Easter Vigil, 2003.
Easter Eve: 19th April, 2003
Fr John Davis, Vicar of St Peter's, Eastern Hill
The central message of tonight is hope. This is a hope for each one of us, struggling to find a meaning and a purpose in being alive. This is a hope that comes to us across the centuries and tonight in ceremonies that are nearly as old as Christianity itself.
Tonight we have started again. Outside in the dark crispness of a Melbourne autumn night there has been the new fire. Coals freshly heated from that fire have made the smoke of the best incense we have rise, as do our prayers and our hopes. Freshly lit from that new fire, we have followed the great candle of Easter, that sign of the light of Christ in a darkened world, back into the church. Here we have heard again the steady working out of the promises of God to God's people, generation by generation, century by century.
Above all there are the promises made by the Christian at baptism.
- Do you turn to Christ?
- Do you repent of your sins?
- Do you reject selfish living, and all that is false and unjust?
- Do you renounce all that is evil?
In claiming these responses as our own, and in making them again at a time like this, as we are about to do, we too are taking the opportunity to start afresh. Christians who take this on are making a statement about life direction, about attitude, about a way of living and about a fundamental value system. We have this chance each year to do it again, because it is obvious that we are going to fall short. There are going to be stumbles and a turning away, perhaps in a quiet emptiness or nagging despair. But hope says, try it again. It is far and away the best set of options going.
The promises at baptism are direct and clear. They are going right to the heart of things. At the heart is Jesus the Christ. A Christian is one who seeks to follow that Way. It involves being profoundly sorry for the things that we have done that are wrong. It involves the embracing of a personal ethic and a corporate vision of how one should live and what a community and a world might embody. It involves a recognition that there are things that are not good, profoundly not good, that we are called to renounce.
A Christian is one who however falteringly or timidly says yes to the love of God. A Christian against all the odds, tries. Because it is there that hope is to be found and hope is to be solidly grounded. And tonight of all nights, we are celebrating this in the risen Lord. Yes, this is in the context of all the contradictory structures, all the human disappointments and hypocritical failings, all the terrible things that might cause doubt or a loss of faith. Yes, there are times when it can be very hard indeed. Times when as it were the spiritual fuel gauge is on empty and there is no service station in sight. Such a dark night experience happens to most of us at some time. It can be very disturbing, Very painful.
So we reach out to whatever it is that we do have, and hope and pray for more. We may experience the love and support of others who are also searchers and travellers on this Way. It may be that the experience of a liturgy such as this, is in itself such an occasion for hope and grace. For even a small bit of hope at a time like that is a great gift, thankfully received. It is then that we hope that just like that brave single candlelight flickering tonight, something may yet burn, once again giving light and warmth.
Take away everything, if need be and look to Jesus, our window in God. Do this in whatever way works best for you. So it is that that first baptismal question is the foremost. And yes, the Christian tries. And this need not be grim. Consider the joyful service and love and care that we can see in many. Consider too where it goes badly wrong, full of condemnation and bitter dispute. So it is then that at least once each year in this way at the heart of perhaps the most central liturgical gathering of the whole of the Christian cycle that we are called right back to the basics. All flows from this. All hope is to be found here.
So do we turn to Christ? That Christ whose birth we have honoured and whose teachings we ponder and attempt to live by? That Christ whose way of living and whose way of loving is so confronting and so encouraging all at once? That Christ whose way to the cross we have followed this last week, who has for the sake of us all suffered and died? That Christ whose rising from the dead we rejoice in tonight? That Christ whose Spirit gives us renewed life and hope? We turn to Christ.
Christ is risen.
He is risen indeed!
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