“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. What I am saying, brothers and sisters,^[l] is this: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. ⁵¹ Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, ⁵² in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. ⁵³ For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality.”       (1 Corinthians 15:41-44, 50-53)

“…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)

“When I was a youngster, this was drilled into me by my grandmother. The idea was given to her by a certain slave minister who, on occasion, held secret religious meetings with his fellow slaves. How everything in me quivered with the pulsing tremor of raw energy when, in her recital, she would come to the triumphant climax of the minister: “You—you are not slaves. You are God’s children.” This established for them the ground of personal dignity, so that a profound sense of personal worth could absorb the fear reaction.” (Howard Thurman. Jesus and the Disinherited (p. 50). Beacon Press. Kindle Edition.)

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.” 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. And it begins with our Baptism. As Howard Thurman’s grandmother said, “You are God’s children.”  With Christ dwelling inside us, then we are becoming more and more Holy each day. Remember that with Christ dwelling inside, this is where our own personal dignity begins and continues to form us for our “eternal weight of glory”.

Pastor Dave