The Feast of the Resurrection (Easter Sunday)

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The Feast of the Resurrection (Easter Sunday), March 23, 2008

Acts 10:34-43, Colossians 3:1-4, John 21:1-18
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, West Valley City, UT

Alleluia Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! It feels good to say those words again. But saying them is the easy part.

Many things come together on Easter Sunday, in addition to Easter bunnies and Easter egg hunts. This morning, early, we lit the first fire of Easter. We heard our story through sacred text. We welcomed Ken Lawson into the family of God through baptism. We then as now, renewed our own Baptismal Covenant. We then as now made our first Communion of Easter.

Easter points us to the primary focal points of our life as Christians: Holy Baptism and Holy Eucharist. Through these two sacraments we enter the life of a Christian. We enter into the vocation of being a follower of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. We move into the pilgrimage of vocation as a Christian.

This past week on Holy Tuesday, the clergy of the diocese gathered with our bishop to renew our Baptismal Covenant and Ordination Vows. This is traditionally done during Holy Week. Bishop Carolyn preached on the importance of vocation: vocation as an ordained person and as a Christian.

Vocation according to Webster’s Dictionary comes from the Latin, vocare, to call. It is a call, summons or impulsion to perform a certain function or enter a certain career, especially a religious one; hence the function or career toward which one believes him/herself to be called. Through baptism you have answered your call/vocation to be a Christian, a follower of the Christ.

As I have noted earlier, quoting a Roman Catholic nun, we need to think of vocation as a verb, not as a noun. It is something we are continually becoming. You are continually becoming a Christian. You have been baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection and you are fed on the Sacrament of his body and blood as you continue to grow into the full stature of Christ.

But it is more than those sacramental/liturgical acts it is in how we live our life. We will in a few minutes renew our Baptismal Covenant, the road map of our vocational pilgrimage as a Christian. This is where it gets tricky. As I said earlier, the easy part is saying, Alleluia Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed!

The tricky part is living into what you have promised God and one another, specifically the five questions we all answer, I will with God’s help. When I prepare young persons for baptism, I translate the Covenant into regular English, not church talk. So, the first question comes out as, will you keep coming to church and join the community in prayers and the Holy Eucharist?

Second, will you try and live a good life, knowing that you are going to mess up and when you do, you recognize it, pray and ask forgiveness of God and the person you hurt or offended.

Third, will you try to lead a life that actually shows you are a follower of Jesus Christ in what you say and in what you do?

Fourth, will try to see Christ in everyone you meet and know, so that you can follow his commandment to love them as you love your very self.

Finally, will you try to make this world a better place, a place of peace and of justice. Will you also respect every other person as a unique, beloved child of God, a child Jesus died for as much as he died for you.

There is a reason we answer each question: I will with God’s help. We cannot do it alone. Sometimes it is really hard even to do it with God’s help. We have all had that argument, disagreement, fight with someone in our family, at school or work or in the parish. We all know what it is like to feel angry at someone else. We all know what it feels like to be hurt, terribly hurt by someone else. We know how hard it is to go on when we are in pain and when we are angry. We know how hard it can be sometimes to be with other people.

I will with God’s help. We cannot do it by ourselves. But we can decide to try very, very hard to see that person as a beloved child of God, even if we are very angry at them or very hurt by that person.

I mentioned in a children’s homily a few weeks ago about the plaque I saw years ago at Our Lady of the Mountains Retreat Center: I asked Jesus how much he loved me and he said this much, and stretched out his arms and died. But when I read it that first time the words changed: I asked Jesus how much he loved you, and he said this much, and stretched out his arms and died.

Alleluia Christ is risen for you and for me despite our failures and weaknesses. Alleluia the Lord is risen indeed for you and for me, despite how many times we fail to love one another as God loves us.

Please remember this Eastertide, that Christ is died and risen not just for you, but for the person next to you as well. For all of us. Thanks be to God.