To Believe in the Resurrection...

Easter makes a difference. Just after arriving in Tulsa for the Workshop, I received an email from one of my best friends and partners (from a distance) in ministry. He was about to go to an important and, seemingly, stress inducing meeting. I don't really know what the meeting was about, or how it ended up, but his words and attitude below have continued to challenge and convict me since the moment I read them...

"I've got an important meeting tonight, which should move things along here, for better or worse. To go into a meeting knowing that you will 'die' for the church gives a wonderful sense of comfort. Not to be melodramatic, but to believe in the resurrection is to believe that it is possible to absorb any amount of ill-will and abuse without retaliation."

“To believe in the resurrection…” Easter makes a difference. The resurrection makes a difference. As Christians, Easter is not just something we celebrate once a year; it is something we live out in our lives everyday. We live to the gospel rhythms of death and life, the tune of our baptismal existence.

As those who have been commissioned by God to be the hands and the feet of Jesus Christ in the world, I wonder how we would change if we actually lived out those rhythms in our lives. What would happen if we viewed the church not so much as a club or a social organization, but as a living entity, the second Incarnation of Christ? What would happen if we understood and lived out the implications of our baptism, if we lived to the rhythms of death and life, if we truly answered the call and commission of God, moving beyond the safe walls of our church buildings and our homes to truly engage the people with whom Jesus spent most of his time?

The thought of what could happen in the church if we were to catch that Spirit both excites and terrifies me. Maybe our conversations would be different. Maybe our classes and services would look different. Maybe the people sitting in our pews would be different. Maybe we would look more like the mysteriously diverse band of disciples who followed Jesus. Maybe we would be willing to open our arms and our hands to serve others. Maybe we would be more focused on dying for the sake of those on the journey of faith who are not-yet-Christian. Maybe we would not be as self-centered or prideful. Maybe we would treat our spouses and children differently. Maybe “to believe in the resurrection” makes a difference. Maybe…

I pray that we can become a church that truly believes in the resurrection. This is not the intellectual ascent to some point of doctrine, as if Christian belief has ever been about just knowing “the facts.” Belief is only real if it catalyzes transformation, if it leads to a changed life. Belief in the resurrection is only real if we learn to live to the tune of resurrection, to the rhythms of death and life in our own lives.

May God grant us all the grace to share in that same Spirit and embrace the calling of our baptism to live to the rhythm of resurrection.