Homily for the Easter Vigil April 23, 2011

"Welcome Happy Morning, age to age shall say." So begins a very old Easter hymn, dating back to the 6th century. When that song was first written, Christianity had endured for 500 years, and Venantius Honorius Fortunatus, its writer, predicted the continuing of the faith down through the ages. 1500 years later, we can say the same--welcome, happy morning. Easter has arrived!

John's gospel calls Jesus "the true light, which enlightens everyone." On this night, we began our vigil in darkness, remembering the hours when the true light seemed to be snuffed out, when Jesus lay silently in a dark tomb. He, who was God incarnate, endured the pain of a human death, in suffering that can best be described as torture. He surrendered his life, in obedience to the Father, and by dying for our sins, gave us the promise of eternal life. His resurrection on Easter morning demonstrated the way to new life for all his followers.

Imagine what this night of vigil must have been like for those early Christians who came to be baptized on Holy Saturday. After three years of intense preparation, they walked naked through the water, like children entering Paradise: innocent and believing. They were not simply claiming a religion; they were entering a close-knit community. Being a Christian in those days was no easy proposition; those were very dark times indeed, when Christians were persecuted and many were martyred. Early Christians trusted that God would make a way for them in this world and would welcome them to a better life in the next. They entered the waters of baptism with complete assurance of Salvation.

Why did those early Christians pursue the faith in spite of the dangers they could face? Why are there still people of faith today, 2000 years since the death of Christ? For that matter, why are we gathered here in this chapel near Kinsey Run on a Saturday evening? The answer to all these questions is the same. We love Christ because he first loved us and gave his life for us. As Thomas Merton wrote, "We could not seek God unless he were seeking us." Some of us feel a gentle nudge and others, like St. Paul, find themselves knocked to the ground by the power of the call, but all of us are called into the body of Christ. We are called by the power of love and the hope of new life in the world to come. Our faith has survived all these years because many of us have had a personal encounter with Christ, and we bear witness to others. Resurrection is very real to us because Christ lives on in every faithful heart.

Just as each morning the light returns with the rising sun, the darkness of the tomb could not erase the Christ-light. In every act of love, in all our thoughts that turn toward him, Christ is alive in the world. As he told his disciples before the crucifixion, he had to leave them, but he would send the Holy Spirit to dwell in their hearts. The light of his love is eternal and infinite because of his death and the resurrection we celebrate this evening.

All of us have our own experiences with death and resurrection. As much as we'd like to recapture happy days we remember from years gone by--family gatherings at the holidays, graduations and weddings, the birth of a child--those events have died to us. Yet they live in memory and continue to bring us joy.
Both of my parents are long dead, but in my thoughts of them, I feel them to be very much alive. As much as we might want to, we cannot bring back the past, but the blessings of the past--the love, the joy, the hope--can never die.

Even nature has a way of reminding us of the reality of resurrection. We suffered through an exceptionally cold winter this year, but the flowering of dogwood and redbud and the mantle of green bring evidence that seeming death is annually conquered by the force of resurging life. The flood of June, 1995, nearly destroyed this valley and left many of us wondering if anything would ever grow here again, but by the following spring, the meadows were green once more.

Welcome happy morning, age to age shall sing. The light that came into the world and was heralded by the star of Bethlehem on Christmas Eve has now expanded to encompass the whole world with its radiance. The light of Easter Eve is the abiding light of love.

Amen.