• "The Christian Hope is the Hope of Resurrection"
• Sermon for Easter Day
• March 27, 2005
• The Reverend Stephen C. Scarlett

Many people erroneously believe that the essence of the Christian hope for life after death is that we will "die and go to heaven." The Christian hope is the hope of resurrection. We believe that just as Jesus died and rose from the dead, so we too will be raised from the dead and given new bodies like his glorious resurrection body.

There are only a few New Testament passages that talk about the state of being that is after death and before resurrection. On the cross, Jesus said to the penitent thief, "Today you will be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43). In 1 Thessalonians, St. Paul describes the departed as "those who are asleep" (4:14). And in Philippians, St. Paul says he has a desire "to depart and be with Christ, which is far better" (1:23-see also 2 Cor. 5:8).

These passages describe what is called "the intermediate state," the state of being that is after death and before resurrection. There are three stages of life. There is this present life in which our spirits inhabit our mortal bodies. There is the state of being that results from death, when our spirits depart from our bodies. And there is the resurrection, when, at the Second Coming of Jesus, by a sovereign act of Almighty God, our spirits will be reunited with our bodies and our bodies will be transformed into glorious immortal bodies.

We can observe each of these stages in the life of Jesus. He lived in this world in a mortal body. He suffered physical death on Good Friday when his spirit departed from his body and went to the place of the departed spirits-the hell or Hades of the Apostles' Creed. He experienced resurrection on Easter Day when his spirit was reunited with his body and his body was transformed into a glorious and immortal body.

The life, death and resurrection of Jesus is the pattern for the Christian hope. As we say in the Creed, "We look for the resurrection of the dead." The state of being after death and before resurrection is intermediate because the departed in Christ, like us, awaits the Day of Resurrection.

The resurrection hope is broadcast throughout the New Testament. Jesus said, "The hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear [the voice of the Son of Man] and come forth-those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation" (John 5:29).

Philippians says, "Our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to his glorious body" (3:20).

1 Thessalonians says, "The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise" (4:16).

The whole created order will participate in the Resurrection. Romans says, "the creation itself will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God" (8:21).

The idea that all we hope for is to "die and go to heaven" suggests no satisfying conclusion to the problems of the creation. And the undefined, ethereal "better place," with its images of people playing harps on clouds is not a place that many are anxious to get to.

The Resurrection, by contrast, is the renewal of all things in Christ and the answer to the problem of sin, death and decay that now infects the creation. Resurrection life is new life in the body, with eating, drinking, meaningful activity and intimate relationships in the communion of the saints lived out in a renewed and glorious creation.

In 1 Corinthians, St. Paul explains the resurrection in terms of the sowing and harvesting of seeds. The old fruit dies, is planted in the ground and comes back to life as a new tree. Just so, says St. Paul, the seed of new life is present within our current mortal bodies. "The body is sown in corruption. It is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power" (15:42).

Christian burial picks up this image. We plant the body into the ground, "in sure and certain hope of the resurrection unto everlasting life." The dead body is the seed of the new life that will come forth when the trumpet sounds and the dead are raised.

We experience the Resurrection now as the Holy Spirit works within us to transform us into the image of Christ. We pray each week "that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body and our souls washed through his most precious blood." The current process of change-the dying to sin and rising to new life-point forward to the completion of the process on the Day of Resurrection.

As 1 Corinthians says, "We shall all be changed-in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible." (15:51-52).