Saturday 31 March 2018

Homily for the Easter Vigil 2018






Homily for the Easter Vigil 2018

The Angel said, “You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified: He has risen, He is not here. See here is the place where they laid Him. But you must go and tell His disciples and Peter: He is going before you to Galilee; it is there you will see Him, just as He told you.” Mk. 16:8

We have arrived at the place of fulfilment.
We have arrived at the place where all our longing, all our desiring falls away.
We have arrived at the moment of Resurrection, not just of Christ, but through Him and with Him and in Him, a resurrection of all that is.

Long lost in self, long lost in despair, long lost in death we had felt the coldness of a life that seems to have no meaning, no essence, no hope…
we had felt the darkness of a wintered night without and even more so within…
we know what the long night of sin has done to us…
it has worn us down…
it has shamed us…
it has taken from us all that we hoped for…
as sin always does…
since the garden we have known its false promises and since the garden we have thought them real, only to stumble and fall again and again…
And yet for thousands of years we have hoped for deliverance, for freedom, for restoration…
We have been promised such in the proclamations of prophet and in the whispers of patriarchs, in the songs of the holy women and in the innocence of children we have seen another way, we have been recalled to righteousness, we have been invited again and again into covenant…
and we have heard that it is possible that the God who is Love never abandons His creation. Never abandons His people, never abandons you, never abandons me…

And He has promised…
he has declared that not only will He be Emmanuel, the God with Us, but He will be Jesus, the One who saves us from our sins. How? By facing down our darkness. He who is light will descend into the darkness of our sin. God from God, Light from Light, true God from True God; the everlasting Word of the Father will descend, will empty Himself and descend into the very bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh… this is how much He loves us…
He will become us and in becoming us He will face our darkness, consume our sin, heal our wounds…
He will be our sacrifice, the only sacrifice acceptable to the Father for in His humanity He will descend to heal us and in His divinity He will raise us up to our eternal home in the very heart of the communion of Love that we call God…

Yes He will descend and in descending touch the darkness, touch the despair, touch the sin, touch the misery of our selfishness and for just a moment, for just a seeming moment seem to be consumed. He will touch death, death on a cross. He will touch your death, all that is dead in you, all that is dead in me…
just for a moment…
they touch…
they embrace…
they kiss…
and from the darkened Golgotha sky the source of life and light breathes out his Spirit over the chaos we have caused…


And then…
and then He conquers!

Darkness is overcome by Light
Death is overcome by Life
Despair is overcome by Hope
Love… Love…Love
conquers all!
He is Risen!
Alleluia!
He is Risen!

This is the heart of existence, the heart of the story of creation, this is what it is all about and always was and will be about…
He descends and in that universal moment of Resurrection I am raised too, you are raised too, and crackling along the great faultline of history forwards and backwards into the world of the dead and the world of those yet to come all feel that great earthquake of power as death is conquered, the gates of hell are broken and the lamb reveals himself as the Lion of Judah
and He goes before us…
listen to the words of the Angel…
He goes before us…
We will see Him there just as He told us…

He goes before us…
the One who was foretold through the ages…
the One who emptied Himself of Divine Glory so as to become one with us…
goes before us…
The One who suffered and died and rose again goes before us…
He goes before me…
He goes before you…
Do you know what that means?
It is the great Easter secret…
from now on there is never a moment in your life or in my life, never a joy, a suffering, a place, or a time where He is not already there, waiting for you to arrive and be present to Him so that He may pour out love and light and power upon you… The resurrection is not just a moment in history it is happening now…
in this moment and in every moment we will ever face!
Our choice tonight and in each moment is to liberate His power in us, to allow Him to be the God He is who waits until we allow Him in… until we become present to Him…

Otherwise we miss it… we can be like the disciples who hear the word of hope and power and dismiss it… it can’t be we think! I had my plans and they failed… I had my hopes and they failed… I know who I am and I am a failure…
So I will dismiss the easter message tonight and descend back into my worry, my pain, my story of how things should be, could have been, would have been…
No not tonight! I beg you not tonight!
Leave the tomb of the past behind… walk out into the garden of the new morning of God’s Love.

He has died to show you how much you are loved. Your God has died for you!
He has risen to show you how much you are loved. Your God has risen for you!
He has gone ahead of you to prepare a place for you. Your God goes ahead of you!
No more fear of the future then!
No more regret for the past then!
As the Lamb He has cancelled your past
As the Lion He fights for your future…

So we on this holiest of nights begin again with the God of beginning
We say to Him again Lord that I may see! Lord that I may follow! Here I am Lord in all my mess, my pain, my glorious brokenness! Here I am for you! Let me begin again this day, this very moment. Not my will but yours…

What have we to fear?
We have it from the Angel’s mouth…

He has risen…
He is not here in the place of the tomb…
He is going before you…
It is there you will see Him…
Just as He told you…

And let us pray: Lord I will follow you into the easter light of the life you have prepared for me…

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