Easter Vigil

By The Rev. Martha Frances+

Easter Vigil

22 March 2004 

Texts:  Genesis 1:1-2:2; Exodus 14:10-15:1;

Ezekiel 36:24-28;  Ezekiel 37: 1-14 

      Tonight's liturgy is unlike any other of the church's year.  Tonight we are in the "in between."  On this holy night, Jesus crosses from death into life.  This night extends until the glorious celebration of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ tomorrow morning either at 8:00 or at 10:30.  We have lit the Christ candle which will shine at each service between now & Pentecost.  It will remind us each time we light it that Christ truly IS the light of the world.  We have heard the haunting Canticle called the Exsultet which I reminds us of why we are here.  We have heard a good bit of scripture—although not the whole nine scriptures which are assigned for this time—highlighting the history of God's relationship with God's covenant people.  The scriptures speak for themselves, & I only want to connect the dots, so to speak, & help us meditate upon these stories in terms of the mystery we celebrate tomorrow morning.

      Tonight we look back to the history of the Hebrew people in order to look forward to the resurrection & our future as redeemed children of Jesus Christ.  First we heard the wonderful creation story, written many centuries later, a solemn, measured, artistic account of God's bringing a plan for all God's creatures out of the chaos which preceded it.  We are moved from chaos to order, from nothingness to being, from the simplest forms of matter to the creation of humans.  When humankind was created, we were in God's own image, & God blessed us & gave us responsibility over the rest of creation & declared us VERY good.  We have a sacred duty to care for all God has created as stewards of creation.  How appropriate for us to read the first creation story as we await our celebration of the new creation.   Moses' leading the Hebrew people through the Red or Reed Sea as they begin their 40 year trek through the wilderness to the promised land is a defining story for the Jewish people.    I always pause here to ponder how different this story would be if told by a mother or sweetheart of an Egyptian soldier.  Even in great victory, we must pray for those who are lost, those who are defeated.  Our Jewish brothers & sisters celebrate Passover each year, & Passover is the backdrop for this weekend's Christian celebration.  The Jews—& we—remember God's hearing their cries of affliction & responding by sending Moses to lead them to a land where they could be shaped as a people into God's own.  How much of our expectation of Jesus as Messiah is based upon the redemption of God's people from Egypt which Moses led.  Jesus is the new Adam but also the new Moses.  God's presence is with us in ALL our journeys.  We are called to be faithful & to follow, even when our travels take us through desert places.

      In the lovely passage from Ezekiel, God promises a new Israel, & we Christians see prophesied here the new covenant received through Jesus Christ.   God tells God's people that we will be sprinkled with clean water to cleanse us from all uncleanliness & from all idols.  God's promise is to take the Hebrews—& us—& make us a redeemed community, give us new hearts of flesh rather than of stone.  Now that new heart is one of flesh which means that we won't be able to ignore our feelings but must deal with them, even when they are painful.  But God will be with us in walking through the pain.  God says that we will be God's people & God will be our God.  Quite a promise, isn't that?

      Finally, the vision of the valley of dry bones provides an incredible image of God's ability to rejuvenate & renew a people, a community such as Hope.  Absolutely no one is beyond God's care, no soul is too dry & brittle for God to breathe life into.  At times, the responsibility of leading us from 2 small congregations to a stronger, healthy one has been daunting, & the attendance at our Holy Week services as we've competed with spring break, the rodeo, & beautiful weather this week has been pretty discouraging, yet we are called to persevere.  Remember that the Hebrew word for breath or wind is also that for spirit, so God's breathing the Spirit into Ezekiel's dry bones is the same that God can breathe into our dry bones, filling & using us to reach others.

            We are privileged this evening is to restate in front of God & everybody, our sisters & brothers in Christ, our own promises which we accept at our baptism.  As we turn to page 292 in the Book of Common Prayer, I urge you to listen with the ears of your heart to what we are all saying as we stand on the promises we make to God.  Our challenge this Easter season is to discover anew all the ways God calls us to fulfill the promises we make tonight.