Easter is the beginning of God’s new creation. We don’t have to wait. It has already burst in. And the whole point of Gospel’s accounts of the resurrection is that we who believe in Jesus are to become, in the power of his spirit, not only beneficiaries of that new creation but also agents. As the Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15.58 “So, my dear family, be firmly unshakable, always full to overflowing with the Lord’s work. In the Lord, as you know, the work you’re doing will not be worthless.” If we were to take the normal Western view of life after death, a long chapter on resurrection might end with something like this: “Therefore, my beloved, lift up your head and wait for the wonderful hope that is coming to you eventually.” But for the Apostle Paul, as is clear throughout 1 Corinthians, the resurrection means that what you do in the present matters into God’s future. The resurrection of Jesus is the reaffirmation of the goodness of creation, and the gift of the Spirit is there to make us the full human beings we were supposed to be, precisely so that we can fulfill our Kingdom mandate at last. What are we waiting for? Jesus is coming. Let’s go and plant some trees, work for justice, and creatively announce and enact that God’s new creation is here.
HOME CHURCH QUESTIONS:
1. Can you think of a time when you “felt hopeful”? What is at the heart of your understanding and this experience of hope?
2. 1 Corinthians is a letter written by the Apostle Paul to a particular people in a particular time struggling with a number of specific issues of divisions, sex, food, worship gatherings and resurrection. It would appear that some in the community had come to the conclusion that the idea of resurrection was completely crazy and not important. So, in chapter 15 Paul argues that the future hope of God’s NEW Creation is ONLY made possible because of Jesus’ resurrection AND that what we do here on earth NOW matters and is made part of God’s plan to reconcile all things (the whole cosmos) together. How does this text and your understanding of the resurrection of Jesus shape how you live now?
3. Scott suggested that practicing Christian hope includes taking time to reckon with the reality of injustice in a way that is not optimistic or pessimistic. Where have you seen injustice this week? Can you name your tendency toward optimism or pessimism in this situation? How might you align your tendency with God’s call to us to take action now as an act of God’s plan for the reconciliation?