Welcome to our Sunday morning service. Join us in person at 10 am or watch the live stream on our YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxBzxjBb3xU8ra2NHwvD_9A

(the service can be watched anytime afterwards as well)

Below is the reading and reflection.

1 Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, 2 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. 3 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, 4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

9 For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward 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. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.

12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; 14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ—whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. 17 If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. 19 If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. 20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. 21 For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; 22 for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.

On Saturday, I was doing my regular walk around Cornwell Park. I noticed a small crowd had gathered by a fence. And I was curious, and I went closer. I discovered that they had gathered by the fence where one of the park’s lovely Hereford cattle was lying down, happily chewing its cud.

They are beautiful animals, and some people were carefully prodding and stroking it through the fence, - others were trying to take selfies of them and this very large heifer.

And I realised, having lived in my younger years, and worked on farms during various student holidays, I would never have looked at this Hereford in the way these people were looking at it.

With the farmer's prompting, I might have thought about its age, its weight, the current beef prices, and at what stage the animal would best be sold or sent to the works.

And I have other friends, vegetarian or vegan friends who would likely see our heifer in a different kind of way, again. How better could the land be used for growing soya beans, or the damage perhaps that cattle do to our waterways and the environment? Or the ill-treatment of animals as a commodity.

And the obvious thing to say is that we can each look at the same thing in quite different ways. Like a creature in a zoo, a commodity or a symbol of the way we mistreat animals and the environment.

Philosophers use the word "epistemology" to talk about how we order our knowledge. How we structure the ways we see things.

That’s one of the reasons why it can be so hard to change our view of something or someone. Because our view or perspective today doesn’t come from nowhere. It is the product of how we have structured how we have developed our worldview over many years.

So, this morning, we hear Paul asking the community in Corinth to do something quite challenging. Quite difficult. He is inviting us, through the use of logic, a way of structuring or restructuring the way we think, to tell us about Jesus. Logic had its history in what Paul was taught from the ancient Greek philosophers. Like Plato.

Not appealing to emotion, or fear, but instead appealing to people’s ability to think and to reason.

3 "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, 4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures."

Paul says he is passing on what he received; it did not originate with him. He received it. We hear the names of those who also passed on this

Good News: Cephas, then the twelve.

6 "Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me."

So, Paul isn’t yelling from the pulpit here, or trying to make people bad or fearful. He’s asking us to think. He provides logic and reason.

 12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; 14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain.

This event happened. This reality was witnessed by a small, and then much larger group. He is careful not to tell people about simply passing on experiences. Experiences are wonderful things, but they can be open to all sorts of questions.

But here in his reasoning, Paul keeps using this word appeared. He appeared to Cephas, then the 12 and then to the 500 and so on.

And Paul goes on to reason, that if this hadn’t happened, then our faith, would simply be a waste of time. Would be in vain.

Later he goes on to argue that this event that happened, the resurrection of Jesus, and the appearance to all these witnesses, logically brings about such a fundamental shift in the way we order our knowledge and perspective, that it changes even the way we look at the grave. Even the way we look at death.

Just over the fence not the Hereford next door, but the graveyard. No matter how we might look over the fence, Paul, through this reasoning, comes to the point where he says in verse 55:

Death where is your sting grave where is your victory?

And he is saying that, first not as nice bit of poetry, but as the conclusion to the argument that he builds through this whole chapter.

Today we celebrate Communion. We call it a sacrament because in sharing the wine and bread, Jesus, we are told, is also inviting us to re-order the way we see things. Wine and bread, blood and body. We are again been asked to see ordinary things, in a different kind of way.

That Jesus, in his service, his sacrifice and criminal’s death, transforms our understanding of God, and the way that God works in our lives.

The reality of forgiveness,hope and transformation. God’s redemption comes through an act of love. And the witness to that reality, that appearance, is shown by his followers through love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  

Who would have thought?

Paul says:

"For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received."

Even amidst all that is going on now, I wonder if what Paul is talking about is still the most important thing. The thing of first importance, as he says. Could the two most important things we ever do be to "receive and to hand down"?

Remember, Paul is addressing issues of conflict and division in Corinth within this early faith community. People are pinning their identities on one leader or another, wondering who to follow.

The different ways of seeing the cow over the fence. Is it a zoo creature, a sad blight on our soya bean-covered landscape, or it is just a cow?

It's easy to get caught up in that, to not pause and take account of where our own knowledge has come from.  But the Good News Paul talks about is so overwhelming that it takes no account of the forces that divide and undermine. It ignores our trivial hang-ups and gossip. And it confronts how we see and think about things. 

Paul reminds us that our present and future are not defined by the anxieties and fears of this moment, as overwhelming as they may be. The defining anchor point that can never be diminished is that Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, the Messiah, has lived, died, and been raised by God.

That is the rock on which we build of view of everything else that’s important.

20 "But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. 21 For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; 22 for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ."

You and I stand in this place of receiving and passing on the Good News. The proof and power of this message are you and me. None of us

would be listening today if this process of receiving and handing on the Good News wasn't happening.

This leads us to a tough question for discernment: How do I see things?  What am I receiving? What is feeding your heart?

Where and what are the messages of hope and blessing that I need to see and hear?

What Good News am I handing on to those close to me and those far away from my church and community?

There is also reassurance here. Words from a place of anger, hurt, or fear will ultimately come to nothing. They seem powerful at the time, but the things of death will not be victorious. To see the world as a place, as Paul tells us, where death has lost its sting.

They have no place in the gospel or this story of salvation.

The Good News—that we are loved, the promise of transformation, and the eternal life through Christ—is our story.  

Paul is telling us that there is a reason, a good reason to base our lives and our world view on that story.

Our very purpose and being are found in receiving and passing that on—being saved and sharing the Good News in what we do and say. And as we witness this truth.

AMEN