St. Paul’s : Easter Vigil 2018

April 1, 2018

Abundance, extravagance, –

My entrance (conversion) to the Episcopal Church came about because I associated it with extravagance, abundance, genuineness, sharing, – even though the caricature of Episcopalians is that we like things ordered and not with too much enthusiasm – you know, like “not too much salt.”

For me there were really 4 things: - Candles: real fire - Chalice: real wine - Dress up in holy clothes - Stand, kneel, a willingness to put our bodies into a sacred space.

What I experienced was that this was a place where people were not afraid to say that God is in this place. A church that is not afraid to show extravagance and abundance in its worship – because God is himself extravagant and abundant.

Later I was exposed to clergy who seemed to speak my language and also the language of God – at the same time! The Episcopal Church has been a place for me where God and the human are able to meet. Where an extravagant and abundant God was able and willing to cross paths with the likes of me.

It is a little as if I have been living into that reality ever since – well, it’s been a couple of years since I was a teenager.

Tonight, more than any other time in the church year, we have the opportunity to experience the extravagant and abundant God reflected in an extravagant and abundant liturgy.

New Creation

It has seemed amazing to me that the primary narrative of Christian faith is told on only 1 Sunday in the church year. We did it last Sunday. The narrative of the suffering of Christ.

It turns out that the primary narrative (the Passion) is not why we’re here. If Jesus had died on the cross and that were the end of it – we would not be here. We’re only here because the cross is not the end of the story. God is extravagant and abundant.

It takes a liturgy that lasts 3 days to tell the whole story. Today is the 3rd day. The liturgies on Holy Thursday and Good Friday do not have an actually end – they don’t have dismissals. That is because they are a part of a liturgy that lasts 3 days – culminating in tonight worship.

Tonight we show how big the story is with the range of the readings from Scripture. It is so big that we have to go back to the beginning – –In the beginning** – to tell it.

The story has to include the main extravagant and abundant action of God – deliverance. From the Passover and Exodus in Egypt, to the redemption from Sin on the cross, to the slaves of the present, God’s basic activity in the world is to set us free. Free from all that enslaves us. That’s what the extravagant and abundant God is up to in this world.

We forget that at our own peril. Ezekiel and his vision of the dry bones that God blows into life reminds us that where the people lack a vision, where we fail to recognize God’s awesome work around us, we are in danger of perishing. –When a people lacks a dream they will perish– (Prov. 29:18.)

Baptism

The place where this story comes into burning focus is in baptism. This liturgy tonight has its original purpose in being the time that new Christians were initiated into the faith. This was the culmination of a long process of learning about the abundance and extravagance of God’s grace. On this night the newcomers to the faith were baptized, confirmed, and received their first communion. It was done with extravagance and abundance. The font was a pool. The oil of confirmation was poured out of a jar. The bread and wine was clearly the stuff of life.

I have known glimpses of that kind of Easter Vigil. My baptisms in:

My seminary, Nashotah House, was not my first vigil but it was the first time I realized that if God is who we say he is our liturgy ought to reflect that. We began with a fire being kindled near midnight, the doors opened with a bang, the proclamation was made as a curtain came down revealing a 100 lilies behind the altar, and the seminary bell tower began to ring. And volunteers continued to ring it until dawn.
Trinity Church, Wauwatosa In my first parish I had to begin designing for myself some kind of worship that could reflect the awesome God in our midst. I remember scouring the countryside for a font big enough that my infant daughter Miriam could be immersed in it. It was something of a new experience for many there..
St. Andrew’s by the Lake, Michigan City. I had the most extraordinary opportunity to baptize a 50 plus year old adult in a pool where he could be immersed. I was describing one day the previous year’s Easter vigil baptism. This man began to cry. I didn’t know why. He said, ‘Would you baptize me’? I said, –Of course.– He went on to explain that he while he had been a pastor for 30 years he only the past year had learned that his parents had not actually had him baptized.
Honolulu, esp. Isaiah. One Easter vigil in Honolulu, in a pool that we could wade in, I baptized a young boy named Isaiah. I had the picture for a long time as my Facebook page. We were outside, standing together in the pool, and the rain was pouring down on us. We were soaked. It was joyous. And it seemed to me that God’s grace surrounded us with amazing extravagance and abundance.

Expect the awesome

Often we don’t measure up to God’s call to show extravagance and abundance. God knows that and loves us anyway. Annie Dillard wrote once:

There is one church here, so I go to it. – The members are of mixed denominations; the minister is a Congregationalist, and wears a white shirt. The man knows God. Once, in the middle of the long pastoral prayer of intercession for the whole world–for the gift of wisdom to its leaders, for hope and mercy to the grieving and pained, succor to the oppressed, and God’s grace to all–in the middle of this he stopped, and burst out, –Lord, we bring you these same petitions every week.– After a shocked pause, he continued reading the prayer. Because of this, I like him very much. ‘Good morning!’ he says after the first hymn and invocation, startling me witless every time, and we all shout back, ‘Good morning!’ …

The higher Christian churches - where, if anywhere, I belong - come at Godas though they knew what they were doing, I often think of the set pieces of liturgy as certain words which people have successfully addressed to God without their getting killed. If God were to blast such a service to bits, the congregation would be, I believe, genuinely shocked. But in the low churches you expect it any minute. This is the beginning of wisdom. [1]

Acclamation

This is one night when I let down my guard and I really begin to believe – like the ‘low churches’ – that God is going to blow the service to bits. Or perhaps blow it into shape.

Let us tonight let down our guard and expect God to break into your lives with power and great glory. As we proclaim “The Lord is Risen!” let us say it as if we mean it. As we repeat it over and over again, we will grow into the likeness and truth that we proclaim.

He is Risen. Alleluia.

Annie Dillard, Holy the Firm ↩

Sermons

Friday, April 13, 2018