Thursday, 31 March 2016

The Great Vigil of Easter ------ 26 March 2016


{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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