Easter Vigil
April 6, 1996
A few people have suggested that we have the welcoming of new members of the church at some other time. Every year, I wrestle with this problem. But every year it seems so apropos.
This is the first Eucharist, the first communion of Easter. It’s the beginning of our celebration of the risen Christ. It’s when the early Christians began their new life in Christ.
Like most new beginnings, they are usually tied to an event, and they are also tied to somebody or something. And what better event to tie this to a group of people who are joining themselves to an Easter community.
I want to begin our thoughts this evening by asking you to join me in a fantasy. It’s a very simple fantasy. I want you, just for a moment, to imagine that you are Adam or Eve in that fabled garden.. Leave aside all questions of whether it was real or mythical, legendary or symbolic. Just be Adam or Eve.
Suddenly, you are conscious of a world you never created. You have no prior experience to call upon. No family to advise you. No time to learn. And the only other person in that garden is called God. He seems to run everything. He tells you to enjoy yourself, but just leave the fruit of that tree over there alone. Having said that, God goes about his business.
Now, to make a long story a little shorter. You and your mate decide to have a little taste of that forbidden fruit. Of course, there’s the serpent who encourages you, (the function of the serpent, incidentally, is not so much to tempt Adam and Eve as it is to have someone to blame). We always need some snake in the grass to blame for our misdeeds.
When God finds all this out, he’s mighty provoked. You blew it. Your big chance was ruined by breaking some rules. So you are kicked out of the garden. End of fantasy. Back to the real world.
The real world is where each of us gets caught in self-destructive behavior. Each of us chooses to eat of some forbidden tree. The result is that we are always finding ourselves on the outside of the garden. Hoping, working, praying that we can find a way back in.
The wonderful message of this night is that God in his love, gives us a second chance. A chance to begin again. That is what this night is all about. No matter what we have done, no matter how we have been gripped by what some call the power of sin, it’s never too late. God presents us with the opportunity of beginning again. Easter tells us that God’s mercy, God’s love is so much greater than our sin.
Elie Weisel, whose memoirs I am reading, puts it this way: “When he created men and women, God gave them a secret. And the secret was not how to begin, but how to begin again. . . It is not given to us to begin. That privilege is God’s alone. But it is given to us to begin again. And we do so every time we defy death and side with the living.
The secret of how to begin again is given to all the sons and daughters of Christ. How to start from the ashes of death and begin a new life. How to follow the footsteps of the Resurrected Christ.
Not only tonight, but week after week, the church preaches Resurrection. Begin again. . . Start all over. Begin again. Rise from the dead. Begin again. The life of the church is built on this story. The story that we are all like Adam and Eve, but God sends his Son to lead us back into the garden. Now, we don’t just have one opportunity to make it. We have unlimited opportunities to reach for the stars, to live in harmony, to become sons and daughters of God.
So the message of Easter to those who are joining this parish and to those who have been a part of these Easter people for many years is: it’s never too late. Never too late to start again. For that’s what Easter is all about, starting again. Beginning again
The early church, in its search to communicate about the resurrected Jesus, called him the New Adam. The one who leads us back to the Garden. The new Adam communicates God’s love that says: It’s never too late to begin again.
Alleluia