Easter Vigil Service 4.4.10 Parish Church

In this early morning service we try to recapture or imagine the experience of the women as they went to the tomb of Jesus at dawn and found it empty. What their astonishment and confusion and their feelings were can hardly be imagined. But within a very short time they and others were encountering the risen Lord.
Here at the empty tomb, the surprise is an absence – they expected to find the shattered body of Jesus lying on the slab. But it is absent. You would think absence is totally different from presence. But this absence quickly turns into a presence. The Presence. The most significant thing that happened in the whole of Jesus life and death was this absence. The most important thing is that he was not in that tomb. He is not to be found in the realm of death and grief and despair. He is risen.
And how can we be sure? How can we know for sure? Well, I suspect if the authorities could have produced a dead body to scotch the rumours of resurrection they would have done like a shot. They didn’t. But the fact remains that we cannot be sure by trying to establish beyond doubt the events of that day. Not by trying to find the original tomb, not by finding a shroud and testing it for age and authenticity, not by comparing the gospel versions and getting back to the earliest account, not by consulting other historical sources, not in short by doing anything that aims at establishing past event. The only way we can know and proclaim the resurrection as true, is by experiencing it, by living it. Do we Christians live in the light of the resurrection? Do we see the world ‘through resurrection eyes’ as someone said? How would that work? It means seeing hope, life, promise, potential, not seeing despair, hopelessness, meaninglessness. There are indeed terrible things happening all the time around the world, maybe in our own lives. But think how terrible was the cross, that betrayal, travesty of justice, tortured death, callous cruelty, waste of young life, evil destruction of someone utterly good. Yet it was out of that that resurrection came. So we can never say any situation is too bad for God’s life to break in, too bad for the Spirit to work within it and redeem it. We worship a God of resurrection, and if we live in the faith and expectation that resurrection will happen within us and around us, then it will- and that will be our witness and the most convincing argument any unbeliever could hear of the truth of Jesus’ resurrection. Look at the evidence, not back then, but here and now. This isn’t to ignore or overlook or pretend the evils of the world are not happening. It is to look more deeply in faith and to pray for life to come out of death. In a moment we will renew our baptismal promises, and Father Leonard will remind us that ‘To follow Christ means dying to sin and rising to new life with him’. May we live and love today as resurrection people. Amen