Do you turn to Christ?
This question, asked during Baptism, was a big moment for parents and godparents
tonight, responding on behalf of young Amber Elizabeth. It will be a big moment
in June, as the culmination of an intentional process, when 15 of you gathering
at the cathedral with other candidates from all over the diocese, will publicly
reaffirm your faith—the Bishop presiding and hundreds of people witnessing
your adult decision for Christ through the sacramental acts we call Confirmation
and Reception. But back to this night, for a moment: For this is the night all
God’s people shout the long Amen. The poignancy of this Great Vigil and
First Eucharist of Easter is that the liturgy puts us right where God wants
us: at the turning point of our lives—Do you turn to Christ?
That’s a ‘big decision’ kind of question. However, it is also
a good question for you to hear at the moments of small decisions that make
up your life, those occasions when, perhaps known only to yourself, you are
faced with something you might prefer to ignore, evade, neglect, reject. Yet,
in those very micro-moments of seeming insignificance (or so you try to convince
yourself), you hear a voice or feel a touch. And then you know that you cannot
sidestep the matter. That is, you know that unless you have the courage to journey
on in that very direction, you will never grow into the person whom Christ has
called you to be.
The question really is: Will you be transformed into Christ?
While Baptism waters me, growing me into full humanness, the current of this
stream actually carries me away from myself, away from the subtle temptation
of self-fascination and self-discovery, away from our modern cultural, social,
economic and political imperatives. Instead, these waters carry me and you to
Christ.
Do you turn to Christ / Will you be turned into Christ?
Will you say yes to God’s love as the center of everything and will you
let yourself receive love? Sometimes, positioned under that great outpouring
of love will be like standing in the midst of a refreshing shower of rain. Sometimes,
those times when you have begun, once again, to center on yourself, the waters
will hit you like a raging flood—threatening your own life, you will think,
but actually trying to bring you back to God’s true life. It will all
be in your perspective: whether you presume you can make it fighting the current
or whether you are open to journeying wherever God will take you.
When you give in to the Divine flow, it empowers you. It is the power of love,
and so you become free to love. You become an instrument of love.
When love becomes the most important reality in your life (not as some thing
to be grasped, but given; not earned, but received; not protected but shared),
then, thanks be to God, you are beginning to see the Light of Christ—God’s
burst of Son Light whose heat tests, tempers and proves you with all power and
passion, with compassion and healing love. By this light, through these waters,
in this love is Christ rising to meet you and lead you along the path to your
life in Resurrection.
Alleluia, Christ is risen—revealing the ultimate: life through death;
a seeming paradox. It cannot be explained, not fully; it is not easily discussed.
Resurrection can only be lived, and celebrated (which is why we are here on
this night).
As Jesus dies on the cross, light is increasingly extinguished. Darkness comes;
total darkness. But wait: in the darkness comes a light… burning…
bright. The Cross burns bright. Paschal Light.
The Paschal Candle does not replace the cross. Rather, in all that was happening
in and through the Cross, the suffering – the tension – the steadfastness
– the power –the faith – the heat burns the Cross into Light:
shining our way through desert darkness into New Life.
The Light of Christ—
fueled by the water that flowed from his side;
the same water over which the Holy Spirit moved at the beginning of creation;
the same God who shut Noah in the ark
on the very waters
Yahweh drove back, saving Israel that day from the Pharaoh’s hardened
heart.
These are the waters in which Jesus received the baptism of John
and with which Jesus washed the disciples’ feet—
saving waters, baptismal waters
flowing from his side
washing us clean
giving us a new heart and a new spirit.
Alleluia.
©Thomas F. Reese 04-15-06