Bishop Message: Holy Week and Easter

Dear Friends,

Jesus confronts us with fundamental questions.

Will we be people of the basin and the towel,

prepared to wash one another's feet

and the feet of the world?

Or will we be people of the hammer and nails

enthralled with the way of separation and violence

in our hearts

in our words

in our actions?

Will we crucify Jesus again and again

as one way or another

we crucify

the other

the near and dear

the stranger

the foreigner

the unfamiliar

those who make us uncomfortable

those who are inconvenient

those we consider enemies

the hungry

the thirsty

the homeless

the prisoner

each of whom he loves,

with whom he identifies,

and for whom he died?

Will we justify our own fingerprints on the hammer and nails

by insisting that others have more

by insisting we had no choice?

Or will we take up our cross,

deny ourselves and follow

the One who came not to be served

but to serve

the One who insisted that God desires mercy

not sacrifice

the One who said love your enemy

the One who prayed from the cross

“Father, forgive . . .”

Will we follow the One who took up the basin and towel

and washed even the feet of those

who would abandon

deny and betray him?

Will we dare to follow his way of self-sacrificial love

mercy 

compassion

and the rest?

Will we dare to trust the way of Jesus

the slaughtered Lamb

the Victim among victims

who suffered and died

bearing the sins of all

to the grave

who rose from death victorious

with the promise of glory?

Will we believe this way of Jesus

is the way

of our healing

    our salvation

    our peace

    our joy?

And the hope of the world’s

    reconciliation and

   the restoration of all things?

Will we rest in the assurance of his 

gracious

merciful

forbearing

forgiving

encouraging

transforming

Presence?

Under the Mercy,

The Right Reverend Matthew Gunter
Bishop of Wisconsin
The Episcopal Diocese of Wisconsin

bishopmatt@diowis.org