RCL Year B (Easter 5) - May 10, 2009

The Rev'd Kenneth H. Saunders III

Christ Episcopal Church

Cleveland, NC

RCL Year B (Easter 5) - May 10, 2009

Acts 8:26-40

Psalm 22:24-30

1 John 4:7-21

John 15:1-8

One of the things that I have noticed while living in Cleveland is that there are many talented gardeners… Growing everything from crops to personal gardens of flowers and vegetables, folks from Cleveland know something about planting something in the ground and tending to it, and making it grow and bear fruit. The ground here must be good for it. Since we have been living here, Kelly and I have taken up planting roses again.

So, for a gardening congregation, we know something about vines and branches. I know that when you prune roses, you need to cut the stem back to where you see new growth in order to let the branch take its course, uninhibited by the old growth that has bloomed.

At first it seems as if the bush is smaller, but once the new growth is given room and allowed to flourish, it takes off and grows… It grows into a strong bright brilliant bush, producing more beautiful blooms and buds than it did previously… but it is always a product of its strong root and stalk. For a rose, the stems and the new growth receive its nourishment from the stalk, it cannot live independently. If it is cut, separated from the stalk, it has no life in it, and it will wither and die.

In our gospel lesson today, Jesus uses a common metaphor (the vineyard) from the 5th Chapter of Isaiah – one that his disciples would recognize… It was a description of Israel’s relationship to God – and He used it in order to describe the relationship between the disciples and Himself.

The fifth chapter of Isaiah starts out...
I will sing a song for the Lord.
He is the one I love.
It's a song about his vineyard Israel.
The one I love had a vineyard.
It was on a hillside that had rich soil.
He dug up the soil and removed its stones.
He planted the very best vines in it.
He built a lookout tower there.
He also cut out a winepress for it.
Then he kept looking for a crop of good grapes.
But the vineyard produced only bad fruit.

The prophet tells of a people, cared for, given the best that they could get, provided for in every aspect, yet non-productive – producing bad fruit (or in some translations – wild grapes). He goes on to tell of the demise of God’s chosen people that lived there life apart from the care and comfort of the vine grower.

Jesus latches onto a metaphor that the people knew, and explains that He (Jesus) is the true vine. He is the part of vine that provides the life and sustenance for the branches (his followers.) And, as God (the Vinegrower) sees that good fruit is being produced, nourished by life in the vine, he tends the vine and prunes it, causing it to provide even more good fruit.
I don’t know how many of you folks have ever been to the vine arbor at the Biltmore house in Asheville… There is a long walkway there with a great trellis over it, where the grape vine grows up and over, almost creating a tunnel. From the outside, it just looks like a giant green tube, full and rich. However, when you go in, walking down the walkway in the arbor, you can see all the beautiful grapes hanging down, good fruit, plump and rich, ready for the picking.

I get that image in my head when I hear this passage. In that situation, we cannot see the fruit unless we are in the arbor. Being down under covered by this wonderful vine dwelling in it – protected, almost as if we were in a cocoon – a cocoon in where we are formed and transformed to be spiritually awakened as a new person in Jesus Christ.

Jesus says, “abide in me as I abide in you.” He reminds us that we cannot bear good fruit by ourselves; we must be an active part of the vine, connected to it so that we can be nourished and tended to… We cannot just grow anywhere we want to… we follow the trellis that is put in place by God, the Vinegrower.

As good a gardeners as we are, we must remember that we are not the vinegrower – God is the vinegrower… Jesus refers to us as the branches…

As his followers, we are branches of Him, the one true vine, getting everything we need from God (the Vinegrower) and being nourished by Jesus (the vine) as we grow and bear good fruit… if we are cut off, or if we cut ourselves off we start to wither and die.

However, if we abide in Jesus, truly abide (live in, dwell with), not just for an hour on Sunday morning, but being connected to every minute of every hour of every day… We will bear much good fruit…

And how do we get to be a branch of that one true vine? How do we get to participate and take part in the life that bears the good fruit? Baptism is how… That is why we hear a the baptism story from Acts this morning too…

We become attached to the vine at baptism, and vow to live a life letting the trellis of the arbor that the vinegrower has put into place support us and sustain us, and letting the vine nourish us…

What is interesting is that the story of Philip baptizing the eunuch from Ethiopia, is that it’s a story of a seeker of the truth, trying to find a religion that would accept him. His body had been mutilated and disfigured.

And Though he could not become a Jew because of his mutilation, he had come to Jerusalem anyway as a seeker, to worship the God of Israel… and he was reading from the prophet Isaiah. Philip came upon him and revealed the scriptures meaning to him, and proclaimed to him the Good News of God in the person of Jesus Christ.

The Ethiopian eunuch was drawn to be connected and share fully in this life that Philip spoke about, but was still afraid that because of his disfigurement, he wouldn’t be able to.
So, when they came upon some water, the eunuch exclaimed, “Look here is water, what is to prevent me from being baptized.” And Philip, knowing that through Christ, all creation is made a new, nothing would prevent him from being baptized and participating in the community of faith, Philip baptized him – connecting him to the vine that we are all a part of.

In our Christian Education class on Sunday mornings, we are looking at how we live and how we make moral and ethical decisions in light of the resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ… How we might live in the resurrection, and recognize the good fruit that is being produced around us and through us…

Life in the resurrection is abiding in God (the vinegrower), letting Jesus (our true vine nourish us and sustain us for our journey of faith) and living out that faith in participation with a community that also nourishes us and sustains us (among other branches that bear that good fruit). This is good news! These are all comforting and encouraging words to hear! But is that all?

So often this seems to be the main just of this lesson, but there’s always more to it than that. If we stop short with these comforting words, we miss the entire message. Life in the resurrection, being branches that bear good fruit requires responsibility and action and it has consequences.

We must not forget that this passage also includes the message of pruning, and being thrown away, and withering – of being thrown into the fire and burned, if we fail to produce “good fruit.” It is the part of this lesson that we don’t often hear, and it is sobering…

The Gospel message is clear, and when we read it closely, in its entirety, we realize that Jesus expects something from each of us. Each of us are connected though the awesome gift of God’s grace in our baptism, accepting us a living members of the body of Christ.

But our responsibility of being connected to this vine, is to be a branch that bears much good fruit, doing the work that Jesus wants us to do… using our resources to build up the kingdom of God, loving one another, and focusing our thoughts and our efforts on learning to be better disciples… All of this means that we are called and expected to answer our Lord’s love with action!

The action of fruit bearing, fruit bearing that is rooted in our baptism and it is sealed with the promise of “I will, with God’s help.” How then shall we live? Maybe the answer to that question is right in front of us. Jesus said, “Abide in me as I abide in you.” This doesn’t mean settle down and relax, it means get busy!

RCL Year B (Easter 4) - May 3, 2009

The Rev'd Kenneth H. Saunders III

Christ Episcopal Church

Cleveland, NC

RCL Year B (Easter 4) - May 3, 2009

Acts 4:5-12

Psalm 23

1 John 3:16-24

John 10:11-18

Today we get to leave the post resurrection appearances of Jesus for a minute… You know, those accounts of Jesus appearing to his disciples after the resurrection, showing himself to his disciples in the breaking of the bread, and revealing himself as he opens the scripture to them and eats with them.

Today we get to focus on something different… In today’s gospel reading, here in the middle of our celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, we learn more about who Jesus is.

But, like so many other bible references, the images today are strange to us and not easy to understand. Even, right here in our rural community of Cleveland, NC, we don’t quite understand why Jesus refers to himself as “The Good Shepherd.”

Jesus says that He is “The Good Shepherd,” The model shepherd that lays down his life for the sheep. I don’t know about you, but I don’t know of any “sheep ranches” in Cleveland, NC.

Driving around Cleveland, I see lots of cows, and bulls… and even yesterday I was greeted by Larry the goat, but no sheep. However, the folks that Jesus was talking to understood what a good shepherd was, and how important their function was to the raising of sheep.

Jesus uses the image of shepherd as a metaphor to explain who he is… By saying that he is the “Good Shepherd,” Jesus says that he is the faithful leader, guardian, protector, healer, and loving guide of us, his sheep.

Over the years, it seems like we have romanticized the image of shepherd a bit… When we think of “shepherd,” we think more of a young man (maybe in the Christmas play) with a some kind of towel on his head, standing out in the field with a crooked pole watching over a group of animals that are grazing in the grass.

But, people who know what shepherds are, know they are much more than that. Shepherd were tough and courageous, a bit rough around the edges, on the fringes of refined society… they are the “other” folks, who are not always accepted… More like the kind of people that are considered the “outcasts of society” – the ones that Jesus makes it a point to be with, eat with, and teach.

And Jesus says, “I am the Good Shepherd, I know my own, and my own know me.” We are Jesus’ own. We are the sheep of his pasture… wait a minute – yes – I said sheep.

We are sheep. But don’t misunderstand Jesus’ metaphor… He is not calling us simple mindless animals that eat grass all day and stand around and go baaaa… There is a distinct difference between sheep and any other pasture animal.

Sheep are interesting communal creatures that will stay huddled together in a flock. Unlike cattle that can be rounded up and herded together from behind and pushed in a direction, sheep need to be led from the front…

I understand that if you try to herd them and prod and push sheep from behind to get them to go anywhere, then they will scurry around and get behind the shepherd. Sheep need to be led… Led by the Good Shepherd.

And sheep are not dumb animals. They know their shepherd, and they will listen to their shepherd’s voice as he calls them by name. You could have 3 or 4 different flocks together, all grazing on the same pasture, comingled, and when the shepherd calls them, they will follow his voice… and go where he leads them, because they trust the Good Shepherd to lead them to good pasture, and keep them safe from danger.

But there are many voices vying for the sheep’s attention. Voices that try to endanger us, the sheep. There are voices of this world today that want to lead us sheep astray. Voices like self reliance, self security, greed, and idolatry.

Voices that try to make us think that we don’t need each other… voices of this world that try to break up the harmony of our flock and make us start judging one another.

Being timid animals, sheep are vulnerable and not able to protect themselves, they need the shepherd’s protection… Protection from wolves, and other predators that may be after them.

But if the sheep are as true to the shepherd, as the Good Shepherd Jesus is to the sheep, then they will listen to the Shepherd and follow where he leads, and He will look after them.

But often, at times, we aren’t good sheep. We are stubborn and we don’t go where the Good Shepherd leads. We like to think that we have it all figured out ourselves, and we like to separate ourselves from the other sheep that aren’t like us, rather than stay with the one flock, under control of the one true Good Shepherd.

There are many who are out there that try to be the shepherd and lead the sheep where they think they need to go. Leading them to places that aren’t good for the sheep… Places of danger… There are even ministers out there who think that they are shepherds, trying to scare the sheep into staying with a flock… Telling them that they are the only ones who know the way to the greener pastures.

As your priest, I will be the first to tell you that I am NOT a shepherd, I will never claim to be a shepherd – though some of you have been taught that a minister is some sort of shepherd… I don’t think that it is the proper representation… it shouldn’t work like that.

I am more of a sheep among the sheep of God, always trying to point the way to and show the other sheep who the One true “Good Shepherd” is. It is important that I always follow the Good Shepherd too, following where the Good Shepherd leads.

I heard someone say once that the priest is more of a sheep dog, helping the Good Shepherd keep the sheep in line, and helping protect the sheep against the evil wolves of this world… but even the sheep dog follows where the “Good Shepherd” leads.

In the passage, Jesus is the only One True Good Shepherd, protecting, guiding, loving and caring for the sheep that are His - us. Never forsaking us, always faithful to us, nourishing us, giving us hope, and saving us from ourselves.

Jesus isn’t any ordinary shepherd, he is the “model shepherd” (the “Good Shepherd”) that embodies strength, power, sympathy, kindness, and mercy.

Jesus uses a figure of speech that the people of the ancient world in the middle east would understand. With the shepherd / sheep imagery, he tried to teach them how to live in right relationship with Him and with each other.

We are gathered here today 2000 years later, learning from this passage that we are his people and the sheep of his pasture… Let us seek His and only His guidance and protection as we dare to follow where He leads.

RCL Year B (Easter 2) - April 19, 2009

The Rev'd Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Episcopal Church
Cleveland, NC

RCL Year B (Easter 2) - April 19, 2009

Acts 4:32-35
Psalm 133
1 John 1:1-2:2
John 20:19-31

We live in a time where it is completely normal and desirable to be absolutely sure of everything. In our culture and our world, it is hard to understand how we can actually believe in something without “proof!” In our time, there are people out there every second of every day trying to gather “proof.” “Proof” through the “facts” that they can find. “Proof” before they believe in ANYTHING.

Some folks act like those Crime Scene Investigators, that we see on the popular television shows, as they gather evidence needed to solve a crime. It seems that they are out there to “prove” or “disprove” the existence of everything. Like forcing the pieces to fit in some gigantic puzzle.

I will admit - when I was in High School, one of my favorite courses was Geometry. This is where I actually got to “prove” things like, a triangle was not a square, because it met a certain criteria. We can “prove” so much with our God-given minds – Why not prove God? Why not prove Jesus? Wouldn’t that make our lives much easier… to know all of the answers to all of the questions??? Or would it??

This notion of “proof” that plagues our culture has even trickled down to a young person I met recently. You have probably met someone like him. A bright sharply dressed young man “on fire” to do the work of the Lord Jesus in the world. Knowing that I was a priest (the outfit made it obvious), he proceeded to come up to me and ask me, “are you saved?” I thought he was just messing with me, but he seemed very serious, and very convicted. So, instead of giving him my usual stupid “sarcastic” reply, “saved from what?” I looked him in the eye with confidence and said, “yes, as a matter of fact, I am...”

Then he his other question came. “How do you know?” “Prove it!” This completely blew me away. This guy didn’t know me at all and he wanted me to “prove” to him that I knew something about salvation and forgiveness. The funny part about this is that I could have engaged him in a riveting theological discussion about the economic trinity and God’s revelation to God’s people by God’s work throughout salvation history. Did he forget that I went to seminary for three years, and I am an educated priest? But I didn’t do all that. I just stood there mesmerized.

I think that the most frustrating thing for me was this young man was completely “certain” that I should somehow be able to “prove it!” I thought to myself, where was the faith in that? Where are the questions? Where is the mystery?

I have been taught through my life that the opposite of faith is not doubt, it’s certainty. That in order to have faith, one must be willing to live with some mystery. Now. I guess that I could have gone out and started a quest to find archeological “proof” of the historic Jesus, like so many folks have before me. And I could have used my inquisitive mind to act like one of those Crime Scene Investigator and search for the facts to somehow prove my faith. But would that actually help me believe?

I would like to suggest that “maybe” in our time, it is harder for us to take things on faith because we are so incredibly good at finding that “tangible” or at least the “scientific” proof for so many things. So much to the point that it is extremely sad that when science offers us something different than what we have believed for centuries. Our beliefs are so based on what we think are facts that they are somehow shattered.

I have heard some people argue that “science says it has proven that humans have evolved from a lower life form. Then you hear the other side, but, I am a Christian, therefore, I can’t believe that – it contradicts what I read in the Bible.”

Galileo Galilei – a devout Christian, and excellent theologian – a man considered to be the father of modern physics had an argument with the Church because he introduced the idea of a Solar system in 1609 – which is a “heliocentric” or “sun-centered” system that the “planets” revolved around.

Then, the Church’s interpretation of the bible supported an Earth centered universe. The Church immediately convicted him of heresy and sentenced him to life in prison in a tower. But now, it has been “proven” and it is readily accepted, and now, we interpret the context of scripture much differently.

I am here to tell you this morning that I don't believe the opposite of belief is doubt. So, if what I believe is based on faith, and the opposite of faith is certainty, where does that put doubt? Just because you believe, doesn’t mean you can’t doubt. I believe that doubt is related to belief and engaged in a type of wrestling back and forth, struggling with the questions of faith.

For me, I think that I would rather spend time with someone who really wrestles with the questions, than someone who says they are a true believer, and thinks that they have all the answers, but their life doesn't reflect the faith they talk about.

Someone who really wrestles with the questions has a lot more in common with the apostles, and a lot more in common with you and with me in our tradition of scripture, tradition, and reason.

Doubt is not a bad thing. Doubt can lead us to faith.

In the Gospel lesson this morning, Thomas didn't get to see the resurrected Jesus at first. He didn't have the faith that the other disciples did after they saw Jesus because Thomas was somewhere else.

Regardless of how much the disciples that were gathered in that upper room testified to Thomas that they had seen the risen Christ. Thomas still had his reservations. He said, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I WILL NOT BELIEVE!”

It is important for us to notice in the story that Thomas is engaged in his doubts. He came forth, he asked to be able to see. he wanted to believe!

A week later the risen Jesus appears to them again. This time Thomas is with them! Jesus tells Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe!”

And don't we want to believe like that? Of Course We Do!

Especially on those days when the story of the resurrection seems a bit beyond our grasp. We want to believe, we want to come forth, we want to ask to be able to see the wounds, and we want to invest our lives and our souls in something tangible. We want to be able the make the proclamation that Thomas made, “My Lord and My God!”

Because what happened to Thomas works for us. We are a society that needs that kind of “proof.” Then Jesus throws a twist in Thomas’ new found faith... faith that is based on “tangible” evidence! Jesus says, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

We have not seen, but yet we believe. We may doubt sometimes, but we are here and we believe!

For centuries, this Sunday (The Second Sunday of Easter) has been called “Low Sunday.” This is done mainly to point out that sharp contrast between this Sunday and all of the “High Holy Day” festivities of Easter. In fact, I think that the folks who go to church on the Sunday after Easter understand this lesson more than anyone else.

You are here because you understand that the resurrection of Jesus and Easter is not just some pleasant springtime tradition to observe with Bunny ears, colored eggs, marshmallow chicks, and candy for the children. You are here because the resurrected Christ has invited you to share a meal, exercise your faith and be nourished and you have come back for this meal again today.

There is the faith!

You're acting out your beliefs. You're acting out your faith that has been handed down through those who have been willing to take action and proclaim the resurrection.

We are all called as Christians to live into our faith. The action of living into our faith strengthens our faith and helps diminish our doubts. Faith is not some obscure mental act. It is not something we have to fabricate in our heads. It is the state of “being” possessed by the love of God. We act on it by telling others, so that they, too, can enter that state of “being” possessed by the love of God.

This is what I believe! Doubt is not a bad thing…

Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ? Do you believe that he rose from the dead? Do you believe in life everlasting?

Let US all be able to proclaim, My Lord and My God! So that we can Gracefully accept our gift of the resurrection of Christ. And we can Gracefully accept our gift of life everlasting with our God. And when we are like the beloved Apostle, St. Thomas, and are filled with doubts, let us ask for God to fill us with the power that we need to profess the faith. So that, while we are strengthening our own faith, we are also passing it on.

RCL Year B (Easter) - April 12, 2009

The Rev'd Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Episcopal Church
Cleveland, NC

RCL Year B (Easter) - April 12, 2009

Acts 10:34-43
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
John 20:1-18

(transcribed from a recording of the Easter sermon - no manuscript / no notes)

Alleluia, Christ is risen!
Congregation: The Lord has risen indeed, Alleluia…
(no, no, no… there’s no energy in that)

ALLELUIA, CHRIST IS RISEN!
Congregation: The Lord has risen indeed, Alleluia!

One more time…
ALLELUIA, CHIRST IS RISEN!
Congregation: THE LORD HAS RISEN INDEED, ALLELUIA!

The vestry should have to meet to decided if they should replace the nails in the roof after that! This is something to get excited about! This is why we are Christian! The stone has been rolled away, the tomb is empty! He has risen like he said it would happen.

We get the story this morning from John’s Gospel. John’s Gospel story is interlaced with all kinds of intricate meaning, but the message is the same, “Christ is risen, he is not here! Why do you seek the living among the dead?” Think about it.

The story opens up with the two disciples running to the tomb, trying to outrun each other. There’s Peter, and the unnamed disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, who is never really named in the scriptures. Who is that disciple? The disciple that Jesus loved… The disciple that outruns Peter on the way to the tomb. You can see them in your head, running together, trying to get there… Who is that disciple? The unnamed disciple… The beloved disciple? I want to suggest for a minute that Heather is that disciple, or Shaun, or Mildred, or Sallie, or Jane, or Laura or Any of us… Any of us in this room is that beloved disciple. That beloved disciple that outruns Peter to the tomb… He gets there first, but is scared. So scared that he just peaks in, to see only the darkness of the tomb. And Peter gets there, and Peter goes in first. And we believe today, because Peter believed, and saw that the tomb was empty. We have the message today, because Peter and the Church passed down that message in the scriptures.

Alleluia, Christ is Risen!
Congregation: The Lord has risen indeed, Alleluia…
(y’all are taking all the energy out of this…)

ALLELUIA, CHRIST IS RISEN!
Congregation: THE LORD HAS RISEN INDEED, ALLELUIA!!!

Put yourself in the story! That’s what we all need to do. We need to take ourselves out of our mundane lives, out of our day to day, 9 to 5, 7 to 3, whatever it is, out of our lives and put ourselves in the story. Live the Gospel message of the resurrection. Be the first one to the tomb that dared to go in. Be the first one to the tomb, beat Peter there, beat Peter there.

We live out this life day to day, week to week, hour to hour, minute to minute, and we can only cope with what’s going on out there in the world… we can only cope with that, because we do what we do in here. This makes that livable.

It is something to be excited about. It is something to share with our friends, our neighbors, and our families. It is something that supercharges us from the inside out. The expressions of the resurrection that we live in our day to day lives, not just on Sunday… not just from 10:30 to 11:30 on Sunday (or 11:45 depending on how long this goes). Not just on Sunday, but day to day in our everyday lives… How do you live out the resurrection in your life? How do you show others the Christ-light that is in you?

Last night we renewed our baptismal vows. That’s why there’s holy water in the font, and that’s why the Christ-light burns before you, and it will burn the whole 50 days of the season of Easter. We kindled a new fire, and lit the paschal candle from the new fire, and heard the Old Testament stories of salvation, as God redeemed God’s people over and over, and over again. We got a foretaste of that story, and coming in here, and renewing our baptismal vows, we attached ourselves to the story… we become part of the story… we become that beloved disciple that is unnamed in the Gospel according to John. That disciple that outruns Peter to the tomb.

But that’s not the end of the story… The story goes on. It says that Mary Magdalene was crying outside of the tomb, after the other disciples left and had gone away. She was crying outside the tomb, because she didn’t know where they had taken Jesus’ body. She was upset and in mourning. She wanted to know where they had taken him.

Jesus appears to her, but she doesn’t know who he is. She doesn’t know who he is until Jesus calls her by name, Mary! And she turns and acknowledges him, Rabbi! We do not know Jesus because we are not looking for him in the right places. We look for him in success of our day to day lives measured by a man’s measuring stick. Some sort of scorecard we call a paycheck. We measure success by what kind of car we drive, or how big our house is. All these ways fail!

The primary way we can see Jesus is by connecting ourselves to the body of Christ, Christian to Christian, looking each other in the eye, and seeing that Christ-light in each other. Seeing the light of Christ that was given to us at baptism, lived out in our resurrection experiences with each other in Christian community.

It’s a communal thing. When we gather together as a community of faith. When we fellowship, when we worship together, when we are ingrained and involved with one another, then we have a chance to experience the risen Christ right here, right in this community.

There is a Christ-light that burns in each and every one of us. Our challenge is do we run away from the tomb? Are we scared to death that someone is going to call us foolish? Or that someone is going to make fun of us – or call us a Jesus freak? Or something silly like that? Or do we live out the resurrection in our lives? Do we show forth the love for our neighbors that Jesus commanded us to have? Do we love God more than anything else than this world could ever show us? God loved us that much! He loved us so much that He became one of us. He became one of us to live a life like we live, yet without sin. He lived the life that we live, day to day, week by week, hour by hour… And when he was here he spoke the truth. But we convicted him unjustly and hung him on a cross to die. But God uses that, and raises Jesus from death, defeating death by resurrection life. Resurrection life is not resuscitated life… It is life after life after death. That is hard to get your head around, but that’s what it is. It is not some bodily resuscitation, but it is resurrection!

The tomb is empty, Jesus has risen! It is our job to go forward from this place and live into that resurrection life, doing the work in the world that God has given us to do!

ALLELUIA, CHRIST IS RISEN!
Congregation: THE LORD HAS RISEN INDEED! ALLELUIA!

RCL Year B (Easter Vigil) - April 11, 2009

The Rev'd Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Episcopal Church
Cleveland, NC

RCL Year B (Easter Vigil) - April 11, 2009

At the Vigil
Genesis 7:1-5, 11-18, 8:6-18, 9:8-13 [The Flood]
Exodus 14:10-31; 15:20-21 [Israel's deliverance at the Red Sea]
Ezekiel 37:1-14 [The valley of dry bones]

At the Eucharist
Romans 6:3-11
Psalm 114
Mark 16:1-8

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!!!

The Lord Jesus Christ has risen indeed!

The rock has been moved away and the tomb is EMPTY!

As we gather this evening, we celebrate the wonderful and glorious event of Jesus’ resurrection with The Great Vigil of Easter… This is something that the church has done since about the 3rd century. In this time of worship we can focus our hearts, and minds on the saving work that has been done for us in the life, death and glorious resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Just like He said it would happen! But, the story of the empty tomb from Mark’s Gospel tonight is a bit strange and different. It says the women, upon seeing the empty tomb ran away and said nothing to noone. Some biblical scholars claim that Mark 16:8 is the verse that concludes Mark. It ends very curt, and almost stops… It stops and lets us fill in the blanks, it stops and lets us ponder what comes next. It lets us become the rest of the story. Because we are all part of the story…

The resurrection of Christ, my friends, is the pivotal point around which our Christian lives are centered. Looking at our lives together, through the lens of resurrection, allows us to know ourselves better, to know each other better, and know our God better.

St. Paul says, that when we were baptized, we are baptized into Christ death, and just as Christ rose from the dead, we walk in newness of life! Our old self has been discarded it has been crucified with Christ and we have been reborn, refreshed and renewed - free from sin and death to live forever with our God!

I had a good friend ask me at the beginning of this past week, “are you going to walk with Jesus this week, or are you going to hide in the crowd with peter?” That question had a profound impact on the way I approached my entire holy week and it influences my message to you tonight…

We come together tonight after being on a lenten journey, through the darkness… And then we lingered in his last days for a while, continuing on our journey through this past week and Jesus’ last days as he washed feet and as he taught us to break bread and share the cup.

We moved through Christ’s passion, including his betrayal and arrest then followed him through his trial and to the cross where we witnessed his crucifixion and death.

My friend was challenging me to follow Christ to the cross, proclaiming him as Lord and savior... Not hiding my faith in the fear of being persecuted for what has been revealed to me to be truth. Not hiding as Peter did among the crowd, denying that I ever knew the man…

The service tonight moves us beyond the Cross… and allows us to focus on something a little different. As the paschal candle was lighted and the exsultet was sung, the light of Christ became clearer and brighter as the evening progressed.

The liturgy this evening was designed for us, to be able to take a similar journey… from the one we just were on… This time we go through the record of salvation history of our God in the Hebrew scriptures, all the way through… leading up to the stories of our own participation in that salvation history, by the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

The center point of the service included the sacrament of holy baptism, when not only the ones who were baptized all over the world tonight are reborn in Christ, we ourselves get to renew our own baptismal vows and recommit our lives again to walking with Christ.

The Easter vigil becomes for us Christians the hallmark of our proclamation of faith… It is from here that we celebrate the first eucharist of Easter, and then each and every Sunday throughout the churchyear forward becomes like a “little” Easter.

As we go forward from this place tonight, we take Easter with us… As believers in the resurrection of Christ, we celebrate his resurrection today and every Sunday, and we always should then try to live into that resurrection each and every day of our life… anticipating our own eternal life with our God…

So, Alleluia, Christ is Risen! The Lord has Risen indeed! Alleluia!