The Apostle Paul says that the same power that raised Christ, works within us. By implication this means we have “resurrection power.” I’ve often associated this phrase with crazed televangelists who scream about something I’m not sure I really want – and who can talk about a life-style I can’t find in the gospels. I suppose it’s possible that resurrection power includes a private jet and 5 homes, but I rather think in most cases crass
materialism masks the stench of spiritual death.

Understood biblically, “resurrection power” is seen in our church. It has less to do with ecstatic utterances or people walking around after they died, than it does with the power to give people a new life. This resurrection power will be seen in glory, but it is experienced NOW.

When we work to reconcile people in a broken community, we are resurrecting relationships which have been the casualty of complacency. When we work to care for people in our faith community who need us, we resurrect their spirits, empowering them to face the
decisions of the moment. When we look at people with a vision of what they can be, not just what they are, then we look through resurrection lenses. We see that God can raise the dead… the dead person to be sure, but God can also raise an attitude a lifestyle of death.

The resurrection is not just an historical fact, to be believed or rejected. The resurrection is not just a future hope, to be believed or rejected. The resurrection is a present day work. It can be ignored. You may disbelieve it. But resurrection power is all around us. It happens every time a person encounters the love of Christ which comes into their lives and transforms them into something altogether beautiful. The old passes and the new creation comes. This is an Easter we can celebrate every day.

This doesn’t discount either the historical reality or the future hope. But the past and the future are proven in our lives in the present. As Austin Farrer says: “When we have seen that God acts thus for our salvation within the world, we become brave enough to believe that he will also act for our salvation beyond the world.”