Easter Vigil Sermon 2026

 

Easter Vigil Sermon Final

DCH

April 2026

Props

• Mock Card
• Candle stick with matches
• Children’s reading book
• Pitcher of water with bowl
• Loaf of bread

Introduction

When I was in my 20’s one Christmas, I came up with what I imaged to be a creative Christmas card that I was really excited about. My idea was to carve a linoleum block with a design and then print on nice paper, a kind of combination Christmas gift and Christmas card. I spent several weeks carving by design. It had these two elements, the Greek of the opening verse of Johns gospel. And symbols of the ancient Greek understanding of the four basic elements of creation.¹ In the center or the four symbols, and then around the outside of the card, the Greek of the gospel.²

Prop: Mock card

It didn’t look exactly like this, but you get the idea. Well, I had been working on the fairly intricate carving of the Greek into that linoleum block – with its articulation marks – when with a start I realized that I needed to have carved the negative shapes. Printing what I had carved gave a print that was the mirror image of what I wanted. Ooooo did I feel foolish. It was already close to Christmas so there was no “REDO’s” for me.

I settled on printing it on Japanese rice paper which was fairly translucent and I instructed the recipients to look at the backside of the print.

Why do I tell you this?

The 4 movements

Because those 4 elements of creation – building blocks of all that is according to ancient Greek philosophy[^2] – remind me of the 4 movements of the liturgy we are experiencing this night – the “Easter Vigil.”

They are: Fire, Story (Spirit/Air?), Water (one of the many readings we hear tonight, the one essential reading is the account of Israel’s deliverance through the Red Sea), and Bread (Eucharist or Earth).

Prop: Show the tray with the props

These 4 movements roughly correspond with those Greek symbols of everything that is: elemental, primordial, encompassing everything. Fire | Light of Christ. Story | Spirit, Air, Wind. Water | Baptism. Bread | Eucharist. This is the mother of all liturgies.

Mother of all liturgies

This mother of all liturgies helps me to remember. It helps me to remember that “remembering” is a sacred action, inherent in the service of the people intersecting with the work of God³. Those are two understandings of what I mean by the word “liturgy.” Liturgy is what we the people do when we trust God to act in our midst, to be present in our lives. Liturgy is what God does in our midst.

It is the first liturgy of Easter. It is the quintessential Easter liturgy. With fire, Salvation story, Baptism, and Eucharist.

This liturgy establishes the pattern upon which everything else we do as Christians is modeled. We light a fire so that others can see “The light of Christ.” We sing as we give God all the glory. We freely share the story of God’s work in our lives. We thirst for the Living God and our thirst is satisfied. We share the Grace we have been given as we pass on the faith we have received. We are nourished by daily prayer and sacrament.

Liturgy is not something where we do one thing after another. It’s not something that is done to us. It’s not a performance that we attend. It is something that we are doing in tandem with God.

This is where what we do and what God does intersect and come together. In the words of Annie Dillard:

“The higher Christian churches…come at God with an unwarranted air of professionalism, with authority and pomp, as though they knew what they were doing, as though people in themselves were an appropriate set of creatures to have dealings with God. I often think of the set pieces of liturgy as certain words which people have successfully addressed to God without their getting killed. In the high churches they saunter through the liturgy like Mohawks along a strand of scaffolding who have long since forgotten the danger. If God were to blast such a congregation to bits, the congregation would be, I believe, genuinely shocked. But in the low churches you expect it any minute.”

This mother of all liturgies, we engage in an act of 4 parts:

1. Fire (light)
2. Setting the Spirit Free – Telling the Story (The Great Story)
3. Water (deliverance)
4. Bread (fed - hospitality)

Symphony in 4 parts

Let there be light

Prop: Candle – light a fire.

There is something primordial about Fire. Going back to the origins of human society there is fire. The Light of Christ. Somehow singing is a part of lighting the fire.

Somewhere I read an imaginative rendering of God singing things into creation. Was it in C.S. Lewis? Tolkien? But they got the idea from Scripture. The concept of singing into creation is a metaphor describing God’s act of bringing the universe into existence through His voice and creation responds with a song of praise. This imagery is drawn from Job 38:7, which states that “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy” when God laid the foundations of the earth. ⁴ I think that in Genesis 1 where the text says, “God spoke and it came into being”, what it really means is “God sang and it came into being.”

Among the most significant events of my 40+ years of ministry is that over 20 times I have been privileged to sing the Exultet. It’s the kind of thing I wish each of you could experience – even if you would never think of singing in public. To sing the Exultet is as if you are sharing in the act of God’s creation. Sung in the presence of the flame.

It is an example of how telling the story takes us back to the time of the story itself. It’s not an accident in this liturgy that we read the story of the Exodus. From ancient times the one essential element of a Passover meal has been the telling of the Exodus story. And for several thousand years the people have been told that in each generation it is essential to tell the story such that we see ourselves as slaves in Egypt.⁵

At the Eucharist, as the Celebrant touches the bread and wine, we hear the words, “On that night …” We are meant to let ourselves be present with Jesus and the disciples on that night – not pretending but sitting, standing, kneeling in his presence. This is the night. This is it. There is no other. This is the mother of all liturgies.

And so we come to the second movement of our symphony.

Telling the story

“Telling the story” – or as I see it letting the Spirit (Air) speak in our midst. We begin this story – remember it is the mother of all stories – by going back to the beginning. We tell about God being the great deliverer and how God raised up prophets to try to get through our thick ears. God performed great miracles in our midst. Then finally God gave a Son.

At The Liturgy of the Word

Genesis 7:1-5, 11-18, 8:6-18, 9:8-13 [The Flood] Exodus 14:10-31; 15:20-21 [Israel’s deliverance at the Red Sea] Isaiah 55:1-11 [Salvation offered freely to all] Ezekiel 36:24-28 [A new heart and a new spirit]

At The Eucharist

Romans 6:3-11 Psalm 114_Matthew 28:1-10

In Fr. Peter’s sermon for Palm Sunday he gave examples of the power of stories in his own family’s life and of how we are here telling the “Greatest story ever told.” Stories are so powerful and we often underestimate them. They have the power to heal and to bring life to a barren land.

Prop: Children’s book.

Have you ever read a story to a child? Of course many of you have. Remember how the child was rapt with attention? “Read it again, Daddy.” The child was there – in the story. They are caught up in the narrative. That’s how narratives are to be heard and experienced. Being “grown up” and knowing better is a handicap in this case.

At the end of his major work titled Jesus, E. Schillebeeckx concludes with these words: (p. 673)

At the start of this book I repeated the story from the Acts (4:10-12) about the lame man who was cured when he heard from Peter the ‘story of Jesus’. M. Buber too recognizes the potential of the story in the telling, when he has a rabbi relate the following: ‘My grandfather was paralysed. One day he was asked to tell about something that happened with his teacher – the great Baalschem. Then he told how the saintly Baalschem used to leap about and dance while he was at his prayers. As he went on with the story my grandfather stood up; he was so carried away that he had to show how the master had done it, and started to caper about and dance. From that moment on he was cured. That is how stories should be told.’

Schillebeeckx concludes his book by saying that it is with that kind of power that we should be telling the “Greatest Story every told”.

Telling the story is about far more than just reading some words out of a book. Story is about far more than about what did or didn’t happen. As one great teacher put it, “All stories are true and some of them actually happened.” Telling the story is about allowing the Spirit – God’s voice – to break into our hearts.

Thus saith the Lord. That’s not just a phrase to repeat. If it’s true it’s important.

After this 2nd movement of the “mother of all liturgies” we come to the 3rd movement.

Washed and Drowned in baptism

Prop: Water poured into a bowl

Water. Such a powerful image. Water makes up 60% of our bodies. Water is the thing that is the great killer in hurricanes. Water was life for the Israelites. Water was death for the Egyptians. Christians have killed one another over the proper interpretation of what baptism is or how it is to be administer.

The Rabbis required the reading of the Exodus story. Christians are required to read it at this Easter vigil liturgy. For many centuries Easter was the appointed time for baptisms.

Water is a paradoxical sacred symbol. Life-giving and cleansing. Powerful in its destructive force.

Paradox: a suitable sacred symbol for the Christian life. Baptism is invitation and anointing into a way of life in Jesus. But all too often it is not Jesus who is revealed in the life of Christians, but some lesser priority.

• Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers?
• Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?
• Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?
• Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
• Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?

We can be so casual when we answer, “Yes.” But when put to the test, most of us probably fall short. It is no light matter this 3rd movement of the mother of all liturgies.

Fed in 1st Eucharist of Easter

Finally, we come to “bread” the 4th movement of this symphony of a liturgy.

Prop: Bread

Such a simple thing: bread. But it is so much more. Bread is used as a symbol of money, wealth. Some of us, I think, are concerned about eating too much bread and carbohydrates. But consider that at any given moment, in the world we live in, there are millions of people who would be grateful for some bread to eat.

Bread is more than just bread. Metaphorically it is what sustains us through all the times – with God, for the sake of God, by God’s grace.

Humans don’t live by bead alone, but by every word that passes from the mouth of God.

I once heard an Orthodox Christian story about the process of baptism which is really a stand-in for the process of being a Christian:

• A child is born. The first thing we do is we wash the infant. Water. Cleansing. Purifying. Dedicating to God.
• Second, we wrap the infant for warmth. “Swaddling clothes”. Protection, sanctuary.
• Thirdly, we feed the infant. Nourishment. Food. Sustenance.

Metaphorically “bread” is one of the building blocks of the human life.

Bread is about hospitality. I can testify to the power of what a fresh-baked loaf of bread means at a dinner party. Even when it’s baked in a “bread-maker.” Bread welcomes all. Bread speaks hospitality. All are welcome, no exceptions.

For all that has been — Thanks! To all that shall be — Yes! (Dag Hammarskjöld)

For a time in Episcopal Churches it was common for a team of lay persons to visit the homes of newcomers to church (preferably the Sunday they visited the church). The team was notable for being lay persons. Clergy are expected to visit, but a lay person can be a sign of the serendipitous and free grace of God. The team would pointedly not stay to visit but would simple present the person or family with a loaf of home-made bread. Then they would leave. People are often hooked when they experience the free and surprising grace of God.

There was abundant evidence that those gifts were effective in sharing the Grace of God – the Work of God. Just the way this “mother of all liturgy” is capable of doing.

Closing

What’s it all about? What is this “mother of all liturgies” about? ⁶

It launches us on our annual journey - our pilgrimage as we seek to follow Jesus into the world that we live in. We tell the story – a rich and varied story. We gather in Christ’s name and go forth to share the light of Christ. We go forth into the world: reborn, anointed, fed, clothed in the presence of God.

The power and the glory of liturgy is to “come at God with an unwarranted air of professionalism, with authority and pomp, as though [we] knew what [we] were doing” – sometimes the liturgy seems like no more than that. It keeps God at bay. But at other times – and the Easter Vigil, the motherlode of all liturgies, this first liturgy of Easter – well, in Annie Dillard’s word:

If God were to blast such a congregation to bits, the congregation would be, I believe, genuinely shocked. But in the low churches you expect it any minute.

Expect God at any moment and God might well surprise you.

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1. This concept originated in pre-Socratic philosophy, with Empedocles (c. 450 BCE) being the first to formally define them as the “roots” (rhizōmata) of the universe. He argued that all things are made from these elements, which combine and separate under the influence of two forces: Love (attraction) and Strife (repulsion), driving cycles of creation and destruction. Aristotle later refined the theory, defining an “element” as a substance that cannot be broken down into anything simpler and is present in other bodies. He assigned each element specific qualities: Fire: hot and dry – Air: hot and wet – Water: cold and wet – Earth: cold and dry↩︎

2. Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος.↩︎

3. Found in the Rule of St. Benedict↩︎

4. Biblical and Literary Foundations * Scriptural Basis: The Bible depicts creation as a responsive act of song; God speaks the world into being, and the “morning stars” and “sons of God” (angels) immediately join in a chorus of joy. - C.S. Lewis’s Influence: In The Magician’s Nephew, C.S. Lewis expands on this by describing Aslan singing the world of Narnia into existence, where musical notes directly manifest physical elements like trees and flowers. - Tolkien’s Mythology: J.R.R. Tolkien similarly portrayed the Creator (Ilúvatar) forging the world’s existence through the “Great Music” of the Ainur (angels), where the universe is literally “sung reality.” - Bible, Lewis, Tolkien↩︎

5. בכל דור ודור חייב אדם לראות את עצמו כאילו הוא יצא ממצרים. B’chol dor vador hayav adam lir’ot et atzmo k’ilu hu yatsa mimitzrayim. In every generation, we must each see ourselves as if we ourselves had gone out of Egypt.↩︎

6. God Surprise: we don’t find God in the expected places or ways; God paradoxical: we can only see sideways; End of life: Gratitude; Influence of ancestors (mother-father etc.) is huge; Life is long enough to learn, but not really long enough to change↩︎