In the name of the Risen Lord. Amen.
In
his letter to the Church at Rome, St. Paul asks the rhetorical question, “Do
you not know?” It’s a question that for us, as people of faith who walk in the light
of the Resurrection, know the answer to. Yes, we know these things. But the
Easter Gospel is not about mere knowledge, it is news; news that demands a response.
The Resurrection is not information like sports scores, the stock market, or election
results. No, in the fullest sense of the word, the Gospel is news. It’s like
being told that there’s storm on the horizon or a pot of gold for each of you
on the other side of that wall. The Easter Gospel elicits action and response from
us. And the event that Easter announces is the dawning of the New Creation – a reality
in which death is not final, where sins are forgiven, where love is the priority.
The
New Creation opened on that first Easter morning when the stone was rolled away
and the crucified Jesus Christ walked out of the tomb having been Resurrected.
And the way that you, and I, and now, Victoria, enter into this New Creation is
through Baptism. Baptism is the Sacrament, the sign, of our dying to sin, to
death, and to ourselves and rising with Christ in Resurrection life. St. Basil,
the 4th-century Bishop said, “We have to begin a new life, and we
cannot do so until our former life has been brought to an end. When runners
reach a turning point on a race course, they have to pause briefly before they
can go back in the opposite direction. So when we wish to reverse the course of
our lives, there must be a pause, a death, to mark the end of our life and the
beginning of another.”
Baptism
is this change of direction. In the ancient Church, this is why candidates for
Baptism would face the west, the symbolic direction of evil and make the three
renunciations against the world, the flesh, and the devil. And then they
physically turn to face east, the direction of Jerusalem and the rising sun to
pronounce their faith, trust, and allegiance in Jesus Christ. Baptism is a
literal and figurative turning point. In Baptism, we exchange the story we live
by. We heard this in both Romans and the Pascha Nostrum – our story had been
that we were trapped by death and plagued by sin. But because of Easter, we no
longer live by that story, as we are citizens of the New Creation. “For as in
Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive.”
Thus,
St. Paul writes, “So you must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God
in Jesus Christ our Lord.” In Baptism, God takes us out of the dominion of sin
and brings us into the territory of God’s grace. We are no longer subjects of
the powers and principalities of this world, but rather we are under the
Lordship of Jesus Christ. And, of course, this isn’t just about us as individuals,
but all of us together. Because in Baptism we become a part of the Body of
Christ. We are given not only a new story and a new allegiance, but a new
family as well, for we know that there one Body and one Spirit, just as we have
been called into one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father
of all, who is above all and through all and in all. The Resurrection changes
the meaning, the purpose, the foundation, and the destination of our lives. The
grandeur of this shift cannot be overstated. This is why, perhaps, in St.
Matthew’s telling of Easter there is an earthquake that accompanies the rolling
away of the stone from the tomb – as everything shifts on Easter.
And
the way that God has symbolized our inclusion into this is through water. You likely
heard the theme of water trickling throughout the Vigil readings. We began with
the Flood narrative in which Noah, his family, and earth’s creatures were saved
through passage in the ark. Water was the means of cleansing the earth of sin
and the destruction of evil, and water was also the medium through which Noah
was transported to a new beginning.
In
perhaps the most important Old Testament passage for understanding Easter,
water is also the means of salvation for the Hebrew people from slavery in
Egypt. God has heard the cry of his people and raised up Moses to lead them out
of oppression and into the Promised Land. And the moment of their deliverance comes
through water that is both liberating and cleansing. For the Hebrews, they
passed through the Red Sea on dry ground, but the sea closed over the Egyptians
who sought to thwart God’s purposes. God’s mercy endures for ever and we see
this in the Exodus.
The
prophet Ezekiel was brought into the valley of death in a vision. He is
surrounded not by water which would lead to life, but rather by dry, dead
bones. God asks, “Can these bones live?” And the prophet says “O Lord God, you know.”
And God directs that a wind to sweep into that valley just as a wind swept over
the face of the deep in Creation. In what might have sounded like an Easter earthquake,
Ezekiel heard a noise, a rattling, as bones came back together, bone to bone.
And those that were once dead and dry are now full of life.
The
story of Jonah is a story all about water. At first, Jonah seeks to escape from
God’s call to go to Nineveh by getting on a boat to go in the complete opposite
direction of Tarshish. But there is a change of direction, a turning point, for
Jonah. He finds himself in the water and is rescued by a large fish who then
spits him out on dry land. Again, the waters were both the danger and the means
of salvation for Jonah, as they are for us. In the waters of Baptism, there is
danger as we go down into the waters and die. Changing direction is hard – we have
to give up certain mindsets, behaviors, and priorities when we die to sin and
self. But the salvation is so much greater than what dies – we are given an
inheritance of the saints in light, living in the New Creation.
What
brought us all here this morning was the water that flowed from the side of
Jesus on Good Friday. His death is what showed us the depths of God’s love for
us and Easter is about God’s ultimate “Yes” to Jesus and all of Creation. On
the Cross, Jesus said “No” to evil, “No” to sin,” “No” to death. And this Jesus
God raised up and said “Yes” to the New Creation made in the love of Christ.
And
where this is all heading is to refreshment in the waters of eternal life. In
both Ezekiel and Revelation, we are given a vision of water flowing out of the
Temple of God. And this water nourishes the tree of life which gives healing as
its fruit. And so, at the very close of our Scripture, Jesus says “And let
everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a
gift.” We have been given this water of life as a gift in the form of Baptism
into Jesus Christ. Through these waters we are ransomed, healed, restored,
forgiven, as we are brought into the New Creation of Resurrection life, and
this changes everything.
We
do not need to fear death. We do not need to worry if we can be forgiven and if
we are worthy of love. We do not need to wonder about the purpose of our lives.
Because we are now citizens of the New Creation, so we are free to enjoy our forgiveness,
to walk in love, and to have the peace of God that passes all understanding.
Just as surely as we lit a flame, which then spread to your candles, and we are
now enlightened by an ever-growing and brighter light, so too shall God’s grace
spread further and further in the New Creation. As CS Lewis wrote, “I believe
in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it
but because by it, I see everything else.” This morning, we are blessed to have
caught a glimpse of the risen Son of God, Jesus Christ, and in his Resurrection
light, we now walk in the direction of the New Creation. Thanks be to God!
