Resurrection Now!

Do you know that voice?

It seems that we human beings have evolved a society that leaves so many of us surviving and existing, but not truly living. It is well-documented that many people today feel empty, unfulfilled, and robbed of meaningful life. Many voices rightly remind us that life is difficult, and that we all struggle, get hurt, and face frustration. But many of us know a persistent voice within us whispering that it doesn’t have to be like this; that life can be meaningful, fulfilling, and vibrant, even in the difficulties of being human in an imperfect world.

If you know that nagging sense that life could be more, if you seek a life that is deeper, richer, and more alive than our society’s version, then Sacredise's Liturgical and Devotional Guide, Resurrection Now!, is for you.

Easter is a seven-week season. Fifty days is approximately one seventh of the year, as Sunday is one seventh of the week. And as Sunday is considered to be a weekly celebration of resurrection life, so the Easter season is one ‘Great Sunday’ which celebrates the Divine Life (with a capital ‘L’) that cannot be extinguished or destroyed.

And that’s why I am so excited to invite you to celebrate and experience the Easter season anew with Resurrection Now! 

Starting on Easter Sunday, and based on the Readings for Year A in the Revised Common Lectionary, Resurrection Now! explores how we can experience Christ’s resurrection not just as a past event or a future hope, but as a living reality right here and now.

Resurrection Now! will lead you into a new and deeper experience of resurrection and show you the steps you can take to make resurrection life more of a daily experience right here and now.

Are you ready to let Easter lead you to a richer, more vibrant and more meaningful life?

The RESURRECTION NOW! Liturgical Guide includes:

• Specific prayers and rituals for Gathering, Listening, Responding, and Integrating;
• Purpose written prayers and liturgies for every Sunday of Easter and Ascension Day;
• Sermon starter chapters for every Sunday of Easter and Ascension Day;
• A theme-based Table Liturgy that can be used on any Sunday of Easter;
• Theme-based graphics for your projection software for welcome screens, song lyrics and liturgies, and sermon notes.

The RESURRECTION NOW! Devotional Guide includes:

• Preparing, Responding, and Integrating practices for every day of the Easter Season to ensure that people can easily apply the message of each day to their own lives;
• Copies of the Sermon Starters for each week;
• Daily reflection questions to enable people to listen more deeply to the message of the Scriptures and apply it to their lives and relationships.

The RESURRECTION NOW! Bundle includes:

Designed for communities that want to journey together, while also providing a meaningful personal journey for congregation members, the Bundle includes both the Liturgical and the Devotional Guides.

It also includes a license to share the devotional guides through any or all of the following channels:

• Printed handouts to distribute to congregation members; 
• Digital copies sent to members via email; 
• Posted on your church's social media channels; 
• Posted on your church's website.

RESURRECTION NOW! includes the following chapters:

Easter Sunday: Letting Go

We all long to experience resurrection, that sense of rebirth when our experience of the world becomes more vivid, when our connection with our loved ones grows deeper, and when we feel more awake, energised, and filled with wonder. And the way to that fullness of life is not found by clinging or striving. It is found in a daily practice of letting go and embracing the fullness of life—with all the unpredictable changes it brings.

Easter 2: Believing

Life is found not in having correct ideas in our heads so we can get to some otherworldly heaven. It is found here and now by believing in beauty, truth, goodness, and love enough that they shape our lives even when other people choose ugliness, falsehood, and evil. It is found when we refuse to settle for a second-hand life rooted in hand-me-down doctrines and ideas. It is found when we believe with our whole being—mind, heart, body, values, priorities, actions, and relationships.

Easter 3: Risking

A faith that is about safety isn’t really faith at all. But a faith that embraces the challenges of living fully and vibrantly, that leads us to know ourselves well and to connect deeply with loved ones and neighbours—that’s a faith worth having. After all, the Jesus we follow believed in resurrection and was willing to give his life rather than settle for safety. He chose to make love, liberation, and enlivening those around him his top priorities. And he showed us that such a life cannot be quenched even by death. 

Easter 4: Reimagining

Abundant life isn’t found by winning at society’s game of accumulating the most toys. Abundant life is found in knowing ourselves and what brings us to life. It is found in nurturing deep and mutually sustaining relationships. It is found in meaningful work that contributes to the well-being of our world. And it is found in treating one another with love and fairness (justice) regardless of who we are, where we’re from, or what we may have done.

Easter 5: Being Authentic

We will all live and reflect the divine life in our own unique way. The way Jesus did it is not the only way. Other great spiritual teachers have demonstrated other ways. But, contrary to how Jesus’ words have been interpreted, none say that theirs is the only way to find life. And they all agree on at least two things: Firstly, there are some ways of living that don’t lead to beauty, truth, and goodness and there are some that do. And secondly, the abundant life we seek is found now, right here, where we are and as we are. 

Easter 6: Loving

One of the great challenges of life, the one that spirituality is designed to address, is how we shift from our natural self-centredness and self-protectiveness to this other-centred, sacrificial love. Authentic spiritual practice is about training ourselves to break free of our small, self-centred mind so that we can give ourselves for the sake of others. Without love we may exist, but we can never truly be alive. Only Lovers are able to reach beyond themselves to embrace the life of God in all its unexpected hiding places.

Ascension Day: Loving Unconditionally

Can we believe the message of the Ascension that the way of Christ, the way of love, is supreme over all? Can we commit to love and build our lives and relationships around it? And can we give ourselves to love enough that it directs and shapes every thought we think, every word we speak, and every action we perform?

Easter 7: Togethering

Jesus’ vision of a new world was not about creating a theocracy with faithful religious devotees in positions of power. It was about a global community in which we would all care for, protect, serve, respect, value, and love each other. It was about a world where love was the guiding principle of every nation, community, and relationship. Because for Jesus, in a world filled with love like this, abundant life is the automatic and universal by product.