· CHILDREN'S EDUCATION

· ADULT EDUCATION

· EFM

· JOURNEY TO
   ADULTHOOD
      RITE 13
      J2A
      YAC

· VACATION BIBLE
   SCHOOL

· SERMONS

· CURSILLO

· HAPPENING

· RESOURCE LIST
      Chapel Library
      Recommendations

SERMONS

Easter Vigil
March 22, 2008

By The Rev. Sylvia Czarnetzky

Six Vigil lessons
Romans 6:3-11
Matthew 28:1-10

I heard one of the best descriptions of the Easter Vigil when I was in seminary, and the description came, not from my liturgics professor, but rather, from the mouth of a seven-year-old whose mother was in seminary.

This child had been told by his parents that he was going
with his family to the Easter Vigil early Sunday morning,
to which this child replied:

Is that the service where you sit in the dark and read the whole Bible?

I think that’s a pretty fair description of what we’re doing here tonight – sitting in the dark and reading the whole Bible. Well, we don’t read the whole Bible, not by a long shot. But The Great Vigil of Easter does include a pretty big chunk of the Bible. The vigil is the one service in the church year where we try to capture, in a single church service, a sense of the entire sweep of salvation history!!

That’s a pretty ambitious undertaking, I’ll admit. Most Sundays, we read three lessons from the Bible, and say one psalm, together, but tonight, we’ve read eight Bible lessons, and we’ve said or sung several psalms and canticles from the Bible. And believe it or not, it isn’t just an endurance test, to see how much scripture an Episcopalian can abide in a single night, or how long one can sit still.

Rather, we are trying to hear the great story of God’s saving work from the very beginning of time. We sit quietly in a church that is, at first, darkened and then suddenly ablaze with light, to listen to the stories that “shape us and give us life, the stories that tell us who God is for us.” (Myers 1)

And for just a little while, in this small chapel, “time stands still, so that we can hear, see, taste touch, and smell
the sense of holiness that surrounds us” as we tell again familiar parts of our sacred story. (Schlafer 97)

We have much to celebrate this night, and we’ve put our best liturgical foot forward: the efforts of many talented people have come together this week to fill this chapel with flowers and candles, gleaming brass and beautiful music.

And against this beautiful backdrop, we hear the story of creation,where God transformed chaos and mystery into the world we know today,separating the earth and the sea from the sky, and bringing light and life to a dark and formless void.

We hear the story of Noah’s obedience to God’s command.
Noah builds the ark that God asks him to build, and that ark becomes the means of  deliverance for Noah, his family, and the animals, from the destructive powers of the floodwaters.

We hear the dramatic story of the parting of the Red Sea,
in great Charlton Heston splendor. Through the power of God, Moses delivers the people of Israel from slavery and bondage under the Egyptians, and leads them to freedom
in the promised land.

We hear the ancient prophets asking questions of their people that sound pretty modern, even to our jaded ears.  Isaiah asks: “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?” (Isa. 55:2)

And our sweep of salvation history marches us right up to Easter morning, and the pivotal moment in our salvation history, where the two Marys come to the tomb, expecting to find the body of Jesus. But instead they feel an earthquake under their feet as an angel descends, rolls back the stone, and begins to speak to them. (Mt. 28:1-4) 

And the angel said unto them, Fear not.  (Luke 2:10) “Do not be afraid; I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here;” he is risen.  (Mt. 28:5-6)

The angel tells them where to go to find Jesus – go to Galilee. Galilee, their old stomping ground. The place where the disciples first met up with Jesus. Jesus had told his disciples before he died that “he would go on ahead of them to Galilee." (Quivik 295, citing Mt. 26:32, 28:16)

The disciples are told to search for Jesus where he told them he could be found, and the word to us is the same two thousand years later: we should search for Jesus where he told us he would be: in the bread and the wine of the Eucharist; in the body of Christ gathered as the church; in the brokenness and need of the poorest of the poor and the weakest of the weak. (Quivik 295)

For, thanks be to God, the cross is not the last word in the story of our salvation. No. The last word in the story of our salvation is the empty tomb, where the Marys found not a dead body, but an angel of light, and where we find the promise of Jesus to meet us where he told us he would be.  Amen. 

Works Cited:

Meyers, Ruth. Sermon at Easter Vigil 1998, Seabury-Western Theological Seminary.

Quivik, Melinda A. “Holy Week.” New Proclamation.   Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007.

Schlafer, David. What Makes This Day Different. Cambridge: Cowley Press, 1998.