This is the Night!: Homily for the Easter Vigil

[Second draft]

Do you ever feel as though you are living in two different worlds?

I asked some of our high school students that question last week…
and I got a quick answer.

We had just finished watching a clip from the movie, The Matrix,
a science fiction story where machines have largely reduced
the human population to nothing more than laboratory organisms.

In the movie, what appears to be reality
is nothing more than a highly sophisticated computer program.

So, when I asked our young people
if they ever felt as though they too existed in two different worlds,
they nodded their heads and informed me
that you don’t need to live inside The Matrix
to experience sharp and confusing dichotomies in human life.

They described the divided world that awaits them
on the threshold of their adulthood:

A world divided between those who suffer starvation
and those who grow sick from obesity.

A scientific world that decides who gets to live and who gets to die.

A world where people live lives of compassion
for the honor of God
and others kill the innocent—and themselves—while claiming the same.

_____

Yes, we live in two worlds:
darkness on one side…daylight on the other;

the problems of earht on one hand…the promises of heaven on the other;

the experience of evil deep in our bones…the hope of salvation deep in our hearts.

We live in two different worlds,
yet we long for those worlds to be joined.

Fortunately, we’re not yet at the point where,
as in the movie, The Matrix,
we need a computer program to provide an illusion of hope.

Instead, we carry within the matrix of our faith
the ancient memory
of a time when the two worlds were one.

The memory is recorded in the Holy Scriptures.
It has been enacted in the ritual of our worship for thousands of years.
It continues to dance in the melody of millions and millions of songs.

I’m talking here about that moment when God and humanity
are joined together as one.

That moment, captured so powerfully by the artist, Michelangelo,
in that famous painting in the Sistine Chapel, that depicts
the arm of God straining down from heaven
to touch the outstretched finger of Adam.

It is a famous painting because it paints an image of a famous moment,
a moment we can’t forget;
a moment we long to experience again:

that moment when two worlds come together
and justice and mercy meet
and humanity is redeemed
and sin is forgiven;
that moment when life is recreated
and the terror of death
dissolves into nothing more
than a passing dream.

_______

Such is the moment we long for...
and such is the experience of this night!

The joining of two separate worlds
is what unfolds here in this church tonight.

The great hymn of the Resurrection makes it clear, abundantly clear:

“The night has become as bright as day,
it is my hope, my joy.”

“This is the night when heaven is wedded to earth.

This is the night when sinners are washed clean.

This is the night God frees us from slavery

This is the night chosen by God to see Christ rising from the dead.

This is the night!
This is the night Christ broke the chains of death!

This is the night of baptism, the night of confirmation…
the night of faith.
The night when earth rejoices and the Church exalts.

For this very night the power of God
sweeps across the broken crust of earth
straining…straining to touch,
not the tips of our fingers,
but to breathe into our lungs the rushing wind of the Spirit.

This is the night when, finally,
we begin to grasp the fact
that we are not just human beings having a spiritual experience,
rather, we are spiritual beings having a human experience.

This means that our very humanity, tonight,
is transformed and completely altered!

Transformed by the presence and power of the Holy One, the Strong One.
The One who shoved the rock from the entrance of the tomb
so a new light could shine into the darkness of this world…
the light of a new level of existence called Resurrection!
_____

In just a few moments,
some of you here will be stepping into a pool of water.
But in reality, you will be stepping into a new way of life.

In just a few moments, some of you will be anointed with perfumed oil,
But in reality, will be breathing the fragrance of the overwhelming love
of the one true God.

And the rest of us here in this church…
we will be with you.
For, on this holy night,
we too are stepping out of a world of separation
and into the communion of saints from all times and places.

Along with you, God continues to rescue us,
drawing us from the darkness of sin into the light of worship and praise
where our spirits are cleansed and renewed.

And, along with you, we will approach the holy altar
and receive from the table of the Crucified One,
the broken bread that becomes his presence,
his body, his soul, his divinity;
with you we will take the wine
that shines red
with the wounded splendor
of his victorious love.

Together, tonight, we step from one world to another…
here in this church on the outskirts of heaven
as our powerful Savior flings open its gates!