Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed! But how do we approach this new thing, this new life that is given to us in the darkness of the pre-dawn. Does it actually mean anything to us as we gather at the place of worship or is it another thing that is on the agenda for this weekend? Take the kids of to some exciting camp ground or to the coast or to a secluded spot away from it all isn't that better than going to a stuffy old church and listening to another boring old sermon? and if we do go away do we go to a distant church were no one will know us just for the tradition that tells us we should go to church?
In this age when people are less drawn to the concept of a commitment to a place or an institution where we find those that do are becoming older and more frustrated as they feel the demands of 'religion' placed upon their shoulders, what does it mean to celebrate new life and the mystery that is the Risen Christ. How can we re-capture this mystery within our lived lives in a manner that will draw us into Christ's presence in our lives and those of the community? The darkness of our daily lives appears not to be dispelled by the new fire that is lit for us. The new fire brings an image of warmth and community as we gather around to bless the candle that for us becomes a symbol of Christic love in the world. We have survived the previous days challenges, the death of a human upon a cross. We saw the humility, the graciousness with which the anointed one died. We sat on the side lines without interfering, much as we do today in light of injustice and power. So here we have gathered as a community.
New fire burns away the dry dead old life
We become aware that it is our mortality that has been surrendered, our frailty that has been given in the body of the anointed one as we are invited to new life by those who are at the tomb. The body is not here, we gave up our lives on the cross when we surrendered to Christ's love in our lives at our baptism. We have been invited away from our old lives. It is a time of rejoicing, our introspection should have been undertaken as we approached the cross initially. Now in the joy of seeing our risen Lord we need to acknowledge our own death so that we also can rise with Christ. What we should not do is go looking into the past that is dead to us to find the newness in life that is promised by Christ in his resurrection. Christ comes to us from the future not the past and in coming to us from the future we accept him into our lives knowing and abetting the change that this brings. We celebrate the burning away of the dead wood as we light the new fire, the fire of the Spirit in our lives as we move forward on the journey to the risen life. We pass through baptism acknowledging that we will live in truth and in Christ. We were reminded of that surrendering on Good Friday. Both visually and physically as we wept at the foot of the cross, a weeping for our old lives. We have been washed in the waters of baptism and cleansed so that we too might partake of Christ's risen life. He has gone on before us and as we renew ourselves within the waters of baptism so we commit ourselves once more to that call from outside of ourselves.
We celebrate today in the present. We allow the past to die. We begin a new life in the future with Christ. In celebrating today we need to place all our effort into fulfilling the vows that we take. Only in allowing ourselves to die will we begin to rise into something different. Unfortunately for many today this will be an exercise in futility as we do not wish to die. The horror that we feel is present in death is persuasive and denies us the support that we need to fulfil Christ's promise. In our denial we loose our rebirth and are unable to become as Christ as we bring with us the sins of the past. We immediately forget the words at the beginning of each service and the light that is re-lit at dawn, Christ is risen, he is risen indeed!
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