Rev. George Miller
May 12, 2024
1 Corinthians 15:51-58
Thank God for our Shepherd’s Pantry, thank
God for our Garden of Hope, thank God for our Tai Chi classes, thank God for
our partnership with Edwards and Back Bay Mission,
Thank God for our sanctuary and our cozy
seats and our chairs that we can get in and out of,
Because by affirming and caring for
bodies, we are physically proclaiming and sharing the Good News of the
Resurrection.
From Sunrise to Sunset, until the end of
the ages, bodies matters, and they matter to God…
This year, life has added a new lesson-
getting older, and it’s not been fun to learn.
Since 2010, I had the 1st row
seat to see how our bodies age,
how age manifests in the
intentional steps people take,
the pace they walk,
if they use the elevator or stairs.
Now I am the one experiencing how it feels
when the knee aches, the hip pop, the ankle says “ouch” and the thigh says “no
thank you.”
Thanks to walking for hours in dress
shoes, stretching when I should have iced, exercising when I should have rested,
turning to Google instead of going to the doctor,
2024 has been a lesson in what it is like to
have an aging earthly body.
Now I realize just how low car seats and living
room couches are, and how difficult it can be to sit down or stand up.
I realize now that my Grandma and Mom weren’t
being melodramatic when they said a chair was too low or a seat too deep.
Now, I look at furniture, chairs, the
toilet a whole new way, wondering-
why, when we know people age,
are we not making furniture that is
higher up and accommodating for folks over
50?
Today, I’ve more cognizant of how what
happens to the body can affect your mood, your energy, your day-to-day
decisions, what you wear, how you see yourself, when you pick something off the
floor.
Last week at Disney a kid just mindlessly
run up a flight of steps…and I was jealous of them.
3 lessons are learned-
1)
How to better pastor people as they age,
having a glimpse into what it can be like
2)
Making
sure I don’t give in to despair, finding a way to safely have an active, fulfilling
life.
3)
Knowing
that what happens to the body does affect the mind, the spirit, and that all
three are wonderfully, woefully entwined.
This is partly what Paul addresses in his
letter to the Corinthian Church.
As shared last week, this is a church doing
a brand new thing, trying to figure things out amidst all the diversity, opinions,
and beliefs.
There are those who are Jewish who were
raised to believe that we were created in God’s image;
that God lovingly made and molded us by
hand in God’s image, infusing us with God’s breathe,
so that our body, mind, soul cannot be separated
from each other.
For this group of people, bodies matter,
which means bodies are to be fed, cared for, and shown respect.
Then there are those who think the body
and spirit are separate; the body is a jail, a tomb, a terrible place to be.
For them, the body can be mistreated,
abused, overindulged.
These are the people who may whip themselves
in penance, or gorge in food, drink, or use their belief to physically mistreat
others.
This group is having a difficult time
understanding the Resurrection. They can’t
comprehend why the Resurrection of Jesus matters.
For this group, Jesus dying on the cross
meant nothing. Easter makes no
sense.
Instead, they are taking this brand-new Christian
faith and using it as a way to say, “I’m better than anyone else” so they can
look down upon and judge others.
To which Paul writes his extensive
theological discourse in chapter 15.
And regardless if Paul gets it right, or
if everyone agreed, or even agrees today, there is something beautiful that
Paul does.
What he says is this- Bodies Matter.
Your body matters.
My body matters.
Their body matters.
To a congregation stirred up in upheaval and
disagreements, Paul says “Bodies matter, and bodies matter to God.”
In verse 38, Paul mentions that God has
given each of us a body. In verse 39,
Paul goes a step further- saying that not all bodies are alike-
there are bodies that are human, bodies
that are animals, bodies that are birds, bodies that are fish.
Wow.
Paul is acknowledging that God just didn’t
create us, humans, but the dogs we care for, the birds we feed outside, the
fish in Lake Jackson.
Paul does not stop there.
Paul goes on to mention the glorious
bodies of heaven- the body of the sun, body of the moon.
In mentioning the body of the stars, Paul
says “stars differ from star in glory.” (vs. 41)
Wow wow wow.
Paul starts off chapter 15 trying to articulate
the importance of Resurrection, but then he steps into this magnificent moment
in which Paul says-
Not only has God given each of us a body,
God has given a body to animals,
God has given a body to
the fish of the sea,
the sun in the sky.
God has given a body
to each and every star in the galaxy.
For Paul, bodies matters.
Not just human bodies,
But all bodies
For Paul,
since bodies matter,
The Resurrection matters.
Since we are more than
just soul and mind,
Since our earthly flesh is not
a tomb or a jail cell,
The Resurrection matters.
For Paul, the Resurrection isn’t just
about an idea,
An apparition,
Or a reason to decorate eggs.
The Resurrection is God’s validation that the
life Jesus lived, in the flesh,
mattered.
The Resurrection is a validation that our bodies
matter.
Our entire beings matter.
From the hairs on our head to the soles of
our feet,
From the joyful leaping of a youth up the
stairs at Disney, to the aches in our knee
when we get in the car, Our bodies
matter.
What happens to our bodies matter,
What happens to the bodies of others matter.
What happens to the bodies
of all creation matters.
So with this knowledge,
with this validation,
We can hold onto hope,
We can seek and find out joy,
We can welcome the assurance that
God sees us, God cares,
God cares about all we do,
All we experience, All we feel.
The idea and imagery of Resurrections
means that our ever-aging bodies are loved by God,
It means our bodies are worth being
redeemed.
It means what we do with our bodies, what we
do for and to other’s bodies,
Does matter to God.
So Thank God for our Shepherd’s Pantry,
thank God for our Garden of Hope, thank God for our Tai Chi classes, thank God
for our partnership with Edwards and Back Bay Mission,
Thank God for our sanctuary and our cozy
seats and our chair that we can get in and out of,
Because by affirming and caring for
bodies, we are also physically proclaiming and sharing the Good News of the
Resurrection.
From Sunrise to Sunset, until the end of
the ages, bodies matters, and they matter to God.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment