April 11, 2015

“There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body.”
1 Corinthians 15:41ff

“But, you say, a dead man experiences corruption, and becomes dust and ashes. And what then, beloved hearers? For this very reason we ought to rejoice. For when a man is about to rebuild an old and tottering house, he first sends out its occupants, then tears it down, and rebuilds a new a more splendid one. This occasions no grief to the occupants, but rather joy; for they do not think of the demolition which they see, but of the house which is to come, though not yet seen. When G*d is about to do a similar work, he destroys our body, and removes the soul which was dwelling in it as from some house, that he may build it anew and more splendidly, and again bring the soul into it with greater glory. Let us not, therefore, regard the tearing down, but the splendor which is to succeed.” John Chrysostom (344 – 407) A Sermon
“For All The Saints” volume III (p. 1063 – 1064)

There is a concept in the Army – maybe in all military branches – where they take a new recruit and beginning with boot camp, they start the process of tearing them down. It is a process of stripping away the person they used to be, and to rebuild something new – no longer a recruit, but a member of the military. This in some fashion is the process that G*d does to us in the resurrection. G*d receives us in the corruptible form of human flesh, and rebuilds us into our heavenly form – which is of greater glory.

But this process does not wait for our death…it begins now. Paul says that, “…though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For our momentary, light suffering is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison because we are not looking at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen. For what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18) Our eternal form is being formed in us right now, as we become more and more “In Christ” with each encounter, with the Holy Spirit working inside us, with each time we take Holy Communion and physically take Christ into our very being. With Christ dwelling inside us, then we are becoming more and more Holy each day. So, even though our outer body seems to waste away the older we get, remember that with Christ dwelling inside, we are actually preparing for our “eternal weight of glory”.

Pastor Dave