Baptism: A Dangerous and Grace-filled Journey The Great Easter Vigil: Matthew 28:1-10 April 19, 2003 The Rev. Elizabeth H. Wheatley, Chaplain Church of the Resurrection, Starkville, Mississippi Blessed be the Name of God. Tonight we have come to sit, to watch, to listen… to observe vigil… to remember… to continue the journey that was begun so long ago… to encounter the Risen Christ… and to celebrate with a child of God, Sara Grace Foote, as she dares to embark with us on this dangerous and grace-filled journey. Dangerous and Grace-filled. The human story begins in the pangs of childbirth and continues in paradox. The life journey of a Christian begins with water and continues in paradox. A paradox is seeming contradiction. It is two things together that should not be true but nonetheless are. Baptism initiates a process of human renewal that Martin Luther characterized as daily dying and daily rising. (Dying daily and Rising daily - Divine Paradox) This is the fundamental paradox of Christian living revealed in Jesus Christ: if you want to be first, you have to be last; if you want to live, you have to die; and if you want to hold on to anything - including your children - it can only be done with an open hand (and an open heart). Baptism is a dangerous (and shocking) ritual because it invites us to discover death as the way of life. When we are signed with a cross in baptism, we begin a journey that is marked by contradiction and swallowed up in paradox. (p. 73, Mighty Stories, Dangerous Rituals: Weaving Together the Human and the Divine by Herbert Anderson and Edward Foley). At the same time, however, Baptism is a grace-filled and awesome ritual because whenever we encounter death and despair, "we are sustained by the promise of that God will not abandon us." Even when God seems absent, in the dark moments of life, in the midst of shock, "fear, doubt, anxiety, melancholy, depression, and despair," we are driven, we are grasped, by "baptism and the graciousness of God embodied in the community of faith," the body of Christ (p. 74, Mighty Stories, Dangerous Rituals: Weaving Together the Human and the Divine by Herbert Anderson and Edward Foley). Tonight, throughout the liturgical year, and particularly during Holy Week, we have been on a journey with the people of God, a journey through Creation, Sacrifice, Deliverance, Liberation and into New Life…. a Baptismal Journey, a dangerous and grace-filled journey. We have traveled with the people of God and with Jesus, the revelation of God in human form, as through the eyes of other travelers, our fellow pilgrims and disciples. Our most recent experiences on this journey have brought us into an intimate awareness of the Dangerous nature of the journey: betrayal, denial, brutality, exhaustion, suffering, and death. We have betrayed. We have denied. We have brutalized. We have watched Jesus in his exhaustion and suffering. We have heard his last word, "It is finished" as he breathed his last breath. We have listened and watched along the way as Jesus lived his public life which ended in his public death, a criminal's death - stripped, whipped, spat upon and nailed high to a Cross lifted high on a hill for all of Jerusalem and all of the world to see. And, today, Holy Saturday, we observed silence. The last words were spoken on Friday and then there was silence…. silence and darkness. The candlelight, the lights of the Church, and the Light of the world were extinguished, not just dampened, but completely extinguished. Jesus was crucified and with him the creation died. And the darkness of the tomb surrounded us. Darkness and Silence. And so, as we entered the Church this evening in darkness and silence, we joined with Mary Magdalene and the other Mary had come to the tomb to sit, to watch, to observe a vigil at the tomb of their friend - our friend - our teacher, our loved one, Jesus. It has indeed been a dark hour in our lives, verging on hopelessness and despair. And so, we join with the women who have come to weep, to mourn our loss. Imagine the SHOCK and FEAR that overtake Mary Magdalene and the other Mary when the earth quakes, lights radiate from around the tomb and the stone is rolled away. Imagine their HORROR at the awareness that their loved one's tomb has been violated and Jesus the crucified one's body has disappeared. Imagine their AMAZEMENT and CURIOSITY when they are told by an angel to go and tell the disciples: "Jesus has been raised from the dead and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him." Imagine their JOY and AWE when they encounter Jesus, when they touch his feet, when they hear his voice: "Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me." We, along with Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, have had a Baptismal experience. There may be a lack of water in this scene, but all of the other sacramental qualifications are present in abundance - marked by contradiction and swallowed up in paradox - darkness and light, fear and great joy, and the assurance that, although he may seem absent, Christ is present, God will not abandon them and the graciousness of God is with them and will be with them and the disciples as they journey into Galilee, as we journey into the world. …Living in Danger crowned by Grace. We began this service in silence and in darkness. Then, led by the light of Christ, we embarked on our vigil journey, our Baptismal journey. And to our surprise, in the midst of shock and fear, in the midst of darkness and silence, in the midst of despair and mourning, the Risen Christ has come to meet us with greetings of joy: "Chairete" "Rejoice." The Risen Christ, once again, has become a light in the darkness, life in the midst of death, hope in the midst of despair. Today and throughout the lives of people who walk this Baptismal Journey, Christ meets us on the road. We encounter the resurrected Christ at every turn. And through this encounter, this unexpected turn of events, God reaches down into our very human lives and into the very human lives of the people of the world - the lives of the Iraqi people, the lives of military personnel, the lives of those who suffer and live in the midst of Danger - and into the young life of Sara Grace Foote and grasps us in the arms of grace - liberates us, each and all of us, from the fears and barriers that keep us from living our lives in the fullness of life, in the here and now. In the resurrection, God stares danger, despair, and death in the face with the eyes of Love, the eyes of Hope and the eyes of Grace. And in the face of God, in each encounter with the Risen Christ, we are filled with joy and awe and we are sent out into the world to continue our journey, our Baptismal Journey, living in Danger crowned by Grace and making the Easter proclamation: "Alleluia! Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen indeed!" Blessed be the Name of God.