Friends, this morning’s gospel lesson truly provides us with some clues concerning what our resurrected bodies will be like.

When we look at Jesus after his resurrection we know that we shall still have our bodies when we rise from the dead.

Basically, they will still be the same. I shall look like me (though perhaps a little better, I hope)! But I shall still be me and you will still be you. We shall be the same person.

However, just like Jesus, we shall not be “locked in” by anything, not even by our old hang-ups and baggage.

At the resurrection, I shall be a perfect me – able to do everything I always liked to do and could do—Only I shall be able to do them better.

Paul has a beautiful way of talking about the meaning of death and what God will do about it. Here is what Paul says: He says that at the final resurrection, our bodies will be like beautiful plants that spring from grungy seeds (1 Corinthians 15:35ff).

Of course, a beautiful rose, for example, needs to have a seed or it will never grow.

But once it grows, where is the seed? To be sure, it came from a seed. But the seed is not there anymore; in a sense the seed died.

Paul suggests that our lives are a little like these seeds. The bodies that you and I have, the lives that we are living, are a bit like the seeds that God is planting.

Someday a beautiful plant will grow from that seed. That beautiful plant which will stem from you is your resurrection body, the perfect you – the way God originally intended you to be.

Of course, for all that to happen, in order for your resurrection body to grow, the seed has to disappear. It has to die.

That is why even though Jesus died for our sins, we still have to die.

We die, so that those beautiful plants, the perfect you and me, can blossom in the sunlight of God’s love.

The perfect you and me, without our hang-ups and short-comings, the way we would have been if we had not sinned, or had not been victimized by the sin of others and institutional evils,

This is what we have to look forward to after we die – when Jesus comes again. That stranger on the road to Emmaus demonstrated to those two followers of his what our resurrected bodies would be like. I do not know about you folks, but there is something so wonderfully inviting in these images.

In eternal life I am going to be me – to have a body like this one, to be able to do the things that I do well – only better.

Yes, that certainly beats playing a harp and flying all around heaven. I prefer an acoustic guitar rather than harps!

There is something beautiful in the Christian image of the resurrection life; it is almost majestic in its beauty. The message of Jesus on the cross is that God loves our unique personalities, our passions, our uniqueness!

God loves us so much that he wants us to be ourselves forever.

When you think about the resurrection life this way, the words that Paul once wrote really make sense; they are the final word that needs to be spoken about death and resurrection: “O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting (1 Corinthians 15:5)?”

Closing Prayer

Gracious God, who watches over us with endless love and care, we thank you for this journey of life and all the wonders that lie before us. We are grateful for this world you have made – for crystal nights and emerald meadows, for robins and spring flowers. Gift us with the ability to wake up each morning grateful to be fully awake and alive. Day by day we proclaim in quiet praise your faithfulness, O Lord.

O God of unfathomable goodness, in the quietness of this sanctuary, we bow before you, as we seek to enter more deeply into your presence. We know far too well our own struggles and limitations. Yet, we come to you in trust that your grace reaches out to us even in the midst of our weakness and our failures and sets us free. Your word reminds us that you rejoice when one of your children seeks you – we want to be those children.

O Master, you remind us often that life is more than worrying about our own lives – it is reaching out to others with the grace you have offered to us.

Help us to care about and to love those whom you love-broken, sinful, suffering, lost. So we pray for those who are carrying burdens that are heavier than they can manage on their own –

O Lord, help each one to know, even in the midst of problems and pain, a glimpse of your glory, a window into the dimension of your presence. Help each one to see your face, sense the mystery in all things, and walk with you through it all. For each one of us who seeks you this morning, bring us closer to you in the challenging times than we might have been in our calmer moments. O Lord, we pray for generosity of spirit – that we would look beyond our own desires to have the time, space, and resources to offer your grace to others in daily quiet acts of service.

For in that they will know we are Christ followers and it is in his name that we pray together:

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 debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.