Sunday, June 14, 2009

Sermon: "Jesus Beat Death, He Did Not Cheat Death"

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5: 6-17

Reverend Larry M. Gerber

                                                                                                                              
This time of year on a typical Sunday afternoon, some of us will take a couple of minutes to click through the TV remote and land on a sporting event, and chances are that one of those events is going to be a NASCAR race, which features persons in stock cars making left turns at a high rate of speed. It's the perfect background drone for that brief afternoon siesta unless, of course, you're a fan and rooting for your favorite driver.

There are a number of people who are tuning in to watch racers like Jimmie, Tony, Matt and Jeff push the pedal to the metal and swap paint on the backstretch at places like Daytona, Talladega and Bristol. A hundred thousand or more will show up at a given race and even more will be watching on TV.

Races are held all over the country with fans of all regions and economic classes flocking to the tracks. To some it may just look like cars going around in circles and, well, you're right, sort of. But to NASCAR fans it's something much more.

What's the appeal? Well, for one thing, the sound and the speed are exciting. But for others, and maybe for most if they are willing to admit it, the sport also offers something about which humans have always been fascinated: the possibility of death.

Most of the time, drivers emerge from these pileups without a scratch. But not always. When Dale Earnhardt, one of NASCAR's icons, spun out on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500 and went hard into the wall, many fans were disappointed but figured Dale would unbuckle the window webbing and crawl out like always. He didn't. Earnhardt was dead, killed instantly in the crash, becoming the fourth NASCAR driver in less than a year to lose his life on the track.

Two things happened as a result of Earnhardt's death. NASCAR responded by mandating the HANS (Head and Neck Support) device in every car, installing safer barriers at each track and, more recently, redesigning the cars themselves to be heavier and more stable.

But the second result was more surprising. Following the crash, NASCAR's popularity skyrocketed as longtime fans paid tribute to "The Intimidator" and new fans came on board. Rather than abandoning the whole enterprise, fans seemed to see the next race as an even bigger act of faith and the drivers as heroes who pushed the human envelope in ways that most people can only imagine.

The point here is not to rant against NASCAR or any other death-defying activity. Rather, it's an opportunity for us to take a look at the human fascination with death and, in particular, how the possibility of death motivates us all in different ways. While we might think of some people as having a "death wish," the possibility of death can also cause us to live life more fully.

If anyone in the ancient world seemed to have a death wish it was Paul. In 2 Corinthians 11:23-29, Paul lays out a litany of his near-death experiences on the road for the gospel, but while he was not a thrill-seeker taking all this on by choice, he didn't shy away from these experiences, either. He seems to have developed a theology of death that was neither cavalier nor obsessive. He was instead focused on the long view of death's eventual eschatological irrelevancy -- a coming day when everyone, from race fans to righteous disciples, will be able to say, "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" (1 Corinthians 15:55).

On first reading, it would seem in 2 Corinthians 5:6-10 Paul is advocating for a kind of Gnostic death wish that it would be better to be "away from the body and at home with the Lord" (v. 8). Gnosticism taught that it was much better to escape the human body and enter a more pure spiritual state. Many Christian traditions have been influenced by this view, as has our hymnody -- "I'll Fly Away" comes to mind -- but if we carry that view to its ultimate conclusion it would seem that our earthly, bodily life doesn't mean much in the end. Why not take perilous chances with our bodies if we're ultimately going to get rid of them anyway?

But we have to remember that Paul is thoroughly Jewish in his understanding of the body and its importance not as a temporary housing for the human soul but as a unity of the whole person -- body, mind and soul together.

With that understanding in mind, Paul expressed that he was "confident" that, in the end, death will not be part of the picture. In the meantime, however, there were still hardships to be endured. "In the body" was Paul's way of talking about the trials of the present life, while being "with the Lord" was a way of expressing the life to come (5:6-8). Paul was not as concerned with the metaphysics as with the outcome. Whether we are "at home or away" we are to be living lives that represent and please Christ (v. 9). What we do "in the body" matters, because we will be judged by the Lord for our work and given our "recompense" or "wages" (the same Greek word is used in Romans 6:23) for what we have done. Faithfulness leads to transformation from the body of death to the body of life.

For Paul, the model of this life was Jesus, who "died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them" (v. 15).

The death of Jesus ultimately took on our death and, in his resurrection, gave us a new life that will ultimately be free from death. That is the crux of all of Christianity. It's for that reason that Paul can write one of the most glorious lines in all of Scripture: "So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!" (v. 17). Note the present tense, meaning that the transformation is happening now.

The narrow escape of death holds a fascination for humans, but Paul made it clear that it was the actual death of one man that enables all to cheat death forever. Jesus didn't cheat death by narrowly escaping it or by spiritualizing it. Jesus went through death itself, in a public spectacle that makes racing and other sports look positively lame by comparison. He experienced the cold reality of the grave, but the good news for all of us is that he came out the other side to a new life -- the life in which he seeks to lead us through his example, his abiding Spirit and in the promise of his bodily return. It was his death, and not a victory over the Romans in a race for power that drew people to his cause.

In NASCAR and other auto races we watch for the checkered flag to signal victory on the track. Today is flag day in America. We fly the American flag proudly as a nation symbolizing pride in who we are and what we stand for. As Christians we raise the flag of victory which is symbolized in the empty cross. For United Methodists it is the flag with the flame and the empty cross signifying that we are transformed into new life by the cross of Jesus and are on fire for the Lord through his death and resurrection. Death o death where is thy sting? It is swallowed up in victory, the transformation into new life in the resurrection. That is why we love to tell the story? let us pray?

Sources:

Galli, Mark. "Cheating death: NASCAR reminds us of how much we have to lose." Christianity Today Web Site, August 4, 2008. christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/august/17.28.html?start=1. Viewed December 5, 2008.

The New Interpreter's Bible. Vol. XI. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2000.