April 2026 Connection

Before she became a bishop in the United Methodist Church, I had the privilege of hearing Rev. Dottie Escobedo-Frank preach during one of our Annual Conference gatherings in Adrian, Michigan. She had just published a book titled, “Restart Your Church”, and in it made a provocative claim: “Death is good for us.” In the book’s description, she states:

“The central story of our faith is the story of both death and resurrection. Followers of Christ like to live out the resurrection part of our faith, but they often aren't very comfortable dealing with what must come before resurrection - death. The church must be willing to live out its entire story, from beginning to end.”  

During her sermon, Bishop Escobedo-Frank reminded us of this obvious truth: there would be no Easter without Good Friday. There’d be no resurrection without the cross. She then went even further to remind us that, if we look through scripture, the stories of transformation always involve a low-moment first. For example, Moses was called by God to set the Israelites free from Egypt, but not until he himself was exiled from Egypt for having killed an Egyptian. When we look at the story of Jacob, it wasn’t until he was running for his life, sleeping on a rock-pillow in the wilderness that God came to him and called him into a new life of faithfulness. It was Jonah out of the belly of a whale, Peter from having denied knowing Jesus, Paul from the dirt of the street where he, a persecutor of Christians, was called to become the greatest missionary for Jesus Christ. The list goes on and on, but what connects them all is this: the fall comes before the rise; hopelessness is a prerequisite for hope; death comes before resurrection.

Put another way, the cross, the tomb, the silence and the grief come before the resurrection.

This year, as we experience the joy of Easter – Christ’s invitation to each of us to experience our own resurrection and transformation – what tomb do we need to walk out of? From what hurt is God inviting us to be healed? From what pit is God lending us a hand to escape? From what hopelessness is God inviting us to see hope?

I suspect that each of us have an answer to such questions. It may not always be the deepest of pits or the gravest of hurts, but they’re real and they’re a common part of life. And so, as we wrestle with the reality of these questions, know this: Resurrection is real! Hope is real! Transformation is attainable! Grace is sufficient.
 
Are you ready to sit at the cross and dream of the empty tomb?