Easter Letter from our Bishop

Dear Diocesan Family:

Why do you seek the living among the dead? Those startling words puzzled the women at the empty tomb. They went to announce all these things to the disciples. In one extraordinary moment, this Good News changed human life and human history. Peter and John ran to the tomb. Thomas doubted. But it is true! Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. Jesus nailed sin and death to the
Cross. Death is defeated and we now share in His Divine life.

In the Easter Season, we proclaim Jesus as Lord and rejoice that because of His life we have the promise of immortality. May all mankind recognize their Savior and proclaim His Resurrection. Let every heart be renewed and every life transformed. He is risen as He said. Let Alleluia be our song!

In a particular way, Peter becomes a model for all of us. Once he understood the truth of the Resurrection, he went forth to tell the Good News that God had raised this Jesus up. Peter was transformed from a frightened man with no hope to a witness to the Resurrection. His witness reminds us that we too are called to be witnesses to the same truth, the same Good News, the same radical transformation that is offered to every man and woman who believes and professes that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Ours is a faith that leads to action. We are called to belong more deeply to Him and to His Church so that we can be effective servants to one another, effective bearers  of Christ’s love. May the love that burst forth from the tomb that first Easter live in our hearts and be expressed in our lives.

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

Bishop Bill

How do you see the Incarnation?

We seldom consider how our interpretation of Scripture is effected by cultural influences.  Here are two blog posts about the different, perhaps compartmentalized view of the Incarnation of Reformed Protestantism over against that of Orthodoxy:

"For now I have been thinking about how the Orthodox Church has a doctrine of salvation that includes the whole world, or the teaching of cosmology. Simply put the Orthodox do not treat the incarnation, the cross, and resurrection as separate events when explaining our salvation. I have concluded that this approach has to be correct because it fills in some holes in our Western way of thinking that is too individualistic. It also challenges the tendency in the West to center on legal categories when it seeks to explain the cross and God’s love." - Pastor John Armstrong  http://johnharmstrong.com/?p=6203

Here from the Orthodox perspective:

"for Orthodoxy the Incarnation is just as significant for our salvation as Christ’s dying on the Cross, as well as his third day resurrection.  We are saved by the person of Jesus Christ, not just by that one thing he did on the Cross.  In baptism we are united to Christ’s death and his resurrection, we receive the Holy Spirit and are incorporated into his Body (the Church).  We cease to be autonomous beings and now live in the context of the liturgical and sacramental life of the Church.  In the course of the liturgical cycle of the major feast days of the Orthodox Church we participate in the mysteries of Christ’s Incarnation, his Nativity, his presentation in the Temple, his Baptism in the River Jordan, his Transfiguration, his ascent to Jerusalem, his entry into Jerusalem, his death on the Cross, his Resurrection, and his Ascension.  In the Incarnation the Eternal entered into history.  The life of Christ recounted in the Gospels is not a sequence of events but transcends the limitations of chronological time." Robert Arakaki  http://orthodoxbridge.com/taking-the-incarnation-seriously/  

Good and ernest discussion is for mutual edification.  Have a read and tell us what you think.

 

 

Easter Sermon 2014

“Walk in the Light”

From our Gospel reading for the third Sunday after Lent, the evangelist tells us to be “followers” of Christ. I like the NIV words here, “BE imitators.” One can be a follower and still not adhere to Christ’s precepts and teachings. But, to be an imitator, we will have to mimic Christ’s behavior.


So we are to be imitators of Christ. How do we do that; by forgiving one another, As God, in Christ has forgiven us. This is the motive which should make us forgive others. God's forgiveness towards us is free, thus our forgiveness of those who have hurt and betrayed us should come without restrictions or limits. Now is it OK to hurt, to free betrayed, to be angry? Yes, but at some point we have to let go so that we do not allow Satan to control our daily life. In 4:31, St. Paul writes that we are to “get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.” All these things grieve the Holy Spirit.

God has placed us under such a great obligation. We are not only to imitate God in being forgiving, but also in love; we are to live in love. As Christ loved us, is the reason why we should love one another. We should be like Christ, which is being like God, for Christ is God. The apostle makes no distinction between our being the objects of God's love, and our being the objects of Christ's love. We are to be imitators of God in love, for Christ has loved us. He gave himself up for us.

In our epistle for today, St. Paul reminds the Ephesians that they were sometimes living in darkness, “but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light.” We are not to have any “fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.” The dwellers of the darkness do not produce anything but sin, hatred, malice toward their fellowman, and hardness of the heart.

Those who have their lives illuminated by Christ also introduce that light into the dark areas of human conduct. In Matthew, we heard Jesus tell us, “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

And St. John tells us that “For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.”

God is light, so in Him there is no darkness at all. We cannot walk with God and still walk in darkness; therefore those in the light belong to Christ. Light, by nature, exposes what is in darkness and the contrast reveals sin for what it really is. It is light that makes everything visible.

So as St. Paul reminds us, in Romans, “. . . let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.”