Easter Vigil

The funeral service might seem like a strange place to start an Easter sermon but that is where the disciples as they entered the garden, found themselves.

Give rest, O Christ, to thy servant(s) with thy saints,

where sorrow and pain are no more, neither sighing, but life everlasting.

Thou only art immortal, the creator and maker of mankind; and we are mortal, formed of the earth, and unto earth shall we return. For so thou didst ordain when thou createdst me, saying, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” All we go down to the dust;

And until this evening, in the celebration of Holy Week, this is where we would remain.

But remember this is the dust we talked about on Maundy Thursday, not the sort of talk of dust which denigrates our beautiful humanity but rather the elemental nature of our human bodies, elements which Jesus transforms.

…..yet even at the grave we make our song: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

It is not just in the elements of bread and wine which we find transformation in the Resurrection, it is in our whole selves – now it makes sense why Jesus washed feet and not bodies, this inward transformation is complete as the tired disciples make their way to the garden and find out, one by one, that they truth is very different from what they had imagined.

The grime and dirt of Good Friday had not stuck to them and they were transformed into Resurrection people.

I don’t know whether you have many of those moments in your life when everything just falls into place, when time seems to stop, if only for a moment, and all seems right with the world. Those moments are still moments, moments when we are fully ourselves and feel alive.

The story of the Resurrection is surrounded in the three of the Gospels by a lot of running and shouting. Peter, of course, his ebullient self. It is left to John to provide the quiet moment of realization, that whispered Alleluia to the risen Lord, in the story of Mary Magdalene.

I said last Sunday that we were on a journey into silence, the silence of an empty church which has become a tomb for a dead Christ. Then, early in the morning there is the shout of “He has Risen!”  But between those two things there is a moment of silence transformed – it is real, Jesus is alive and they catch their breath in wonder before jumping for joy.

The truth of the resurrection sinks into the disciples, just like any news, they have moments when they are jumping for joy, and moments where they whisper quietly, Jesus really is alive, He really is risen. It is real it is true.

The reality of that caught breath is an invitation to all of us. Just a moment of pure joy as we realize that we are invited to contemplate this moment of completeness even as  we explode into glorious shouts of praise.

We are an Alleluia people. We are people of the Resurrection, we are people of joy. Some people will feel irritated at that, as if Easter Joy is all a bit artificial. After all life may pause as the reality of the Risen Christ is revealed but it does not stop, everything is the same afterwards – isn’t it?  It is not a magic happy spell.

No it isn’t but Easter Joy is real and lasting.

Several years ago I was really down in the dumps and remember getting really annoyed at daffodils. The turning circles in England often have bulbs planted in them and in the Spring they pop up with their cheerful yellow faces. I was hurting and really was annoyed that these flowers had the cheek to be so peppy when I was not. I can imagine to folk outside the Church can look a bit like that at Easter, as if we are pretending that life it not really there.

But what we can fail to see in that is joy – Easter Joy is not about pretending that there is nothing else going on, it is about brining all of that stuff with us and knowing that there is a truth which holds onto all that and changes our dust deep inside. Knowing that Jesus is there in the Garden with each of our names on His lips – and that Him speaking just our name is enough.  It doesn’t Teflon coat us, if anything it makes up more vulnerable to things that go on around us – just like Jesus was – but Easter joy soaks into us, gradually fills us from the inside out until we begin to shimmer and then shine with the light and truth of the Resurrection.

The disciples did not all go and retire to the beach and take up leisure fishing,  they went out filled with this news to tell people about the experience of Resurrection and Resurrection Life. As we come to this Easter we must bear in mind that this is our mission as well. We are called in invited to contemplate the great moment – to let it sink into our dust like rain on the barren earth, we are called to bear Alleluias like a great river cascading through the desert, but we are also called to be a place where there is new growth, to become fertile soil.

But for tonight let’s just let it sink in, Christ is Risen, not was, is. This is not a memory of a happy moment but a present reality of the truth of salvation. Christ is Risen, really, really, risen. Alleluia.Alleluia. Alleluia.