Rumor Has It
The rumors, according to Paul, are false. Christ is risen, and so shall we.
Last Sunday, when Camden wanted to talk about baseball during the children’s moment instead of talking about my favorite theologians, you might have thought I was disappointed. On the contrary, last Sunday was one of the proudest dad moments I have had over the past 8.5 years. You see, baseball is part of our family’s DNA. If you were to take out a part of our genetic code, you would find it bound together by red stitching, peanuts, and Cracker Jacks.
Allison and I went on more dates than I can count to Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
Camden Yards, that’s right, we named our firstborn not after the county seat of Camden, New Jersey. No, we named our firstborn after the greatest baseball stadium in the world.
Our kids will choose an afternoon at the ballpark over a movie theater or video games when given a choice.
Opening Day for the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals are holidays in our home.
Like many, I grew up idolizing Cal Ripken, Jr.
The night Cal Ripken, Jr. tied, along with the night he broke Lou Greig’s record for consecutive games played, my parents allowed me to stay up late to watch the games. I still have the VHS recordings of both games.
I went to Cooperstown when he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. I sat in the section reserved for family members and VIPs as he and Tony Gwinn gave their speeches.
There is just the right amount of signed memorabilia in our home to keep us on the right side of the first commandment.
So, when a member of Mount Olivet told me about a podcast investigating a rumor of a possible cover-up of to extend the consecutive games played record, one of the greatest moments of my childhood, I had to listen.
Our scripture reading today is a continuation of Paul’s larger systematic theology of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the resurrection of the dead. There were doubts - rumors - about whether Jesus was raised from the dead after he was nailed to the cross.
There was another side to this Corinthian controversy.
Doubts. Rumors.
While they believed Jesus to be risen, some within the Corinthian church doubted their own resurrection or the resurrection of those who would die before Jesus’ return.
Paul wrote, “Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised… For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised… If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.”[1]
The resurrection of Jesus was not open to negations for Paul. Paul had a life-altering encounter with the risen Messiah along the road to Damascus. Paul’s life changed along the road. He would never be the same. Because of his Damascus Road encounter, Paul had a sense of urgency – the same urgency that lives in the Church today – because, as he put it, if the resurrection of Jesus, if the resurrection of the dead were not true, then the proclamation of the church is in vain.
If the resurrection of Jesus were not true, if the resurrection of the dead were not true, then our “faith has been in vain”[2] and “we are of all people most to be pitied.”[3]
For Paul, everything stands and falls on the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the general resurrection of the dead.
The disbelief, the rumors or doubts, among the Corinthian church runs contrary to Paul’s Damascus Road experience. The disbelief within the Corinthian church is a thumb to the eye of Paul’s witness and proclamation.
Central to Paul’s argument is that if Jesus has not risen, if the resurrection of the dead is not God’s promised victory over the pain and power of death, we, the church back then in Corinth and the Church today, are pitiful sinners with nothing to believe in. Without the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the resurrection of the dead, the Church’s witness – 20 years after Jesus’ resurrection in Corinth and 20 centuries later in Arlington, Virginia and around the world – becomes an attempt to preach moralism by people doing good things for their community with no Good News that God so loved the world that he gave it all, to his last breath on the cross, for us.
Without the resurrection of the dead, the witness of the Church, according to Paul, is dead.
I have listened to 4/6 episodes of what could be a childhood crushing podcast that is one-part true crime investigation and one-part Jerry Springer episode. The domino effect that could result from this podcast is catastrophic.
I fell in love with baseball just before the height of the steroid era. Players like Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, and Jose Canseco looked more like professional WWF wrestlers than outfielders. They cheated to obtain records, money, and notoriety.
But I have always had Cal Ripken, Jr.
The Iron Man.
A legend described as a “lunch pail player” – he showed up every day to the ballpark because it was his job, because he loved the game, and because there was nothing else he would rather do. This is how the legend of The Iron Man grew.
We are able to connect with The Iron Man. All of us are trying our best to work, support ourselves, and maybe a family. We strive to love our neighbors even though our neighbors drive us nuts.
At the time, even if you did not like baseball and wrongfully thought it is a ridiculous game, people found themselves stopping to tip their hats to The IrIron Mannman. And if the streak is not valid, then the dominos fall. A heroic story is for nothing, in vain. Fans to be pitied.
“But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ… the last enemy to be destroyed is death.”[4]
The resurrection of Jesus Christ and the resurrection assured to us is an affirmation of the whole life of Jesus.
The resurrection of Christ offers us hope when we cannot see the fruits of our labors today.
An affirmation of the significance of every human life.
An affirmation of our hope placed in the news that our sins are forgiven, a place at Jesus’ table is prepared for us, and that the anxieties of this life caused by pain and death do not hold the final word.
Paul is making an argument. He is not relying on testimony from the tomb, that will come later from the gospel writers. For Paul, not having seen the empty tomb himself, Paul did Jesus on the Damascus Road must be empty, and because of the FACT that Jesus is resurrected. And because Jesus is risen, we too can live with the hope given in the FACT that the same resurrection is assured to all of creation through the grace that goes before us. The grace that overcomes rumors to the contrary. The grace that forgives.
The rumors, according to Paul, are false. Christ is risen, and so shall we.
[1] 1 Corinthians 15:12-13, 16, 29
[2] 1 Corinthians 15:14
[3] 1 Corinthians 15:19
[4] 1 Corinthians 15:20-22, 26