{This sermon was delivered during the Great Vigil of Easter,
celebrated at Trinity Anglican Church, Aylmer, ON.}
·
Tonight we gather in the age-old time
of remembrance of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We will
renew our Baptismal vows and eat the Lord’s Supper, proclaiming the Lord’s
death until he comes.
·
As we gather this evening to hold
vigil in celebration of the Resurrection of our Lord, we may wonder just what a
vigil is and how it applies to Easter.
·
A vigil is a time of waiting for a
certain event whether that might be the arrival of a person or the coming of a
certain time. It’s not simply a time of waiting, but of active watching. If
you’ve ever watched a camp fire in the last watch before dawn, you understand
what this means. In fact, in ancient times, Christians lit bonfires as part of
their vigil… almost exactly as we did at the beginning of our vigil.
·
So tonight we hold vigil and wait for
announcement of the Resurrection of the Lord. We have heard the story of God’s
plan of salvation from the beginning to the day of the Resurrection. We can
trace the path over the years and still we wait and watch. Although Jesus rose
from death quite a few years ago, we continue to wait for the news each and every
year since we need to hear it once again.
·
We need to hear this Good News again
and again because the cares of the day and our work under the sun will distract
us and even cause us to despair of the Good News coming to us.
·
Our waiting reminds us that what
Jesus accomplished for us still has to come to completeness in us. Jesus’ death
and resurrection have brought us salvation, yet we wait for the fullness of
that salvation, trusting in his promise.
·
We wait for the time when Jesus’
Resurrection will be our own. His rising from death is the promise to us that
the same rising will be ours.
·
Our waiting is a holy waiting. We
live in anticipation of what has been promised to us. We hear again the stories
of God’s grace, God’s concern for God’s people, and God’s work of salvation and
new life.
·
We wait because the story is not
fully written yet. Each Christian, each one of us, has our own chapter in the
story. None of us will be left out of that book that will tell the whole story
of God’s love for creation.
·
We wait and watch because the story
is not finished and it won’t be finished until faith becomes knowing.
·
No, sisters and brothers in Christ,
the story is not finished, because God is not finished with the whole of
creation. This Easter we may hear the Gospel according to Luke and see the
Gospel according to Nature. (Our Lord
has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf
in springtime. – Martin Luther) What we have yet to hear is what we
will know in our own resurrection – our story in Christ. For lack of a better
title, we’ll call it the Gospel according to Us. That the Good News that is being
written for us and in us by the grace of God.
·
So…
Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but
has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that
the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the
third day rise again.’
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