The apostle Paul is probably the ultimate Christian marmite character. Some people absolutely love him. Or as one parishioner expressed herself to me yesterday, ‘I think he’s a good egg’. But I also frequently have conversations with people who struggle with Paul and how he writes, sometimes strongly disliking him for it. I have often felt the same, though I have recently come to appreciate Paul more.

And Paul can sometimes appear a bit prickly or even pompous – especially when he says things like ‘I worked harder than any of them’. But he often says these things because he cares about Jesus and he cares about his flock, and if we look at what some of Paul’s opponents are arguing most of us will be happy Paul won those debates. At least, I’m assuming most men are quite thankful that they don’t have to be circumcised to be a Christian, that we are not second-class Christians if we are married, and that we are all equally member of the Body of Christ regardless of our social status, class or ethnic background.

Besides, it is likely that when Paul says, ‘I am the least of the apostles’, and when he describes himself as ‘someone untimely born’, he is echoing words critics used to describe him, calling him an ugly parody of an apostle. So Paul feels often a need to spend time defending himself and his own legitimacy, which never shows people at their best and most gracious. 

And to pick up on another point of criticism, it is occasionally said by some people that it is Paul rather than Jesus who made Christianity.

This is a bit of a strange conclusion about someone who spends all his time talking about Jesus the Messiah, the new King of the world. And considering that many of the things Paul teaches are found elsewhere in the Bible.  

But it is also untrue because the early Christians, many of whom had known Jesus and/or the other apostles, clearly agreed with and accepted Paul’s writings as true and preserved them. Our first reading today from 1 Corinthians is a particularly important example of this, and we’ll spend some time thinking about three things this passage offers us.

First, this passage is the oldest preserved statement summarising the Christian faith, we can even call it a creed, and with that one of the most exciting passages from the Bible. It dates from about 20-25 years from Jesus’ death and resurrection.

It is very well established by historians that Jesus was a historical person who was crucified, probably in the year 33AD.

Documenting and analysing all Paul’s travels, people think Paul came for the first time in Corinth and planted a church there in 50-51. He clearly had great success, but only a few years later, probably sometime between 52 and 55, he wrote this letter because all sorts of things had gone wrong. That means that this letter has been written 20-25 years from Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.

And then, in our reading, Paul quotes an even older source:

‘For 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, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve’ (1 Cor. 15:3-5).

What is really exciting is that Paul says that he himself has received this – so this summary of the Christian faith goes back even further, perhaps even back to the first Pentecost! Especially as Paul claims that all the apostles agree with him (1 Cor. 15:11). In other words, Jesus’ dying for our sins, being buried, and rising again and appearing to the disciples was the core of the Good News, on which the leaders of the early Christians agreed, which included of course the disciples who had spent pretty much every day for three years with Jesus.

This isn’t Paul’s Gospel or Paul’s Christianity, it is the Gospel of Jesus Christ that Paul preached with the other apostles. And again, there were still so many of these alive that people could go and check!

The second thing this passage offers us is a powerful apologetic argument. Sometimes, because we have been part of it for so long, we forget how powerful and compelling the Christian faith is. And it affects our confidence to share it with others and to invite others to come and try out church with us.

This passage from 1 Corinthians 15 has one of the most powerful apologetic arguments for the truth of Jesus’ resurrection. Paul records that the risen Jesus had appeared to Peter, to the twelve disciples, then two more than 500 brothers and sisters at the same time, to James the brother of Jesus, to all the apostles, and then finally, also to Paul.

Paul explicitly makes the point that many of these 500 are still alive. And that makes sense because we are at this point less than 25 years from Jesus’ resurrection. Probably a number of them were among the travelling prophets and preachers, and people in Corinth would have met them. But people could go and check with the eyewitnesses to hear first-hand the story of how the risen Jesus appeared. I am sure many of you can remember things that happened 25 years ago like they were yesterday.

It is a powerful argument, but not what convinced Paul, Peter, James, John, or anyone else including myself to become a Christian.

The Good News of Jesus is only accepted by meeting the living Jesus. How do you know Jesus rose from the dead? The atheist asked. Because, the wise old believer softly replied, ‘I spent an hour with Him this morning.’

It is only meeting with this Jesus that can convince us that he is real and alive and that he has changed the world and wants to change our lives. We continually need to remind ourselves that Christianity is not just a set of values, a statement of beliefs, but living in relationship with the living Jesus. In everything we say and do, we go back to Jesus.  

And we believe that there is only one Jesus, the Jesus who was the fulfilment of God’s promises to Israel in the Old Testament (note that this short creed given by Paul includes twice the phrase ‘according to the Scriptures’). And this was the same Jesus who died for our sins, was buried, rose again. And it is the same Jesus who we meet when we pray, when we come together as a community, when we hear his word, and when we receive his sacraments.

And Paul tells the people in Corinth, and us today, to hold firmly to this Jesus, because that is how we are being saved. It is the meeting of this Jesus that makes all the difference. 

It made Peter, James and John in our Gospel reading to give up their work and all security and to follow Jesus, and in the end even dying for Him.

Not because the Christian faith made so much sense rationally – though it does! – but because they had met Jesus.

When we meet together today, Jesus promises to be with us, especially when we listen to his word, and when he comes to us in bread and wine, which He promises are His Body and His Blood. May each of us recognise Jesus as He comes to meet us today.

Amen.