If the apostle Paul were alive today, he might not write his thoughts in a letter. He might put a message in device called an Earth Capsule.

It only costs a dollar to add your thoughts — not a bad price for immortality. Earth Capsule is a time capsule that uses metal disks to store information that can be read by a magnifying glass. It is somewhat low-tech, reports The Washington Post (May 8, 2006), but the disks are able to store information for a thousand years.

The company that offers the Earth Capsule will collect your information, and then send it to repositories in more than 150 cities around the world. A board of trustees will sit on the messages for 50 years, and then open them up for our descendents to see.

The motto of Earth Capsule is this: “Say something new … and let it get old.”

But maybe you are not interested in having your thoughts sit in a repository. If you want to send a message-in-a-bottle, the Earth Capsule company will take your writing, seal it in a waterproof cartridge, and then dump it into a body of water at one of 44 locations. Your words could wash up on an American beach next week, or on the coast of Australia in a century or two.

Imagine a long-lost letter of Paul, a Third Letter to the Corinthians, washing up on shore after 2000 years. One that says, “You know my command that women should be silent in the churches (1 Corinthians 14:34) — just kidding!”

In today’s passage from First Corinthians, Paul sent a message that made it to the church of Corinth in Greece, to churches throughout the Mediterranean, to churches around the world, and finally to our church today. It’s a message that has been written on papyrus, inked on parchment, printed in Bibles, and posted on the Internet. Paul said something new, and then he let it get old — fortunately for us, his message survived the centuries, without the benefit of an Earth Capsule.

Paul has a message for us today, as we gather for our annual congregational meeting. His message is both profound and personal, telling us about his experience of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He says to the Corinthians, “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” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). Paul begins by summarizing, in a few short lines, the story of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He does this because he needs to remind the Corinthians of the good news that he proclaimed to them in person — the good news which they received, in which they stand, and through which they are being saved (vv. 1-2).

Then things get personal. The Risen Christ appeared to Cephas, to the twelve disciples, to more than 500 Christian brothers and sisters, to James, and then to all the apostles. “Last of all,” records Paul, “he appeared also to me” (vv. 5-8). Paul puts down his own personal experience of the resurrection of Jesus, one that happened long after Christ had ascended into heaven. He reports on his own encounter with Christ along the road to Damascus, and he does this in a very matter-of-fact way. He’s not trying to brag, not trying to make a big deal of it. He’s simply trying to record the fact for all posterity.

Paul is creating his own little “Christ Capsule.”

I have to give Paul credit for not embellishing this story with all kinds of dramatic details. He could have talked about the light that flashed around him, his fall to the ground, his temporary blindness, and the voice of Jesus calling out, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:3-5). But he doesn’t — this is a Christ Capsule, after all, an encapsulation of a much larger story. Paul dumps the drama, and simply says that Jesus “appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God” (v. 9).

Paul says something new … and lets it get old.

His message is that you don’t have to be perfect to be an apostle. That was a surprise to the Corinthians, and it’s a surprise to us. An apostle is not someone with a flawless life who gets a medal on the lapel for good behavior — instead, an apostle is someone who is grabbed by the lapels, shaken up a bit, and told by the Risen Christ, “I am sending you out!” The word apostle comes from apostolos, which means “one who is sent.” Anyone can be sent by Jesus as an apostle — even if they have a less that impeccable past.

Did your teenage years include a few unplanned visits to the inside of a police car? You can be an apostle.

Did your young adult years involve a little too much time in Margaritaville? You can be an apostle.

Did your first marriage not work out? Or your second? Or even your third? You can be an apostle.

Does your job leave you unfulfilled? Your free time feel empty? Your life seem to be without purpose or direction? You can be an apostle.

Paul includes in his Christ Capsule the amazing message that he was tapped to be an apostle, even though he had persecuted the church of God. The key to his turn-around was the gift of grace — the gift of God’s own self in Jesus Christ. Christ offered Paul the completely free gift of forgiveness and new life, so that he could do a 180 degree turn and change from persecutor of the church to apostle of Christ. “By the grace of God I am what I am,” reports Paul, “and his grace toward me has not been in vain” (v. 10).

At our annual meeting today, you’ll look at a lot of important documents: The 2006 Annual Reports, the Church Information Form prepared by our Associate Pastor Nominating Committee, our 2006 Financial Reports, and the 2007 Budget. You’ll also vote on my raise — very important! But let’s not allow all of this business of being the church distract us from the business of being apostles. Like Paul, we are being grabbed by the lapels, shaken up a bit, and told by Jesus, “I am sending you out!”

Jesus has given us the gift of forgiveness and new life, so that we can be a mission-minded church and go out to do God’s work in the world. Our primary orientation should always be outward, toward the needs of the world … not inward, toward the business of the church.

The core message of the Christ Capsule is that God has raised Jesus to new life, and has given us the gift of new life as well. This new life is seen when we go out into the world as apostles, and it is also seen when we look inward and discover that God is changing our personal lives as well. Last summer, I joined a handful of men from FPC at the Presbyterian Men’s Conference at Massanetta Springs. One of the speakers was Mark Earley, Attorney General of Virginia from 1998 to 2001. As chief prosecutor of criminals across the state, he helped to put a lot of people behind bars, and he didn’t have a relationship with any of them — except as a prosecutor.

Then in 2001 he ran for governor of the state, and he lost. As he says, “I came in second.”

After this defeat, he received a call from Chuck Colson, asking him to consider becoming the president of Prison Fellowship. Earley was shocked. This was the last thing on his mind, since he hadn’t spent a single day of his life thinking about ministering to prisoners. But in his personal Bible studies he ran into Moses, who killed an Egyptian and buried him in the sand; he also came across Paul, persecutor of the church of God. Earley realized that if God had a future for these biblical criminals, then he might have a future for the convicts of Virginia as well.

Mark Earley is now president of Prison Fellowship, a national ministry that focuses on fellowshipping with Jesus, visiting prisoners, and welcoming their children. Mark Earley was given new life, and he is now focused on sharing new life with others.

So, what does Paul’s Christ Capsule say to you today? How does this message travel across the centuries to you, and have an impact on your life?

Maybe you are feeling burdened by guilt, and need to hear Paul’s message “that Christ died for our sins” (v. 3). Or you are feeling stuck in a dead-end job or relationship, and need the new life that is promised in the words, “he was raised on the third day” (v. 4). Or you are anxious to feel Christ’s presence, and need to be reminded that Jesus appeared to someone as undeserving as the apostle Paul (v. 8).

The Christ Capsule carries this message from the first century to today. It travels all the way from Corinth to Fairfax, and delivers a word that you need to hear. You are one of hundreds of repositories for this capsule here today, and one of millions — or even billions — of people who have benefited from these words since the time they were first written.

But you are not the final repository. And you are not supposed to sit on this message for 50 years. Spread this word of new life in whatever way you can, and share this capsule with others.. Forgive a hurt. Love a neighbor. Offer hope to someone who is grieving. Tell a child about Jesus. Remember that you are an apostle, “one who is sent,” so your job is to go out and offer others the message that you have received. You will find that any success you have is not a purely human achievement — it’s found in partnership with God. “I worked,” says the apostle Paul, “though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (v. 10).

Our mission as a congregation is to carry this Christ Capsule, spreading its word of new life. We are a small-group-centered church, so we certainly need to spend time studying the message of the Bible, and growing in Christian faith together. But we are also a mission-minded church, which means that we put energy into taking this message into the world. The good news of the gospel is not something for us to sit on, but to deliver — through feeding the hungry with today’s Souper Bowl collection, participating in a jail ministry, housing the homeless, joining a mission trip, or helping our neighbors through Christmas in April.

As you go into the world, you don’t have to say something new. Instead, say something true: God has raised Jesus to new life, and he gives us new life as well. The message of Christ is what the world needs to hear, now and always. Amen.

Sources:
Gugliotta, Guy, “A new take on the old time capsule concept..” The Washington Post, May 8, 2006, A2.
Earley, Mark, “Be joyful, pray, and be thankful.” Presbyterian Men 2006 Conference, Massanetta Springs Conference Center, July 14, 2006.