Well Water Wisdom: The Bishop's Easter Message
“O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?” - I Corinthians 15:55
Beloved:
Resurrection is a lived experience. I might add, a daily lived experience. Every age and every generation need some kind of resurrection, especially since the prevailing power of the death of our imperfect bodies, and the evil of violence and oppression in our communities are felt in every place.
Resurrection is not ‘wishing away’ life’s dilemmas and hoping that our current life experiences and predicaments will someday get better. It is not about preventing death and averting the aggravating challenges and frustrating demands we encounter. It is the belief that someone, something, is stronger than the power of death; that death has no ultimate dominion over us. It is about embodying the life and words of Jesus Christ and the promised hope that death is not our final end; the grave is not our last destination. It is the belief that the better condition hoped for is already here, is already now, and yet is still being actualized in us and the world. Resurrection is not a one-and-done moment. It is an ever-increasing moment of transformation that is experienced by all who believe and hope for the promised life of Jesus.
Like the first Easter moment, moments of resurrection continue to happen everywhere amid the circumstances of our lives. We experience them every day; in our births and deaths, through our comforts and despairs, and within our conflicts and tranquilities. Resurrection is happening wherever the signs of life are emerging and the powers of death and evil are being suppressed. I have seen such signs of life in my short time with you. Resurrection is evident throughout the witnessed history of this diocese.
Long before the death and resurrection of Jesus, we find this same promise of God expressed through the Prophet Hosea: “I will deliver this people from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. Where, O death, are your plagues? Where, O grave, is your destruction?” (Hosea 13:14) This Easter, it is my prayer that God will redeem us from the death of hopelessness and the grave of despair and give us victory in this life and in the age to come.
With Eastertide blessings, I am,