St. John’s Episcopal Church
Tallahassee, FL
Genesis 1:1—2:2
Genesis 7:1-5,11-18; 8:6-18; 9:8-13
1 Kings 18:20-39
Exodus 14:10—15:1
Romans 6:3–11
Mark 16:1-8
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Four Old Testament stories.
Nine baptisms . . . (nine!)
And now a forty minute sermon.
Just kidding!
You know I love you better than that.
But seriously,
how blessed we are
to be here with God
and with one another,
doing the thing
that Christians have been doing
on this night
for thousands of years:
Lighting the fire of our hearts,
telling the stories of our faith,
welcoming new members into the Body,
and shouting from the rooftops,
“Blessed be God,
O you peoples,
blessed be God!”
For Christ has demolished our sin;
he has kicked death to the curb;
and we are reconciled to God.
* * *
I don’t know if you noticed,
but there was a particular theme running
through all our Old Testament readings tonight.
Did you catch it?
It’s the theme . . . of water.
Water . . . that God created in the beginning.
Water. . . that poured from the heavens
and rose over the earth
and set Noah on his voyage.
Water. . . that could not quench the fire of God
when Elijah—salty, sassy, redneck Kyle Griffis Elijah—
called it down from heaven.
Water. . . that God split right in two
so Israel could pass through the Red Sea
on unmoistened foot.
How fitting!
How perfect
that God would give us these stories
on the same night that
Olivia,
Jack,
Will,
Steffi,
Anthony,
Kai,
Emma,
Wesley,
and William
pass through the waters of baptism.
Y’all, we are
drowning
in grace.
* * *
But let’s be clear:
as fun as all those Old Testament stories are,
none of them
are the real reason
we are here.
No, my friends,
the real reason
we are here tonight
is Jesus.
Jesus:
who is the new and greater Noah,
for he has gathered us all
to himself like an ark
and rescues us
and keeps us safe
from the storms
of chaos and sin.
Jesus:
who is the new and greater Elijah,
for he has conquered not just Ba’al
but the Devil himself . . .
not through a fiery showdown in the desert
but through a humble death
and an empty tomb.
Jesus:
who is new and greater Moses,
for he has stood in the gap
and walked before us,
parting the sea of death itself
that we might be delivered safely
to the other side.
Oh y’all,
this Jesus.
With this same Jesus,
we, too, have been buried.
Like Olivia,
Jack,
Will,
Steffi,
Anthony,
Kai,
Emma,
Wesley,
William
and all the saints
through all the ages,
we who are baptized
have gone under the water.
We, too, have gone into the grave.
“We, too, have been buried with Christ in his death,
and just as Christ was raised from the dead
by the glory of the Father,
we too now walk in newness of life.”[1]
O my friends.
On this beautiful, mysterious night,
water is all around us.
God’s mercy is all around us.
God’s love is all around us.
Christ is alive,
and we are
drowning
in grace.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Amen.
[1] Romans 6:4