Date : The Resurrection of Our Lord/Easter Day, April 4, 2010

Text : 1 Corinthians 15:19-26

Title : Not only for this life

"If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied." Christ is risen! . . . Alleluia! . . .

Easter Sunday is the perfect day to ask yourself: why am I a Christian?

When I was in college, my philosophy teacher recommended being a Christian for the fellowship. Since we are social creatures, we can find contentment and joy and fulfillment in a church by singing in the choir, working at fundraisers, and whatever group activities soothe our savage beast. If this is why you are a Christian, your god is the equivalent of the social director on a cruise ship.

Or, are you a Christian because you need God to give you the things that you need to have a good life? Some folks are dandy-looking Christians as long as their lives run smoothly. They feel like God is blessing their health, making sure they have a good home, nice things, a bevy of loyal friends. Their god is no more than a cookie jar, which is always filled with whatever the believer has a taste for at any given time.

Other folks are Christians out of fear. They don’t want to go to hell. They don’t want to be punished. They don’t want to be separated from their loved ones for eternity. Their god is no more than a fascist dictator tyrant to be feared.

Other folks are Christians simply to hedge their bets. They figure that you have to believe in something. For them, it’s believing in something that saves a person—it’s their faith that’s important, not the object of their faith.

The other spin on this same idea is this: you believe in Jesus just in case Jesus is the Savior. If he’s not, you’re not out anything. If Jesus isn’t the Savior and, say, Evolution is true, and when we die we go back to the earth as do the mice and squirrels and birds that die in the woods, then nothing will matter. But, if Jesus is, indeed, the Savior, then by believing in Him you luck out.

Finally, there is the tried and true joke about us Lutherans: because that’s the way we’ve always done it. These are those who are Christians simply because this is how they were brought up. They were taught to do this and that—worship on Sunday, go to Communion, pray every night. Or, they go church only because they have to go—to satisfy a parent, a spouse, a sibling who doesn’t want to go alone. Habit or obligation—that’s as deep as their faith gets.

Every one of these types of Christians misses the mark. Each one, in its own way, falls under the warning about which the Holy Spirit had Paul write: "If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied."

Being a Christian—believing in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior—is all about this day, first, and, second, what His resurrection means for the eternal life of the people who grasp and trust what His resurrection is all about.

First, regarding Jesus’ resurrection. That this man, Jesus, who is, in fact, the eternal Son of God and the second person of the Holy Trinity, was raised from the dead isn’t simply a lovely story for the springtime, because resurrection reminds us that, in the spring, the world is returning to life, and what a lovely opportunity to wear pretty clothes, and have a family feast, and give the kids colorful eggs and candies.

The Holy Spirit had Paul write, "But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep."

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is just as factual as two plus two equaling four, just as real as the face that stares back at you in the morning mirror, just as physical and tangible as that fifth package of stale Peeps you should have left for the kids to finish.

That the Son of God really was born into our human flesh on Christmas, and really died for our sins on Good Friday, and really came out of the tomb alive on Easter Sunday—this is what is behind our joy-filled proclamation: Christ is risen! . . . Alleluia! . . .

The resurrection of Jesus is Job One, and it is a done deal. Now, Paul wrote that Jesus was raised as the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. What does that mean? Paul continues, "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. . . . The last enemy to be destroyed is death."

This being my tenth Easter with you folks, you have gotten used to me saying that death—and, with death, the devil and damnation—is our ultimate enemy. Death completely messes up life. Death stinks. And, since every last one of us has to face death, we all are in need of the same cure.

Here comes the second part of why we are Christians. Jesus, being raised from the dead, has power that no one else has. If you can find anyone else who has brought himself back from the dead, never again to age or die, and to have ascended into heaven, then you go ahead and believe in that one.

This is most basic thing that gives you confidence that you have your faith in the right place—that Christianity is the religion par excellence. Jesus is the only One to beat the one evil—death—that everybody faces. And, in beating death, He has power and a promise.

Paul called Jesus the firstfruits to indicate that there will be a lot more fruit to follow. The fruit to follow is every person who believes in Jesus for the right reasons—who don’t belong to a church just to have a place to join in; who don’t call on God’s name simply to have his life filled with good things; who are scared stiff to be damned to hell; who isn’t hedging his bets just in case, or go to church only because it’s a habit or to keep someone off his back, or who was brought up this way and that’s as deep as his faith goes—

For those who believe in Jesus for the right reasons—for everything that we professed in the Nicene Creed—Jesus has power to fulfill His promise that everyone who believes in Him will not die but have eternal life, that He will raise them up on the Last Day.

These last three weeks have been a marvelous faith lesson for me. My brother called, on March 10, with the news that my dad broke his hip. I drove home the next day. He had the minimal surgery required, was only in the hospital for five days, and was on his way to renewed health . . . until he suffered another, much worse, fracture.

Ten days ago, he had a complete hip replacement. They also found that he has a staph infection. He has had gout in his elbow, for years, and now his elbow is infected. They have cleaned it out, twice, and are concerned that he will need it cleaned out more times. So, he’s still in the hospital, for at least several more days.

Dad turned eighty-three on St. Patrick’s Day. For eighty-two years and fifty-one weeks, he had never been laid up for more than a few days at a time. He still keeps as large a garden as ever. He is serves his local credit union. He works, two days a week, at a local church’s food bank.

When I saw him, last Sunday, he could barely talk. He had no appetite–still doesn’t. He’s weak. He’s losing weight. He looks so old. On Friday, my brother, Tom, said the one thing that I feared the moment I hung up from his first phone call: Dad might die from this.

Of course, I’ve witnessed this, countless times, in your husbands and wives, your parents and grandparents. I’ve learned why you are so sad when an elderly parent dies. Sure, you’re glad they went to heaven, but they are your mom, your dad, and you want them with you. While I don’t get to see my dad very often, he’s always as close as the phone and, when I visit, he’s always there—in the house he built back in the ‘50s, in which all of us kids grew up. And, he has been a marvelous father to me, and to all six of his children.

With my dad lying in a hospital bed, there is only one thing that matters to me: that he belongs to the living Jesus, and that Jesus is going to raise him from the dead to the eternal life of no more death, or mourning, or crying, or pain, of which we heard in the Old Testament lesson, "Behold I create a new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create."

I took my hymnal, last Sunday. Since it was a chore for Dad to talk, I sang some hymns. I wasn’t sure if Dad stayed awake. He must have. When telling Tom about my visit, he said, "Greg tried to sing to me."

I sang our favorite Easter hymn, the one we just sang. Oh, what meaning this stanza now has:

He lives and grants me daily breath;

Why are you a Christian? You are a Christian because Jesus has conquered death for Himself and for you. This is what Baptism did to you—in Baptism, Jesus united you with Him in His resurrection from the dead. This is what the Lord’s Supper does for you—in eating and drinking of Christ’s body and blood you receive the nourishment of His resurrected life. This is what every proclamation of the Gospel does in you—you are refreshed in Jesus’ gifts of forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation from death, devil, and damnation.

Why are you a Christian? Because Jesus is the One and only Savior; because Jesus has the gift of life to cure the mess that death makes.

This is the joy behind our every proclamation of today’s good news: Christ is risen! . . . Alleluia! . . . Amen.