Spiritual resurrection is possible every day

Reflections on the church

Resurrection to new life.
Sounds good, doesn’t it?
Many of us would like to experience resurrection to new life in our bodies. Some of us receive that opportunity through chemotherapy treatments, physical therapy or knee replacements, but resurrection to new life in our bodies isn’t received by every person who desires it.
Many of us would like to experience resurrection to new life in our minds. Wouldn’t it be great to remember all those names and words we seem to forget or to use our right brains more often? New life in this area might be possible if we exercise our brains with new mental activities or take time out for creating. Unfortunately, few of us living in this stressful society make the changes that allow us to experience this form of resurrection to new life.
At Easter, we proclaim Christ’s resurrection as the sign that through Jesus Christ God offers each of us resurrection to new life after death. But is dying the only way that we experience what God offers?
We don’t have to wait until we die to experience resurrection to new life in our spirits. Unlike resurrection to new life in our bodies and in our minds, this new life is possible for every one of us every day of our lives.
Yet how many of us experience spiritual resurrection to new life? Even though it is possible for every one of us every day of our lives, how often can we claim to have experienced it?
Resurrection to new life after death requires no effort on our part. That form of resurrection is all God’s action. Resurrection to new life in this life—body, mind, spirit—requires effort on our part along with God’s action. To receive new life in body and mind, we have to participate in physical or mental activities. To receive new life in spirit, we have to create space and time in our busy lives to tend to our spirits.
In the hymn “Lord of the Dance,” Sydney Carter calls us to this image and promise of God in Jesus Christ:
“They cut me down, and I leapt up high,
“I am the life that’ll never, never die;
“I’ll live in you if you’ll live in me;
“I am the Lord of the Dance, said he.”
Resurrection to new life. Sounds good. And it is possible to experience resurrection to new life in spirit every day through Jesus Christ, who lives in us if we will live in him.