“The resurrection of Jesus is about our willingness to put something else before ourselves. And [we] recognize that God has done the very same thing for us. God has put relationship with us primary.”
Watch above: an Easter message from DeDe Duncan-Probe, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York.
The following is the text of the bishop’s Easter 2018 Message:
This is that time of year when I think we long for resurrection. We’re ready for the winter to be over and a spring “Nor’Easter” feels so hard to take. We want the sun, and grass, and new birth. We want new life!
This is a perfect time for us to draw closer to the mystery of Jesus’ resurrection. One of the things I become more and more convinced of as I grow older is the way in which all of life is patterned and takes meaning from the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus.
If you think about the last time you had a conflict with a friend: you may have been very convinced of being right and how you had the right perspective. But you had to kind of die to yourself and be willing to lay that down in order for the friendship to and the relationship to be renewed.
It’s a simple connection really. But the resurrection of Jesus is about our willingness to put something else before ourselves. And to recognize that God has done the very same thing for us. God has put relationship with us primary. Before the suffering and the separation of the Cross.
Simone Weil very poignantly said that the distance from God and Jesus when he hangs on the cross is the distance between our evil, sinful selves and the holy purity of God. And that the love of Jesus sacrificed on the cross covers that chasm.
There are many ways to understand salvation and Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. And whether we look at it as an atonement for our sins or whether we look at it as an incarnation of what goodness and love do—how goodness and love resurrect our worst and our most broken hearts—
This time of year, in this Easter season, I hope we all will draw near to what resurrection means in our own lives. The places where laying down our life for love will bring resurrection for all. The places where our acceptance of God’s love in our own lives will resurrect our own hope, our own joy, and help us to deal with the fear all around us.
In this season of renewal and resurrection, I wish you blessings of peace and hope and moments when love renews and restores you in deep and profound ways, that the spring of God’s love will bloom all around us.
Blessings to you.
