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ELCA Presiding Bishop's 2004 Easter Message


From NEWS@ELCA.ORG
Date Thu, 25 Mar 2004 11:08:33 -0600

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

March 25, 2004

ELCA Presiding Bishop's 2004 Easter Message

"As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a
white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed.
But he said to them, 'Do not be alarmed; you are looking for
Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.  He has been raised; he is
not here.  Look, there is the place they laid him.  But go, tell
his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee;
there you will see him, just as he told you.'" (Mark 16: 5-7)

For many today, the future seems to hold no hope.  Time moves on,
yet our lives feel immobilized by the weight of suffering and
sorrow.  We long for a sense of direction but are uncertain of
whom to follow and where to go.  Could it have been so for the
women who went to Jesus' tomb that Easter morning?

Not long before, they had left familiar Galilee to follow Jesus.
Inspired by his words, astonished by his deeds, filled with hope,
yet increasingly alarmed by his talk of coming suffering and
death, they followed as day after day Jesus pressed ahead.  They
had come to what seemed the end of the road -- a final resting
place for both Jesus and their hopes, a cold stone chamber built
for tears and silence.

But the grave is alarmingly open.  A mysterious messenger speaks.
The tomb rings with good news and promise!  Their journey is not
over after all.  Once again Jesus is ahead, still leading the
way.  The women are sent to call the other disciples to follow
anew, this time to Galilee -- a homeland no longer familiar but
suddenly strange, awash in resurrection light.

The Crucified and Risen One also goes ahead of us.  Even now
Christ unsettles us with the call to the way of the cross,
leading us not out of the world but straight to the heart of its
brokenness and suffering.  Even now Jesus unsettles us with the
news that death has not had the last word, that the Resurrected
One is on the loose and that he calls us to follow.

How differently every day and every corner of the world appear
when we see them as places where Christ has already been.  Every
sorrow, wrong and injustice leap out of the shadows into sharp
and painful focus: here, precisely here, we see the Crucified
one.  But the light in which we see Christ's presence is that of
Easter's dawn -- full of promise, charged with life, blazing with
the very love of God who makes all things new.	We are gifted
with a world rich with significance and with lives that are holy
callings.

For the Crucified One is risen.  Christ bids us follow!

The Rev. Mark S. Hanson
Presiding Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
-- -- --
     This year all Christian churches celebrate Easter or the
Great and Holy Pascha on Sunday, April 11.
     The 2004 Easter message of Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson
is also available at http://www.elca.org/bishop/m_easter2004.html
on the ELCA Web site.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news


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