This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

Reflections on the Resurrection

During the Easter season, Sermons That Work is pleased to present reflections from some of the newest bishops of The Episcopal Church on the resurrection of our Lord. Check back each week for a brief exploration of how Jesus Christ’s rising from the grave changes everything. To listen to this reflection, scan the QR code on this page and subscribe to the Sermons That Work podcast.

Week 6

Being a Christian is believing in the Resurrection of Christ, which ends up being the center of faith and hope for everyone who believes in Jesus. Christ, upon coming back to life as the firstborn among the dead, reveals to us that our God in Jesus is the Lord of life and not of death, “He gives death and brings life, he brings down to Sheol and raises up” 1 Samuel 2:6.

It is in the paschal experience of his apostles, whom he himself called, with whom this beautiful experience begins, in extraordinary events such as the empty tomb, the appearances of the Risen One “And he appeared for many days,” Acts. 13:31, where certainly it is He himself who manifests himself, the Jesus of Nazareth, since the apostles recognize him, see him, and touch him, eat with him, his presence is real and not like that of a ghost.

It seems that it is to them that these first manifestations of his Resurrection were reserved and not to all the others, that not even the same guards of the tomb who, terrified by the mysterious theophany, would not recognize him. It is to whom He called, his witnesses, his disciples.

It could be said that unlike the event of passion and death where the people and their own followers end up being only distant spectators of such painful events; while in the Resurrection his closest followers become living and very close actors of such a great Theophany.

The gospels try to describe it this way, wanting to narrate in the best way when entering this transcendental, ineffable sphere, which for this must return to the same words given by their Lord when he was with them, even to expressions already prepared by the Old Testament.

The experience of Pentecost ends up being the moment of the beginning of preaching, since it is with the action of the Spirit with which the true Resurrection can be preached as the center of life, a necessary experience for every believer.

We ask the Lord himself, the Risen One, to give us the grace to also be his close witnesses of love, that we can also see and experience his glorious manifestation in our own lives and that the Holy Spirit be the one who leads us to remove fears, break the locks of doubt to proclaim it with conviction and courage, like the first disciples; that we be his apostles in modern times, with the same dedication to announce it. That in this Easter feast we see in the God of Christians the God of life, who raises from death since he defeated it and, in his Resurrection, makes us part of a new life.

The Right Reverend Elías García Cárdenas is bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Colombia.

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Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6210 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

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