Happy Easter everyone!  It really is so good to be here with you, last year Fr. Andrew Marr and I celebrated the Easter Vigil by ourselves in this huge church… it was rather strange, so I am so very thankful to be with you this evening.

Since I am a baby priest, and this is the first time I am celebrating this Easter Vigil as the Pastor, in front of everybody, without the luxury to read the instructions as I go along like I did last year... since I am a rookie, I have been trying to be really careful about the Rubrics of the liturgy from the big red book, the Roman Missal.

In the book, there is text in black and red, I say the black and I do the red, so the Rubrics, in red, are my instructions, and if you think that Rubrics is a funny word, just think of a Ruby, that’s kind of gets to the root of the word: Rubeus is Latin for Red. So Rubrics is another word for “Red Instructions” and it is my instructions from the Church for what we are to do, at this liturgy and really for all liturgies. 

So within the Rubrics there are instructions and options, sometimes too many options, but one of the things that I found interesting when examining the rubrics this year was, well, it says ideally we read all of the Old Testament readings, but if not, we at least have to read three, and within that we must read Exodus 14.

The story from Exodus 14 was when Moses led the Israelites dry-shod through the Red Sea.  What really struck me is that we hear about that three times tonight, we heard the first in the Exultet, when Mike sang, “This is the night, when once you led our forebearers, Israel’s children, from slavery in Egypt and made them pass dry-shod through the Red Sea.”

Then we heard the full story in the reading from Exodus 14 like the Rubrics said to do.

And right after my homily we will have a baptism: Chloe is 8 years old and she is going to be baptized tonight and then receive her first communion, and just a note on her first communion: please stay seated while Deacon Steve and I give her and her family communion first, the precious Body and Blood under both species, then we will go to our normal spots, but just stay seated or kneeling until her parents and Godparents have gone through and we have switched to our normal spots.

But it is super exciting to be able to baptize her and give her first communion, and she is excited too, but during her baptism, when I bless the water, I will pray, “O God, who caused the children of Abraham to pass dry-shod through the Red Sea, so that the chosen people, set free from slavery to Pharaoh, would prefigure the baptized.”

So, the obvious thing that is happening with this Mass is that the Church wants us to consider the Resurrection in light of all of Salvation History.  God has been trying to save us from the original sin of Adam, that is what Salvation History means, it is basically what the whole bible is trying to tell us and show us, is that God loves us as his sons and daughters and wants to save us, but people always found ways to resist and screw it up.  

The Exultet takes us through some of the history, the readings take us through history, and even the blessing of the water for the baptism takes us through salvation history as it relates to water, showing us how everything was meant to prepare us for this moment: our salvation which has come through the suffering, death and Resurrection of Jesus.

But because the Church features this image of passing through the Red Sea three times, that means it is very important and worthy of a bit of reflection.

Do you remember the movie, “The Ten Commandments” with Charelton Heston?  I love that movie, and I remember as a kid we would always return home from the Easter Vigil on this night and watch the last little bit, always having this scene of the Israelites leaving Egypt and coming to the Red Sea, camped beside it.

But then Queen Nefeteri says to the Pharaoh, “Do you hear laughter, Rameses? Yes. The laughter of slaves.”   She hardens his heart so that he would pursue them.  

So if you know the movie, picture yourself in that scene….  can you imagine being a Hebrew slave, on the run to freedom, so close you can taste it, but hearing the thunder of Pharaoh and his chariots coming in pursuit?  

You are totally trapped against the Red Sea, there is no way out.  As you realize you are about to die you think, “it was too good to be true after all!” 

But then God steps in and does something completely unexpected, something you didn’t even think was possible. Then, Moses, before he parts the Red Sea, he says, “Ten times you have seen the miracles of the Lord, but still you have no faith.... Fear not, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord!” First, He blocks the path with a pillar of fire.

Moses, as he parts the Red Sea, he says, “After this day you will see his chariots no more. The Lord of Hosts will do battle for us! BEHOLD HIS MIGHTY HAND!!!”

And after they have crossed the red sea dry-shod, the pillar of fire disappears, so  the Egyptians come after them in full pursuit, and Moses says “who shall withstand the power of God”  And the water of the sea crashes down on the army and crushes them.

Completely unexpected, yet you are amazed.  With all of the Egyptians dead on the shore you realize you have truly been set free. And the pillar of fire goes forth through the desert, leading the people to freedom.

Now we fast forward a thousand some years and think about Jesus.  Imagine yourself as one of his Apostles, or one of his disciples, such as the women who came to the tomb in the reading we just heard.  You have been following Jesus now for three years.  

You thought He was the Messiah, the Son of God, the chosen one who would free your people from slavery to the Roman oppressors, just like Moses did.  You thought you might even have a high place in His Kingdom, but an unexpected turn of events: He has just been put to death.  

All of your hopes are dashed, just a week ago you followed Jesus into the city of Jerusalem as the people welcomed Him as a king, you had so much hope of being set free, you could almost taste it.  But now, at His death, you fear for your own life, maybe even feel a little trapped, and definitely disappointed after spending so much time as His disciple.

But despite the fear, here you are at the tomb to anoint him, or to mourn Him, and you find the tomb empty, you find out that He has been raised from the dead.  God again has done something completely unexpected, and once again, you are amazed.

This Easter Candle is like that pillar of fire which disappeared but then returned to lead the people to freedom.  It is a representation of Jesus in that way as well, so we honor the candle in the same way that we would honor Jesus, incensing the Easter Candle much the same way as we incense Jesus in the Eucharist during Family Adoration on Wednesday nights.  

Jesus is the light in the darkness, He prepared His chosen apostles and disciples for three years, disappeared for three days, but now is back to lead His people forward, to freedom from our sins, to walk in his ways. 

So we can “see” those connections, hopefully, right? But “seeing” the unexpected is only the beginning. So that we might “experience” our salvation through water, to actually live it and experience it, Jesus asks to go and baptize... 

When Jesus was ascending to Heaven, he said, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit,” so that we don’t just see and hear about it, we experience it, we are saved by God’s mighty hand through the Resurrection, and through water, and through the blood of His new Covenant.  

God has done the work for His chosen people, time and time again He has saved us, that is the story of Salvation History that the Church wants us to remember on this night, so it is especially good that we are able to see Chloe baptized and remind ourselves of how we have been saved.

Tonight, especially, I’d like you to notice when I do the blessing of the water, which comes right after the Litany of the Saints, how much the blessing talks about water showing forth grace, water having the power to sanctify, water as an end to vice and a beginning of virtue, water setting us free from slavery, and finally waters which baptized Jesus, but then Jesus gave forth water from his side along with blood so that we would be saved. 

And that is the amazing part, is that we hardly have to do anything, we aren’t saving ourselves, just like the Hebrews didn’t save themselves from Egypt, God does the saving work, we just have to walk forward in faith, we just have to say “I do” to our faith and “behold his mighty hand.”

This is why we profess our faith with the Creed every week.  This is why we profess the faith on this night as a renewal of our baptismal promises.  Tonight we will say, “I do” right along with Chloe as she publicly professes her faith for the first time.

This is what we are called to do really every day, to say “I do,” to say “yes” to following Jesus Christ, living as a disciple.  Do we fail at that from time to time?  Yes, unfortunately, we do, we surrender to sin like the Hebrews surrendered to Egypt, we allow ourselves to be slaves to sin.

But the beauty of this night is that God has done the work for us, He has saved us and will continue to free us from our sin when we turn back to Him in faith, just as He has done throughout all of history, constantly showing His great love for His chosen people.

And one other way He shows his love is through the Sacrament of His love, the Eucharist.  God never abandons us, He has been with us throughout salvation history.  

So consider this, one last connection, when the Hebrews ran out of food as they traveled through the desert towards freedom in the promised land, God fed them with manna, bread from heaven.

And just before Jesus was to suffer and die for our sins, He gave us Himself in the Eucharist, to feed us on our journey to freedom from our slavery to sin.  His Body  is bread from heaven to sustain us from the desert of this life to the new promised land of heaven.

Amen. May God bless you this Easter as you profess your faith this evening and are strengthened by His Body and Blood to follow Him and grow as disciples every day.