Exodus 14:10-15:1
Ezekiel 36:24-28
Romans 6:3-11
MATTHEW 28:1-10
The Great Vigil of
Easter 2006
Baptism and Easter
Last summer, my colleague, Fr.
Derek, shared with a bunch of us the story of the most memorable Easter Vigil
of his life.
He had prepared a young woman for
baptism as an adult at the Great Vigil of Easter. Let’s call her Diana. The
baptismal vows are said themselves by adults (and older children), as we will shortly experience. The second three vows involve turning to
Jesus Christ and accepting him as Savior and Lord. The first three vows involve renouncing evil in all its forms.
So, the very first vow of all is,
“Do you renounce Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel
against God?” to which Diana replied [loud voice], “I most certainly do!”
She made quite an
impression. Most of the congregation
did not know her story when they heard her vows. After she was baptized, after the service, she shared with people
how much being baptized meant to her, and they got down on their knees and
thanked God. This is her story. I have edited it to maintain a “PG” rating
for this sermon.
Diana was raised from birth in a
Satanic cult. That’s a cult which
worships the devil. She was raised to
be what such cults call a “breeder.”
I’m editing out exactly what that means for such a cult. Adults can ask me later if they wish.
She was kept captive by this
cult, somewhere in North Carolina, until she managed to escape as a young
adult. She made it to a shelter for abused
women (which like all such shelters, is in a secure, undisclosed
location). She also entered the federal
government’s witness protection program because the cult, among other things,
was involved in drug smuggling.
She was kept safe. She went
through very major psychotherapy. And
she started seeking a church.
She called 14 churches and asked,
“How do I become a Christian?” They,
perhaps, were not used to adults who were not already Christians. Fr. Derek’s church was the fifteenth church
she called. He invited her, welcomed
her, and invited her to prepare for baptism as an adult.
She was very clear about what those vows mean. She had seen up close what “the spiritual forces of wickedness
that rebel against God,” “the evil powers of this world which corrupt and
destroy the creatures of God” and “the sinful desires that draw a person from
the love of God” could do to a person.
She deeply wanted to be a
Christian, to be part of the community of faith, and to be fully under the protection
of Jesus Christ. When Fr. Derek
started to explain the part of the baptismal rite which involves the anointing
of the newly baptized person’s forehead with holy oil with the sign of the
cross, she interrupted and said, “You know we can see that.”
“What?” he said.
“We – they – people in Satanic cults can see the sign of the cross on the
foreheads of Christians, no matter how long ago they’ve been baptized. It stays there. We – they – avoid them.
You know the kids whose pictures you see on milk cartons? A lot of them did not have that protection
and were grabbed by the kind of people who held me prisoner,” she concluded.
Fr. Derek had explained that
being baptized “in the Name of” means “under the protection of.” “Yes, I know that,” she replied.
Diana told Fr. Derek that when
she was seven years old, her cult asked a neighbor to be a one-time emergency
baby-sitter for her at the neighbor’s home.
Unknown to the cult members, the neighbor was a Christian. The neighbor asked little Diana, “Do you
know that Jesus loves you?” And in the
brief time she served as Diana’s baby-sitter, she taught Diana that song: [I
sing, and some people sing with me.]
“Jesus
loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to him belong, they are weak but
he is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me! The Bible tells me so!”
“Jesus
loves me! He who died, heaven’s gate to open wide;
He will wash away my sin, let his little
child come in.
Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me! The Bible tells me so.”
“Jesus,
take this heart of mine, make it pure and wholly thine;
On the cross you died for me, I will try to
live for thee.
Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me! The Bible tells me so.”
When the cult members found out
that her emergency baby-sitter was a Christian, they made sure they never let
Diana near the woman again. But it was too late! Diana had been introduced to Jesus by
someone who loved him – and truly loved her.
On the night of her baptism,
Diana told the church that she had been holding onto “Jesus loves me” ever
since she was seven. Until she came to
church, that’s all she had: that song was “her life raft”, she said.
Jesus had been holding onto her all those years, too. And he continued to. Today, Diana is healed, happily married and
living in Virginia. It could have been
very different.
I tell this story to remind all
of us of the importance of Christian faith, of Christian communities and of
Easter. Easter is not about Spring,
bunny rabbits and chocolate eggs.
Easter is about the decisive defeat of evil by the life, death and
resurrection of Jesus the Christ. The
struggle of love against hate, forgiveness against sin, life against death is
not over yet – far from it. But the decisive battle, the one that turned the
tide, the one that gives assurance of ultimate victory, has been won. That is what we celebrate this most holy
night.
But we also recognize that we have a responsibility to take up the
weapons of the Spirit, the implements of faith, hope and love, to participate
as Christ’s assistants in the liberation of the world. Baptism is not an empty ceremony. It is an incorporation into the community of
those who have said “yes” to Jesus in whatever branch of the Christian faith
they are – Roman Catholic, Baptist, Episcopalian/Anglican, to name just
three. It is putting ourselves and
those whom we sponsor under the protection of Christ from all manner of spiritual
threats. And it is enlistment in the
army of the Lord’s love to liberate the world from suffering, servitude and
sin.
“Sinful desires” are real; that
is why we must renounce them. The “evil
powers of this world” are real; that is why we must renounce them. And yes, “Satan and all the spiritual forces
of wickedness that rebel against God” are real; that is why we must renounce
them.
Just ask Diana.
And yes, Jesus took a lot of
pains to become our Savior, to offer us a way up and a way out in a world in
which evil is all too real a presence.
If we think we can take on evil by ourselves without God’s help, we are seriously
deluded. Jesus can save us, including from fates worse than
death.
Thank God, Jesus is the
Savior. Thank God, we can trust his grace and love. Please God, may we all follow him as our Lord, and spread the love of God which
overflows our hearts into a world which needs it so much.
We may never know how much good
we can do or have done until our Lord finally tells us. Our mission may be headline-making, or it
may be as simple as telling a child in one brief encounter, “Do you know Jesus
loves you?”
The Rev. Francis A. Hubbard
St. Barnabas Episcopal
Church
Monmouth Junction, New
Jersey
April 15, 2006