Easter Vigil 1
“Dear friends in Christ: On this most holy night, in which our Lord Jesus passed over from death to life, the Church invites her members, dispersed throughout the world, to gather in vigil and prayer.” —Book of Common Prayer (Church Publishing, 1979), p. 285.
The Easter Vigil is one of the year’s most complicated and beautiful services for the church. The difficulty is that it is only once a year, so it is hard to remember all the tiny details from year to year. As a result, there is sometimes more chaos on this evening than the church would like. But this also adds to its beauty: light and creation emerging from chaos. The service starts with lighting the Paschal candle from a fire, usually outside the church. The large lighted candle then enters the church into complete darkness.
The deacon carries the Paschal candle in as they light the congregation’s candles while singing “The Light of Christ” three times in a slightly higher pitch. This is followed by the deacon chanting the beautiful Exsultet.
It is time for me to turn the Exsultet over to someone else. I have loved chanting the Exsultet for more than seventeen years. It has been a privilege. Our former other deacon at St. Mark’s, Susan, sang the Exsultet for three years. I loved hearing her practicing and beautifully chanting it from her heart. Michael, one of our priests, chanted it the following year, and our new rector, Barkley, will chant the Exsultet again this year.
Old Testament readings about God’s history with God’s people follow the Exsultet. Next come baptisms, crying babies, and curious toddlers escaping from their parents, all still in the dark. Finally, the cacophony of the incredible noise of bells of every size announces that Christ has risen indeed. The lights come on, and we see all the flowers of Easter surrounding the inside of the church. Then, we celebrate the first new Eucharist of the Easter season.
The service may be similar to what the spice-bearing women experienced when they came to the empty tomb on that early Easter morning. They saw one or two angels in dazzling white, telling them they were the first to know that Jesus had been raised from the dead!
This is the Easter message: Jesus defeated death and rose from the dead. We will rise from the dead. We have the promise that we will find resurrection in all the suffering and unnecessary deaths from this virus and the social and racial unrest in our world. This year, we especially pray for peace and resurrection for the people of Ukraine, the Middle East, Sudan, and the people of our state still suffering from the recent tornadoes.
