But....

I'm a little behind in my Easter postings. Saturday and Sunday were wonderful but full days and I have been spending the last few days slowing recovering and I just realized I forgot to post my sermons from Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday plus my recap on the days. Well here I begin!

Easter Vigil is a old new service. Easter vigil is one of the oldest services in the Christian church but it was lost over time and is now finding a renewal. Bethlehem and Christ Church Parish, the Episcopal church in Redding, used to do a joint Easter Vigil together but during the years of pastoral vacancies at Bethlehem, our church stopped the tradition, but Christ Church continued on their own. This past year we were planning our Easter services, both churches thought it was time to renew this tradition. And since Christ has done Easter Vigils in recent years, Bethlehem went to there to worship.

The Easter Vigil begins outside at a fire and the Christ candle (the big candle) is lit with the first fire of Easter. We then processed inside and a prayer (in the form of a chant) is give and our individual candles are lit. We then hear multiple readings from the Old Testament (we read 4 but you can read up to 12). Then we renewed our baptismal vows using similar words and promises that we or our parents made for us at our baptism. And then we were each marked with the cross of baptismal waters to individually remember that we are God's, and to God we shall return. All of this is done is just enough light so people can see. Then the fun come!

After everyone was marked with the waters of baptism and the altar candles lit, myself and Marilyn (the rector at Christ Church) turned around and yelled "Alleluia! Christ is risen!" And boy did we yell it! One teenager I noticed jumped a good few inches out of her pew! We then sang Jesus Christ is Risen Today and the congregation was given/brought bells which rang throughout the song. Afterward was our Easter Readings: Romans 6:3-11 and Luke 24:1-12, my sermon and communion. All of which was joyously done as we were now celebrating.

If you haven't been to an Easter Vigil service before, I highly recommend it. This was only my fifth Easter Vigil but they have become one of my favorite services as we start in darkness and despair of Jesus' death and move into a full celebration of the joy that comes with Easter. And I know my brief description here is not a full enough description of all the joy that happens.

Below is my sermon from Easter Vigil:

For many of us, this journey towards Easter, towards this empty tomb began 40 days ago on Ash Wednesday. 40 days ago at the start of Lent, people around the world received ashes in the sign of a cross on their forehead and were reminded that we are dust and to dust we shall return. We were reminded that we are human, that we are going to die. That someday we will be ashes, dust, part of the earth. That someday we will no longer be living and our remains will be lowered into the ground or our ashes will be scattered and we will again return to the earth. Death will win. We are all going to die.

And death did win, yesterday we mourned Jesus’ death. We were witnesses to his death through hearing the scriptures. We envision watching Jesus being nailed to the tree, we could picture looking at the disciples around us mourning while Jesus was dying. We could see the tears in the eyes of those around us, we could see Jesus breathing his last breath and then hanging lifelessly from the cross.

And today we gathered to mourn, to wait in vigil around Jesus’ body. To share stories about what he has meant to us, to comfort each other, to partake in a meal he commanded us to eat. We gathered here not to celebrate but to mourn.

Now isn’t that a lovely Easter sermon?

But there is more to the story. Luke’s gospel telling of the empty tomb starts with a very small word that changes everything…”but.” Six times in today’s gospel we hear the word but. But on the first day of the week, but when they went in, but the men said to them, but he has risen, but these words seemed to them an idle tale, but Peter got up and ran to the tomb. But…the story is not over. But…the most important part is still to come. But…death has not yet won. But…he has risen!

Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen!

Jesus is alive again, he is not still in the tomb but has risen. The tomb is now empty! Jesus overcame death. Jesus died for our sins. Jesus is alive again! That is the reason for all the buts, that is the reason why we are here tonight no longer mourning but now celebrating. That is the reason why we sing and shout Alleluia!

But yet we have to first talk about Jesus’ death. If Jesus didn’t die, why would we celebrate? If Jesus did rise from the dead, why would we sing and shout Alleluia? If Jesus didn’t die for our sins and over come death, why would we worship?

We start Lent, our journey towards Easter being reminded that we are human that we are going to die someday because Lent ends with Jesus’ death. However the story is not over, there is still more to come, there is that little word that changes everything…but! But our lives do not end at Ash Wednesday, our journey towards Easter, towards the empty tomb does not end when we receive the cross of ashes on our forehead. There is still more to the story. Our journey towards Easter and the empty tomb just took us to the baptismal font, to the place were we were claimed as daughters and sons of God. And there tonight we were reminded that we are God’s and to God’s we shall return. We are children of God and nothing we can do will ever change that.

No matter how many blemishes to our record we have committed, no matter what we do, those blemishes are made clean through the waters of baptism. No matter how many marks we receive against us, there is only one mark that matters, the mark of the cross. Tonight we were reminded that ours sins, our ashes, our dust, our human self have been made clean through Christ’s death and resurrection.

Death did win, but only temporarily. There is more to the story. For Christ has risen. Jesus is alive and we have been made alive through Christ. We have been marked as children of God. And even our future death is only temporary. And that is reason why we shout Alleluia. That is the reason why we worship. That is the reason why we celebrate. Death will not win. Death will not destroy us. For we are alive with Christ.

Why do you look for the living among the dead? We are the living and we worship a Living Lord. A Living Lord who lives in each and every one of us. A Living Lord who has conquered death. A Living Lord who has washed us clean. A Living Lord who has changed everything with one little word…but. And that is the reason why we can shout Alleluia Christ has risen!