Go Ahead: Believe

Diana Butler Bass recently posted an article on the God's Politics blog site entitled: Believing the Resurrection

She recalls a wise Episcopal bishop, Rt. Rev. Daniel Corrigan. Diana tells that Corrigan was a part of an unique breed: one of those mid-20th century liberal princes of the pulpit,
a Protestant minister whose stirring preaching and passionate commitment to social justice pushed Christians to enact God's shalom toward the oppressed and the outcast.

One year, as Easter approached, she overheard a conversation between this liberal lion and a fellow parishioner. "Bishop Corrigan," the person asked, "Do you believe in the resurrection?" Frankly, I could not wait to hear the answer – like most of his generation, there was no way that Bishop Corrigan believed in a literal resurrection. He looked at the questioner and said firmly, without pause, "Yes. I believe in the resurrection. I've seen it too many times not to."

We Progressive Christians often stumble on the resurrection. Many of us will sit in churches this Easter Sunday, silently doubting or questioning the minister's sermon. We may like the music, appreciate the tradition and liturgy, and delight in the feelings of joy – but we will not really believe the resurrection. One of the great theological problems of old-style Protestant liberalism was the doctrine of the resurrection – it defied logic, reason, and human experience that a man would be raised from the dead.


I've seen it too many times not to points to a different way of embracing, of believing, the resurrection. This answer both defies the conventional approach to the resurrection (as a scientifically verifiable event), and maintains the truthfulness (the credibility) of the resurrection as historically viable and real. The resurrection is not an intellectual puzzle. Rather, it is a living theological reality, a distant event with continuing spiritual, human, and social consequences. The evidence for the resurrection is all around us. Not in some ancient text, Jesus bones, or a DNA sample. Rather, the historical evidence for the resurrection is Jesus living in us; it is the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, bringing back to life that which was dead. We are the evidence.

This Easter Sunday, consider all the resurrections you have seen. If you are anything like me, those resurrections are not only stories of homeless people who find a home in Christ. They will be stories of your own life, of your myriad deaths and rebirths – of all the times you thought God had deserted you only to discover that God was finding you anew. The resurrection cannot be intellectually proved; it goes well beyond myth. It is the continuing, power of God to bring back from death all that was lost – that ever-renewing love at work changing ourselves, our communities, and our world. Go ahead: believe!

Thanks to Diana for her words to help recreate the resurrection with the aid of the Holy Spirit in this sometimes hard-hearted crumudgeon.