Holy Saturday, Easter Vigil, Day 3 of the Triduum, April 16, 2022Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Learning to see in the dark
We gathered in a big circle outside the church. The service did not begin till it was nearly dark, like a drive-in movie, or big fireworks.
In the beginning darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters.
We stood around a giant pile of branches, with kindling stacked below. The priest lit a match, but the wind blew it out. His deacon pulled out a propane torch, lit it, and handed it to the priest. The priest touched kindling with the blue white flame.
Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw how good the light was.
I have to say this was the high point of the three hour evening service called The Vigil, celebrated in Episcopal, Catholic and many other churches around the world. George and I visited Twin Oaks Ranch Presbyterian Church in Buda, Texas last night. As we left the short powerful Good Friday service in congregational silence, we passed a twenty foot fire ring, wood and kindling piled high, ready for tomorrow night, ready for the Easter Vigil.
God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” Thus evening came, and morning followed – the first day.
Jesus was killed on Friday afternoon, and you know the rest of the story … Sunday’s comin’. But today is Saturday, today Jesus has not appeared, and, well, do you really think he will? As Isaiah said yesterday, “Who would believe what we have heard?” In the silence of the evening, in the quiet of the shadow, in the corner of a room, darkness moves upon you. And don’t forget to breathe.
God saw how good it was, and evening came and morning followed – the first day. The second day and sky appeared, the third day and trees and plants, the fourth day and the sun, the moon (which is full tonight), and God saw how good it was. God made great sea monsters and all kinds of fish and winged birds and blessed them. God saw how good it was, and evening came and morning followed – the fifth day.
It is getting there on this Easter vigil, the night stories running amok with new life everywhere, and now here come the animals, and at last the man, the wo-man, naming them all. But now it is not just good. It is VERY good. Your whole life is here, sings Alexi Murdoch, no eleventh-hour reprieve, so don’t forget to breathe.
Let us make man in our image, let them have dominion over all the wild animals. Male and female he created them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, be in dominion over the fish, the birds, and all the living things that move on the earth. Here are seeds and trees for you to eat from, and all the living creatures crawling, too. And God saw how very good it all was.
It’s hard work, naming the animals, not to mention man getting to know woman, and woman getting to know man. But God showed them how to rest as well as work.
God rested on the seventh day from all the work he had undertaken.
Outside the fire catches unseen into the highest branches and blazes up into the sky, while we discover sin and are banished from Eden, and in time God puts Abraham to the test.
Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love. “Father!” Isaac said. “Yes, son,” he replied. “Here are the fire and the wood, but where is the sheep for the holocaust?”
God alone is my inheritance. I am restive in my seat. God alone is my inheritance. “And all the suffering that you’ve witnessed and the hand prints on the wall that remind you how it’s endless, how endlessly you fall … so don’t forget to breathe”
Why are you crying out to me? the Lord said to Moses. Tell the Israelites to go forward into the sea. And you, Moses, lift up your staff and split the sea in two. And they shall go forth on dry land, while in the night watch just before dawn a column of fiery cloud will throw the chasing chariots into a panic.
The stories sing out, the words swim before my exhausted eyes, and in a few moments the vigil will end, and Easter will be proclaimed. At Twin Oaks Pres, the pastor told us, that’s when they will break out the champagne for a special communion, the first since Thursday, because Jesus is alive!
We will sing unto the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously: the horse and rider fell into the sea. All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be their peace.
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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