Easter Vigil 2020
Easter Vigil Proclamation of the Resurrection
2020 Coronavirus Quarantine
Had we been together and had we read all of the traditional scripture for tonight, we would have read about:
Our God, who out of the dark void created the world and everything in it, including humankind, and pronounced it good.
Our God, who dried up the floodwaters and set his rainbow in the sky as a sign of the covenant he was making with every living creature.
Our God, who raised up our ancestor Abraham and blessed him with a land and a name, giving him descendants who number like the stars of the sky and rewarding his faithfulness.
Our God, who heard the cry of his people and delivered them from slavery in Egypt, giving them passage on dry land through the Red Sea and swallowing up their enemies.
Our God, whose word came to his prophets, promising his Spirit, and life and restoration for the people of Israel, even as they saw themselves as a pile of dried up bones.
Our God, who delivered Jonah from three days in the bottom of a fish so he could preach repentance to Nineveh and see God spare even God’s enemies from destruction.
Our God, who walked through a fiery furnace with his faithful people.
Our God, who fulfills his own word, so that we know the salvation which he promises will not fail but has been accomplished.
Our God, who created us and watched us stray into darkness and sin and death. Yet, because of his unfailing love for us, set aside his glory to come live among us and die for us, to restore us to light and life and righteousness.
Our God who, though he stayed Abraham’s hand, did not spare his own Son but sent him to earth to perfectly fulfill his will and to become the sacrifice for our sins.
Our God, who raised Jesus from the dead, so that Mary and the disciples found the tomb empty and the Lord and Savior alive.
If God can bring life out of death in so many ways, God can certainly do so again. So it is with overflowing joy and thanksgiving that we proclaim the great and glorious news: Alleluia! Christ is risen!