The Great Vigil: Salvation History as a Winsome Infectious Goodness

 Easter Vigil     C  April 19, 2025
Ex.14:10 Canticle 8, Ez  36:24-28 Psalm 42:1-7
Rom.6:3-11         Luke 24:1-12

Lectionary Link

The Easter Vigil properly done, is an intensive crash course in Salvation History.  It includes the lighting of the new fire for the Paschal Candle.  One needs to strap in for a long liturgy with readings across the portions of the Bible with interspersed Psalms Canticles, and Prayers (Collects) and for the motivated congregants with stamina, multiple homilies on each of the various readings from Salvation history.  Properly done, the Great Vigil can last hours, and it is meant to be a final cram sessions for the candidates for baptism to be filled with the full range of the story of salvation so that they can know their spiritual history, and thus take their place as newly initiated in the perpetuation of this same story into the future through their new ministries ordained in their baptisms.  And the Great Vigil finishes with the first Eucharist of Easter during which the newly baptized are welcomed to the Lord Table and thus complete the rite of Christian initiation.

I would like to propose a "negative metaphor" to illustrate the positive mission of Salvation history.  Salvation history is the record of a healthy virus which infects people of this world who in turn infect a new generation of people with this healthy virus.

Each person has the image of God upon their lives and not knowing this can leave them sickly and under-performing in graceful living.  As people we need to be awakened to our original goodness, and the Bible is stories of this healthy virus infecting us and awakening us to our original blessing.

What is the nature of this healthy virus?  It is winsome word about the original goodness and love of God for this world.  At the Vigil we read the infecting and infectious word of God which awaken human purpose and allows the human soul to become the host for this winsome infectious word of God.

This infectious word has been written down and passed on through the words of the Bible within the lives of people in many situations.  It has survived because it has kept being winsome in awakening something within souls who receives this positive infection as beneficial to their health.

As we hear the many words of the goodness being passed through the generations of biblical peoples tonight, let us be grateful that this message of health and salvation has come to us and awaken within us the original goodness for which we have been put on this earth, namely, to love God and love our neighbor as ourself.

As we can be amazed and surprised at the variety of ways in which this winsome word has come to people, and let us know that the winsome word of the health of salvation is not limited to the ways in which the biblical people found it relevant to them.  Let us also be affirmed in the ways which the winsome words of the original goodness of life and our lives has been made known to us.  And knowing this for our own lives, let us arise to mentor and encouraged the newly baptized and each other as we walk in the winsome words of the goodness of the love of God.

And let us celebrate the success of the winsome words of hope for our lives in this first feast of Easter which is remembering of the supreme narrative for hope because of the promise of the preserving continuity of our lives through knowing Christ as resurrection and abundant life within us.

Let us rejoice that we have caught the healthy and infectious virus of the good words of salvation, which have awaken us to our real selves who can now confess to live on in the everlastingness of God.  So, with joy, thanksgiving, and humility we make the Easter shout: "Alleluia, Christ is Risen!  The Lord is Risen Indeed.  Alleluia!  Amen.

A Candle, A Story, Baptism, and Eucharist

Easter Vigil     C  April 14, 2022
Ex.14:10 Canticle 8, Ez  36:24-28 Psalm 42:1-7
Rom.6:3-11         Luke 24:1-12

Lectionary Link

We began tonight by lighting a new fire, and lighting a candle, and the light of the candle is regarded to be a sacrament of the meaning of Christ.  And so a song is chanted to the light of Christ as the most important accompaniment to all creation.  What does light do?  It activates seeing.  Sight is not activated without light.  Christ as Light is Word, and the human mind is not activated without the shining of the light of words.  The artificial light of a fire in ancient times was important since darkness held great sway and mystery in dominating at least of third of each day.  Each year we celebrate the birth of new fire, new light, because we recognize Christ as the light who has given us the way to see how to live best as human beings.

And what did the light of God do?  The light of God created the words of our salvation story.  And on this night we read the words of our salvation story.  The light of God in the words of the Scripture reveals our roots, and though Jesus came later in history, he still had roots which reached far back into the record of the human story.  You and I are formed by stories, because we are formed by the values which catch our attention and give us personal identity within a community of people.  Tonight is a night to read our salvation roots in its ancient past before it became explicitly enlightening in the person of Jesus Christ.  And this intentional taking of identity with Christ seen in the next event of this evening, Holy Baptism.

Baptism is the event when the community and a person express their commitment to be in the intentional transformational process of becoming more Christlike.  The Vigil is the chief baptismal event of the Christian year, and when there are no baptisms, we reaffirm our baptismal vows as an intentional reminder that we are committed to be on the path of becoming more Christ-like.

And we cannot do that alone, we do this within community.  And how is the community constituted?  In a community meal, a love feast, a gratitude meal of remembering Jesus into our lives in bread and wine as the mystical experience of Christ in us, the hope of glory.

A Candle, a story, Baptism, and Eucharist.  These are the rituals of tonight which correspond to the ways in which we can come to know the mystical identity with Jesus Christ.

And by the way, tonight is also the eve of the day of the resurrection.  And this is the hopeful assurance that we will succeed in this process of becoming Christ-like, because we will have forever to get it right.  So with deep thanksgiving, we once again make the Easter shout, "Alleluia, Christ is Risen.  The Lord is Risen indeed.  Alleluia!  Amen.

The Vigil and Being Made Christians

Easter Vigil     C  April 20, 2019

Ex.14:10 Canticle 8, Ez  36:24-28 Psalm 42:1-7
Rom.6:3-11         Luke 24:1-12

Lectionary Link

Probably the liturgy which could be called the marathon of all Christian liturgies, is the Easter Vigil.  A proper Vigil includes 11 biblical readings from Hebrew Scriptures, the Epistles and Gospel.  It also include 11 Psalms.  It also includes the option for sermons to be preached for each of the biblical readings.  And this is after the long sung prayer at the Paschal Candle.  Then there is Holy Baptism and the first Communion of Easter.  A full blown Vigil can last hours; it can begin at 9 in the evening and end after midnight into Easter morning.  During my seminary years, I did participate in three Easter Vigils which lasted three hours or so.

In our day of sound bytes and text messaging, we find it almost impossible to survive even a one hour liturgy, though we will watch a three hour football game.  Today, we assume general literacy and continual access to all modes of Christian knowledge and the omni-presence of word access means that the gathered occasions for inculcating Christian knowledge is truncated and done in more virtual ways.

You perhaps are relieved to know that we aren't doing a three hour Vigil tonight; we are doing but a remnant of the Great Vigil of Easter.  Why?  It is worth keeping the most important liturgy alive and observed even if it does not fit our modern lifestyles and time schedules.

The values of the Vigil are important for us.  The Vigil is the great event of transmission of salvation history in the life of the church.

Historically, the people who were preparing for various lengths of time to be baptized, intensified their preparation during the season of Lent.  And then in the Vigil, the catechumens were present to hear the important readings of our salvation history from creation to Christ and the church.  They were present to sing the psalms.  And baptism, the event of Christian initiation was held, and the newly baptized were received into the church and for the first time they stayed in the church after the liturgy of the word and they received their first communion, in the Easter Communion.  The Easter Vigil was the highlight event of Christian initiation.  It was a climax event, a graduation event for the catechumen who became marked as Christ own forever and was received at the family meal, the Eucharist for the very first time.

The Easter Vigil expresses the fullest expression of the meaning of being in Christ and being in the family of Christ.

It is good for us to continue this Vigil tonight to remember that we are responsible for passing on the tradition of Christ to the next generation of Christians.

Tonight is a night to be thankful for our heritage.  To be thankful for the mentors of our lives of faith who exemplified for us the very best of the love of God in Christ.

Why have we been initiated into the tradition of Jesus Christ?  Why are we still in the process of being made Christians?  Because the life of Christ is alive in us, in our world.  The life of Christ is a transhistorical personal experience.  The life of Christ has been transmitted through human history for 2000 years.  Why?

Allelulia! Christ is Risen!  The Lord is Risen Indeed.  Alleluia!