Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery

established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all

who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ’s Body

may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith;

through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you

and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Book of Common Prayer 224

One of my standard responses when people ask me what Episcopalians believe is, “It depends which Episcopalian you ask.”

A more serious (less snarky?) response would be to invite the inquisitive to pay attention to our liturgy. The Book of Common Prayer offers essential insight into the faith of the Episcopal Church. It is one of the best tools that we have for Christian Formation. We discover in the Prayer Book that we are a community steeped in scripture and tradition, that we have a framework for our theological exploration in the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed, and that we encounter the Risen Christ in the things of this world—water and oil, bread and wine. Praying together reminds us through the rhythm of the liturgical year and the weekly repetition of Word and Sacrament of exactly who we are. Perhaps, more importantly, it reminds us whose we are—God’s beloved children. The liturgy should always point beyond itself to the loving work that God does through Jesus Christ.

The Collect for the Second Sunday of Easter seems to encapsulate what it means to follow Jesus. All our prayers and and all our actions are rooted “in the Paschal mystery which established the new covenant of reconciliation.” That is a concise statement of what we believe. We are being reconciled through Christ to God and each other. I often think of this reconciliation as a reboot or a restoration of our default settings. Through Jesus’s death and resurrection, all things are being restored. We become the people God always intended us to be by dying to our old selves to be raised to new life in Christ (see Romans 6:3-5). The Paschal mystery reminds us that we don’t reach the joy of Easter without going through the sorrow of Good Friday. It reminds us, also though, that death is never the end of the story. Paul writes that “if we have been united with [Christ] in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” (Romans 6:5 NRSV).

Resurrection is the root of our faith. We have “been reborn into the fellowship of Christ’s body” (BCP 224) as the Collect reminds us. Salvation isn’t “personal;” it brings us into community and reminds us that we are accountable both to God and to each other. Our default setting is unity in Christ (see Galatians 3:27-28). The Paschal mystery is the antidote to the pathological individualism which plagues us. We are never alone. Our wholeness and healing depend upon our willingness to be reborn into community and to recognize that no one on the planet past, present, or future is outside the bounds of Christ’s work of reconciliation and love. The Good News we’ve been entrusted with is far better news than we even realize.

The faith we proclaim—the Paschal mystery—is not private or something that we keep to ourselves. It isn’t limited to the things we believe. It’s not about learning all the right answers for a final exam on Judgment Day. We are called into a new way of being in this world in this moment. Our transformation has already begun, and we ask God’s grace to help us “show forth in [our] lives what [we] profess by [our] faith.” Too often, Christian fall into one of two traps. We either keep Jesus nailed to the cross, or we keep Jesus “ascended into heaven and seated at the right hand of the Father” and safely out of our way. Our challenge and our call is to live the Paschal mystery which requires us to open ourselves to the presence of our risen Lord every day of our lives.

Peace,

Jeff+