Witness to the Resurrection of Polly Black

2 Corinthians 1:18-22

  18 God can be trusted, and so can I, when I say that our answer to you has always been “Yes” and never “No.” 19 This is because Jesus Christ the Son of God is always “Yes” and never “No.” And he is the one that Silas, Timothy, and I told you about.

  20 Christ says “Yes” to all of God’s promises. That’s why we have Christ to say “Amen” for us to the glory of God. 21 And so God makes it possible for you and us to stand firmly together with Christ. God is also the one who chose us 22 and put his Spirit in our hearts to show that we belong only to him.

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The last few years have been rough on Polly.  No longer able to move as she once did, she was frustrated with much of her current situation.  Her body was failing her, and she looked forward to final redemption with joy in her heart.  She felt as though she had run her race, and she was waiting for the finish line to approach.

If we’re not careful, we let this final image of Polly dominate any other images.  If we aren’t careful, the idea of Polly in a hospital bed or a nursing home can loom larger over earlier images, images that are dominated by laughter and family and her devotion to church life.  We need to guard our image of Polly to ensure that it is a complete image, one that includes her earlier years as much as it does her later years.

So it’s helpful to gather and go through old pictures, just as it’s helpful to tell old stories, even if we’ve heard them before, because they remind us of what was good about Polly.  They tell a different story than the one nursing homes are capable of telling. 

In Paul’s 2^nd letter to the Corinthians, he also needs to do some reminding.  They have gotten caught up in some little things, in some debates that are leading their hearts away from the central issue of being the church together, and Paul is trying to bring them back to the promises God has made and the assurances we have in Christ Jesus.  Paul is trying to focus their eyes on God, and he does so by having them look at Christ, because Paul says that Jesus Christ is the ‘yes’ to all of God’s promises.

Now, think for a second about those promises.  These are promises of God to always be with us, to never let us out of his sight, that nothing shall separate us from his love and that we shall reign with him in heaven forever.  These are big promises, monumental promises, the type of promises that ought to make us cling to God in all we do.

But we tend to get caught up in other things, in little things, and they turn our eyes away from these promises.  We forget all the wondrous joy God has promised us.

And so Paul brings our eyes back to the joy of Christianity, back to the faith and the wonder and the hope of it all.  Paul fixes our eyes on Christ, and in so doing Paul reminds us that God has made it possible for us to stand firmly with Christ.  God has chosen us and claimed us by his Holy Spirit.  Christ, in his life, death and resurrection, is the assurance that all of these promises are faithful and true, that we can cling to them in all of life.

So we gather today to remind ourselves of Christ’s ‘yes’ to Polly Anna Black.  In Christ, God has said ‘yes’ to her, gathering her up in his mighty arms and shepherding her through the veil of death into life eternal.  God has said ‘yes’ to her, claiming her in the waters of baptism and making her his forever.  God has said ‘yes’ to her, because he has chosen her by his Spirit and will not let anything take her from him.  Polly belongs to God, and she now worships him in fullness and truth.

We, too, need to be reminded of these promises.  We tend to forget them in the face of life’s trials and tribulations and distractions.  We forget about all the good news and the hope and the joy.  We forget that God has said ‘yes’ to us, too, and claimed us forever by his Holy Spirit.  We forget that we depend on him and live our lives in the palm of his hand.  We forget that he holds the keys of eternal life.

So may you be reminded of just who is in charge of your life.  May you be reminded that Christ alone is the source of eternal life, and it to him alone that we must cling. 

Let us pray