[Propertalk] Great Vigil of Easter 2017

[Robert P Morrison]

Here's my brief homily for tomorrow evening - for which there's time
left for editing!
Bob

	THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY  THE GREAT VIGIL OF EASTER
a 

	NINE READINGS AND PSALMS   15th APRIL, 2017 

	ROMANS 6:3-11   PSALM 114 

	MATTHEW 28:1-10 

	 It’s interesting that one of the points Matthew’s Gospel account
of the resurrection gets across is that when the Marys made their way
to the tomb, not only did they fully expect the tomb to be sealed with
that huge stone but, in actual fact, it was. 

	 It’s always dangerous to examine the space between the lines with
a high-powered microscope, but what if we’re supposed to pick up on
even the slightest nuances of the Story? The two women make up their
minds to go to the tomb. It’s not clear from this Gospel account
what they hope to accomplish, but this would have been the first
opportunity to they’d have to go to see the finality of the acts of
violence, or anger, of jealousy. Possibly they wanted to mourn while
touching the great stone. They wanted to find some way to deal with
their grief. 

	 It was right when the two reached the grave that they witnessed
God’s incredible, powerful Love. They were THERE when some agent of
Love shattered the rock that kept Jesus from interacting with humanity
and humanity from interacting with Jesus. 

	 What if the two Marys had chosen NOT to go to the tomb? We’ll
never know, because then, and for all eternity, they DID go. 

	 Take the question to the next level. What if the two women were the
catalyst? Both Marys walked into the garden where the tomb was and
they triggered the bursting open of the tomb. It may well have been
that God was waiting for just that sort of faith, despite its mixture
with intense grief. Both God and the women, acting together, released
Love which can never again be shut away, and all the evil, all the
pain, all the emptiness, are shown to have such limited power. 

	 Perhaps it was at that moment when the women reached the tomb, in
the seconds before the sealing stone was turned aside, that they
remembered the promises of God – the promises of which we heard in
the readings in this still-dark room. When we come down to it, it’s
all about promise, 

	 It IS all about promise – this is what the readings at the
beginning of this liturgy are all about. One after another, using
different analogies, describing situations at different moments in the
history of humanity, each passage talked about the interaction of God
with our ancestors. The passages describe the situations as well as
the problems we face just about every other day, if not every day:
pleasure when we discover the beauty that’s all around us; our pain
when things go wrong; the tension when people can’t agree, and anger
spills over into relationships. The good and the difficult, it’s all
there. But throughout it all, the promises of God are there. Even in
the darkness they are there. There IS a reason why the whole first
part – almost an hour! – takes place in darkness, with only the
flickering light of our individual candles to help us. Yet that’s
enough. The candles themselves, lit from another candle which was lit
from the Paschal Candle, which itself was lit from the new fire, the
first fire of the year; the candles themselves are signs of promise. 

	 It’s ALL about promise. Right from the beginning it was about
promises. God created out of Love, and left signs of that Love in all
sorts of places throughout time. But then God left it up to us to find
those signs, and to try to interpret not only where and how we can
receive that Love, but also how we apply it. And it was as this
freedom was played out within history that the various readings were
set down. Throughout hundreds of years, people struggled to make sense
of their lives but, somehow, this couldn’t be done fully till the
missing piece, the Love of God, was appreciated and was accepted. No
matter how much hope the various ancestors of the two Marys had, they
were unable to put everything together beyond the point of hoping. 

	 So, here we are, like the two Marys.  

	Of course, it’s not just like them. We know, through faith, what
happened. Yet we’re still surprised, we’re still amazed to find
out how gracious, how incredibly gracious God is. God’s word, more
than anything else we can [possibly imagine, God’s word is the bond
to us this is absolutely firm. All that we need to do is to reach out
for it, to move towards it. 

	The amazing thing is that God isn’t put off by our fear, by our
questions, by our doubts, by our griefs. God looks for the slightest
little openings, the tiniest opportunity into which the Light may
shine so that we may recognize the faithfulness of God and the power
of promise. 

	I think that, deep down, we KNOW that. Deep down, we HAVE that faith.
But there are so many layers which our life and our relationships
spread on top of this to prevent us from, staying in touch with the
Love which overcomes everything. 

	Like the Marys, we may go from one place to another, distracted by
disasters. I wonder if, besides the grief, I wonder if they had been
able to cling to even the smallest remembrances that Jesus had said
that resurrection would happen. 

	And like for the Marys, perhaps God is looking, is waiting for us, so
that the stone may roll away from our hearts, to let Love and Light
in; and to let our joy out. A promise from God CAN and DOES work
miracles. And the miracles never cease, thanks be to God! 

	
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