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The
Cathedral Church
of Saint John
Ten Concord Ave.
Wilmington
Delaware
19802

voice: (302) 654-6279
fax: (302) 777-5789

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Dean’s Sermon
Easter Vigil
11 April 2009

by the Very Reverend William B. Lane

Why is this Night Different from All Other Nights?

This is the question raised by children at each Passover celebration in Jewish homes. Passover is the opening scene in the drama of Israel’s redemption as summed up in Deuteronomy:

A wandering Aramean was my ancestor, and he went down to Egypt and lived there as a foreigner with a household few in number, but there he became a great, powerful, and numerous people. But the Egyptians mistreated and oppressed us, forcing us to do burdensome labor. So we cried out to the LORD, the God of our ancestors, and he heard us and saw our humiliation, toil, and oppression. Therefore the LORD brought us out of Egypt with tremendous strength and power, as well as with great awe-inspiring signs and wonders. Then he brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

So the answer to the Jewish child about why the night of Passover is different, is that it is the night in which God inaugurated Israel’s freedom, the night when God initiated the promise of a new day for a people who seemed trapped in the old day:

God has brought his Israel into joy from sadness: loosed from Pharoah’s bitter yoke Jacob’s sons and daughters, led them with unmoistened foot through the Red Sea waters.

You might recognize that, it is in the first verse of one of our Easter Hymns, Hymn 199. You might then ask, “Why at Easter would we sing about the Exodus, why incorporate Passover themes in our celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus, the Messiah?”

Suppose your children ask you, why is the celebration of Easter different from all other celebrations? “Why is this night, this night of Vigil, different from all other nights?” How do you answer that question? Perhaps your answer will begin with the recital of Israel’s story, the story of Passover, Exodus, Promise, a Promised Land. The story of bondage, journey, and freedom.

And then you might go on to tell how that promise, that gift to Israel is meant to be, through Israel, a gift to the nations, to all. This as expressed by Isaiah:

The foreigners who join themselves to the Lord… these I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer… for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all people.

And on this night we celebrate God’s fulfillment of that promise. For on this night we remember and participate in a journey, a journey of love, a journey of faith. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Jesus journey to the tomb in which the corpse of Jesus had been placed only to discover that the tomb is empty.

So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, Greetings! And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.

So that is why this celebration is different from others, it is the celebration, not just of an empty tomb, but of a tomb that is empty because, by the grace of God, death has given way to life. Jesus lives and this Jesus is the first fruit of new life, of a new creation; the one in whom the promise that all will find fulfillment on the mountain of the Lord is made real. Not a possibility, but a reality. Paul catches this so well in Romans:

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

So on this night we know that strife, turmoil, uncertainty shall not overcome us. We know, with Paul, that:

neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

On this night we do not lament that the world is not perfect; rather we rejoice that God in Christ Jesus has brought forth a new creation and loves us into it.

Why is this night different than other nights? On this night we experience the glory of the kingdom of God and know ourselves as citizens of that kingdom; a citizenship still in process, but a citizenship never the less.

Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Jesus go out to the tomb, and on this night they take us by the hand that we may be there too. We need not be afraid, the tomb is empty and Jesus of Nazareth is now the Lord of the new creation, Lord of God’s eternal kingdom.

Faithfully,
The Very Reverend William B. Lane

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