Joan Hogge’s Sermon – 11/4/07

Embracing the Journey

Deuteronomy 6:4-9, 12

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

A few years ago when my grandmother died, I was helping my mother go through her things, and I discovered a thick scrapbook that had been lovingly put together and kept over many years. As I opened the album, I discovered inside newspaper clippings about my school activities, honors achieved, my wedding announcement and pictures covering the full breadth of my life. My grandmother had put together a book about me that covered many years of my life, from early childhood to adulthood. These were memories, preserved as a keepsake, that had been revisited by my grandmother time and time again over the years. It is at times like this that we remember who we are, from where we have come, and the many parts of our journey that have made us the persons we are today.

So it is with our journey of faith. The Bible is filled with great stories of those who have gone on before us, our ancestors in the faith like Abraham, Isaac, Paul, and Mary. Like a picture album, these stories remind us of who we are and whose we are. Remembering is foundational for our identity as children of God. In the Old Testament the word remember is used some 129 times and it begins in Genesis with God remembering Noah and all the animals that were with him in the ark. Each time we see a rainbow in the sky we are to remember the everlasting covenant between God and all God’s creatures. All throughout the Old Testament, scripture is filled with the many ways God remembered God’s people: God heard their cries when they were slaves in the land of Egypt; God delivered them from slavery and brought them out of Egypt; God guided and provided for this nomadic band throughout their 40 years of wandering in the desert. Time and time again, the people of Israel are called to “remember the day on which you came out of Egypt”, and “remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord brought you out of the land.” God also remembered the covenant God had made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. After 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, God brought the people to the promised land. The people were called to remember the Lord, to remember God’s wonderful works and to remember God’s great love for them.

As the people of Israel were on the very edge of the promised land, they were reminded by Moses that they must remember their God, the God of the Exodus. This was not just mental recall. Moses was saying to the people that they needed to write God’s word on their hearts and make it a part of their very being. Remembering God was crucial to shaping their present and also their future. The new and future generations had no access to the past except what they were taught. Thus, remembering was not only foundational but it was the means of taking the tradition that has been received and transmitting it to those who follow: by retelling the story to future generations we pass the faith that we too have received.

Earlier you heard what is known in the Jewish tradition as the Shema from Deuteronomy 6:4-9. Shema in Hebrew simply means hear. For the people of Israel, the Shema is considered an affirmation of faith, the foundation of their faith and life and what shapes their identity as a people of God. Listen again to a few verses of this commandment. “HEAR, O ISRAEL: THE LORD IS OUR GOD, THE LORD ALONE. You shall love your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. You are to keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart.” What did this mean for the people of Israel in directing their life? It meant undivided loyalty to one God, and a total commitment of their life and their possessions in service to God. Their love of God was to shape their conduct at home, in their family, and their community. It was so much a part of their being that it was like a constant companion in their journey. Israel was to remember that without God, “they would have remained as slaves in the land of Egypt.” Through remembering and retelling the story, future generations of believers are formed, who come to understand their past, and to understand who they are and whose they are.

In the New Testament remembering continues to play an important role. The word, remember, is used some 34 times. When Jesus’ followers remembered what Jesus had said and done, it made a difference in terms of their identity and their activities. One such person was the Apostle Paul. After his encounter with the living Lord on the Damascus Road, Paul’s life was transformed. Paul had been a great persecutor of the church but after his conversion, Paul carried the gospel to the ends of the earth. The result of one of Paul’s missionary journeys was the establishment of a community of believers in the city of Corinth.

It was somewhere around 50 CE that Paul went to Corinth to preach the gospel. Paul stayed there with the Corinthian people some 18 months before he left for Ephesus. It is from Ephesus that he writes the letter that we have today as 1 Corinthians. For the Corinthian people, Paul is the father of their faith; he was the founder of their church. Because he holds such a primary place in the life of this community, the people value his opinion.

In reading the letter of 1 Corinthians, we become aware of some of the dissensions and problems that have developed in this first century church since Paul’s departure. The main issue was that some within the community were denying the fundamental conviction of the Christian faith: that is, the resurrection. So Paul’s primary concern is to reunite the church around the kerygma or the gospel message that he had preached to them. That message centered on the life, death and resurrection of Christ.

In our New Testament passage for today, Paul tries to address this issue in two ways. First he establishes some common ground. The common ground for all who believe and preach the gospel is the resurrection. If Christ is not raised, then everything is false, our faith is in vain and we would cease to exist as Christians and a church. So Paul is asking the Corinthians to remember the gospel he preached to them, the gospel they received, the gospel they believed, and the gospel in which they were saved. This gospel is the basis of their faith. Secondly, Paul appeals to tradition. In verses 3 and 4 Paul says he is handing on what he, also, has received. Paul in his ministry to the Corinthian church, handed on, or proclaimed, the gospel he himself had received, the people received it and believed that Christ died for them and was raised from the dead so that they too might live. Verses 3 and 4 are likely an early creed or affirmation of faith, probably dated to the time surrounding Paul’s call as an apostle. Just like the Shema, the creed reminds us of God’s great love for us and helps us understand whose we are and who we are.

Paul has reminded the Corinthian community, and us as well, that it is through the foundational story of Christ’s death and resurrection that God claimed us as his own. It is the story on which the past, present and future are predicated. This is the gospel we have received, the gospel on which we firmly stand in the present, and the gospel of hope for the future. In Christ’s resurrection, he has overcome death, and in Romans 8:38-39, Paul tells us that there is nothing in life or in death that can ever separate us from the love of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Through the sacraments of the church we are called to remember God’s great love for us in Jesus Christ; we are called to remember who we are and whose we are. So we also come here today to this special day of remembrance called All Saint’s Day, a special day in the life of the church in which we remember all the saints of every time and place. We remember all those who have gone on before us and those who through the ages have embraced their journey of faith and faithfully served the Lord. It is on this day that we claim our kinship with all the great apostles, prophets, and martyrs and all the ordinary people of faith. We remember all who have kept the faith, especially through times of darkness, and who handed it on to us that we might know and believe in God’s great love for each of us. It is only through these great people of faith that we come here this day to worship our living Lord. As we embrace our journey of faith we must remember who we are and whose we are. We must hand on to our children and grandchildren the stories of the faith and the good news of the gospel that we, too, have received from those who have gone before us.