Sermon for the Vigil of Easter

Something strange is happening. There is a great silence on
earth today. A great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence
because the king is asleep. The earth trembled, and is still, because God has
fallen asleep in the flesh, and he has raised up all who have slept ever since
the world began.

God has died in the flesh, and hell trembles with fear. He has gone to search
for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who
live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow
the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God, and the son of Eve.

The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the
victory. At the sight of him, Adam, the first man he had created, struck his
breast in terror and cried out to everyone ‘My
Lord be with you all.’ Christ answered ‘And
with your spirit.’

He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying, ‘Awake, O Sleeper, and
rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. I am your God, who for your
sake has become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants, I now
by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who
are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you,
O Sleeper, to awake.

‘I did not create you be held as a prisoner in hell. Rise
from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you
who were created in my image.

‘Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me, and I am in you.

‘Together we form only one person, and we cannot be
separated.

‘For your sake, I, your God, became your son. I, the Lord,
took the form of a slave. I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the
earth, and beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like
a man without help, free among the dead.

‘For the sake of you who left a garden, I was betrayed in a
garden, and I was crucified in a garden.

‘See on my face the spit I received to restore you to the
life I once breathed into you. See there the marks of the blows I received in
order to refashion your warped nature in my image.

‘On my back, see the marks of the scourging I endured to
remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back.’

‘See my hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you, who once wickedly stretched
out your hand to a tree.

‘I slept on the cross, and a sword pierced my side, for you,
who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed
the pain in yours.

‘My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword
that pierced me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you.

‘Rise, let us leave this place.

‘The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not
restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in Heaven.

‘I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but
see I, who am life itself, am now one with you.

‘I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded.
But now I make them worship you as God.

‘The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift
and eager. The bridle chamber is adorned. The banquet is ready. The eternal
dwelling places are prepared. The treasure houses of all good things lie open.
The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity.

‘Rise, let us leave this place.’

‘And on the third day,
he rose again from the dead.’

+INJ+

Preached by Pastor Fields