68-1
sermon by Manfred Schreyer

1 Cor 15:41 The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor. :42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; :43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; :44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. :45 So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being" ; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. :46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. :47 The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. :48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. :49 And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven. :50 I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. :51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed--:52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.


• The apostle Paul speaks to the church of Corinth. He explains our human existence, how we came about and how we will die on this earth.

• He explains to the church that the flesh and the spirit are two entities. That our body comes from the dust of the earth. Organic matter that knows a beginning since the design of Adam and it also knows an ending, where it returns to the organic matter it was designed from.

• And some in this world believe that is all. We are an organic substance that has evolved and goes through the motion of living . . . serving a cosmic purpose as a particle of a great universe.

• People who argue from that perspective are not able to explain that the cosmos needs a designer and that there has to be a power who is a creative power.

• Then there are those who believe that we (in human form) are only living in a box of existential form and that we earn in our life time our elevation to the next box above us. We are only transits in this life as we reach higher.

• Paul explains this to the Corinthians because the understanding of body and soul is understood by them though the influence of platonic and neo-platonic thought. Greeks always understood that there is a difference of body and spirit.

• The Greeks say the spirit as something perfect and the body the physical reality. Thereby the spirit is trapped in the body.

• Allow me to explain: The spirit may think of a perfect house. A house of our dreams. A house with a perfect layout, the best materials, finest colors and wall papers, the best landscape and in the best location. The fact is that we will never realize this house, because even if we attempt to make the house a reality it will have flaws . . . it is IMPOSSIBLE to create the PERFECT house.

• Therefore our earthly existence is on a lower level then our spiritual existence.

• This earthly body follows a desire to survive among all other human beings rather then allowing the spirt to take over.

• This spirit is the breath of God dwelling in all of us . . . trapped in a living body that has become so use the things of this world that it day by day and year by year and century by century distances itself from the things of the spirt . . . the things of the ideal . . . the ideal situation.
• The upcoming celebration of the Christ is a reminder what God has done for us. He brought to us His son . . . Himself . . . Jesus was just like us and He walked this earth not following the body, but by the Spirit.

• We are really spiritual beings, but we have a very difficult time allowing the spirit to take over.

• Jesus knew by the Spirit what had to be done, to die and to tell/and show all of us that our body dies, but our spirit will never die. Jesus came to us to provide a path for us to an eternal life that the body cannot provide for us.

• Jesus gives us a roadmap to our home. To the place our spirit remembers and our body refuses. The birth of Jesus marks the beginning of allowing us to receive a ticket which Jesus bought for us.

• I have seen many people die in my life time. People who committed suicide, people who were shot, people who died in an accident, people who died of a disease, people who died because it was their time and people whose time was much too soon.

• Ever since I received Jesus in y life I am concerned if those who are dying have accepted eternal life. If they have taken the ticket to the journey home from our Jesus. Some told me on their deathbed that they don’t want to hear about eternal life . . . they just want it to be over. . . .others tell me that even though it is hard to leave others behind they are not sorry they’ll leave because they know that they are going home. Home to the place they belong.

• I visited a young man in prison last Monday who had committee despicable crime. When I talked to him, he showed very little remorse, and I found that he really was not able to show any feelings toward anyone. He was a drug addict, he ran around with those who did the same. They committed pity crimes . . . day in day out. The kid in his high teens was not dumb, he was able to articulate himself in the English language, but he was very much unable to articulate his emotions. In the beginning it seemed to me as if he had not emotions . . . but then he told me of the voices he heard during the day, he told me of the images he saw during these moments, he told me about the dreams he had and the visions he had and he sometimes followed.

• His explanations were emotional. He was scared. He was not scared of the prison term, he was scared of the images that were in his head.

• I believe that he had given himself over to the evil one. His being was not on his way to a place God provides for us, but to a distant place filled with torment and pain.

• The young man already felt the pain of that which will await him if he does not seek the home which is ready for him. I explained that God receives us no matter what we have done and that God waits us with open arms. He wants us to come home.

• Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom Paul says, but the imperishable, the sprit, our soul will come home to a destination.

• On Monday as I went to funeral of Sheriff Hayes. As we were all standing by the grave site. I was wondering again: How many here are ready to go home now? Home that we call paradise. A home that is given to us through Grace ad mercy. It is given as a gift, as the world received Jesus as a gift. The home is given to us not because we deserve it or we have earned it, but because no longer is the sprit less then the body.

• And as the bagpipers offered their last breath thought he bags that had given us the tunes of amazing grace, and as tears flowed down the cheeks of the otherwise tough officers, and as some began to shake by the emotions they were overcome with, and as some took several deep breath though their cold nostrils that cold early afternoon out of the police car though a loud speaker cam the voice who called for Sheriff Tom Hayes: 68-1. 68 referencing the county and 1 being the Sheriff.

• Some of the officers began to lift their heads up higher, some lowered them. Again all heard the call: 68-1 . . . no answer. Finally there was a third call 68-1. . . .and then the female dispatcher answered in a calm and content voice: Dispatch Sheriff Hayes is 37 . . . he has been called home!

• Maybe that is what Paul meant when he said:

:51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed--
:52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
 

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