<html><body><div>Here's my brief homily for tomorrow evening - for which there's time left for editing!</div><div><br></div><div>Bob</div><div><br></div><div>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>THE
EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>THE GREAT VIGIL OF EASTER a</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>NINE
READINGS AND PSALMS<span style="margin: 0px;">
</span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>15<sup>th</sup> APRIL, 2017</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>ROMANS
6:3-11<span style="margin: 0px;">
</span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>PSALM 114</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>MATTHEW
28:1-10</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>It’s interesting that one of the points Matthew’s Gospel
account of the resurrection gets across is that when the Marys made their way
to the tomb, not only did they fully expect the tomb to be sealed with that
huge stone but, in actual fact, it was.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>It’s always dangerous to examine the space between the
lines with a high-powered microscope, but what if we’re supposed to pick up on
even the slightest nuances of the Story? The two women make up their minds to
go to the tomb. It’s not clear from this Gospel account what they hope to
accomplish, but this would have been the first opportunity to they’d have to go
to see the finality of the acts of violence, or anger, of jealousy. Possibly
they wanted to mourn while touching the great stone. They wanted to find some
way to deal with their grief.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>It was right when the two reached the grave that they
witnessed God’s incredible, powerful Love. They were <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><u>THERE</u></b> when some agent of Love shattered the rock that kept
Jesus from interacting with humanity and humanity from interacting with Jesus.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>What if the two Marys had chosen <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><u>NOT</u></b> to go to the tomb? We’ll never know, because then, and
for all eternity, they <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>DID</u></b>
go.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Take the question to the next level. What if the two
women were the catalyst? Both Marys walked into the garden where the tomb was
and they triggered the bursting open of the tomb. It may well have been that
God was waiting for just that sort of faith, despite its mixture with intense
grief. Both God and the women, acting together, released Love which can never
again be shut away, and all the evil, all the pain, all the emptiness, are
shown to have such limited power.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Perhaps it was at that moment when the women reached the
tomb, in the seconds before the sealing stone was turned aside, that they
remembered the promises of God – the promises of which we heard in the readings
in this still-dark room. When we come down to it, it’s all about promise,</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>It <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>IS</u></b>
all about promise – this is what the readings at the beginning of this liturgy
are all about. One after another, using different analogies, describing situations
at different moments in the history of humanity, each passage talked about the
interaction of God with our ancestors. The passages describe the situations as
well as the problems we face just about every other day, if not every day:
pleasure when we discover the beauty that’s all around us; our pain when things
go wrong; the tension when people can’t agree, and anger spills over into
relationships. The good and the difficult, it’s all there. But throughout it
all, the promises of God are there. Even in the darkness they are there. There <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>IS</u></b> a reason why the whole first
part – almost an hour! – takes place in darkness, with only the flickering
light of our individual candles to help us. Yet that’s enough. The candles
themselves, lit from another candle which was lit from the Paschal Candle,
which itself was lit from the new fire, the first fire of the year; the candles
themselves are signs of promise.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>It’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>ALL</u></b>
about promise. Right from the beginning it was about promises. God created out
of Love, and left signs of that Love in all sorts of places throughout time.
But then God left it up to us to find those signs, and to try to interpret not
only where and how we can receive that Love, but also how we apply it. And it
was as this freedom was played out within history that the various readings
were set down. Throughout hundreds of years, people struggled to make sense of
their lives but, somehow, this couldn’t be done fully till the missing piece,
the Love of God, was appreciated and was accepted. No matter how much hope the
various ancestors of the two Marys had, they were unable to put everything
together beyond the point of hoping.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>So, here we are, like the two Marys. </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>Of course, it’s not just
like them. We know, through faith, what happened. Yet we’re still surprised,
we’re still amazed to find out how gracious, how incredibly gracious God is.
God’s word, more than anything else we can [possibly imagine, God’s word is the
bond to us this is absolutely firm. All that we need to do is to reach out for
it, to move towards it.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>The amazing thing is
that God isn’t put off by our fear, by our questions, by our doubts, by our
griefs. God looks for the slightest little openings, the tiniest opportunity
into which the Light may shine so that we may recognize the faithfulness of God
and the power of promise.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>I think that, deep down,
we <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>KNOW</u></b> that. Deep down, we <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>HAVE</u></b> that faith. But there are
so many layers which our life and our relationships spread on top of this to
prevent us from, staying in touch with the Love which overcomes everything.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>Like the Marys, we may
go from one place to another, distracted by disasters. I wonder if, besides the
grief, I wonder if they had been able to cling to even the smallest
remembrances that Jesus had said that resurrection would happen.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>And like for the Marys,
perhaps God is looking, is waiting for us, so that the stone may roll away from
our hearts, to let Love and Light in; and to let our joy out. A promise from
God <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>CAN</u></b> and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>DOES </u></b>work miracles. And the
miracles never cease, thanks be to God!</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;"><span style='margin: 0px; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> </span></p>
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