St Elisabeth’s
Reddish Preached by The Revd Ian M Delinger on Saturday, April 7, 2007.
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The recounting of Salvation History has us realizing that this amazing grace, that love of God has always been with us! God has always been on our side. Over and over again, humanity departed from God, and God bailed us out. There’s the release point! Remember yesterday when I said that, at the foot of the Cross, we had the opportunity to leave at the foot of the Cross all the barriers we build for ourselves that prevent us from realizing the grace and love of God? If you didn’t get that yesterday, if you still were not able to let go of what traps you in that personal slavery to sin, then tonight should be the release point, the point at which it becomes clear that it’s okay to let go and feel the grace, take the grace, live in the grace, relish in the grace. If we had another hour to spend here tonight, we could have read all the readings suggested. All of them recount what we call Salvation History, the times in our Biblical History, our Judeo-Christian History, when God bailed us out, when God came to our aid, despite the fact that it was we ourselves who had got us into the predicament that we were in because we didn’t do what God had asked of us. We read three readings from Salvation History and the Gospel reading. And that should be sufficient to illustrate my point. But here’s what we left out:
Time and time again…we made the penalties and the red card was raised. But God restored us to our place in Creation, God restored us into His favor! And so we get to tonight. Out of darkness comes light, and the light is Christ. “The darkness of this passing age”, “the darkness of our sin”. It’s gone! Thro’
many dangers, toils and snares, We receive the grace in the Eucharist, through which Christ gives us Himself, but by virtue of the Cross, which is where we lay our burdens. But tonight, by looking back on our history, we find a history of dangers, toils and snares, and we find that the grace was always there! In our blindness, we did not see it. In our blindness, we do not see it. But tonight, this Vigil and first Eucharist of Easter is about our eyes being opened to that grace and that love that God so freely gives, despite our being unworthy. He is there through all your dangers, toils and snares, to bring you safely home. And your blindness has been removed by the Light of Christ! In a moment, we will renew our Baptismal Vows. At Baptism, we pray for God to “pour upon you the riches of His grace”, and we state that the newly baptized is “clothed with Christ”. That grace we’ve been talking about, that grace that we just discovered has been around for a really long time, is imputed upon us at our Baptism. That grace is in the Sacraments: Baptism and the Eucharist. We are clothed with Christ in our Baptism; we feed on Christ in the Eucharist. Grace and love abound!! Here we are on this holy night, starting in darkness, coming into the Light of Christ. This is our measured celebration of the grace in which we are clothed. And we should offer our thanks and praise, true praise. So, for tonight, I offer a measured, but praise-worthy version of Amazing Grace. [PLAY TRACK BEFORE READING ON]
If you haven’t guessed, that was Elvis Presley. His version isn’t somber. I found it uplifting, yet not overly-enthusiastic. That is the tone of the Easter Vigil: uplifting, yet not overly-enthusiastic, as we recall the moment that we received that grace. That moment was at our Baptism. That same grace we receive in the Eucharist, that same grace achieved by the Cross, that same grace that enveloped the Israelites as they crossed the Red Sea, is the same grace that we received in our Baptism. How
precious did that grace appear, There is our Baptism: The hour I first believed. Tonight we reaffirm that we are raised to a new life in Christ. We are bathed in His light, in His grace. As we go through this evening, is our blindness removed?
All of this because God loves His Creation, God loves His people, God loves you. Know that Christ’s Death freed you from sin. Know that Christ’s Resurrection freed you from death. Come to meet Christ in the Sacrament, and know God’s amazing love, God’s amazing grace. Happy Easter.
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