More than a single day celebrating a one-time event, Christians around the world have long celebrated Easter as a season. Even more, beyond focusing on--or trying to prove--that certain facts of history occurred that first Easter, resurrection is a truth we are called to embody ourselves; it is not merely an idea to believe in, but a pattern, a reality, that we are invited to give ourselves to.

In fact, the only way the earliest folowers of Jesus could describe what had happened to them after Jesus' crucifixion was that they were the resurrected body of Christ. "As the Father sent me, so now I send you," Jesus had told them. Only this language of radical transformation was strong enough to capture how this rag-tag group of folks that had betrayed, denied, and deserted Jesus in his greatest hour of need, and then locked themselves in a small room for fear of what those who killed Jesus might do to them became the same group that boldly organized for the common good, redisributing goods "to all, as any had need," that pooled its resources to buy the freedom of people who were enslaved, and that inverted power structures with enslaved people and women alike serving as leaders, preachers, teachers, and prophets.

Right when this "body," this movement was as good as dead, God raised them to new life, in a radically new form. Filled with the power of God, they were now called to be Christ's hands, feet, ears, and heart blessing, healing, and restoring the world.

This series is about what might it mean for us to also give ourselves over to this resurrecting power of God. How might God be seeking to raise you up to new life, and with you all the world?

Copyright © 2023 by Eric J. Ogi. All rights reserved.