2009 Easter Message from the Bishop

April 7, 2009

"Grant us so to die daily to sin, that we may evermore live with him in the joy of his resurrection." (from the Collect for the Liturgy of the Easter Vigil, 1979 Book of Common Prayer)

The life we find when we lose our own into Jesus’ is indeed the very life of the risen Christ. We are raised with him – redeemed, restored, renewed – not because of the many or few steps we make beneath his Cross, but because of the steps he made beneath it. Ours is to take up our own cross and step with it into his risen life of justice, peace, and the service of others. In the mystery and generosity of God’s love, each of us is raised in Jesus, out of our self-service lives and into his life of loving and serving the world. Whether we began the journey to the Place of the Skull back on Ash Wednesday or have just this moment joined those faithful women in front of the open tomb, every one of us is raised in Christ. Christ is risen, and each of us, simply by giving ourselves to him, by stepping out of our own lives and into his, shouldering our own cross of justice and sacrifice, is raised to new life in him.

We are Easter people, who through Jesus’ steps of Good Friday and the divine mystery of his resurrection, have walked out of our own lives and into the risen life of the resurrected Christ. We are freed, in the words of our baptismal vows, to persevere, repent, return, proclaim, seek, serve, strive, and respect because, by God’s grace, we have been raised in Jesus and are, as St. Paul so boldly declared, his very body. May we be filled with the Spirit of Holiness as together we grow into the full stature of the risen Christ.

Alleluia! Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!