March 30, 2013 | 8:00 p.m. | The Great Vigil of Easter

Baptized into Death

John W. Vest
Associate Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church

Romans 6:3–11

At its heart, the Great Vigil of Easter is a worship service centered on the Sacrament of Baptism. Historically, this was the service at which new members were baptized and welcomed into full communion at the table of the Lord. Many of the readings we have heard include rich allusions to water, imagery that is highlighted once again in the prayer said over the water during the service of baptismal reaffirmation later this evening.

Like Israel passing through the waters of the Red Sea on the way to freedom in the Promised Land, it is through the waters of baptism that we experience the depths of God’s grace, God’s welcome, and God’s acceptance as we enter the community of faith we call church. Water is present at our birth, and we need water in order to live. Water cleanses and refreshes us, yet water can also be a source of destruction and ruin. It is the most abundant resource on our planet, and it binds the whole world together in a shared network of life.

In his letter to the church in Galatia, the Apostle Paul quotes an ancient baptismal formula from the earliest church. It speaks in powerful terms of our equality in the waters of baptism, words we are wise to hear with fresh ears today:

You are all God’s children through faith in Christ Jesus. All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free; nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

In his letter to the Philippians, Paul quotes another piece of ancient liturgy, a hymn about Christ emptying himself of divinity and experiencing death like every other human being who has ever lived:

Though he was in the form of God,
     he did not consider being equal with God something to exploit.
But he emptied himself
     by taking the form of a slave
     and by becoming like human beings.
When he found himself in the form of a human,
     he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,
     even death on a cross.
Therefore, God highly honored him
     and gave him a name above all names,
     so that at the name of Jesus everyone
     in heaven, on earth, and under the earth might bow
     and every tongue confess that
     Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

In these earliest hours of Easter, having gathered in the darkness to kindle a new fire and share the sacred stories of our faith, we are here to proclaim that death is not the end of the story. Death is never the end of God’s story. Every time that evil drags us down into the depths of despair, God shows up to pick up the pieces and lead us into a new day.

Slavery could not hold God’s people down. The cries of God’s children were heard and God sent Moses to lead them to freedom.

Exile was not the end of God’s people. The tables were turned on their captors and God’s children returned home to rebuild their sacred city.

A brutal execution at the hands of the political and religious powers he threatened was not the end of Jesus and his vision of God’s kingdom erupting into the world. God redeemed Jesus from death and gave him new life—which is the hope and promise of new life for each of us, indeed new life for the entire world.

But let’s not forget that death came first. “Don’t you know,” asks Paul, “that all who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?”

That line doesn’t often make it into the liturgy when we baptize infants. It doesn’t exactly fit the feel-good atmosphere of a Baptism Sunday. Parents with babies who literally depend on them for life don’t want to hear that we are baptizing their children into death. It’s a Sunday morning buzzkill.

But for those of us who have walked through darkness and water to reach this moment, perhaps we are more open to this mystery. Perhaps we know something of the death we share with Christ:

A world at war and always on the brink of war
Innocent children gunned down like lambs to the slaughter
Divisions and hatreds that seem impossible to overcome
Families torn apart and children abandoned
Love denied and marginalized
Sickness and suffering that cannot be healed
The bondage of addiction
Failure and humiliation
Loneliness and heartache
Sins we are ashamed to mention or bring to light

Yes, we know something of darkness and death.

But in this moment, we also know that darkness and death are not the end of the story. Just as we are buried with Christ through baptism, we are raised with him to newness of life.

Newness of life!

“Change your hearts and lives,” says the living Christ. Your life can change. The person you have been can be transformed, reborn. The world as we know it can become the world as it should be.

Sin and evil and death—they no longer have power over us, because they no longer have power over Christ.

It may still be dark outside. But today is a new day.

We are passing—ever passing—from death to new life.

Christ the Lord is risen today! Alleluia! Amen.