Christ is Risen!!! Christ is Risen Indeed!!! Alleluia, Alleluia!!!

I pray you are all enjoying and celebrating the 50 days of the Easter festival. So often I worry our focus on Lent and the importance of that season means we forget to live fully into the Easter season. This “week of weeks” is to be a time when we proclaim the good news that God has conquered the grave. Death has no dominion over us and as the church then we are sent into the world as Easter people.

In our readings from Acts throughout the Easter season we hear how the early church endeavored to respond to this good news and live as Easter people. It is interesting to note the clear direction in these readings, the outward and inclusive movement of the Gospel gains momentum each week. The church witnesses publicly, the sick are healed, an Ethiopian eunuch is baptized, water is not withheld even from the uncircumcised…all building to the rush of the Spirit at Pentecost. The Gospel cannot be contained.

As we see anger and frustration spill out in Minneapolis and around our country and nation it can seem our world is only becoming more divided, more broken. It is into this reality that our Easter proclamation is all the more important. This gospel is for the world and if we are to proclaim it we must be people of justice, breaking down barriers that separate, systems that value some more than others based on skin color, gender, sexuality, wealth, social position. The momentum of this gospel moving out proclaims God is for you and your neighbor. Particularly those, like the Ethiopian eunuch, who had historically been excluded.

So what does this mean for you this Easter? How are you and your community living and proclaiming this inclusive, outwardly moving Gospel? When we are so deeply divided how do you respond?

These are challenging times to follow Jesus and lead. Know that as you do so we do so together. In the midst of it all, may God bless you with Easter joy.

Bishop Gronberg