We Are Resurrection People

We

It is community that defines Christian faith most interestingly. WE are resurrection people, meaning a collective of persons, drawn together by no more than the good news. WE are the collective representation of the body of Christ in a particular space and time. WE are not alone, not expected to survive alone, but rather are pulled into a space of interdependability, needing one another and God as we navigate together the world, life, and our faith. The baptism brings Mildred into that “us-ness” but make no mistake, the US of WE is not intended to exclude: ANY who come are to be welcomed. ALL who seek are found and brought into the fellowship, renewed, refreshed. WE struggle through hard times, celebrate good ones, and delight in the wonder of a collaborative and joint faith that draws us into a great cloud of witnesses, ready to cheer for, delight in, and do life with each other person who is willing to draw up a chair and sit with us. WE are resurrection people.

Are

This word is one that helps us know that it is for right now, not some future day or time. The resurrection is not a distant thing, but rather something that should carry us on a day to day, here and now basis. One day, yes, we will all be changed. The dead in Christ will rise and we will all begin a new. But between then and the first Easter morning - we ARE resurrection people. Today. Right now. In our places, in our spaces, in this space as a church, in our cars, in our homes. We ARE resurrection people. Not we WILL BE resurrection people. Not we WERE resurrection people. But we ARE resurrection people. We are today and tomorrow and all the days for eternity, because that moment back 2000+ years ago when Jesus crushed the head of death under his heel made us who we are. Jesus flipped the script.

Resurrection

Resurrection. Alive when formerly dead. Up and moving around instead of not breathing. Resurrection is the complete and total upending of the very scheme of certainty. Maybe the only sure thing left is taxes! because death has lost its grip. the grave has no more sting. We are a RESURRECTION people. Baptism symbolizes, eucharist reminds. We were dead, but now we are alive. We were chained. Now we are free. We were limited by the bondages of our sins, our shame, our hurts, our weights. We were locked in a tomb of damage, a tomb that wanted us to stay put. And the good news said, the gospel said, Jesus said COME FORTH and we became a resurrection people. We are a RESURRECTION people.

People

Our humanness is not lost in the translation from who we were to who we are. When life is breathed into us, we are transformed, yes, from dead to living - but we are not changed from our essence, our personality. If we were all meant to look and eat and sound and be the same, our uniqueness would be wasted. Instead, we are resurrected into new character, but we are not resurrected from our person-hood. Our quirks. Our sense of humor. Our likes. Our dislikes. They don’t go away, indeed, they become differently aligned. Our goal is different now: instead of brute survival at any cost of our needs, our wants, our desires, we now live as people who long for the good of others, who want the love of christ to be known, but we do it in our own way, according to our own talent, our own gifts. We are resurrection PEOPLE.