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Words from the Bishop |
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Reflections from the bishop:
It is a remarkable claim! Eternal life! So difficult to believe, so many do not! The Resurrection, the Cross, Redemption, hard stuff indeed. Salvation. An Easter Faith. The mind seeks to comprehend it all. Reason demands logical explanation -- as does vanity. There is the human inclination and natural inquisitiveness that seduce us into believing that we are capable of explaining and understanding all things. This is the way of mind and reason not of heart and faith. Both reach a juncture where logic and reason end. No explanation. There are times however, when heart and mind come together, but not always. Easter perhaps is more about trust than proof. Faith and Hope. Death has visited my place and space much these past months. There is a time in one's life when death is more philosophical than existential. It is distant. What others know and experience. Eventually for all of us it becomes utterly personal. We know the pain of it. Sometimes it seems capricious, unfair at its core. At times paradoxically welcomed! Death causes one to ponder, to question, and eventually, albeit reluctantly to contemplate one's own. There are reminders. An ache, an unexplained lump, a news article, a glance at an obituary, a telephone call. They break in on us, on our illusion that we shall live forever -- in this time and space! We won't! None of us, however we attend to health, however faithful to creed. Death finds us. So I ponder more, as perhaps you do about life and death. But I reflect more intensely on life and how I might better live it. How I might be a better steward of days given -- opportunities. I reflect more on relationships. How they might be nurtured, cared for-- not abused or taken for granted. And what to offer life. How to make it richer and better. To make some positive contribution for good -- to seek to make a difference. Yet, however the efforts to attend to life -- in this place and in the time given, the Christian is reminded -- it is not all God has in store for us. Here is the goodness of life. Those we love without limit, the places that feed our spirits, the events that cause us to sing from time to time, "life is good!" There are moments in our ecstasy of life we cry out, "How can it get much better than this!" Then comes Easter's Promise and reminder. It can, does and will!!! Easter, our Lord's Resurrection and assurance are the evidence! Hardly the kind presented in a court of law, but in Faith's court room. A place prepared, eternal life, dwelling uniquely with our Lord and God. Forever! The absence of pain, intolerance, hatred, rejection. Acceptance -- a place prepared -- welcome, hospitality. While my mind seeks and desires to explain it all in some logical, reasonable manner, I have found my words, even my understanding, inadequate. Thus, I simply announce and accept the Promise-- it is called Good News -- from my heart to your heart -- faith to faith. On Easter Sunday morning, I will join others in a Central Indiana congregation, and as hymns of our Easter Faith are sung, I shall "see" the faces and remember colleagues, family members and loved ones, and will know as only the heart can know, they are now the benefactors of the Easter Promise! And so are we! Hallelujah! |
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