We are now in Eastertide. Let us live… truly live… in the power of resurrection life.

⁷ The end of all things is near; therefore be serious and discipline yourselves for the sake of your prayers. ⁸ Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:7-8, NRSVue)

Let us finally be rid of the limited, powerless notion that Easter is about Jesus dying and rising again so we can be “saved” and “go to heaven.” May we finally return to the true vision of heaven and why Jesus came! My prayer is we finally get back to the heavenly vision, not laid out in some “word from God” given to me a “new revelation.” No, it is to return to the biblical vision of the Kingdom of God.

The vision of “a united trans-ethnic and trans-local family worshipping the one God and thus holding the powers of the world to account.” (Jesus and the Powers, p. 66) Our call (our vocation) as the Church is to speak truth to power. We are called to bring the truth of God’s wise, healing justice, sustained by the knowledge that the powers of the world have actually been defeated on the cross. (p. 66)

Resurrection life isn’t about “getting the soul saved and going to heaven.” It is to bring the rule and reign of God into the light more and more. And that has a “political” component to it. The Kingdom of God disturbs the kingdoms of this world. Every ideology. Every political party. Every political system.

We live as the people of God, loving Jesus and radically loving others, and seeing that affect the community around us. We are called to reshape the community and culture in which we live from within. We don’t retreat and “wall off” politics. We don’t “burn it all down.” We live in transformative power.

It is our calling to hold up the transformative power of the Kingdom of God as an example (found in how we live in powerful spiritual formation) and call out this world’s powers when necessary. It is to cry out for the refugees in Gaza. It is to cry out for justice and relief in Haiti. It is to demand our local leaders do better in areas that lack attention, whether it is legislation that restricts access to education or ignorance of homelessness in a wealthy county.

Live in resurrection. Find the life-giving organizations that are working for transformation in the marginalized areas of your community. Spend time with them. Volunteer with them. Financially support them.

Live in resurrection. Be a part of spiritual transformation and worship in your local church. Demand better from leaders to teach on relevant needs in the community and how Christ has come to transform those areas. Demand better of yourself and put together groups that will talk to each other and call out each other to better spiritual formation and quit letting your “news outlets” and “your own research” dictate your beliefs and how to think about the marginalized, the immigrant, and others not like you in your community. Let the Body of Christ have a majority of your time speaking to you and forming you for a change!

Live in resurrection. Get to work. Equip yourself for prayer. Walk in love.