The Power of Procession: A Sermon for the Great Vigil of Easter

Holy Week involves quite a few processions. We walk a lot…we pray with our bodies. It started with the Palm procession last Sunday, walking and waving palm fronds and shouting “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the Highest!” We were re-membering and embodying the celebration of Jesus entering the city of Jerusalem at the time of the Passover Festival. Redemption was near, but in a very different way than they – or we – could have ever imagined.

Then on Maundy Thursday, we processed to the front of the church to wash one another’s feet, just as Jesus did to his disciples on the evening of the Last Supper. This was a much more subdued, solemn procession than the one on Palm Sunday. Redemption was drawing near, but as Jesus shared at the Last Supper, this redemption would look very different from what the disciples – or we - could have ever imagined.

After the Good Friday service yesterday, we processed through the Stations of the Cross, recalling in vivid detail the events surrounding Jesus’ trial, torture, crucifixion, and death. Indeed, this procession couldn’t have been more different from the one we had engaged at the beginning of this week. In a matter of five days, we had gone from pure jubilation to utter agony.

This evening, the processions continue. First, we gathered in the courtyard to light the fire that would lead us away from the darkness of death and towards the light of resurrection. Then we processed through the story of salvation history, beginning at the beginning, and continuing all the way through the reason that we are here – the Resurrection of our Lord.

But the procession doesn’t end with Christ’s resurrection from the dead. In a few moments, we will process to the baptismal font, and graft Fenleigh Olive Thomas into Christ’s very own Body – the Church. Though she is too young to understand what is happening this evening, the context of her entry into the Church is profound. She is being baptized into all of these stories, all of these people, all of these processions. These stories now become her story. These people are now her people.

But the procession to the font and her baptism is not the last procession. Just as Christ’s story continues well after his bodily resurrection from the dead, so too will Fenleigh’s story continue after this evening. After this evening’s service, Thomas family will join us in processing into the world carrying and sharing the Good News that Jesus Christ is Lord, and death had no dominion over him, and death has no dominion over us. As a baptized Christian, her life will be a rich procession of love and service of the Lord and for the Lord. The Good News for her is that she doesn’t have to walk this journey alone. She will be baptized into a Body – Christ’s body – and she will have her fellow Christians by her side as she makes her procession through her life in Christ. And she will also have Christ by her side, every step of the way. Thanks be to God for Fenleigh Olive Thomas, our newest fellow sojourner on our journey into resurrected life in Jesus Christ!