All of us who come to here tonight to take part in the Easter Vigil know that this Liturgy is not short! That means that we all come here because we are willing to spend some time with our Lord. We gather in the dark, even the church is dark. We are still keeping watch remembering that Jesus lies in the darkness of the tomb. We have all had people who were close to us die. We know what it means to keep vigil with someone who lies in death.

However, we watched as a light came into the darkness, a single flame. We might have thought: “Goodness, that one flame gives a lot of light!” And then the light spread throughout the whole church and each of us held the flame in our hands. As we looked at the flame our hearts reaffirmed our belief that was expressed in the Easter Proclamation, that “This is the night when Christ broke the prison-bars of death and rose victorious” from the tomb.

In the Gospel we heard the message from the angel given to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary: “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised as he said.” And we heard St. Paul say in his Letter to the Romans,  “We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.” And so we are here tonight to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

But was the Resurrection only for Jesus? He has died and has risen to live forever at the right hand of God the Father. Is this only for him? On Good Friday we proclaimed our belief that Christ died for us; that he gave his life so that we might live forever with God. So we believe that we too will have eternal life because of Jesus’ Resurrection. How is this possible? How does that happen?

At the heart of the Easter Vigil is the celebration of Baptism. For those who believe in Jesus, baptism is the door that allows us to leave the world of darkness and death and enter the world of Jesus’ Resurrection, the world of light and life forever. 

We heard St. Paul’s words tonight: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” And he goes on to say: “If we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.”

So what does that mean for Cole and Rachel Vogelsang and Sarah Mandoza who will be baptized tonight? On Good Friday, the opening prayer said that God, by Jesus’ death on the Cross,“abolished the death inherited from ancient sin by every succeeding generation…”

That “ancient sin” is the sin of our first parents. To understand what we do tonight, the Vigil of Readings tonight began with the account of Creation, when God created our human race. But Adam and Eve defied God and brought death to the human race. Therefore, as with every human being, when we were born our ultimate future was to only to die.

But God sent his Son Jesus into the world so that the future of all of us would not be death but rather would be eternal life, life with God. Therefore there needed to be a new creation, A new life for human beings; A life that does not end in death. Jesus brings about this new creation.

In the Book of Revelation, St. John writes:”Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth…A loud voice cried ‘Look, …God…will wipe away all tears from their eyes; there will be no more death, and no more mourning or sadness or pain. The world of the past has gone…I am making the whole of creation new.’”

What we experienced in our baptism will be repeated tonight for Cole, Rachel and Sarah. In the water of baptism they will be buried with Christ and so they will be united to his resurrection. They will walk in newness of life. After their baptism they will be clothed in a white garment and they will hear these words: “Cole, Rachel and Sarah, you have become a new creation and have clothed yourselves in Christ. Receive this baptismal garment and bring it unstained to the judgment seat of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that you may have everlasting life.” 

We were not there when God spoke his Word: “Let there be light” and brought about the creation of the universe. But we are here this evening in the presence of the living Jesus, the Word of God, risen from the dead. By his power these children become God’s children and as Jesus brings about the new creation in them giving them, he gives them new life, God’s life, the life of the Risen Jesus, the life they will live forever in heaven.

They will have what we have. That is why in this Eucharist we joyfully say thank you to God for the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead, for the new life Jesus brings about in us, for the new creation that we are a part of and for the gift of eternal life which is our promise and hope every day of our lives. For all of this we let our Alleluias rise over and over again to God in heartfelt gratitude and praise.