AND YOUR POINT, PAUL? - The point is that reliable people have claimed to have seen the resurrected Christ in the flesh (sarx) and upon that confession we have come to believe. The good news or euangelion, rests on just such a confession which Paul first proclaimed at Corinth and by which they were in the process of being saved.

THE TRADITION - Paul admits that the generation that had originally seen the resurrected Christ was dying out. When that happened, no more eyewitnesses would be around to testify to what they have seen and heard. It would be left to the church at Corinth and others who received the proclamation to be Christ’s witnesses. Each generation has to see Christ, hear and experience, and come to know him-through the gift of the Holy Spirit-for themselves.

A COMPELLING LIST OF WITNESSES -"He appeared to Cephas; and after that to the twelve." So if you disbelieve one witness, you have twelve witnesses . . . and if they disbelieve the twelve, then listen to the five hundred . . . "and so he was seen by me." But who am I? I am Paul, his enemy! [1]

 

According to Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life, "Wherever and whenever lives are being changed word quickly gets out into a community; a good rumor about the church begins traveling the interpersonal network of your community. . . ." What kinds of changes in your community of faith could you point to as worthy of being a good rumor in your town or neighborhood?

If you were asked to share with a non-Christian, the salient points of what is meant in Scripture as "the gospel," how would you respond? What would you say?

You could easily weave a homily together with the three main lectionary passages-Isaiah 6, Luke 5, and this lesson in 1 Corinthians 15. These lessons all share a core of truth-embedded in all three is a divine/human encounter that potentially transforms those who experience God.

You might state a general truth from these texts: The presence of God transforms human lives, then spend a few minutes walking through the respective stories.

The closing could offer a summary to the listeners of what we might expect from the God in these lessons, and suggest ways that we could better open our lives up to God’s presence and power; as well, you might also guide your hearers to note those places where God has been powerfully present-perhaps without their awareness.

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[1] Cyril of Jerusalem’s comment cited in, The Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture VII (InterVarsity, 1999), page 150.