Fill… Spill… Thrill…

Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. (Matthew 28:8)

Mary Magdalene and Mary walked to Jesus’ grave, expecting to find death. It’s understandable. Images of violence filled their minds. Thoughts of their vulnerability and mortality deadened their spirits. Death had become the defining story of their lives.

Instead of death, the women met a resurrection messenger who said, “He is not here: for he has been raised, as he said.” As they hurried to tell others, the risen Jesus met them. They were changed. Now resurrection, not death, would define their lives.

Jesus lives! Now resurrection, not death, defines our lives. Jesus continues to meet you in resurrection messengers, just as Jesus met me in Pastor Josephus Livenson Lauvanus, president of the Lutheran Church of Haiti. As we walked through the ruins and rubble that lie in the aftermath of Haiti’s earthquake, Pastor Livenson Lauvanus proclaimed, “We will not be defined by rubble, but by restoration, for we are a people of the resurrection.”

Baptized into Jesus’ death and raised to newness of life we, too, are people of the resurrection. We, too, are resurrection messengers. We, too, are about God’s work of restoration.

The world aches to hear the message we have to tell. Sing with joy! Jesus lives! We are a people of the resurrection.

Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson
Evangelical Lutheran Church of America

I am sharing this update on the ELCA’s response to the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan because it is a sign of hope in a very difficult situation. I am also sharing it because, amidst the cacophony of appeals for Japan relief, our members can be assured that their church is able to act swiftly and effectively because of its global relationships, which enable it to draw from an expanded network in its disaster response:

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Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation!” (Isaiah 52:7)

When Jesus was born, angelic messengers broke the still calm of a Galilean night to sing joyously and proclaim, “This very day in David’s city a Savior is born for you — God’s Promised One, your Lord.” Glad tidings of great joy! Common shepherds were the first and heartiest heralds of the promised Savior’s arrival then, and today the joy in Jesus’ birth fills every corner of this season.

Admittedly sometimes in modern America the commercial clatter and cultural clutter of the season seem to overtake the angels’ song and the shepherds’ joyous news. But such a majestic message of God’s salvation cannot be silenced. Some loudly lament that the world will not listen to the Gospel message, but in this season so many beckon. “Christians, sing with us. Bring your songs of Christmas, of Jesus.” A few may shush you, just as there were those who would later attempt to silence Jesus and his message of God’s remarkable, revolutionary mercy, even to the point of crucifixion.

If so, then that is all the more reason to enter into the commotion and clutter, to let go of your inhibitions, to join the angels in singing and the shepherds in exulting with unashamed joy: Jesus, the Savior is born!

“Listen! Your sentinels lift up their voices, together they sing for joy.” “See, your salvation comes.” (Isaiah 52:8; 62:11)