Easter Vigil - Saturday, March 31, 2018 (Thoman)

I. Story of great grandmother and book…

II. Tonight is a night for telling stories

  • we love stories: just begin by saying, “Once upon a time…” and everyone’s
    ears perk up
  • we ask our parents and grandparents and great grandparents to tell the story
    – over and over again
  • much like people who light a campfire and gather around in the darkness to
    tell stories, so too, do we light a fire and tell stories
  • we light a fire and tell a story of a God who created the light, and worked in
    the presence of that light to bring into existence all of the natural order, to
    create a good world, to create all that is seen and unseen…
  • and most important, to create a being made in God’s own image: creatures
    who can also create and love
  • we light a fire and tell a story of a people God has chosen for his own, a
    people God nurtured and guided and rescued from oppression
  • we light a fire and tell a story of a covenant, a relationship between God and
    humanity, written upon the human heart
  • we light a fire and tell a story of a savior and of an empty tomb
  • this has been a week of story telling as we listened to the passion, the story of
    the Christian Passover, a story culminating in a tale about the resurrection
    from the dead

III. It is a story about the past, but also a story about the present

  • on this story telling night, we are renewed in the waters of rebirth that surge
    from the font and refresh us. These are life-giving waters that pry us from
    the clutches of death-dealing situations and tell us that the way to fuller life is
    my embracing death.
  • on this story telling night, we gather in banquet. Here we break bread and
    share wine, food which become more than bread, drink which becomes more
    than wine, but nourishment for living the Christian life now – and a sign of a
    future banquet
  • this story-telling night is also a night of the Spirit. In celebrating the
    resurrection, we look ahead to celebrating the presence of the Holy Spirit.
    We know that the Spirit is present among us through our anointing in the
    sacraments of baptism and confirmation; through these sacraments we know
    the constant guidance of the Holy Spirit.
  • on this story-telling night those first witnesses to the Resurrection tell a story
    about an empty tomb – and that Jesus had been raised – and that he had gone
    on ahead of them into Galilee where they would see him again
  • those first disciples who heard that story thought it was sheer nonsense!
  • but then they began to listen again…and they told the story again…and they
    came to believe
  • we stand in that same tradition tonight
  • those of us who gather here this evening know the story is not nonsense
  • instead we tell the story again and we stake our lives on it!
    ------------------------------------------
  • Jennifer and Justin – tonight you become part of this story; tonight this story
    begins to illuminate your life journey
  • of course, you already know the Christian story: it has been playing in the
    background of your life – but tonight it takes center stage; tonight it begins to
    become the vision out of which you will view all of life
  • you are invited tonight to look at life differently: you are invited to measure
    the events of life by the standard of God’s story of salvation for us, for you
  • this story of God’s salvation will begin to become the foundation of your hope
    and the rationale for your love
  • the story of God’s salvation teaches us how to make sound, moral decisions,
    healthful decisions which guide us along a sure and certain path
  • all of this comes true for you through the sacrament of baptism: St. Paul tells
    us tonight that baptism is the entrance into the death and resurrection of
    Christ
  • through baptism into Christ, we are enabled to face the death-dealing
    challenges of life with courage and conviction
  • through baptism, sin is washed and can no longer hold power over us;
    through baptism, we are given the promise of eternal life
  • and for you, Hunter, tonight this story comes to full flower in your life
  • this is a night you have looked forward to for quite some time
  • and tonight you step forward to affirm your faith on your own and to receive
    our Lord in Holy Communion for the first time
  • and for you, too, this story of God’s salvation also becomes a surer foundation
    of your hope, the reason for your love – and source of peace in your heart

IV. The story we tell tonight also points to the future

  • Mary Magdalene – Mary, the mother of James – and Salome – were the first
    witnesses to the empty tomb
  • they told the story of their experience, a story repeated over and over again

V. In this Eucharist tonight we continue to tell the story. And in the telling, and in
the sharing of bread and wine, which is the risen Lord’s Body and Blood, we affirm
our identity once again – of who we are as the living Body of Christ in the world,
called to bring this story, this Good News to a waiting world.
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Fr. Dwayne Thoman