In churches across the our diocese today we have gathered together with joy and gratitude to celebrate our risen Lord, whose victory over death brings us hope, renewal and everlasting life.
Today Bishop Michael celebrated Easter Day at Wells Cathedral. In his sermon he spoke about Mary Magdelene reminding us that the resurrection is not a private moment but is for all people, "It would seem that Mary reaches out to Jesus for he says to her ‘Do not hold on to me.’ This isn’t a story just for me and you. Mary and Jesus, boy and girl. It’s not just for us. This is a story that’s going to take in many others, many nations, many peoples. This is a story for everyone in the whole wide world."
Bishop Michael also reminded us that, "All the power, all the love, all the life, all the glory that raised Jesus from the dead has been at work too in Jesus’s friends. Jesus’s resurrection life has sent them out with centrifugal force to witness to the entire world that the Jesus is alive. And that in Jesus can be found the peace, the new beginnings, the reconciliation that is the longing of every human heart, breaking down every barrier that exists between us.
He shared how the good news for the whole world is a call from God for us all, "The risen Jesus calls each of us by name today – Michael, Toby, Megan, Anne, Sarah, James, Kate, Philip. Whatever your name is, Jesus is calling you personally by it. Jesus invites us to bring all that we are, all our history, all our background, all our hurts, all our triumphs, everything that makes us ‘us’ into relationship with him who loves you and knows us and died for us and rose for us into the new life that can be ours today and always. To make his story, our story.
You can read Bishop Michael's sermon in full below.