Email from Church of the Redeemer

Morning Devotion for the Season after Pentecost

October 25, 2023

Invitatory

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

Reading - 1 Corinthians 15:51-57

Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will 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 imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled:

“Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

“Where, O death, is your victory?

‘Where, O death, is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Meditation - Winnie Smith

Death in the Christian sense is a strange concept. For years, I have been comforted by the notion of resurrection and “the life of the world to come” (Nicene Creed). I have felt assured of something awaiting us all after death, and of an eventual and sustained life with God after the death of our bodies. Bodily resurrection presents a bit more difficulty since it forcibly brings together body and soul - it does not allow one to simply not care about the body and focus on spiritual resurrection because it asserts that the two are inextricably linked. Harder, still, is the recognition that before resurrection, there is death. Total death, from which one cannot be revived in any way that we can understand. Death is not a nap, it is not a break from the world as we know it before going on to some new world filled with rainbows and puppies. Rather, death is one of the only things in life of which we can be certain, yet we have no idea what it will be like. Every one of us will die, and for at least some period of time, that will be that.

Think of the Holy Week events leading up to Easter: Jesus really dies on Friday. His body is laid in a tomb and as far as everyone around him understands, he is no more. What is so truly remarkable - earth-shattering, even, in the Matthean account - is that his resurrection is from that. From real death. Not from a nap, not from a quick trip - Jesus was dead and God brought him back to life. And that is what we have been promised, too. Pretty incredible.

When Paul says, “we will not all die, but we will all be changed,” he is talking about resurrection. We will all die - in fact, Paul, himself makes reference to the finality of death in other writings. But the hope of our faith which stems from the resurrection of Jesus is for the change Paul mentions. From darkness to light. Seeing in a mirror dimly but then face to face. Being known in part to being known fully. This is the transformation we hope for and believe we will undergo after death. And this is why it “has been swallowed up in victory,” and why its sting is gone. We cannot know what bodily death will feel like, but we can thank God for something to look forward to after that.

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy Name,

thy kingdom come,

thy will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those

who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,

and the power, and the glory,

for ever and ever. Amen.