preached love above all else, and instead of actually doing the new thing with it, they were just falling back onto old immoral systems of the oppressive status quo.
And these two things—using faith for self-serving means and denying the resurrection—they are not mutually exclusive.
Because when we scoff at the idea of resurrection, we’re denying the fact that Jesus changed everything. We’re denying the fact that death was conquered. We’re denying the fact that a better world, one free from oppression, free from violence, free from death, is, indeed possible. So it’s no surprise that the Corinthians were falling back on the old, oppressive ways of their Roman-ruled society by recreating corrupt and unjust hierarchies—if we don’t believe Jesus truly changed the world, then we can’t truly change the world ourselves. We can’t properly do the work we’re called to do, we can’t bring about the world of which Jesus’ resurrection gives us a preview.
Because that’s really what the resurrection was—it was a preview of what is possible. The German theologian Jurgen Moltmann writes of Easter faith and the resurrection as being an “anticipatory vision” seen by its witnesses. It was anticipating the kingdom of God to come. It’s no wonder that Paul and his followers were so focused on the second coming and the end times— they had this anticipatory vision of what was possible, and it made them see things in a completely new way. Paul’s conversion experience, in which he claims to have had a vision of the risen Christ, struck him blind for three days; and when he could see again, he became a follower of Jesus—he saw the world in a completely new way, and there was no going back. He saw the possibility of hope that lies in the resurrection. This is why he’s so upset about the Corinthians lack of faith in the resurrection—they’re missing out on the hope. They’re missing out on the new life that is possible.
I’ve talked about Sheila Heti’s beautiful and strange novel Pure Colour, in previous sermons. I’ve even talked about this particular section I’m about to mention in a previous sermon about Paul’s conversion. The author is musing on how our perceptions change entering middle age, and she writes, “…when God blinds your eyes to culture, God opens your eyes to everything else… Seasons, birds, the wind in the trees. So don’t go chasing your old forms of sight… learn to see newly… it may feel like a loss of sight… but there is still a lot to see here.” The Corinthians were chasing their old forms of sight and perception, leaning on their old ways, and falling into the same traps. In her book, Heti goes on to say, (and I’ll be honest with you, this next sentence was really a punch in the gut for an aging hipster like myself)— “God doesn’t care what you think about a band. God has put a hole in your head so things like that fall out of it. Yet you keep trying to put things like that into it! There is not a hole in your head for no reason at all. There is a hole in your head for certain things, and not for certain other things. Find the things that don’t leak out and fill your head with those ones.”
Now, bear with me for a second here, because I’m going to get a little maudlin— it’s still impossible to talk about Easter without talking about my daughter Frances and my harrowing journey to bring her here. Two years ago Easter was on April 17th, which was the due date for my pregnancy that I had to terminate at 22 weeks. One Easter ago, I was pregnant for the third time in the span of a year and half, a pregnancy that would finally give Chris and me our beloved Frances, who you’ve heard babbling and growling throughout this whole service. Easter will always be a little strange for me. It will never be a fully joyful occasion. It will never be a simple celebration of the resurrection, it will always have that tinge of Holy Week that remains, the tinge of the dread and anxiety of the Last Supper waiting for Jesus to be betrayed; that tinge of the grief and the feeling hopelessness that comes from Good Friday; the silence and uncertainty that comes with Holy Saturday. That will never go away for me. Each of these Easters has changed me. Each of these Easters has made me see the world in a new way. And there is no going back now. Especially now that Frankie is here. I’m learning more and more each day what I need to keep in my head and my heart, and I what I can do away with, what I can let go of. And I’m not yet going to let go of that anxiety, that uncertainty, that grief, that silence. It has informed my life and it informs my overwhelmingly strong love of my daughter. In that overwhelming Love for Frankie, I can sense that anticipation of the world to come— the anticipatory vision that is the resurrection of Jesus—the feeling of pure and utter love, joy, and comfort; that feeling of utter euphoria after the harrowing of hell.
The world is new and different to me now—I’m seeing it through the eyes of both myself—someone who has been through a great deal of tragedy in the past two years, as well as through the eyes of Frances, seeing everything new for the first time.
Jurgen Moltmann says more about the anticipatory vision the resurrection, “The symbol of the resurrection from the dead means a qualitatively new life which no longer knows death, and therefore cannot be a continuation of this mortal life.” And if we read ahead in 1 Corinthians, chapter 15 verse 22, Paul says, “…as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.” We are born into our mortal, temporal lives, every one of us—but we are given the possibility of life, of true life in the resurrection of Jesus.
Now Moltmann goes onto say that thanks to the resurrection, “…there is already true life in the midst of false life…in communion with the one who had been crucified by that false life. Jesus’ resurrection…makes possible the impossible…reconciliation in the midst of strife, the law of grace in the midst of judgment, and creative love in the midst of legalism. The future has already begun.”
The future has already begun. This is why Paul is so frustrated with the Corinthians. This incredible thing happened, Jesus is free from death, free from the persecution, the pain, the dread that we just made our way through to get to this triumphant day. And yet, the Corinthians struggle to have the faith to believe things can be that good. They struggle to get out their rational heads, to get out of their Hellenistic philosophical minds to embrace this new faith that defies all rationality, that defies all they have ever known.
Every day in this country we see people who claim to be Christian, who claim to believe in the resurrection, completely disregard the spirit of resurrection—completely disregard the fact that resurrection frees us from the death-urge, from this drive to hurt and oppress others; they disregard the fact that in the spirit of resurrection, everything is new and different, and is no longer like it was before—and this is why things are still the way they are. Because too many in power refuse to see the world in this nee way. They refuse to believe what true life is possible. They refuse to let false life out of the holes in their heads.
The witnesses of Paul’s day got that glimpse of what is possible. They got that glimpse of death defeated. But only a glimpse. And ever since that time we’ve been denying the possibility of new life. We’ve been denying the hope that comes with making it through our darkest days. We’ve been afraid of what we might lose when we lose sight of the things that we think matter but truly don’t, and so we hold onto them for dear life when all it’s giving us is more death.
Excuse my honesty and my heresy here, but I do, indeed, struggle with the idea of a literal resurrection. But what I don’t struggle with is the possibility. What I do believe, what I have to believe is that a better world is possible for Frankie. Or at least for her children or grandchildren or great-grandchildren. To quote Moltmann once again, “The resurrection of Jesus from the dead by God does not speak of the ‘language of facts,’ but only the language of faith and hope, that is, ‘the language of promise.’”
If the resurrection if anything, Church, it is a promise. It is a promise that a better world is possible. It is a promise for the future—the future that is already here, that could be here, if we were only ready for it. If we only stopped holding onto all the trivial things that don’t matter; if only we stopped holding onto the structures of violence in this world that harm so many.
Find that feeling of resurrection. Find that feeling of pure joy and love and hold on it. Keep that in your head and don’t ever let it leak out. Fill your head and your heart with that promise of love and that anticipatory vision of new life, no matter how skeptical you may be, no matter how cynical this world tries to make you—believe in that joy and the hope and the true life that comes with the belief resurrection, that comes with the belief that death can be defeated. Because that glimpse of what is possible showed us— the future has already begun. Amen.
