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Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Christ is risen! Imagine the power in those words of promise.
When the disciples first heard Jesus speak of his death and resurrection, "they kept the matter to themselves" (Mark 9:10). But the news is too good to keep to ourselves. The life of Jesus Christ has been unleashed into the world.
Because Christ is risen, you can embrace life's complexities and uncertainties with a living, daring confidence in God's grace. The risen Christ goes ahead of you, meeting you in the most surprising faces and unexpected places. Christ's resurrection puts us right where God wants us to be -- in the thick of life.
Because Christ is risen, you have a word of hope. To those weary from mourning loss and fearing death, the assurance is given that nothing in all creation will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
The life of Jesus, God's own life, has burst into the world, restoring community. At the barriers we erect to divide us, the risen Christ meets us, turning those walls into tables of reconciliation. To those who live in fear and feel unworthy, the promise is given. "You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God" (Ephesians 2:19).
Every morning you awaken with the mark of Jesus' death on your forehead and the promise of Christ's resurrection on your lips.
Christ is risen! Alleluia!
In God's grace,
The Rev. Mark S. Hanson
Presiding Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Presiding Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
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