Easter  March 27, 2016


An Easter Message 
from Bishop Macholz

Bishop Macholz
I just returned from the 8th Annual Good Friday Cross Walk in downtown Rochester, an event hosted by numerous Christian organizations, that brings together about two hundred people. We walk within a specific zip code of the city of Rochester, two young people carrying a cross at the head of the procession, and stop at appointed places that speak of darkness and light, death and life.
 
The Boys and Girls Club is a place of light, doing good work with young people. Other organizations on the way focus on helping to shape the lives of our youth so that they don't get dragged into the senseless violence of the streets. Still other groups help folks who live in the neighborhood learn about nutrition and gardening and sustainability.  St. Peter's kitchen offer lunches five days a week for anyone who wants to come and eat. It is supported via various means and with many volunteers.
 
These are areas of the city where few of us would choose to live. Houses are in disrepair, streets littered with trash, zombie homes dot the neighborhoods and all the shops and stores on main and side streets have windows that are covered with steel bars or mesh in an attempt to keep thieves and robbers out.
 
On the sixth stop with the sixth word, "It if finished" we stood in an empty parking lot in front of the Boys and Girls Club; this was holy ground. Jonah Barley, Raekwon Manigault and Johnny Johnson were senselessly gunned down in a drive by shooting this past August as the shooter in the vehicle shot repeatedly with an assault rifle. Three young boys, innocently leaving the Club after having played basketball together. Gone in an instant. Their lives finished, or so it would seem. In their deaths a community came together, suspects were arrested and a commitment to work more diligently for safe spaces for our children was made and begun. Those lives will never be replaced or forgotten but they will continue to act as impetus for justice and peace in that place and the world. And, I'd like to believe that Jesus was present with them as they breathed their last and received him into his arms of mercy and grace.
 
I say that because I believe that it is exactly in those places and spaces where we find our risen Lord most frequently, amidst the poor and suffering, the outcasts and neglected, the downtrodden and lost; even the drug addicts and the murderers who care little for their lives and the lives of others. Jesus cares even for them, despite their sins, reputations or realities. And, it was for them that he gave his life so that they and we might have life eternal.
 
That's what Easter is all about. In the midst of death we discover life. When wading in despair we are lifted by the hope that is ours in Him. When the bottom seems to be falling out Christ stands ready to support and encourage us. When all others fail, Christ stands firm. Jesus' life, death and resurrection were for us and for our salvation. Having said that, they are not ours alone to receive and cherish, rather they call us to new life as well.

Life where we become a voice for the voiceless, hope for the hopeless and strength in the midst of need. Because he lives we shall live also and, as Paul so eloquently notes "nothing in all creation will separate us from the love of God which is ours in Christ Jesus." Nothing! Ever! Forever!
 
That is Easter. Therein lies our hope. Here is where it all begins and ends. Come, stand at the empty tomb once again, peer in to see that it is empty. And then, dare to believe with Mary and Peter and all the disciples that he is risen, he is risen indeed. For you. For me. For all! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!  
ELCA Presiding Bishop's 2016 Easter message

Bishop Eaton
Easter is early this year, and in many places across this church trees will still be bare and fields barren. It might even snow. But on Easter morning we will gather to greet the risen Son and give thanks to God for the new life we have in Jesus Christ.

Two things come to mind this Easter when there is still only the hint of spring: Jesus' words to his disciples just before his crucifixion and a hymn.

Jesus said, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." Jesus was talking about his death, but he was also assuring his disciples and us that death is not the end, that, though it might seem impossible and even terrifying to step into the void, God brings life out of death.

The hymn is ELW 379.
Now the green blade rises from the buried grain,
wheat that in dark earth many days has lain;
love lives again, that with the dead has been;
love is come again like wheat arising green.
The tune is actually a French Christmas carol. How perfect that, in the bleak midwinter, 
the promise of spring was planted.

St. Paul wrote, "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?" We have already fallen into the earth and died. "For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his." We will not remain alone. We will bear fruit.

The seed has been planted in all the barren places in the world and in our lives. That gives us the power and the hope - especially in the face of our brokenness - to see life where the world only sees death ... in refugee camps and hospice units, in parched earth and in 
floods, in oppression and denied justice we are bold to confess. Now the green blade rises. Now love lives again. Now love comes again like wheat arising green.

Christ is risen.

Elizabeth A. Eaton
Presiding Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America


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