Easter Vigil
April 2, 1994
This is a service of lights and darknesses – of beginnings and endings – of truths and lies.
We start with our ancestors’ picture language of how it used to be. The mythic language of the Old Testament assures us that there has never been a time when people didn’t seek to make sense out of life.
Even in the darkest times, people were seeking answers to why they were here and what had gone wrong with civilization.
The Bible stories we’ve read or heard in church are trying, in mythic terms, to tell us of creation – of your own creation. They are trying to say that life isn’t a random crap shoot – that evil does not triumph in the end – that the Devil doesn’t have the last word – that we may get fooled into believing that darkness is all there is – but that the light of Christ does shine.
But let us begin with the darkness. The darkness stands for the Devil, and let me affirm my belief in the Devil. The Devil stands for lies. It’s the voice that tempts us to self-treachery – the voice that whispers in our ears that it really doesn’t matter, that you don’t matter. God doesn’t care – everything is going to end up in darkness anyway. The Big Lie.
It seems appropriate to mention the Big Lie on the day after April Fools Day – a day when the custom is that we tell big whoppers to each other. And the biggest whopper of them all – the Big Lie – is that you’re not important. When all is said and done, you / come into the world by yourself and you leave by yourself, and that self doesn’t mean much. ‘
Many of you are familiar with Dante’s vision of Hell. The deeper you go into Hell, the narrower and narrower and colder and colder and darker and darker it becomes. And the more you try to hold on to yourself, the less there is of you. Hell, then, is the loss of community – the loss of identity. And the Devil would like you to believe that ultimately we are swallowed up into the darkness.
But it isn’t necessarily so. What we say on the Easter Vigil is Do not give in to the Big Lie. You are part of a community of light and darkness will never triumph. The Easter message is that each of us can be a new creation in Christ. And that just as He was crucified, so will we be. However, however, just as he rose from darkness, so will we.
To you who are to be baptized and to you who are renewing your Baptismal Covenant and coming into our community, I bid you welcome to the community of light. What we are declaring this Easter is that the Big Lie is from the Devil. And the worst word about you, which comes from the Devil’s mouth, is never the last word. Easter tells us that even the gates of Hell cannot survive against the love of God. The story of creation – the story of the new creation – reminds us that God has the last word. And thus your darkness becomes light as you join yourselves this Easter even.
So rejoice with us in the community and rejoice that life isn’t one huge April Fool’s joke. And rejoice that the worst word about you is never the last word. And rejoice that the light of Christ shines in our darkness. And finally, rejoice that you are a part of the Easter people.
AMEN