Trinity in the City of Boston
Easter Vigil Year B
March 30, 2024
| Exodus 14:10-31; 15:20-21 [Israel’s deliverance at the Red Sea] | Zephaniah 3:14-20 [The gathering of God’s people] |
Romans 6:3-11
Psalm 114
Mark 16:1-8
O God, who made this most holy night to shine with the glory of the Lord’s resurrection: Stir up in your Church that Spirit of adoption which is given to us in Baptism, that we, being renewed both in body and mind, may worship you in sincerity and truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
This is the night.
Rejoice and Sing hosts and choirs of angels
This is the night
Rejoice and be glad now Mother Church
This is the night when heaven and earth are joined and we are reconciled to God.
Great things begin in the quiet and stillness of the darkness.
Think about it.
In the quiet we can hear better, we can be still, we can discover what really needs to be heard and seen.
Tonight,
One still voice began our liturgy in prayer and lit the fire
and then in singing the exsultet.
Singing out to bring us together.
To remind us why we sing
To remind us why we walked so slowly through this past week.
We are gathered together to remember.
In the darkness, we sit.
We sat in the stillness of the quiet and incompleteness of Palm Sunday.
A service that began in a parade that led us into silence and sadness.
We remembered each final moment of Jesus’ days on this earth
As the disciples, Jesus’ closest friends, were broken apart with decisions, guilt, fear.
We sit with our small candles listening, re-membering on this night…
And then.
Led by the women, Mary, Mary Magdalene and Salome-
who we could call the first spice girls.. bringing the funeral spices to the tomb, what they really really wanted was consolation in their darkness.
We remember how, in the midst of their despair, disappointment, shame, guilt and fear.
They remembered how to take one step at a time
We, too, remember the routines, in a new light.
The Women came to the tomb coming to honor a beloved member of their community.
Then they remember
one more thing
They remember there is a stone to be moved.
One more thing to worry about, one more thing to take care of….
And there,
They find
The stone is already moved.
They can’t quite remember all of the story but the vague glimmer comes back to them.
The young man in the tomb reminds them
And the lightbulb goes off.
What Jesus promised has come true
Life can come even from death
The story did not end, instead the story continues
Remember, the young man says, remember the promise Jesus told you about
Remember the story is not over.
God is in the business of remembering and helping us to remember…….
This evening, we heard the beloved story of God’s faithfulness and love for God’s people.
God’s saving the Israelites from the Egyptians through the parted waters of the Red Sea.
“Remember whose you are.”
God’s faithfulness from the words of Zephaniah:
“You shall fear disaster no more.. I will bring you home”
“Remember you are not alone.”
No matter the situation
The story is not complete ….
Without the meeting of God in our midst, the meeting of heaven and earth.
In the fire, the readings, the songs this evening,
We remember.
We remember that wars, pain, disaster have always been a part of the human story.
We are a mess
We act in hate and division rather than in love and compassion
And God
Re-members humanity.
Reknitting humanity when they feel frayed and tangled up.
Re-connecting us with God’s self through the deep love and compassion of Jesus.
In Baptism, we remember the words of Paul
We are splashed with the water of baptism.
It’s messy.
We, too, are washed in the waters,
We, too, die to the death of sin
and are re-connected, re-membered as a member of the body of Christ.
We remember our promises as God creates in us anew.
In Jesus’ resurrection, the chasm between God and humanity is re-membered-
re populated, re connected.
Connected by the love that knows disappointment, despair, isolation, fear and guilt.
Re-membered by the connective tissue of love that yokes us together as a community defined by our need for a savior and by a God who believes in persistent resurrection.
This night
If you find yourself in the midst of darkness
Still sitting
Know that your story matters
Know that God is here re-membering you, too to this ancient story
Even if all you can do is the familiar, taking one step at a time,
Know that you, too, like the women at the tomb on that early morning, are showing up.
You, too, are invited into the story of resurrection
Of hope
Of more than the here and now
Into the unexpected
Into God’s loving embrace
And into this space where hope can co-exist in the midst of despair.
We are re-membered into the embrace of God
Because this night we, too, see the empty tomb.
We, too, do not fully understand it all
And yet we know Alleluia this not fully grasping the totality of God’s love is part of our story here and now.
The journey is not over
Like Mary Magdalene, Mary, and Salome, we depart in amazement and a bit of fear and the light of Christ shining.
Amen.
"I will with God's Help" 