1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50 (NRSV)
Read 1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50 on biblegateway.com
Verse 35But someone will ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?" Verse 36Fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. Verse 37And as for what you sow, you do not sow the body that is to be, but a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. Verse 38But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. Verse 42So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. Verse 43It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. Verse 44It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body. Verse 45Thus it is written, "The first man, Adam, became a living being"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. Verse 46But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the physical, and then the spiritual. Verse 47The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. Verse 48As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. Verse 49Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven. Verse 50What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
Devotion
“The ones born on earth are like the man who was made from the ground. The ones born from the spirit-world above are like the man who came from above. Just as we have worn the image of the man from the earth, we will also wear the image of the man from the spirit-world above.” (48-49; First Nations Version: An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament by Terry M. Wildman)
Wakes and funerals on White Earth are unique. Tobacco, offered into an open, hand-dug grave. A drum circle sends a loved one off with the Traveling Song: G’naadamoimin ina Gizhemanido? / Can you help us Great Spirit? Two-night wakes are led by the Ojibwe Singers in steel-clad community centers. Tables and chairs arranged on a basketball court, with a casket under the far basket. We follow a liturgy of hymn-testimony-hymn late into the night. An oft-repeated phrase has gained traction. It has been attributed to a French Jesuit, a highly effective businessman, traditional pipe carriers, or perhaps St. Paul: “We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings, on a human journey.”
Prayer
Creator God, created in your image, we bear this earthly tent for a brief journey—like the man who was made from the ground. Use us up as you will, while we walk this earth, until we wear the image of the man from the spirit-world above. Amen.
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