Brand New: The Resurrection for All of Life

In the middle of the 19th century, a new form of power took hold of American culture: electricity. Following the advancements of dozens of thinkers over the previous few centuries, realized perhaps most famously in Edison’s lightbulb, electricity now flowed throughout much of the modern world, lighting and powering profound improvements in every arena: technology, medical treatments, work and leisure, the preparation and preservation of food, and much more. The kingdom of electricity was here! But for many, adoption of this new power was slow, or even outright rejected. Well into the 1940s, many farmers and rural Americans chose not to embrace electric lights, refrigerators, stoves, heaters, farming tools, televisions, and even medical treatments, because to embrace such things would ultimately require a major shift in their lives. While it may have been good news, they closed themselves off to it - electricity failed to strike them.

And if we as Christians are being honest, we often treat the resurrection like those farmers treated electricity: with a degree of naivete or outright neglect. Sure, we love the story of Jesus; we love the idea that forgiveness and new life and ecological restoration and lasting justice and communal love and acceptance are available for all, but we often go out from a church service where we proclaim that news with little tangible change in our lives. We persist in habits, perspectives, and work that look far more like the dead and dying world. Yet when the New Testament authors reflected on Christ’s resurrection, over and over again they reiterated how it reshaped every aspect of their lives, so that the old way of living was just no longer tenable. The resurrection wasn’t a nice event they reflected on once a year to feel good: it was the catalyst for holistic, life-altering change.

We are people who need to be plugged back into the power of the resurrection for all of life - not just remember it once a year on Easter and then continue on with our lives. Join us for our series Brand New as we explore the New Testament’s treatment of the resurrection and how it radically changes every part of our lives: our doubts (John 20:19-31); our assumptions about what is possible (Luke 24:13-35); how we deal with suffering (1 Peter 1:3-9); the way it creates a new humanity (Romans 6:1-14); the dignity it lends to all physical bodies (1 Corinthians 15:35-58); and, ultimately, the restoration of all things (Revelation 21:1-5).