Too much death, We need Easter!
By Bishop Mande Muyombo, Connectional Table Chair
Acts 10: 39-40
We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross, but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen.
Beloved in Christ,
Despite more than 200 mass shootings in 2022, gun reform remains a contentious issue in the United States — and an apparent impossibility in the current political landscape. The recent Nashville Covenant School shooting, which claimed the lives of three 9-year-olds and three adults on March 27, became the US’s 130th mass shooting of 2023. The shooting points out another troubling trend in the US gun violence is the major cause of death for children between ages 1 and 19â€.[1] Since the start of 2023, the United States has averaged more than one mass shooting per day, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit group that tracks gun violence using police reports, government sources, news coverage, and other public data.
Globally, several wars and violence that are happening in Ukraine, Democratic Republic of the Congo and other parts of world have led to the deaths of millions of people, especially women and children. When we add up other deaths that are illness related, it is clear to see that the power of death has been very manifest in recent years.
In reflecting on the words of Peter as reported in Acts 10:39-40, it is fair to say that several innocent lives are being taken to the cross each day in every part of the world. Women and children are the most bitten by wars and violence in a world that has become so complicit with instruments of wars. Beloved in Christ, during this Easter, we must call upon God to raise up our communities from the dead. May Christ’s resurrection destroy the powers of death that are manifest in policies and war driven activities throughout the world community. We are all witnesses of the work of the innocent peoples whose lives have been taken away by wars and violence. Let us all be part of the resurrection community where death has no say. May Easter be lived in Ukraine, the DR Congo, Africa, Europe, Asia, Latin America, in the U.S., and several other places around the world. Christ is Risen!
[1] Kaiser Family Foundation