The Great Vigil of Easter, Saturday 19th April, by Fr Jack

At 'early dawn', St Luke’s Gospel tells us, the women came to the tomb. 'Early dawn'. 

I am told the Rabbis judge the end of day and the start of night, and vice versa by whether you can tell the difference between blue and black. And in the sky, those first shades of blue, not quite pitch black anymore, and we come with these women of the passion, with the Myrrh-bearers, to the tomb. There’s us, with St Mary Magdalene and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and, Susanna, and the other women with them. We come bearing myrrh, to give as much dignity as possible to our beloved Jesus, even though all our hopes have died with Him. A loving desperation brings us here.

 And we find that in the quiet hours of this night, not with trumpets and flashes of fire, but quietly, in the middle of the night, unnoticed, Jesus has slipped out of the tomb. There is enough for a lifetime’s meditation here, but just a couple of thoughts for this night from these wonderful Myrrh-bearers.

 Jesus does not rise at dawn, He rises alone in the night, and when we come at dawn, we find Him already risen. Sometimes it is in the midst of our deepest darkness, whether we know it or not, that God is working resurrection miracles in our midst. We just need to hang around long enough to see them. And that’s what we learn from these women of the passion tonight. 

 What is a Christian? (That seems a very good question to ask on this night of all nights.)

Well, if we learn from these women, the first to hear of Jesus’ resurrection, then Christians are people who turn up. Christians turn up, and give God room to do wonders.

 It’s about God, not really about us.

No matter how little or much we believe, how little or much we love, or know. We turn up, and let God do wonders of belief and love and wisdom and all the rest, in us.

Even in the darkness - in whatever shape or form that darkness takes, in us or around us - in the footsteps of the Myrrh-bearers we just keep turning up, and let God be God.

 A short while ago we heard all those wonderful lessons, at the Vigil in St Alphage ruins, from Genesis to Jesus. It has been a long journey to get here. From the creation of Genesis, lots of twists and turns (to say the least!) in between, until we reach now, the new creation, of equal magnitude with the first: the new creation that is the Resurrection of Jesus. It is into this resurrection life that we have entered through baptism, and that you, Eucalyptus/Yakuri and Sophie are entering tonight. 

 Death and sin are put behind us, and life in God forever is made our destiny, and the destiny of all things with us. The whole cosmos is renewed and redeemed in Christ tonight, who has died, emptied hell, defeated death and risen again. A new creation.

 And He has come to meet us. And we are here to meet Him, because we have followed these women, who turn up. And we will spend the rest of our days turning up, in prayer, in worship, in regular and purposeful receiving of Holy Communion, in acts of faith, hope and love, at home, in work and school, in church, when we are alone, and we we’re in a crowd, with friend and stranger. 

We turn up to meet the Risen Christ, to be surprised by angels, and to find the million different ways in which Jesus goes before us, calling us, joyfully, to follow Him.