The Great Vigil Of Easter

[cappie]

This night we have gathered to celebrate something wondrous: the power of God’s love to conquer death and hell, not only in the life of his only-begotten Son, but in the lives of all his adopted daughters and sons. The power of God’s love to meet our very deepest needs for reconciliation, transformation and healing, in our hearts, our families, our communities, church and world.

This night we have gathered to celebrate something wondrous: the power of God’s love revealed to us in story and song, in fire and water, in bread and wine.

This night we have gathered to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

“The sun has set: black darkness broods above;” yet Christ gives light—a new light—to our nightwatch in which we plumb the depths of the mystery made oh so very real to us this night.

“For this is the night, when all who believe in Christ are delivered from the gloom of sin, and restored to grace and holiness of life.
“This is the night, when Christ broke the bonds of death and hell, and rose victorious from the grave. Wickedness is put to flight, sin is washed away, innocence is restored to the fallen, pride and hatred are cast out,” peace and concord become not just a dream, but a reality that begins with us, here and now.

So we have kindled our evening sacrifice, “An offering of wax and wick and flame, and the work of human hands and of tiny bees.”  Yes, this the night, when we tell our story: our story, bound up within God’s own greater story.

This is the night when God spoke the creative Word, released the first fire of the Big Bang, and brought our first ancestors into being.
This is the night when God stayed the hand of Abraham, and promised to provide a new offering, a sacrifice to lay bare every human heart, revealing the depths of God’s love.

This is the night when our ancestors, the children of Israel, came out of bondage in Egypt, and were led through the Red Sea on dry land. Singing to the God who was covered in glory, who delivered them from death and drown their enemies in the sea!

This is the night when God’s promises are fulfilled: the web of death woven over the nations is destroyed, the rich feast of God’s holy mountain is spread, and everyone who hungers and thirsts can come and eat and drink and live!

This is the night when God’s people are gathered from the nations, sprinkled with clean water, and cleansed from all defilement, given new hearts, not of stone but of flesh, upon which are inscribed the law of a new covenant.

This is the night we will welcome into our midst who have died with Christ, and been buried in the watery grave. Sealed with the Holy Spirit, they are raised to new life, and are “marked as Christ’s own forever,” bearing in their own flesh the mystery of his dying and rising. Confessing the faith of Christ crucified, they “proclaim his resurrection, and share with us in his eternal priesthood.”  Their presence among us proclaims that the one who we too often seek among the dead and dying things of this world has been raised to new life, and even now goes before us.

With their parents and godparents, we have renounced “all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God; the evil powers that corrupt and destroy, and the sinful desires that draw us from the love of God.” With them, we have professed in no uncertain terms the faith of many generations. We have spoken truths more true than what our senses fathom; the words that declare our personal, but never private, belief that there is one God, Father and maker and lover of us all; and one Lord Jesus Christ, truly flesh of our flesh, bone of our bone, truly of one being with the living God; and one Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, the Spirit of Creation that hovered over the waters; the Spirit who spoke by the prophets; and one holy Church, one people in God’s sight, stretching throughout time, past, present and future; a forgiven people, with a mission of reconciliation, whose very bodies are destined for glory, made partakers in Christ’s own resurrection, for the life of the world to come.

This is the night that we, with Ezekiel, beheld water flowing from the threshold of the Temple; and within that living stream we have remembered our own baptisms, and we have been grateful indeed.

Now soon that gratitude will overflow in abundant thanks and praise, as we lift up our hearts, and join in the hymn of all creation.  And then we will feast: “the gifts of God for the people of God,” the holy things for the holy ones, “which earth has given and human hands have made,” become the very Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world; the flesh and blood of Christ our God, set before us to be our “holy food and drink of new and unending life in him.”

And all that we have celebrated this night: God’s story and our story, covenants made and covenants renewed,  and the whole creation being made new, the very dying and rising of Jesus Christ will be written on our hearts, dwelling within us, as we dwell in him, this night, and for ever more.

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!!