The Lutheran Hour

"Second Chances and First Impressions"

#93-34
Presented on The Lutheran Hour on April 26, 2026
Speaker: Rev. Dr. Michael Zeigler
Copyright 2026 Lutheran Hour Ministries

Text: 1 Corinthians 15:47-49

At the concert that night, Brian, the director of the choir, explains why this next song is special to him. The first time he had performed it, he tells us, he was a little nervous. It was a solo act he did, years ago, at his wedding. He sang it just for Stacy, his bride. Not with a microphone on a stage, but quietly in her ear as they danced their first dance.

The song they had chosen for the first dance was popular at the time. You might have heard it on the radio. But Brian wasn’t kidding himself—he did not sound like the radio version. He was young and nervous and just trying not to step on Stacy’s toes—trying to make a good first impression on his new bride. “This is the best I’ve got,” he remembers thinking to himself.

But Brian and Stacy were just getting started. And there would be plenty of second chances to come. And tonight, Brian got one—a second chance. For this concert, he had taken the radio version of that 28-year-old song and arranged it for a chorale. He dedicated it to Stacy, his bride. He didn’t spotlight her in the crowd, or anything like that. We didn’t even know if she was there that night. If this was a second chance for this song, it wasn’t just about her anymore; it included all of us—the 30 high school boys Brian had taught to sing it and the crowd in the concert hall sharing in the gift.

It got me thinking about second chances—second chances and first impressions. As it’s said, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” I suppose it’s a warning not to squander that first chance, because it may be the only one you get, like in a job interview or a sales pitch. But in other situations, everyone knows that the first attempt is not the one that counts. I usually burn the first pancake and the first marshmallow over the campfire. But when you burn, you learn. So, it is the second that counts. And the many that follow—like with a first job or a first car or first apartment. There’s a reason they call it a “starter home.” For teachers, there’s a reason why they say you just got to get through that first year. A veteran kindergarten teacher was telling me that that first year felt like war. But the second year, she said, “I was a rock star.”

What makes second chances possible and count even more than the first impression, is the patient relationship that enfolds them both. In a long-term relationship, the first impression is just the start. And second chances mean commitment, like a parent who drives their 16-year-old back to the driver’s licensing office for a second attempt at the driver’s test (or multiple second attempts); like a principal who gives that first-year kindergarten teacher room to grow; like a bride who gladly receives both gifts—the first song that was just for her, and the second chance that included us all.

Now, as I see it, there are two ways that it’s true that it’s the second, not the first, that counts. On the one hand, sometimes it’s true because I need room to grow. On the other hand, sometimes it’s the other person who needs room. It’s just a fact of life that we all need space. We need time. We all need room to grow.

All my first drafts of these messages stink. And the first time I tried that new recipe it stunk. And sometimes I get the “stink eye” when I say, “Fine! I’m sorry!” My first apology usually doesn’t get the tone right, so I need second chances. You need second chances because we all need room to grow, room to mature, to be better. But on the other hand, sometimes it’s not about you or me. Sometimes it’s for the other person. The first impression didn’t count for them because they don’t even remember having this conversation or covering that material or learning that lesson. They had so much else going on in their head, they didn’t even catch a word you were saying. It went in one ear and out the other. The first impression didn’t stick.

So, they need your second chances. And maybe more than you were prepared to give. Maybe seven times more. Maybe seventy times seven. Because when the wedding is over, then the marriage begins.

A teacher once pointed out this pattern to me in the Bible. With God, he said, “It’s not the first, but the second that counts.”ⁱ And once you start looking for it in the Bible, you’ll see it everywhere. It’s not the first son, but the second son that counts. It’s not Cain, the firstborn of Adam and Eve, who does what is right in God’s eyes, but Abel, the second. It’s not Ishmael chosen to carry the blessing for the nations, but Isaac. It’s not Esau, but Jacob.

Likewise, it’s not the first king who counts, but the second—not Saul, but David. Not David, but Solomon. Uh, not Solomon, either, it turns out. The Bible tells a long and winding story of second chances, with this 1-2 pattern repeated with increasing intensity. First, Joseph suffers, survives, and thrives in Egypt; second, his whole family follows. First, Moses is saved through water, tested in the wilderness to meet God on the mountain. Second, all his people experience the same. And later in the Bible, we hear the same pattern from Paul, a follower of Christ, that final King, Jesus.

Paul wrote a letter to some second wave, non-Jewish followers of Jesus, and these folks needed room to grow. Their first steps as baby Christians were clumsy and awkward and painful. They got a lot of things wrong. Now part of their problem was that they had come from a culture that told them, “You only live once!” Death, they thought, was the end of embodied life. Maybe they thought that there was some ghostly afterlife after death, but for this life, life in the body, life in creation, this is all we get. There are no do-overs, no second chances, no resurrection, they said.

So, Paul reminds them of the Gospel he preached to them, the Good News. The whole point is resurrection, remember? With the crucified and risen King Jesus, there is a second, better, embodied life to come, and not just for Him, but for all who belong to Him.

Paul calls Jesus “the second human.” Adam and Eve, they were human 1.0, but this crucified and risen Jesus, He’s the second version, the better version. And we who trust in Jesus, and follow Him, we will become truly human in Him—human 2.0.

Paul’s words are recorded in one of the most power-packed chapters in the New Testament, the First Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 15. If you’ve been listening to our program over the last few weeks, you know that we’ve been exploring key themes in this chapter—how death is the last enemy to be destroyed, how Jesus is the firstfruits, the prototype of a new humanity, and how because of Him, our work in this life is not empty. It’s not in vain.

So, even if you’ve already heard some of this, I invite you to take a second pass with me. Hear it all at once in context. Give it a listen. See what strikes you this time. Paul says to them, and he says to us …

Now I want to remind you, brothers [and sisters] of the Gospel I preached to you, which you all received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word that I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain, without understanding.

You see, I delivered to you of first importance what I received: that Christ died on account of our sins, according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures, in fulfillment of the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Peter, then to the Twelve. And then He appeared [publicly] to more than 500 brothers at the same time, most of whom are still alive. Though some have fallen asleep, some have died. And then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Then last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me.

See, I am the least of all the apostles, not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and God’s grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though not I, but God’s grace with me. So, whether it was I or they, so we preached and so you believed.

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how is it that some of you are saying that there is no resurrection of the dead? Now if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is empty and your faith is empty. And we are found to be misrepresenting God about whom we testified that He raised Christ from the dead, whom He did not raise from the dead if it is true that the dead are not raised. Because if the dead are not raised, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has raised, then your faith is useless and you are still in your sins. And what is more, those who have died in Christ have perished. If we have hope in Christ for this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

You see, since death came through a man, so also by a Man has come also the resurrection of the dead. Because as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits, then at his coming, those who belong to Christ.

Then comes the end, when Christ delivers the Kingdom over to the One who is God and Father, after He has destroyed every rule and every authority and power. Because it is necessary for Him to reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. And the last enemy to be destroyed is death, because God has put everything under His feet.

Now when it says, “everything” it is clear that this does not include God Himself, who put everything under Christ. But when all things are made subject to Christ, put in service to Christ, then Christ the Son Himself will also be put in service to Him who put all things under Him, so that God may be all in all, everything for everyone.

Paul continues:

But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? What kind of body do they come with?” Foolish person—what you sow does not come to life unless it first dies. And what you sow into the ground is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, a grain of wheat or something. But God gives the seed a body as He has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. Not all flesh is the same. There is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, another for fish. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is another. The sun has one kind of glory, the moon has another, stars another, because star differs from star in glory.

So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in humility; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a body made alive by the Spirit. Now if there is a natural body, then there is also a body made alive by the-Spirit. As it is written, “The first man, Adam—a natural creature”; the last Adam—the Spirit who gives life.

But it is not the one alive by the Spirit who came first, but the natural one was first, and then the one alive by the Spirit. The first human was from the earth, a man of dust; the second human, a Man from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, as is the Man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. As we have borne the image of the man of dust, so shall we bear the image of the Man from heaven.

I am telling you, brothers and sisters: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Look, I’m speaking of a mystery. We will not all sleep; we will not all die, but we will be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. Because the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. Because this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must be clothed in immortality. And when the perishable puts on what cannot decay, and the mortal is clothed in what cannot die, then shall come to pass the saying as it is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory. Where is your victory, O death? Where is your sting?” Because the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the Law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory in Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Therefore, my beloved brothers, sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

That’s from 1 Corinthians 15.

The song that Brian sang for Stacy wasn’t, at first, intended to be a love song. The song is titled, “I’ll Be.” It hit the charts in 1998, peaked at number 5, and has been trending on wedding reception playlists ever since. Maybe you recognize the chorus, if you’re around my age. It goes: “I’ll be your cryin’ shoulder. I’ll be love’s suicide. I’ll be better when I’m older. I’ll be the greatest fan of your life.”

It might not sound like much, but apparently, over one million Dr. Phil viewers voted it as “the best wedding song ever written.”ⁱⁱ The songwriter’s original intention, however, was 180 degrees different than how fans have received it.

Edwin McCain wrote the song after a bad break-up. He was young, immature, mired in alcoholism and despair. And the song, for him, was a confession of sins and a prayer of hope. He said that it was his admission of his own self-sabotaged relationship failures, hence the “love suicide” line. But it was also a prayer, a plea that he could grow and be better person.

Today Edwin McCain is in his 50s, and I hear that he’s still out there in concert halls, playing music and sometimes doing double duty as a bus driver. Some artists feel resentful about being a one-hit wonder. But Edwin is grateful for how the song has given him a second life. He knows why they come. People say to their friends, “Hey, let’s go hear the guy who sang that song.” And Edwin says, “To be able to put two or three hundred people in a room just on the back of one song is … an unbelievable gift.”ⁱⁱⁱ

Now, as for Brian, the choir director I mentioned, he told me later that when he sang this song for Stacy during their first dance, he thought it was just a straightforward love song. To his older self, the song does speak of grief over a failure, but also hope—hope of being changed into someone better, someone more loving.

And for me, in that crowded concert hall that night, hearing 30 high school boys belting out, “I’ll be your cryin’ shoulder … ” and Brian, their director, singing through them, for us, for his bride, wherever she was, I couldn’t help but be grateful for second chances.

When the Bible says that God will be “all in all,” it does not mean that we are being dissolved into God-like drops in an ocean of divinity. When it says that everything and everyone will be put in subjection, in service to Jesus, it does not mean indentured servitude. When it says that Jesus Himself will be put in service to God the Father, it does not mean by force.

Instead, it means that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are inviting you into God’s love song for all people and all creation. This is the ever-expanding way of love—the way to be better, the way of God. It means giving failed and failing people second chances.

God is the God of second chances, not for Himself, but for us, for others. That’s who God is and that’s what love does. Love puts others first. Love gives the self into service. Love is God’s song for us. God the Father put Himself in our service by giving us His greatest treasure, His Son, Jesus. Jesus put Himself in our service by being born, by growing with us, by dying on the cross for us, by bearing all our self-sabotaged relationship failures. And He rose from the dead so that we could be changed, to rise with Him to a second life, with Him singing through us, so that God would be all in all—everything for everyone.

Brian told me later that Stacy, his bride, was, in fact, at the concert hall that night. She had requested that no attention be brought to her, so Brian didn’t mention it at the time. That night was for the choir and the audience. And she was happy to put them first. But she did love the song, though. Brian said he was a little nervous about that beforehand. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

i Daniel Paavola, Patience and Perfection: Finding Peace in God’s Plan for You! St Louis: CPH (2018), 50–73.
ii https://www.songfacts.com/blog/interviews/edwin-mccain
iii Ibid.

Reflections for April 26, 2026
Title: Second Chances and First Impressions

No reflection segment this week.

Music Selections for this program:

“A Mighty Fortress” arr. Peter Prochnow. Used by permission.
“Crucifer” by Sydney H. Nicholson, arr. Peter Prochnow. Used by permission.
“The King of Love My Shepherd Is” arr. Henry Gerike. Used by permission.
“The King of Love My Shepherd Is” From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House) Used by permission.