Don't worry... about a thing

The Easter Vigil Sermon at Grace Memorial

Welcome to Easter, friends.
Welcome to the moment when idle tales prove true.

Welcome to the season of imagination, when we are invited to believe the unbelievable, because doing so teaches us something about love.

I rise up this morning
Smile with the rising sun
Three little birds
Beside my doorstep
Singing sweet songs
A melody pure and true
Saying

Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary, mother of James.
Three truth tellers.
Three faithful servants, to the grave and beyond.
They came to the place where love had been laid down,
seemingly defeated,
only to discover that love had fulfilled the promises made to them.

Two men in dazzling clothes–
and all I can think about when I hear that phrase are drag queens–
two beautiful, shining, dazzling beings
of light and love and fabulosity say to the grieving women,

Gurl… Why you cryin?
She’s not here anymore.
The love you are looking for is not dead in the grave.
The love that promised you fulfillment,
that assured you that God’s kingdom is so close,
you can almost taste its deviousness…
that love is not dead, honey.
By no means.
The world could not kill it,
because that love is of God.
That love is God.
And you cannot kill God.
God will not have it.

Saying,
This is my message to you oo oo

Singing don’t worry about a thing
‘Cause every little thing
Is gunna be alright

Welcome to Easter, beloveds. A special welcome to those two precious souls who are about to be baptized.

Lillie and Anne.

Are you excited? Are you nervous that is about to happen?
I’m excited, and can I tell you why?

I’m excited because I think that Baptism
is like a song that God wrote for us to learn how to sing together.
God, the very first songwriter.
The one from whom all melodies come.
God, the source of all inspiration,
wrote this song called baptism and you,
Lillie and Anne,
have your own verses in that song.
You are a part of the song that God is singing
and I am so excited to be a part of this moment with you.

You see, the Church has a way of describing what baptism is.

Baptism is full initiation
by water and the Holy Spirit
into Christ’s body,
The Church.

That is our tradition’s language,
and it’s good to name it,
and to think about it,
and wonder after it.

But here’s another reason I’m excited:
you, Lillie and Anne,
and all of us here,
are also going to have our own understanding
of what Baptism means in our life.

All of us here are a part of the song that God is singing.
A song that God began to sing
in a particularly beautiful way
one Sunday morning
after a really hard weekend.

It’s Easter, and the tomb is empty.
Death tried to silence the melody Love, but Love won out.
And from that empty tomb comes a song that sounds something like…

Rise up this morning
smile with the rising sun.
Three little birds beside my doorstep.
Singing sweet songs.
A melody pure and true
Saying this is my message to you…ooo..ooo

tSaying don’t worry about a thing.
‘cause every little thing is gonna be alright.
Saying don’t worry about a thing.
‘cause every little thing is gonna be alright.

God made us a promise that God’s love would never abandon us;
that God’s peace would always be available to us.

God made this promise to our spiritual ancestors,
who journeyed from the garden,
through the flood,
through the desert,
through bondage and liberation
and the valley of dry bones,
through the landscape of Galilee and the streets of Jerusalem,
and ultimately, to the grave,
and through the grave
into new life.

This may seem unbelievable,
but the Easter invitation is to believe that the unbelievable:
that God’s love cannot be silenced,
and that you are part of God’s love.

This is the truest of the true.

God’s promise is the perfect melody,
and we are invited to harmonize
by simply being who we are,
who God made us to be,
who we are becoming,
and bringing ourselves fully
to the place where God resides,
which is the heart, and the world, and everywhere.

God will teach us how to sing,
like Miriam & her tambourine,
a song of love, and joy, and freedom…
because that’s God’s job.

Our job is to use our voices,
and our imaginations,
and our creativity,
and to join the risen Christ
in sharing the song of God’s love
with a world that desperately needs to hear it
and sing it
and harmonize with it.

Christ was in the tomb,
and all of us were with him.
But the tomb is empty now.
Empty with possibility.

Christ is risen.

So don’t worry about a thing.
Because every little thing
is going to be alright.

Amen.