The Great Vigil of Easter, Year C

Resurrection Images

Readings: Romans 6:3-11; Luke 24:1-12

The Easter Vigil celebration is not really the proclamation of Jesus' resurrection. Rather it prepares us to experience the empty tomb. Resurrection remains a mystery at the heart of our lives. It is such a mystery that we find it difficult to express it in words. So on this Easter Eve we gather to experience the inexpressible. We do so by drawing on a wealth of images that take us back to our sacred roots.

Images abound in this service. We ring bells to prepare our hearts for resuming the joyous shouts of “Alleluia!”. We have held back that exuberant proclamation of praise during these past forty days. Now we shout it out, all the while ringing our bells proclaiming the good news of the Resurrection. The water of baptism, incense lifting our prayers to God, the Paschal candle, darkness, light.

Perhaps the most obvious image on this night is fire. One of the earliest expressions of mystery for humankind must surely have been that of sacred fire. Dating back more than three hundred thousand years, it was the beginning for us of becoming separated from the animal kingdom, of becoming truly human. It speaks to us from the very depth of our being.

That is no doubt why so many cultures have traditions related to sacred fire. It was sacred to the ancient Celts. The domestic hearth fire was never allowed to die except during the fire festival of Beltane, when it was ritually rekindled from the royal fire. Indeed, the hearth fire was the centre of Celtic family activity. Cooking, eating, storytelling all took place around the fire.

For thousands of years our indigenous people have held council fires. The Sacred Fires are kept from one generation to another, the wisdom passed on by Elders to children and grandchildren. The Elders, who speak the wisdom, are revered and cared for, as they are the very heart of the people.

So tonight we begin this celebration by lighting the new fire. From the fire we light the Paschal candle and then pass the flame from one person to another. We come into the darkness of the church bringing light with us. By its light we tell the story of our faith.

The storytelling too connects us to our sacred roots. We recount the story of creation. We tell how God led the people of Israel out of Egypt. We hear of the people of Israel wandering in the desert, of times of exile, of times of deliverance. We hear the Christian message. “Do you not know,” Paul asks us, “that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” We are reminded that we are new people, focused on new goals, compelled by new motives, committed to new objectives, reborn, free to love and accept ourselves and to dedicate our lives to loving others. It is a fitting time to renew our baptismal covenant, to remember the promises made at our baptism.

The story continues at the empty tomb. The women go to the tomb to see how Jesus' body is laid. They prepare the spices and ointments for his burial. What turmoil is going on within them? So much has happened since they came from Galilee with Jesus. They remember the excitement of the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Could it be such a short time ago? How exciting it had been to be in that throng, jostling, joyfully waving palm branches, cheering Jesus on. They had not in any way guessed what the outcome might be. For just as suddenly as the crowd had appeared to wave him on, so they turned against him. The days that followed would always remain a blur. Now he was dead, brutally murdered. His followers felt the terrible emptiness that invariably follows the death of a loved one. The hope they had once felt, was gone.

After the Sabbath, they made their way back to the tomb with the spices they had prepared. But when they arrived at the tomb, to their surprise the stone was rolled away from the entrance. As they entered the tomb, they realized that the body was missing. They no longer had a sense of purpose. As they stood there perplexed, wondering what to do next, they were asked an important question. “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”

And there in the emptiness of the tomb, they encountered the risen Lord. There was no need to see him. They remembered. They remembered what Jesus had told them; that he would be crucified, and on the third day he would rise again. In remembering, they experienced the joy of the resurrection. In that encounter, their fears and perplexity were gone. They left immediately to tell the eleven of their experience. They became messengers for the risen Lord.

The empty tomb is an image for us at this vigil. It is a symbol to each of us that Christ's resurrection is much more than mere survival. In the resurrection, death has been vanquished. Our destiny is opened up beyond death and the grave. We are able to proclaim: "He is risen! Alleluia!" The Jesus who lived and walked and taught on earth is not in the tomb. He is not to be sought in the far distant past. His saving work is a present reality in the community of believers.

God’s Spirit moves us to faith in the resurrection. We like the holy women at the tomb, discover that Christ is alive in us, through us, and forever. We are able to proclaim: "The Lord is risen! Alleluia! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!"

Pentecost, Year B

The Power of Pentecost

Readings: Ezekiel 37:1-14; Psalm 104:25-35; Romans 8:22-27; Acts 2:1-121; John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15

The prophet Ezekiel was in the midst of a nightmare. In the Spirit, God lead him to a valley filled with the bones of dead soldiers slain in battle against the Chaldeans.

“Can these bones live?” God asked him. On that battlefield lay all the hopes and dreams of a nation. How could Ezekiel see anything there but disaster and defeat? The situation is hopeless. “Prophesy to them!” God continues.

“What sense is there in that?” Ezekiel may well have thought. Yet even though it doesn’t make sense, God calls him to take a risk.

“Trust me! I will breathe life into them,” God tells him. And Ezekiel prophesies to the bones. Those dry lifeless bones take on sinew, and flesh. Those dry bones come to life.

What a vision of hope! And the miraculous thing about it is that the nation of Israel did indeed rise up from that terrible defeat. Life was breathed back into that community. It lived and prospered.

It may be a nightmare, but the prophet is living a real experience. It gives him a sense of God’s presence and an awareness that something significant is being communicated to him. That vision of life being breathed back into dry bones is again fulfilled with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. For with that outpouring came, not only the hope of a nation, but also the hope of salvation for all nations, the Christian hope that exceeds all we can ask or imagine. That breath of life poured out at Pentecost is the source of hope in human experience. It renews us. It assures us of God’s presence with us.

Pentecost started as a nightmare as well. The disciples were all gathered together in the upper room. They gathered out of their need to be together. They gathered more in mourning than in celebration. They were still suffering from the loss of their beloved leader. And then Pentecost happened! They had an amazing spiritual awakening. First there was a movement, then a sound, then a visible sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit amongst them. The experience so filled them with the presence of God that they began to speak in other languages. They did not have to grope for words to express themselves. The words simply flowed out of them. It was not babble; it was clear and effective communication. The Spirit proclaimed a marvellous, inclusive vision without barriers of language, race, nationality, sex, age or class. People not only heard, but they understood what God was speaking to the Church.

We so easily dismiss the significance of Pentecost. It is the birthday of the Church. It celebrates, not the coming of the Holy Spirit. That has always been God’s gift to the church. Rather it celebrates a fresh outpouring of the Spirit set loose in the world. For the early Christians it became a time of festivity and joy, reminding them that the promise of the Resurrected Christ had been fulfilled in them.

Ezekiel’s dream was not a one time event. People still have such experiences in their day to day lives. The problem is that we tend to dismiss such dreams as being of little importance. Even if we awaken in terror, we can easily put it down to a case of indigestion. We need to pay attention to such experiences in our lives, those ‘aha’ moments in which we know God to be real and present to us, in which we sense God communicating to us on a deep level.

Pentecost was not a one time event. The Holy Spirit is poured out on the Church every day. That is where our Christian energy and purpose come from. Whatever speaks to us of the genuine things of Jesus Christ is the Holy Spirit at work in us. How does it come to you? Perhaps it comes as a realization that God is speaking to you through another person. Perhaps it is as you witness to the power of the Holy Spirit at work in your life. It may be a moment of realization at the power of God working a miracle of healing in your life as you let go of the hurts of the past and offer forgiveness to someone. Maybe it happens for you when you accept God’s power to forgive and let it work in your life. It may be in the sharing of the peace, or a time when you were able to go beyond your limitations in speaking to others about your faith. Perhaps it is a time when you felt overwhelmed by life, and then found the power to do something that you felt was totally beyond your capabilities. It may be finding life taking you in new directions when you thought all the doors had been slammed in your face. Can we look back on those moments of grace scattered throughout our lives and see the Spirit of God working in and through us?

The Church needs that kind of renewable energy. Church institutions can be brought back to life again as their members who once confessed only with their mouths begin confessing with their hearts. It can change as we return to the covenant made between us and God at our baptism. God breathes on us restoring us to life and truth, to joy and purposefulness, as the Spirit takes control of our very being. It is about reconciliation, assurance, peace, joy, purpose. It is a resurrection experience that gives us that sense of new birth.

We need to pray for the Spirit of God to be upon the Church and its people so that we can stand on our feet and take responsibility as we must. I have watched in awe over the past two or three years as this parish has begun to do exactly that. What a difference it has made in our community! We have begun to blossom like that beautiful apple tree at the back of our church that tells the story of the work of you, the people of God.

This Sunday culminates a month of celebration of FaithWorks. It is one of the ways in which we live out our life in the Spirit. It is one of the ways in which we express our love of God and our desire to see Christ in others. It is part of our spirituality that grows and flourishes in this place. The money that we raise through FaithWorks goes to support ministries across our Diocese, ministries like the DAM and Flemingdon Park, like Anglican Houses and All Saints. And of course we know that it is only the beginning of the Outreach that happens in this parish. We support people in need of emergency help. We give assistance at Christmas. We take food to Edenwood Foodbank each week. We go to Nursing Homes and residences as well as to Credit Valley Hospital.

Pentecost is about life coming together for the common good. Pentecost happens when people of faith share their faith with one another. It happens when we find ourselves moved to say to one another, “I believe”. It happens when we grow up and begin to say “yes” to God instead of saying “no”. Then love blossoms. We become on fire. May God continue to breath the fire of the Holy Spirit on us, and may we continue to embrace the Spirit within us. Amen.

The Third Sunday of Lent, Year B

Passionate Living

Readings: Exodus 20:1-17; 1 Corinthians 1:22-25; John 2:13-22

We are part of a broken world. How evident that is as we read in the newspaper about war and conflict. Just to name a few of the terrible situations faced by people in our world, there is Darfur which has seen some 350,000 people killed and another 1.8 million displaced. There is the Civil War in Sri Lanka. There is the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan. There is the situation in Gaza. Peace and diplomacy so often fail to resolve conflict. What is the Christian way to view what is happening? How can God’s word speak to us in the midst of turmoil?

The Ten Commandments, God's covenant with Israel, speak to us at every level of human experience. They speak to us as individuals, as community, and as nation. They are moral guides to our growth as people who live in communion with one another and all of creation. They cover all aspects of life. They are summarized for the Christian in Jesus’ call to us to love God, and to love neighbour.

If we take the Ten Commandments seriously – and I certainly trust we do – we must surely be asking ourselves some difficult questions about the way we live our lives. What gods do we put before God? Where do we put all of our energies? In placing our energies, do we leave time for God? Are there any discrepancies between what we profess as Christians and how we act towards others? How do we keep Sunday holy when society demands that we work? What injustices do we see going on around us? Are we willing to speak out against them? Are we willing to do something about them? In this consumer society of ours, which causes us to covet from cradle to grave, do we stand up to the desires of the world and put God and neighbour before our own needs? The command to love God and love neighbour makes us responsible for the world in which we live. We are responsible to help those who live in poverty. It is our responsibility to care for the sick, to live in peace, to live out our ministry as servants in a broken world.

This is a time for passionate living. The symbol for this third Sunday in our Lenten series is fire. It gives light and heat. It can create atmosphere in a room. It purifies and refines. It can also destroy. The bush fires this year in Australia which destroyed animal habitat, people’s homes and even their lives are a testimony to that. Fire describes anger and revenge. It also describes love and devotion. For us during this Lenten season, fire is a symbol of the burning away of the old self. The mystery of fire brought the Hebrews to associate God’s presence with fire. Moses first encounter with God was through a burning bush. The people of Israel were led through the wilderness by a “pillar of fire”. As Christians it symbolizes the Spirit of God among us. At Pentecost, the Spirit descended as tongues of fire on the people of God. Fire symbolizes the Spirit of God among us. It is a sign of conversion, a symbol of the burning away of the old self. Conversion experiences test us. Something is burned off; what remains is stronger, purer. It allows us to live passionately. The Spirit is a fire that purifies, creates, refines, destroys and transforms if we let it. It allows us to live passionately.

And so in the Gospel today we see a Jesus who lives passionately. And yes, I admit it. I feel uncomfortable about his anger. That is because I can’t quite understand it. What was his objection? What was he thinking? It was business as usual, a normal day in a busy synagogue at a busy time of the year. Animals and birds were supplied for sacrifice. Foreign currencies had to be exchanged for the temple currency. The very anger of Jesus in doing what he did! It was a deliberate and passionate act of protest. Was he protesting against the power and exploitation of the religious order of the day? That is certainly what it seems to me to be. He seems to be challenging the status quo. And it is bound to get him into trouble.

Jesus’ anger is a stumbling block to me in the same way that the cross was a stumbling block for the Jew. It seems foolish. However, what foolishness it is to buy into the nonsense that Jesus the son of a carpenter turned preacher could do any good! Yet that is exactly what I believe as a Christian. What foolishness it is to believe that a God of love reigns over this fractured violence-ridden world of ours; but I cannot help but see the hand of God in this world. What foolishness to believe that God can bring peace where there is enmity! Yet I believe it all passionately. I believe passionately that God can bring about peace. I believe passionately that my fervent prayers along with yours can bring wholeness to our fractured world. I believe that God can change our hardened hearts and help us to live as brothers and sisters.

Fortunately throughout history there have been people passionate enough about the Christian faith to challenge the systems of the Church and the world. It has been said that if Jesus taught us anything it was how to die, not how to kill! Martin Luther King Jr. put it in the following way. "To our most bitter opponents we say: 'we shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure. We shall meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you. We shall appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.'"

Oscar Romero, the Bishop of El Salvador became bishop because it was thought that he would not challenge the status quo. He had a conversion experience and because of it became a passionate advocate for the poor and underprivileged people of his country. He challenged both the state and his own church. In a sermon preached shortly before being gunned down in his church he said, "They may kill me, but I shall rise up in the people of San Salvador."

So how do we let the Spirit move us? Are we passionate enough to challenge the systems that exist in the Church? Are we passionate enough to change the injustices in the world? Do we believe that it matters? Do we believe that we can make a difference? Are we willing to work for justice for those who live in poverty? For the homeless and under housed? For those with mental illnesses?

Because it begins with changing ourselves and we know how difficult that is! We cannot hope to change the Church or the world if we are not willing to make changes within ourselves. We must allow the Spirit of God to work in our lives. That means not only being passionate, but being forgiving. It means accepting God’s forgiveness for the wrongs we have done and allowing ourselves to offer it to others.

The Gospel of repentance and conversion is proclaimed in the Eucharist and in the Sacrament of reconciliation. Sunday by Sunday we are called to renewed faith in God. We are called to be a reconciled community of faith. As we pass the peace after the absolution we accept God’s forgiveness. We reach out our hands to others in peace and in love. It is a response that deepens our faith. It is a renewing of our baptismal covenant. It is a new beginning. Let us passionately embrace God’s forgiveness and allow it to change our hearts. Let us carry it with us into the world. Amen.