Proclaiming Good News

These are some thoughts for this coming Sunday that were sent out to the people of St. Timothy Lutheran Church. 

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

¹Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, ²through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain.

  ³For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, ⁴and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, ⁵and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. ⁶Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. ⁷Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. ⁸Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. ⁹For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. ¹⁰But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them—though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. ¹¹Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.

We all love good news, don’t we? The good news Paul delivered to the Corinthians wasn’t anything average like a great sale somewhere or personal family news, as good as that is. Paul’s good news is powerful. In the first few verses, Paul gives it these attributes: it is something they can stand in and they are being saved through it. But there is an if here. As much as salvation is all God’s work, to develop and grow in our relationship with God, we need to hold on for dear life to the message.

Paul then goes on to “…deliver in a nutshell the story of the gospel that was given to him. In the lineage of the Christian faith, we have received the good news of God’s love from generations of believers before us, and we continue to tell this story to the world” (sundaysandseasons.com). The really important parts of the gospel are related, that which forms the essence of the Christian faith—the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.

And Paul shares the proofs of Jesus’ resurrection, the various people to whom Jesus appeared. Years later Paul had his own appearance experience of Jesus and became his follower. Well aware of his past persecutions of the church, Paul writes, “¹⁰But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain” (v. 10).

Paul started churches and discipled people. He was a prolific writer. Many of the New Testament letters were written by him. Can you imagine what the New Testament would look like without his writings? It would be significantly thinner. Much of our Reformation theology is because of Paul’s influence. God’s grace worked in and through him, effecting us today.

When confronted with Jesus, Paul immediately repented and changed the course of his travels and his life. What about us? Are we willing to let go of our ideas about the way the world should be, how we should live our lives when God speaks to us? Have we quieted the noise in our lives to listen to God’s voice? May God’s grace toward us not have been in vain. 

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