Bishop Carter’s 2022 Easter Message for the Western North Carolina Conference
Follow Jesus, Make Disciples, Transform The World
The gospel is about life and death. And God’s mission is about life and death. My most vivid experiences of Jesus have occurred in the very settings where he lived on this earth—Jesus feeding the multitudes, Jesus healing the broken, Jesus welcoming the stranger. Our most basic human needs—to be nourished, to be well, to have shelter—are about life and death. To be present at the place of need is the call to be in mission. And mission can be surprising and even unsettling.
When mission happens, there is resurrection. My own faith in the living Jesus, risen and among us, has been renewed in experiences of mission—on construction teams in Bolivia through Christ Church in Greensboro, on medical teams in Haiti through Providence UMC in Charlotte, with a teaching team in El Salvador through Duke Divinity School, in the sharing of meals with families experiencing homelessness. I have not found my way to an Easter faith through a rational logic or a linear thought process. It has come more often in seeing life in the midst of death and hope that overcomes despair.
In the most seemingly desperate of situations, I have learned though ordinary people, mostly the laity, what our best theologians have taught us: that God is always on the side of life. Sometimes this looks like justice. Sometimes this looks like compassion. Often there is a mutuality of giving and receiving.
Holy Week is a reminder of our poverty and God’s gifts. In my worst moments of ministry, I assumed I was the one coming to bring about change, hope and even salvation. And inevitably I would come to some kind of impasse, or even failure. This is of course the betrayal of Maundy Thursday, the suffering and death of Good Friday and the descent of Holy Saturday. I
f we are truly called to be in God’s mission, with God’s people, we have likely experienced this along the way.
And if we have been awake in these last months and years, we have been affected by the extended pandemic, the pervasive signs of racism, the deepening polarization, and the denominational questions.
It would be easy for us to be overcome by a sense of discouragement and failure. If would be tempting to believe that we are at some kind of ending.
And yet God is about life, the tomb is empty; “why do you look for the living among the dead?”, the women are asked. And then they remember his words, and how those words resonated with all that he did while he was with them.
And surely they were able to see that, all along the way there were resurrections: when the hungry are fed, when the sick receive medical care, when the homeless have shelter.
All across this great Annual Conference, there are signs of resurrection:
In 977 local churches In 26 new churches, missions and innovative experiments, among them Haywood Street in Asheville,
New Story in Winston Salem,
Lydia’s Place in Asheboro, and
Checkpoint in Cyberspace 23 UMAR homes 14 campus ministries 5 colleges and universities 4 camps 4 retirement communities 3 residential communities with children
Grants for work in anti-racism and gifts for flood relief in Haywood County Support for refugees in Ukraine, significant and long term missions in Armenia and Northern Haiti Missional networks and tangible resources to support the well-being of clergy and spiritual leaders
When the gospel is preached in a local church, there is resurrection. When new churches and ministries are planted, there is resurrection. When those with different abilities experience home and love, there is resurrection. When young adults discover their calling through faith, there is resurrection. When a young person accepts Christ through camping, there is resurrection. When older adults find care and community, there is resurrection. When children have passed through the storms of abuse and abandonment and experience sanctuary, there is resurrection. When I let go of my prejudice, there is resurrection. When homes that have been flooded are rebuilt, there is resurrection. And when clean water comes to a village in northern Haiti, there is resurrection.
Friends, this is who we are, the people of the United Methodist Church in mission, across Western North Carolina. Mission is Easter and Easter is mission. Today we see the risen Jesus, alive and among us, in the places where he has always been. And he invites us to join him.
This Easter I invite you to live into God’s mission, to imagine that that you are a vital part of the active ministry of the risen Jesus, who wants to use your gifts in bringing life out of death.
Let us pray:
Risen Jesus, alive and among us: give us the vision to see you, and the will to follow you as people of the cross and the flame, as Easter people. Amen