Easter Vigil
April 19, 2014
Ex.14:10 Canticle 8, Ez
36:24-28 Psalm 42:1-7
Rom.6:3-11 Luke
24:1-12
Tonight
we are gathered to celebrate something wonderful about grace. The most wonderful thing about grace is that
you and I don’t have any choice about it being offered to us. Grace is given to us whether we want it or
not.
And so Peter and Payton are here tonight to
be initiated into God’s wonderful grace.
They like us do not have any choice about Grace being offered and given
to them.
Peter and Payton do not have any choice
tonight about being loved. Their
parents, grandparents and family and friends have and will continue to love
them. They have no choice about
that. They may grow up and try to resist
this love and grace but they can never take it away nor can they deny that it
has been given to them.
Tonight baptism at the Easter Vigil expresses
the grace of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
This grace has been known by all of us. This grace that has already come
to Payton and Peter in the love of their parents, grandparents, family and
friends. The grace of the resurrection
of Christ is expressed in the lives of the people who
are letting themselves be the hearts, the hands, the feet of the risen Christ
tonight.
Jesus did not remain in a tomb; Christ rose
and entered and energized the countless numbers of people. Christ has taken us over to the point of we
cannot help but be expressions of the love and grace of Christ toward Payton
and Peter and towards each other and towards even our enemies.
This is the living Gospel of the resurrection
of Christ. We are to be the living proof
of the resurrection of Christ in how we offer active grace and love to Peter
and Payton and to everyone tonight.
We, church are gathered tonight, to confess
to Peter and Payton and to the entire world:
People, you have no choice; you are loved, by God and by us, even in our
fumbling and feeble efforts to do so.
No, we are not perfect in our love but we are perfect in having the
heart of the risen Jesus Christ within us to inspire us always to be at the
work of loving better.
A major reason why we baptize babies and
children and people of any age is this: People you do not have any choice about
these fact. God loves you. God cares for you. God forgives you. God gives you many wonderful gifts to
develop. And when you finish your life
in your body, God is going to give you eternal life. Folks, just accept it. You don’t have any choice about whether God
loves you. Deal with it.
Lots of religions over-emphasize the human
choice in choosing baptism or faith or religion. If someone offers me a million bucks, am I to
be profusely congratulated for graciously deciding to take the million bucks? “O, Phil you are so wonderful for graciously
deciding to take the million bucks.”
Absurd right? What is marvelous
is the generosity of the giver and not the minor event of my decision to take
the money.
That is the nature of God’s love and grace
for Peter and Payton tonight and for you and me and for all of the people of
this world.
We have the privilege of receiving this generous
grace and love and we as the church have the responsibility not to make this
grace and love look bad because of the way in which we live. We are called tonight to be the very proof
and evidence of the resurrection of Christ.
Can you say, “Alleluia, Christ is Risen?” And now say, “He’s risen in Me!” Can we also be fully committed to let this resurrection
life of Christ in us be grace and love to Payton and Peter and to all whom God
would bring into our lives?
Alleluia!
Christ is Risen in You! And in
Peter. And in Payton. Let us rejoice that we have no choice about whether
this resurrection power and grace and love is given to us. But let us humbly accept it and be conduits
for the grace, the love and the power of Christ tonight. Happy Easter to you! I can see Easter shining in your eyes tonight. Amen.
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