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St. Andrew's Church
An Anglican Church • Grimsby, Ontario, Canada
Preached by
Stuart Pike
Rector
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Easter Vigil
15 April, 2006
St. Andrew's Church
This service ties for first place as my favourite service of the year. Tonight we act out the mystery of the resurrection as we worship God in this liturgy.
We start outside the darkened Church, which represents the empty tomb. We light a new fire which represents the primal energy which created the world and gives life to all creatures. This first fire lights the Easter candle and from that flame is lit the torches of our acolytes from whom all the parishioners light their own candle. As the congregation files into the Church with their candles, this Church is transformed from a dark, empty tomb, to a house of light.
The most important part of this symbolism to me is the fact that the Church is lit by the candles of each person. It is only by our acting together that our individual candles can flood this place with the light and life of Christ.
This underscores the point to me that we together, each carrying the flame of faith in our hearts, become, in a mystical way, the body of Christ, the life of Christ acting in our world today. What a glorious night this is: it is the night that light floods out the darkness and life wins over death!
We follow the story of light and life as we read all of those lessons from the Old and New Testaments. They are our stories too:
From Genesis, the story of the creation of all that there is: from the first light shining in the darkness, as the Spirit of God hovers over the water, to the creation of humankind as God blows the breath of life into the creature God made from the earth.
From Exodus, the story of God saving the Israelites when evil intent had threatened them. How God's power miraculously led his people to freedom through the red sea.
From Isaiah and Zephaniah, the promise of a day of exultation when God will renew her people in her love and will provide for them a feast, which we call heaven.
The New Testament lesson from the letter of St. Paul to the Romans speaks of how, as we have been baptized into Jesus' death, we will also participate in Christ's resurrection.
And, of course, in the Gospel lesson, we have the story of the resurrection as experienced by Mary and some other women on that first Easter day.
What a momentous turn-around that story is. It begins with Mary and her companions walking to the tomb prepared to anoint Jesus' dead body. Their minds are on death and their hearts are full of emptiness very early on that morning.
Most of the people who are here now this evening have experienced the loss of a loved one and have probably experienced the sense of emptiness which these women felt. Most of us remember how it felt important to do something or to be busy during those days of grief. These women are engaged in an important act of respect for Jesus. Being able to anoint Jesus' body would play a crucial role in their own grieving process.
Yet, when they come to the tomb and find the stone rolled away, it must seem to them at first that even this act of respect has been stolen from them. There is no body, the tomb is empty.
While they are feeling this even deeper loss they perceive two angels, who remind them of Jesus' own words and promise that he lives again. "He is risen", they say. Their message is not new, but it sparks a memory which the women already have within them. "Yes, that is what Jesus told us", they think. "I remember."
So much of the good news of our faith is a call to us to remember. The memories to which we are called are not only tucked away in our intellect, but they are deep memories in our bodies and our souls. They are the memories which are stored inside us, not in words, but in things deeper than words, because when they happened to us we didn't have words.
That is why our remembering is mediated this evening by the actions of this worship service. The spark of new fire gives us the memory of our own first creation. The touch of baptismal water on our skin this evening quickens the memory of our own rebirth to new life. "Oh yes, I remember, in my body and my soul that God made me and remade me and gives me new life."
For the women that day, the stark emptiness of that dark tomb is transformed into a symbol of the fullness of new life: a life that cannot be contained in a tomb, that cannot be contained in physical matter: a life that is free and pure and which lives on forever.
The next thing that the women did, was they left that place to go to tell their story. They were the first apostles.
Just so, may each of us, the candle of our faith lighted within us, depart from this place to share this amazing story of God's love and the life given to us. May we together, each of us shining God's truth be the body of Christ which lives outside of the tomb and tells the world to remember.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia! Amen.
