We're at the point in our Confirmation class where we invite our 7th and 8th graders to ask themselves: what do I believe? We frame this through the Apostles' Creed. A creed is a list of things that a community of faith teaches. They can be short (like the Shema Yisrael for Jews which is only 1 verse long) or long (the Athanasius Creed, which we don't recite often, is pages long). We spend each class period going through one section of the Apostles' Creed. We spend time with God the Creator, God the Redeemer, and God the Sanctifier (aka Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) and how these statements of faith help frame all the questions we might ask. The Apostles' Creed isn't, I think, designed to provide us answers. Instead, it's a framework to help us see how our faith is central to who we are and where we are going.

Paul's text from 1st Corinthians 15:12-20 today is part of that wider question of "who we are" Rarely do we, I think, spend time thinking about the Resurrection of Jesus. We name it, celebrate it, point to it at funerals, and use trumpets to announce it at Easter. But do we, in our everyday life, think about what the Resurrection means to us? For Paul, the act of Resurrection is fundamental to what it means to follow Christ. Without it, we are merely listening to the words of some beloved teacher. With the Resurrection, we see the beginning of a new creation that God is bringing about. The Resurrection is more than just what happens after we die. The Resurrection is God's way of saying that a new life is possible right now. Even though we will die, we will be embraced by an endless God and an endless love that will not leave us. And, we will be joined together with all who are caught up in that love. Without the Resurrection, Jesus is a good man who was executed for what he believed. With it, we see that God acted through Jesus to create a new world that invites us to see God's love that's all around us.