Even though our Easter Vigil service was held almost a month ago, I’m still receiving comments about it, so now that we’ve had some time to breathe, here are some thoughts about it.
This was the first year we did the full service on the night of Holy Saturday (8:00 PM). Even a new fire was kindled from flint (certainly the least dignified part of the service). The service lasted about an hour and a half. It included the full rite from Christian Worship: Occasional Services, including…
- Kindling of the new flame
- Procession with Paschal Candle
- Exsultet (chanted a cappella)
- Service of Lessons (seven this year), each read by a faithful member (male)
- Benedicite, Omnia Opera
- Service of Holy Baptism (no baptisms or confirmations this year, just an exhortation)
- Service of Holy Communion
I received the highest compliments for this service that I’ve ever received for any service, and I smile, because this was the service without a sermon, at least not one written and preached by me. This was the service for which I composed nothing, chose nothing save the distribution hymns. My part in this service was not preacher, but merely facilitator. The Liturgy said it all. The Scripture Lessons (read by others) said it all. The Easter Sacrament said it all.
It’s not to say that it didn’t take a lot of work to make the service go smoothly. Figuring out how to kindle fire from flint was time-consuming. The service folder was meticulously prepared, the lighting was carefully planned (still not without flaws), the chants were learned, and the rubrics were practiced so as to minimize distractions. The altar guild had the sanctuary beautifully decorated for when the lights came up. The men who read the Lessons practiced in advance. The organist knew when to play, what to play, and the right volume at which to play.
What was it that elicited such a deep, emotional response from so many members, if it wasn’t the great music they got to sing or hear, or the instruments jamming or the finely crafted sermon preached by a fired-up pastor? It was the sermon preached not by me. It was the service itself that preached the Word in symbol and in song as the story of Christ unfolded from Genesis to John 20. It was the service itself that preached Christ and presented the Means of Grace, and the people of God received the Word by hearing and by watching and by eating and drinking.
It gives a pastor a great sense of unworthiness as the people come out of the service in wonder and awe, and still think back on the service with that same wonder and awe. The pastor knows, now better than ever, that he was nothing. The Word was everything. And yet he is the one receiving the gratitude of the people. Isn’t the ministry a strange thing?
The Easter Vigil service has reminded me to aspire to this goal in every service: to remain always in the background as a facilitator, that the people may see Christ and only Christ. This has always been the goal of liturgical worship, not to be enslaved to a form, but to allow the pastor to fade into the background, that Christ may be seen more clearly.
