Life Altered

Easter Vigil – Baptism of Soonee Vangyang                            Image from A Sanctified Art

This is the night!

How wonderful to gather with you this evening around the fire that represents God’s mighty presence from the creation until now—another moment of God’s new creation. 

How wonderful to gather with you this evening around five great stories of God’s mighty acts—knowing that we could tell many, many more—and sing God’s praises long into this night.

How wonderful to gather with you this evening as we celebrate with Soonee, long awaited precious daughter and sister, newly baptized to remind us all how God welcomes and calls us God’s very own beloved children.

 

Ten years ago at the Easter Vigil at Lutheran Church of Peace in Maplewood, we celebrated the baptisms of Vameng, Pakou and Sanklai. When we first met, Pakou and Vameng expressed their desire to be baptized but asked to wait for their baby’s birth so that they could all three be baptized together. I have such a vivid memory of that beautiful evening together—it was rainy, we had to modify how we did that outside fire time… passing the fire and lighting all our candles inside… but just like tonight, the challenges made it all the more memorable. Tonight, we celebrate your 10^thBaptismal Anniversary, Sanklai, Pakou and Vameng and we celebrate and welcome you, Soonee. 

 

The gift of baptism is a free gift of grace, whether you are given it as an infant or receive it as a child, youth or adult—and it is an opportunity to remember how God reaches out to create a relationship with us. We can water and cultivate that relationship together—as we keep and help each other keep the promises made tonight so that we grow in faith together. 

 

Tonight, we hear some of the very first responses to Jesus’ resurrection… the first glimpses of resurrection, when it was still dark. The first glimpses, the first reports, just revealed that Jesus’ body was missing. Simon Peter saw and believed what Mary said but they did not yet understand what Jesus’ had said—that he must rise from the dead. That is what will sink in as Jesus appears to them again and again, sharing breath, sharing peace, sharing the meal with them not only tonight but for all the time to come.

 

As the Easter Vigil shows us, cultivating a relationship with God and one another can be full of laughter, joy and community. This path is full of responsibilities and promises to one another but also, it’s full of love that makes all burdens lighter. Trusting and understanding comes over all the weeks, months and years to come.

 

Tonight, on the eve of Easter, we get our first taste of the Alleluias that are to come for a week of week—seven Sundays of the Risen Christ appearing to us, surprising us and helping us receive the good news that Jesus not only lived in love and died on the cross but was raised from the dead. And with Jesus’ resurrection, God shows us that death does not have the last word. Life is altered forever because God continuously brings life out of death.

 

Tonight, we experience the heart of God’s baptismal promise and the center of our faith: we are claimed and washed, renewed in the death and resurrection of Christ. We gather to share this meal with all the saints of every time and place to celebrate the good news: Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia! This is the night!     Alleluia! Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed, alleluia!