We are all part of a
story.
It is a story that
stretches back to the very beginning of the world when God created everything
out of nothing. From the mud of the earth, He formed the first man and woman,
our ancestors, and breathed life into them. They and their children disobeyed God
and lost friendship with Him. Yet He never gave up on the people He created,
offering them time and time again the opportunity to be reconciled to Him.
Finally, He sent His
only Son to reveal to us the depth of His fatherly love and to take upon
Himself the suffering we deserved for our sins. All this week we have
remembered how, though He came to show love, He was treated with cruelty and
contempt. It looked as though it might be all over when on Good Friday He was
put to death. But we know the rest of the story. It is the reason we have
gathered here tonight. God raised Jesus from the dead. The apostles bear
witness to it. Martyrs shed their blood to spread the word. And generations of
believers have committed themselves to living as He lived and to telling the
next generation the story of our salvation.
The point of the
story is this - there is nothing and no one greater than God. Though sin
separated us from Him, God is greater than sin. Though death takes every living
being, God is greater than death. Though suffering can fall upon us at any
time, God is greater than suffering. Through Jesus, our Heavenly Father
conquers all the powers of evil and darkness. The victory is certainly not yet
complete. But it is playing itself out in our lives and in our world.
We became a part of
that story at our baptism when, as Saint Paul tells us - “We were indeed buried
with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from
the dead
by the glory of the
Father,we too might live in newness of life.” It is now time for us to live out
the story of Jesus’ victory by rejecting sin and evil in all its forms. It is
now time for us to live the new life of the resurrection by performing good
deeds, feeding the hungry, giving comfort to the suffering and praying for
sinners. Finally, we must never fail to tell the story to our children, our
family members, our friends and whomever God may place in our lives so that
they can know the blessed hope that guides our life.
More than ever,
today’s world needs to hear our story. It is a world that is plunged in
darkness and in need of the light that only Christ can bring. We must tell our
story to those who are lost and wandering aimlessly. They need to know that
there is a purpose to their existence, that God created them for a reason, and
that they can find that purpose in Jesus Christ. There are so many of our brothers and sisters
who are suffering alone with no one to visit our comfort them. They need to be
reached with the message that Jesus stands by the side of all those who suffer,
and that, if they offer their pain to Him, He can transform it into a source of
blessing. Finally, there are so many in our world who think that they are in
charge of their own lives and are not accountable to anyone for the choices
they make. They need to hear that one day they will stand before the throne of
God to give an account of their life. They also need to know that there is
forgiveness in the blood of Jesus and strength in the Holy Spirit to overcome
any sin.
We are part of a
story, a story that is as long as the world itself. It is a story filled with
failure and triumph, sin and grace, doubt and faith. However, we know how it
ends. Our Risen Lord will come again in glory to judge the living and dead and
to establish His Father’s Kingdom forever. If by His grace we have been
faithful to the vows of our baptism we can rest assured that He will welcome us
to live with Him forever. Let us, then, light our candles and renew those
baptismal vows with deeper purpose and conviction so that Jesus victory may
show itself more clearly in our lives.
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