Sermon for Easter Vigil 2014
Rev. Rik Rasmussen
Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
It seems perhaps a bit odd to stand here and preach after
hearing the drama unfold in the readings and the music. But these readings speak to me. Indeed the entire week of liturgy and
readings starting with Palm Sunday – last Sunday up to this moment speaks to
the church. It is a peculiar thing in
our society to set aside over a week to let a drama unfold. Perhaps even more remarkable in our fast
paced instant gratification world is that the church asks us to set aside forty
days to remember events that took place over 2000 years ago. But perhaps what is more odd is the degree to
which this drama still speaks to us.
St. Paul’s started this Lenten journey towards Easter with
the reminder that we are mortal. We
participated in a radical ministry of taking the Ashes – the mark of our
mortality outside on Ash Wednesday where well over a 100 people stopped for
prayer and meditation. But it was not
just people in search of a quick bit of grace.
It was all sorts and conditions that could not get to a full service and
it was also the over 100 people who came into the church for the full liturgy
that the church offers. It was clear
that the world is hungry for the peculiar love that is offered by God through
Christ.
Lent was bookended by St. Paul’s again taking church
outside. This past Thursday - on Maundy Thursday – St. Paul’s was invited
to participate in washing feet at St. Matthew’s. Loreen and I went to St. Matt’s and spent a
couple of hours washing the feet of people who had gathered to get food from
the food closet. The foot washing out at
St. Matt’s was not the gentile Episcopal foot washing where we gather inside
and ritually dribble a small amount of water onto clean feet. This was real foot washing complete with
soap, a scrub brush and ample amounts of water.
We followed the washing of feet by gently rubbing lotion into sore and
tired feet and offering a pair of new socks to keep their feet clean. A wonderful and amazing thing happened. After commenting on how lovely it was to have
their feet washed and for us to pray with them many people decided they wanted
to return the favor and wash someone else’s feet. Even – and perhaps especially – the children
also wanted to wash feet. And they did
it with as much care and love as anything I have ever witnesses. One young gentleman – after having his feet
washed by his aunt stood to the side and watched us wash feet for awhile and
then, in a small voice asked if he could try it. He ended up spending the better part of an
hour washing peoples feet. Through this
offering it was clear that the world is hungry for the peculiar love that is
offered by God through Christ.
On Good Friday we remembered man’s inhumanity as we recalled
the passion of Christ – the nailing of the God of Love to a cross. We recalled how the authorities and even the
people who had been gathering for healing turned and called for death. The death of the God of love. A death that came with the promise of
forgiveness. A death that shocks us down
through the generations. After all how
could anyone nail the God of love to a cross?
This morning we remembered the in-between time. That time when the church remembers that
Jesus – after he was laid in the tomb and before he rose again went to the
dead. He entered into hell and offered
love and forgiveness to the very people who had said no to god. We remembered that the God of Love will
continue to pursue all of us and offer unconditional love. Even after death.
Which brings us to tonight.
To the breaking of the Lenten fast.
To a time of restoration. We
started with the new fire and then came into the church to hear the old
stories. Part of me would love to have
that part of the liturgy sitting around the campfire. After all the series of Old Testament
readings are like stories that would be told around a campfire. So imagine us sitting around the campfire
listening to the lessons. You could imagine
– thousands of years ago a small child asking how creation came into being and
a tribal elder gently telling the creation story that we just heard.
Next we remembered how God heard the cries of the Jewish
exiles in Egypt and sent an unlikely – and if you read his calling story – an initially
unwilling Moses to lead the nation of Israel out of bondage in Egypt. The love that heard the cries of a people who
had turned their backs on God time and time again – and these people would go
on to aggravate God for forty years in the wilderness. A story told around the campfire for many
years before becoming part of our written tradition.
Then we hear the prophet Isaiah singing a love song for
creation. A song that promises that
salvation is not earned but is indeed offered freely to all. A promise that has been repeated over and
over again down through salvation history – a promise made continually by the
God of Love.
Then we heard of Ezekiel’s conversation with God. How Ezekiel saw a valley of dry bones. And those bones turn out to be the whole
house of Israel. A nation that had, once
again, lost its way and turned away from the love of God. Ezekiel’s vision is a promise that our God of
Love will put new flesh on theirs and our dry bones and breath a new spirit
into us. Once again the God of love is
reaching out to a people who had lost their ways.
After these readings we can come in from our campfire. We come into the church and declare “Alleluia
Christ is Risen!” and sing the Gloria. We banish the darkness and glory in the
Easter light.
Which brings us to the Gospel Reading. After the disciples “good Friday” they only
knew that their teacher – the one who came to earth to heal and spread the good
news was dead. It is the morning Mary
Magdalene and the other Mary go to the tomb.
They are expecting to find a body that they will lovingly wash and
prepare for a proper burial. It is, once
again the women. The women who did not
abandon Jesus during his crucifixion who come in the morning. It in not the male disciples. They are in the locked upper room. But what do the Mary’s find?
An empty tomb and an angel.
An angel who tells them that Jesus is not there. To run and tell the rest of the disciples
that Jesus has risen. That the death’s tomb
could not hold the God of Love. An then
they run into Jesus – Jesus tells them to go to the men and tell them to follow
Jesus’ earlier directions to meet Jesus in Galilee. It is in this scene that perhaps they are
starting to understand all the things that Jesus tried to tell them before
humans tried to kill the God of Love.
That Jesus over and over gain, just like the stories of God that we
heard in the Old Testament readings, was not going to abandon us. Jesus came to prove that nothing could kill
love. The God of Love refuses to die or
give up on us.
That is the good news of Easter. God created us all – every single one of us –
in God’s image. God’s dream for us and
for creation is a creation of love.
God’s dream is that we – yes all of us –will be agents to help spread
that love into the dark corners. When we
are in exile, like the Egyptians, we can be assured that God hears our
cries. That if we are only able to open
our eyes God will lead us out of exile.
As the prophet Isaiah promises we do not have to earn salvation or
love. That for some extraordinary and
peculiar reason God loves all of us. Each and every one of us.
When we feel like a pile of dry bones God promises to put
sinews back on our skeletons and to breath new life into us. God indeed loves his creation so much that he
was willing to come dwell with us. To
prove that nothing – nothing that we do or that anyone else can do will kill
God’s love. Oh we try. Just like over 2000 years ago and even before
we have a propensity to turn our back to that Love. But Jesus proved that we cannot kill that
love. That if we go looking for Loves
tomb we will find it empty. Not because
love is gone but because is it all around us. God the Father, God the Son and
God the Holy Spirit – the one God of Love is alive. And we are called on this Easter to shout
from the highest hills that Love will not die!
We are called – as followers of the itinerate preacher Jesus– as followers
of the God of Love to help spread God’s dream of love beyond these walls. That is the Easter Message.
