Thoughts going in, April 5th, Easter

1Cor 15:1-11 Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. 3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

9 For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 11 Whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

            Well, of course this Sunday is Easter. Out of curiosity I looked back through what I'd blogged in previous years for the holiest day of the church year. Interestingly enough, I had mostly not blogged at all--one year saying that the day's themes pretty much speak for themselves without my help.

            And, basically I still feel that way. But this year I thought I'd at least put a few things down on 'paper' (as it were). I'm not 100% sure that I'll necessarily use the above passage from 1Corinthians (the 2nd reading for the day) as my sermon text, but it certainly suffices for the thoughts bouncing around in my head today.

            Something kinda neat is happening in the very first verse, where Paul says: Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you... It's not noticeable in the English, but it is in the Greek. In the Greek he says : Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel (evangelion) I preached (evangelizo) to you... In other words, he's using the same word... first the noun form, then the verb form; the evangelion. It's the word we usually translate as 'gospel,' or 'good news,' but frankly in the church we've heard those words so often that we've pretty much become desensitized, dare I even say 'deaf' to their meaning.

            I've been slowly working my way through a fascinating book by the Lutheran liturgical scholar Gordon Lathrop, entitled "The Four Gospels On Sunday." He takes some time unpacking the meaning of evangelion. In discussing the cultural background of this word, Lathrop says:

The usage of the neuter plural noun is clear: it refers to 'good news' often emanating from a monarch, such as news of their victories or benefactions; and in particular, the word is employed of the sacrifices celebrated on such an occasion. And it has now been demonstrated that in the time of the writings of Paul and the origins of the Gospels, the 'monarch' concerned was overwhelmingly the Roman emperor. It has been convincingly        argued that the cultural home of this Greek word, the referential world which its use frequently called up, was the widespread and immensely important cult of the Roman             emperor. So Josephus (in the mid-70s C.E.) wrote of Vespasian becoming emperor in 69 C.E., that 'every city kept festivals and celebrated sacrifices and oblations for such good news.' The cities, indeed, 'celebrated gospels,' (evangelia) according to the literal Greek text. Here, those sacrifices are called 'gospels.' The imperial 'good news announcements' were both invitations to festival and the festival sacrifices themselves.

It is within THIS cultural context of the Greek word that St. Paul under inspiration of the Holy Spirit borrows (dare I say co-opts!) this word evangelion/gospel... BECAUSE IT FITS SO PERFECTLY. For Paul, the DEATH AND RESURRECTION of Jesus constitute the ultimate evangelion. Furthermore, it is not merely good news in the 'information' sense of the word; it is a WHOLE. It (a) announces the victory of the one who fought for us and prevailed over the forces of sin, death, and evil; (b) it contains within itself the very POWER to actualize this news in the life of the believer (vs 2 By this gospel you are saved); and (c) like its cultural antecedent, it is both an invitation to the festival and the festival sacrifice itself.

            And so with St. Paul and the whole host of Heaven on Easter Sunday our alleluias will ring out. As, not only will we proclaim that Christ is RISEN....he is risen indeed, alleluia, but we will receive him personally, the one sacrifice for sins, as he comes to us in the holy meal of his blessed body and blood.

            Happy Easter!

            T.M.