March 26, 2016 - Holy Week - Easter Vigil - Sabbatum Sanctum

Third of the Ten Commandments in the Bible is: “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” When a chant or prayer is made absentmindedly, without complete attention on the Lord, the Divine Name has been taken in vain; that is, without result, without the power of that Name, and without receiving God's response. To repeat a chant with ever-increasing understanding and devotion is to invoke the Name of God and not in vain.

I was writing last Sunday about perhaps my needing something new in worship.  I had no idea that the something new would be something ancient. The Easter Vigil Proclamation this year was chanted and floated through the air.  Those gathered were invoking God's name in devotion.

I am not going to pretend I apprehended it all at the moment.  I was holding a candle along with the rest of the congregation.  The wick on my candle must have been a bit longer than the others, I'm not sure but the chant went on far longer than years past and the wax on my candle was melting and dripping onto my hand from about halfway through the Proclamation.  Pastor Michelle, in her upper range, delivered chant after chant.  The words were English but, at least for this listener, the actual words lost one level of meaning.  I was aware there was something both familiar and unfamiliar about the moment.

I remember my reaction to the unfamiliar first was to totally embrace the beauty of Pastor Michelle's delivery chanting of God's heavenly powers. About the time the wax was dripping on my hands a part of me was no longer receptive and I was only wondering how long the chanting would continue.  I thought about what I could do to accommodate the length by adjusting my candle and moving my bulletin to catch the wax drippings.  I then returned to listening to the words where what was being chanted became important again.

Christ Candle

When I was home, I found my memory of the Easter Vigil Proclamation contained something I was only vaguely aware of at the time.  There was a distance to what was being performed that I was unused to as being part of Creator worship.  Another time, the reality of people I did not know from a different time and place, were being made present with this chant.  This was a different perspective of God than the God of those in my time and place.  My views of God suddenly seemed a bit foreign to me.  I was filled with a sense gratitude for the ancient traditions that have been passed down, all the transformations to those traditions and to the work of creating this worship opportunity.  It was a humbling experience.

The next part of the service was fun.  The familiar stories and songs of Creation, The Flood, Exodus, and The Valley of the Dry Bones were told and simultaneously acted out.  This was a very familiar Easter Vigil that was easy to take part in.  These were stories that do define how we perceive ourselves and our culture.

We also need new stories that provide life-giving ways to understand our world that can spring from and be nourished by the past. The last "story" - An Invitation to Abundant Life - had more than abundant lyrics in the song we ang in response - Come to the Feast.  Matt gave the congregation a map to follow with his vocal leadership.      

Everyone was then sprinkled during our Thanksgiving for Baptism.  We welcomed Nicholas as a new member and transitioned to the First Service of Easter in Creator's traditional way, revealing the banner behind the black cloth that had kept it hidden.  There was the Eucharist and we left with the foretaste of Easter services tomorrow.