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This is the Good News: Christ is risen. Hope is born anew.

Yet often during the betrayal, loneliness, suffering and death of Holy Week, we forget to remember that we are an Easter people. Our lives often reflect this attitude, too: fear guides us. We allow darkness to shape our thoughts and actions. We get caught at the foot of the cross and fail to move on to the wonder, joy and promise of the empty tomb. Christ is risen. That matters. It is the essence of who we are.

Many people in our midst today live very hard lives. It’s easy to see why we get caught in everyday trials and why hope sometimes seems elusive. But in Easter, in the death and resurrection of Jesus, we have a hope that is forever new. Because of Easter, love renews and triumphs, we are able to forgive and be forgiven, peace is possible and new life is ours to claim. In our everyday Easter living, we not only experience a moment of grace, we are able to have lives brimming and overflowing with grace. This is our Easter miracle and it’s ours to live everyday of our lives.

As many of you know, I begin each day with the prayer, “Lord, make me better today than I was yesterday.” This simple heart-felt plea draws me deeper into an Easter faith. Over the past few months, I have been meeting with people on our eight districts and I am encouraged. But I sometimes wish our churches would adopt this daily prayer – that God would make them better this week than they were the last. The world needs us to be fully alive and making a difference in an ever-changing world. The world needs the promise of hope and the Good News that Christ is risen.

This Easter, I wish you joy. I wish you peace and grace, but most of all I wish for you the certainty of hope, born anew each time weseek the presence of God.

Christ is risen. Alleluia! Amen!

Marcus Matthews