Introduction
We continue our series of sermons looking at the Apostle's creed today looking at the phrase "I believe in the resurrection of the dead". We say this each week, often without thinking very much about it. As Christians we all know that something happens to us when we die, but we get a bit vague when talking to others about it. We believe we go to be with God, but if we scratch any deeper than that we start to get a bit confused. In previous generations it was easier for people to believe this article of the creed, now with many different religious traditions and philosophies floating around our world it is easy to get confused. So today we are going to look at the classic ideas about what we mean when we say "I believe in the resurrection from the dead".
The artist Stanley Spencer gave a modern take on this doctrine with his famous painting "resurrection". In it he shows a typical English church yard on the day of judgement. The last trumpet has sounded and the grave stones have broken open and the dead emerge from them. This looks a little odd to modern eyes. We are used to notions of dying and going to Heaven, or dying and becoming like the angels sitting on clouds all day. We think of our spirits rising to God whilst our bodies decay and change. Yet in the original language of the creeds the phrase was "I believe in the resurrection of the flesh". "Flesh" meaning our bodies with all their faults and imperfections.
Christians differ on what they believe happens at death. Some, mainly evangelicals, say that when we die we sleep until the last Trumpet has sounded. That is why you see on many Victorian grave stones the phrase "fallen asleep". The idea is to use sleep as an image with which we are familiar. We all know that time passes when we sleep but we are not conscious of its passing. So when we die, assert these Christians, the next thing we will be conscious of is waking up for the resurrection of the dead. Until then we sleep. Other Christians, mainly Catholic ones, hold that when we die we go to meet God and we wait with him until the last day when our spirits will be re-united with our bodies.
Now both these points of view take seriously the idea that we are more than spirits trapped in bodies. The Hindu and Buddhist faiths hold that we are souls trapped in flesh, and one day we will be set free from our flesh. That is not what Christianity asserts - we hold that our selves are made up of both body and soul and that, on the Last Day, both will be raised to eternal life.
Jesus' Resurrection, the Model
The model for this believe is, of course, Jesus' own resurrection from the dead, and the more people find it difficult to believe in Jesus' resurrection the more difficult we will find it to believe in our own. In our world today there are common beliefs about spiritual realms, and living on somehow when we die, but to assert that we will be raised from the dead is quite a claim to make, and one that troubles others. Yet this belief has always been controversial. At the time of Jesus, one of the Jewish groupings, the liberals of the day called the Sadducees, held there was no resurrection of the dead. Jesus said they were wrong and that they knew neither the Scriptures nor God's power. In St John chapter 6 we hear Jesus say that he is the resurrection and the life, and that he will raise those who believe in Him to life on the Last Day.
When we think of the resurrection appearances of Jesus in the gospels we are struck by a number of things which may give us some clues about our own resurrection. First, the resurrected body of Jesus was clearly physical; it could be seen and touched by the disciples, Jesus ate and drank with them. Second, it was similar to his physical body - it bore the wounds from the crucifixion within it. Third, whilst it was similar, it was also clearly different - the disciples often did not recognise him until he broke bread with them. Fourth, it had some spiritual qualities that we don't have - Jesus was able to join the disciples in locked rooms and leave again without being noticed. So Jesus' resurrected body is both similar to his human body, and different. It is physical but it is more than physical. St Paul tells us that our lowly bodies will be raised like Jesus' glorious body. We don't understand how this will work, all we can do is ponder the mystery.
Some Christians have linked this idea of the transformation of our bodies, with the Eucharist. In the great passage in John chapter 6 where Jesus talks about raising people to life on the last day, he also talks about feeding us with his body and blood in the Eucharist. In the Eucharist we receive the earthly things of bread and wine, yet we also believe they signify, represent, and indeed are, something more than that - the heavenly gifts of Jesus' body and blood. We don't understand how it works, or what it is all about, but we clearly recognise something wonderful is going on. Something which has transformed the bread and wine and something which transforms us. Just as one day we will be fully transformed.
Dying with Christ
But there is more to this resurrection from the dead than what happens on the Last Day. When we were baptised we, Paul tells us, died with Christ and were raised with Him too. Paul, using the image of total immersion holds that being lowered into the water is a sign of dying to Christ - just as we are lowered into a grave - and when we were raised out of the water we were raised - just as one day we will be raised from the dead. However, that sacramental sign is only partial. We still battle with sin and suffering, we still continue to experience death and decay. Our baptism is a sign of what is to come, it allows us to catch a glimpse of our heavenly destiny.
To die is natural. All things die and the pain of death and grieve is immense. We have all known what it is to loose someone we love, and at this time our thoughts and prayers are with Tim's friends and family who mourn him. To die is part of being human and is the most uncomfortable reality we have to come to terms with. We know that Jesus experienced this pain and loss when his friend Lazarus died. Ultimately, however, death is not part of God's plan for us - there was no death in Eden - it came apart as a consequence of human sin and disobedience. It is, as St Paul says, the final enemy still to be overcome. Jesus' resurrection, foretells the final victory over sin and death that is ours on the Last Day. We will all have to die with Christ, but in this too, there is hope. God knows what death is like as he died for us. When we become afraid of death, when we become troubled because one close to us has died, remember that Jesus has walked this road too and brings us comfort.
The Meaning of Christian Death
So what meaning can we find in death? Despite our faith in what awaits us on the other side of the grave, death is one of the hardest things we will have to face in our journey as Christians. Death comes by surprise, it takes those we love and those we know, it is almost always shocking and makes us think of our own mortality which we don't want to do. Yet as Christians we assert our faith that death is not the end, and we can find hope, despite the most tragic of deaths.
In death God calls us to His side so that the work of dying and rising in Christ begun at our baptism is brought to final completion. We can never know the moment of our death but we recognise that in dying we go to be with God. St Teresa of Avila said "I want to see God and, in order to see Him I must die." St Theresa of Lisieux said: "I am not dying, I am entering life."
Death is the end of our earthly pilgrimage, of the time of grace and mercy which God offers to us in order to work out our earthly life in keeping with God's divine plan and purpose. It is in this life that we work out our eternal destiny. If we have faith in Jesus and have followed his lead in our lives we need have no fear of the grave. Death is not the end, nor is it the beginning, it is a continuation of the journey. Whether we sleep and await the final judgement (and sometimes the idea of a long sleep is very appealing) or whether we go to meet God and await the reunion with our bodies, is a matter of conjecture. Either we way we know our destiny is certain if we have faith in Jesus and follow his lead in our lives.
Summary
Many of us grew up and were told by our churches to be suspicious of the "flesh". One old prayer urges us to beware of the "world, the flesh and the devil". Yet we believe in a God who made us as fleshy creatures, a God who became flesh and was raised from the dead in flesh, and who will one day raise us, flesh and soul, to God's own side. Jesus will lead us out of the grave, just as the artist here shows him leading out Adam and Eve. Flesh is a huge part of who we are - we cannot perceive or interact with the world apart from our own bodies. Flesh is a huge part of who we will be in the hereafter. For these reason we believe that we will be raised, body and soul, from the dead. God will give incorruptible life to our body, transformed by reunion with our soul. Just as Christ is risen and lives for ever, so all of us will rise at the last day. When we are troubled by death, especially the death of a friend, like Tim Markwick who died last week, we remember the promise of God to raise us, body and soul, on the last day to enjoy eternal life. A life where all suffering and tears will end and where we will enjoy God's loving kindness forever.
Amen.
This
sermon was first preached in the Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester.
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