We looked specifically at 1 Corinthians 15 (among the earliest and most important resurrection texts in the New Testament), and noted several things:
1) Paul thinks Christianity is pointless if it is not connected to the presence of the future redemption of the world in Jesus Christ through his bodily resurrection. That is, Christianity is not about a disembodied "there" up there in the sky that we all go to when we die. It is about the presence of a glorious, renewed future for the good creation that has arrived as a foretaste through Jesus' resurrection and will one day come to its fullness at his coming.
2) Paul sees continuity between this world and the one to come - The Messiah is now "putting all his enemies under his feet."
3) But there is also discontinuity - The world to come, while having continuities with the one that is, will also be qualitatively different.
The state of the cosmos we compared to Jesus pre- and post-resurrection body. Continuities, yes. It was the same body. The disciples recognized it as the Jesus they knew. And yet radical discontinuities. He walked through walls. Apparently no blood and yet he lived. Jesus' flesh resurrected and glorified was indeed his flesh, but different.
We connected this with Paul's talk about Christianity's being "kenos", empty, apart from resurrection. In keeping with our three above points, we noted three things:
1) If you believe this framing story, you'll be very devoted to bringing the kingdom of God to bear on planet earth. Here is what it's all about. If you believe in the framing story of "pop" evangelicalism (God is spirit, spirit is better than physical stuff, physical stuff is bad, praying the prayer gets me a ticket to heaven when God blows up the world, nothing I do matters here since I prayed the prayer, etc), you'll be encouraged to moral apathy when it comes to life here. Here mattering is the beginning of the cultivation of a robust virtue.
2) If the world to come shall be contiguous with this one, then we can commit ourselves wholeheartedly to "the good", knowing that it's part of Jesus' collecting all power to himself right now and "putting all his enemies under his feet." Engaging the powers, working for justice, displaying generosity, hospitality, and truthfulness is part of his disarmament of the powers in the here and now.
3) And if the world to come shall be discontinuous in some measure with this one, then we know that even if the good we commit ourselves to seems to be making no difference whatsoever, it shall not be lost on God, the author and finisher of the good. Such acts are the seeds which though they may die, will be brought to life at the consummation of the ages. So giving $5 to a homeless man or woman, though it may seem "kenos", empty, futile, since it's such a small gesture and does not address the structural or systemic problems that created such a condition, nevertheless shall not be lost on God, who though the good deed may die in this life, will in a sense be resurrected in the age to come.
I am astounded at how motivating this is to commit ourselves to what is good. And I am so deeply saddened at how many Christians have been robbed of the joy of committing themselves to the good because they bought into a different, sub-Christian framing story. It's high time we reclaim Paul's theology of resurrection.
