The Great Vigil of Easter The Rev. J. Brian Ponder, Chaplain Church of the Resurrection, Starkville, Mississippi March 26, 2005 - 7:00 p.m. In the Name of Jesus Christ, the Risen Redeemer of the World. Amen. Alleluia! The Lord is risen. [The Lord is risen, indeed! Alleluia!] What a powerfully profound profession of our faith! Tonight, the sounds of "Alleluia!" resound throughout the universe … from the top of every mountain to the deepest of valleys; from the darkest of alleyways in the largest of cities, to the nooks and crannies of barns in the most rural and remotest of settings; from the rafters of this room, to the farthest reaches of interstellar space. Tonight and evermore, may our song be "Alleluia!" Tonight the mystery of our faith is solidified … Christ dead and Christ risen substantiating for us the hope of that day to come … Christ's return. This night, we have known the ugliness and sorrow of death, we have experienced the loneliness of the tomb, its cruelty, its shame, its hostility, its desperations--even within our own lives and our own day; yet because of these we share more exceedingly in the joys of the resurrection--light which casts out all darkness. Tonight we celebrate, and we find ourselves at the heart of the story of faith … the wonderful mystery … the still unfolding of God's redeeming work accomplished and being accomplished in the world--this night … here … in this very room … in and for that world out there--that world awaiting the message of hope and new life. This is the night. This is the night … where God delivered our ancestors through the Red Sea into the land of promise. This is the night … when all who believe are delivered from sin and restored to holiness of life. This is the night … when Christ broke the bonds of death and hell and rose victorious from the grave. This is the night … across all time and space. This is the night …. This is the night … when the captive prisoner is set free. This is the night … when the Good News of Christ redeems the world. This is the night … when wickedness is put to flight. This is the night … when sin is washed away. This is the night … when innocence is returned to the fallen. This is the night … when joy flows forth from those who mourn. This is the night … when pride and hatred are cast out. This is the night … that brings peace and concord. This is the night … when earth and heaven are joined and humankind is reconciled to God. This is the night … when we are called to shout "Alleluia!" out of, from and into every place of death and darkness around us … in our lives, and our homes, or our schools, in this town and our nation and our world. This is the night. This is the night. This is the Night that was and is and is to be! I can offer us little so profound as that which we have already recited, ingested, revisited, recounted and professed this evening. But know this … This is the night on which everything hinges … not only the mystery of faith … but our part in that same mystery … our faith behind the faith. This is the night when there is no … there must be no … mistaking that we are participants in the work of redemption that is taking place in this world. This is the night, when we claim for ourselves most fully that the stories of old are the stories of today, that the stories of today are the stories of tomorrow … that we are of, by, for and because of the Most Ancient of Days--God. This is the night when we are called to a most full realization that the work of redemption still being accomplished in this world is our sacred call as Christians of the faith … that if our God can break into this world through human life, and if our God can break into this world through death, then our God can break through anything … Anything that would divide us or separate us Anything that would compromise full humanity, ours or others' Anything that would compromise the dignity of any and every human being Anything that would threaten to kill us individually or corporately, hour-by-hour, day-by-day, little-by-little, again and again, those things which would tell us--any of us or anyone--that we or they are anything but beings created in the image of a loving God Tonight, our shouts of "Alleluia!" compel us. They move us. They charge us to be transformed, changed, made new. And, tonight is not simply about our salvation. It's much more about the world outside the Easter tomb. Tonight, the miracle has happened. Tonight, if we truly believe what we profess, then there is no place for us in the empty tomb. Tonight, "Alleluia!" calls us from this place. It throws us into that world out there to share the message of hope. It thrusts us to the dark places of the world, the dark places of our lives, the dark places of our souls, and those of the world around us. It thrusts us to every place of degradation, every waste land, every place of the forgotten or marginalized, to bring new energy, new life, and new ways of being. Tonight the shouts of "Alleluia!" resound over the earth, and we are called to a realization that this song is one of invitation to participation. We are called to join in the song of "Alleluia!" becoming participants in the redeeming of the world, being part of the upending of the world. Tonight, our shouts of "Alleluia!" invite us into the mystery. Tonight, "Alleluia!" draws us to places of pain and suffering, places of injustice and hatred and violence. Tonight, "Alleluia!" moves us to places of human want and need, to places where the screams of the whole creation threaten to drown out our simple song of hope; because what we claim tonight is that "Alleluia!" drowns those screams. Tonight we claim that "Alleluia!" shatters all hopelessness. Tonight, we claim that "Alleluia!" dispels all darkness, turns all hearts, brings new life … but only if we can live into the fuller reality of the "Alleluias!" This is the night … Tonight we celebrate the stories of our faith. Tonight we claim them as our own. We claim the stories as part of us, as stories still told and yet to be written within the hearts of humankind. Tonight, the world has been radically upended. Tonight, our Savior lives! Tonight and henceforth, we are called to witness to this, to testify to this truth and to make "Alleluia!" not just my song or your song, or his song or her song … but OUR song! We are called with God's help to make "Alleluia!" real for ourselves and the whole creation in which we live and move and have our being. May the sacred mystery of our faith compel us to ever live into the "Alleluias!" of this night. Alleluia! The Lord is risen. [The Lord is risen, indeed. Alleluia!] Amen.