The Day of Resurrection - Part III of the Triduum
The Rev. Nigel Taber-Hamilton, Rector
It's always difficult for a preacher today - on the one hand you want the sermon to be great, yet on the other hand today is not about what is said but what we do, and the best sermon is one submerged by the actions we share.
So lets 'do' some history! Do you know that very quickly in the life of the early Christian communities of the First Century the day when they incorporated new members into The Body was the "Great Day"? Every Sunday was a celebration of the Day of Resurrection, of course, but one Sunday each year marked the actual day - The Great Day - This Day.
And what do we say to mark the day? Something like "Happy Easter!" right?
So here's another "did you know?"! Did you know that only in English is this day named after name of an obscure pagan fertility goddess - "Estre" (from which we get "estrogen") - come to name this day and season. In every language but English, this day is referred to as the "Christian Passover" - in French, "Paques", in Spanish "Pascua", in Russian "Pascha", and so on. The message is clear: this day is about the same sorts of things that the original Passover was about
The original Passover marked that moment when our Jewish ancestors "passed over" from slavery to freedom, from darkness to light, from death to life.
So it is with this celebration, which begun last Thursday We have "passed over" from darkness to light, from death to life, and, if we seize it, from slavery to all those things that hold our hearts captive to the freedom that is in God.
We started with the reminder of the "Last Supper" - which should really be called the "First Supper" - learning that community and fellowship, expressed in a sacred meal, - lie at the heart of God.
We walked uphill to the abandoned quarry with the rock shaped like a skull, and saw eternal death in the shape of a cross. That odd-shaped rock was 'bad rock' - not worth quarrying, so the local builders quarried around it. Remember Psalm 118? "The rock that the builders rejected has become the chief corner-stone"? Our faith is built on the cross.
And now we come to this day and the last part of one continuous, three-day service, each suspended, not ended, "From upper room to empty tomb", as the bulletin cover says. We come to the Empty Tomb.
The reason today - the Day of Resurrection - is the day the early Christians chose to incorporate new members is because baptism defines this celebration - when St. Paul talks of baptism he talks of being buried with Christ so that we can be raised with Christ. Joining - being incorporated into the Body - is about that same Passover journey from slavery to freedom, from darkness to light, from death to life.
In baptism we have made that journey - though it's not always obvious to us that we have.
Whenever any person was baptized, the first Christians, said, again quoting Sacred Text, there is a new creation, the old has passed away. And each newly baptized person was considered a "little Christ" to be treated as the guest of honor.
Following those early Christian Passover services believers gathered around the newly baptized to touch them, to ask them for a blessing, because in so doing they were coming as close as we'll ever come this side of the river to touching Christ.
Passing over, for those first believers and for us, is the journey from death to life that will inevitably bring us back to the empty tomb.
But it has to be more than just returning to the empty tomb to have meaning. After all, what was it that the two figures said? To paraphrase: "what's wrong with you, he's not here!!" Visiting the empty tomb is simply a reminder that Jesus is not there. The empty tomb is old news.
There is new news about this day, however. It is no longer - probably never was - just about the resurrection of Jesus as an individual. To truly have meaning today has also to be about our own resurrection as a part of a community of faith, symbolized and re-enacted through the rite of baptism.
Baptism, therefore, cannot be about a few individuals going through a religious rite with a large audience of on-lookers - we're all participants, each with his or her own role, and in each person's baptism we, too participate in the journey from death to life.
In baptism the community of faith welcomes new members and re-commits itself as a community to live out the core values of Christian faith, which include common worship, repentance and amendment of life, living the "Jesus way" with God-like compassion and love, and striving for justice and peace while respecting the dignity of every human being.
This is a different way of living than we find in our sorry and troubled world.
The earliest name for Christian faith was "The Way", and the earliest Christians - before the name "Christian" was coined (it was an insult!) - were called "Followers of The Way".
At its very heart being a "Follower of the Way" means seeking to create and be a part of authentic community. The Way recognizes that we need each other. Authentic community is the place where we can share what we know or have learned about life, about how to face pain and death, how to share in joy and celebration, how to find meaning and transformation, and, yes, transcendence.
What I've just described is living into resurrection. That's the story of today. The story of Jesus' resurrection is largely meaningless if it isn't also about our own resurrection, as individuals and as a community.
We can't do it alone, we can only do it together. And when we do it together we will be transformed. That, in the end, is one of the most profound learnings that this Great Day has to offer us.
Last night, some of us shared in what has always been understood as the first service of Christianity - the Easter Vigil. And we sang a hymn that contained these words which I share with you in closing:
Christ is alive! Let Christians sing.
The cross stands empty to the sky.
Let streets and homes with praises ring.
Love, drowned in death, shall never die.
Christ is alive! No longer bound
to distant years in Palestine,
but saving, healing, here and now,
and touching every place and time.
Not throned above, remotely high,
untouched, unmoved by human pains,
but daily, in the midst of life,
our Savior with the Father reigns.
In every insult, rift, and war
where color, scorn or wealth divide,
Christ suffers still, yet loves the more,
and lives, where even hope has died.
Women and men, in age and youth,
can feel the Spirit, hear the call,
and find the way, the life, the truth,
revealed in Jesus, freed for all.
Christ is alive, and comes to bring
good news to this and every age,
till earth and sky and ocean ring
with joy, with justice, love, and praise.
Alleluia! Amen.
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