The Easter Vigil is a modern resurrection (nyuk nyuk, get it?) of an ancient practice: gathering at sunset on the Saturday before Easter morning to tell stories of resurrection long heard and held among God’s faithful. We bring forth stories from the Hebrew Bible (aka Old Testament) to remind ourselves that Jesus’ resurrection is a brand new thing and yet a perfect completion of the long arc of God’s story: hate and violence and destruction and death don’t get the last word. Love bats last.
Because the stories told on Easter Vigil — the creation, the liberation from enslavement in Egypt, the deliverance out of the fiery furnace — are rich and deep and also often great in number (some churches go for hours!), we’re often seeking ways to enrich the telling. In the past few years, both physically present and online, I’ve been setting the ancient words in new ways, trying to cast a renewed vision and draw people in. It occurred to me mid-last week that it might be helpful for others — either my fellow doing-less-organized-religion folks (due to deconstruction or parenting or whatever!), or my fellow church leaders (ministers or volunteers, in typical church settings or not), or anyone else who loves to hear the old story in a new song.
If you want to use these for your church’s Easter Vigil this Saturday, please feel free to — just include in the bulletin or on the slides “© 2023 Emmy Kegler.” The content’s free to use, but you can certainly buy me a coffee at emmykegler on Venmo, $EmmyKegler on CashApp, or emmy.kegler@gmail.com on PayPal.
Creation: Genesis 1:1 – 2:4a
Reader: A reading from the first story of creation in Genesis.
At the beginning of it all, the earth was a mess, formless and void,
deep water as far as the eye could see. Then God spoke, and said:
“Let there be light.”
And there was light – bright noon and navy midnight,
dawn and dusk, sunset and sunrise
and everything in between and beyond.
And God said:
All: “What I have made is good – beautiful and true,
and worthy of being called mine.”
On the second day God said, “Let there be sky,
with water in the clouds for rain and water below for the sea.”
And it was so: rain above and sea below,
with crashing waves and quiet fog, and everything in between and beyond.
And God said:
All: “What I have made is good – beautiful and true,
and worthy of being called mine.”
On the third day God said, “Let the seas be gathered together, and dry land will appear.”
And it was so – earth and sea, beach and shore, desert and tundra,
wide stretching prairie and deep running canyon
and everything in between and beyond.
Then God said, “Let there be plants!” And it was so.
Pine trees and cacti, orchids and venus flytraps,
apple trees and orange groves and everything in between and beyond.
and everything in between and beyond.
And God said:
All: “What I have made is good – beautiful and true,
and worthy of being called mine.”
On the fourth day God said, “Let there be sun and moon, stars and night sky.”
And it was so:
the sun to burn with golden fire,
and warm the earth, and feed the plants,
and give light to every living thing;
the moon to follow through the night,
waxing and waning, constant in its ever-changing;
the stars and planets winking from afar,
to guide weary travelers on their way;
and everything in between and beyond.
And God said:
All: “What I have made is good – beautiful and true,
and worthy of being called mine.”
On the fifth day God said, “Let there be living creatures in the sea and sky.”
And it was so: salmon and stingray, octopus and ostrich,
blue jay and bald eagle
and everything in between and beyond.
And God said:
All: “What I have made is good – beautiful and true,
and worthy of being called mine.”
On the sixth day God said, “Let there be living creatures all across the earth.”
And it was so: hippos and hedgehogs, camels and cats,
dragonflies and dogs
and everything in between and beyond.
And God said:
All: “What I have made is good – beautiful and true,
and worthy of being called mine.”
Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, just like us,
to be in charge of all the earth and its care.”
So humankind was made in God’s image, male and female
and everything in between and beyond.
And God said:
All: “What I have made is good – beautiful and true,
and worthy of being called mine.”
And so sky and earth and sea were finished, and everything in them,
and on the seventh day, God rested.
Liberation: Exodus 14:24-15:1
The powers that be had done everything they could to crush the minority in their midst. They crushed them with hard work, demanding more and more with no fair compensation. They tore their families apart. They refused to let them worship the God they knew. But that same God sent sign after sign. Even then, the powers that be refused to acknowledge what they had done; they only said, “Get out and never come back.”
But as the children of God escaped from their oppression, the powers that be realized what they had done. They had lost a workforce and a population they could make use of. They mounted up every object of war and chased out after them, seething and condemning.
The children of God had fled into a wilderness, a wide space without protection, and as the army of the powers that be came up behind them, they were trapped between them and a body of water impossible to cross. They turned on their leader: “How could you do this to us? You knew we’d die if we tried to leave. There is no safety or salvation out here. Better we stay and serve the powers that be than die here in the wilderness. We should have stayed with what we know.”
But their leader replied: “I know. But do not be afraid. Take heart. Our God is going to fight for us.”
And the wind of God blew fiercely from the east, and the sea was pushed back until the sands underneath it were dry. Where there had been no way, there was now a way, between crashing waves barely restrained by a rushing wind.
The children of God trembled, terrified to go forward, terrified to stay still. But then one took a step into freedom, and another, and another, and soon they were running across the bottom of the sea, feet skidding across impossibly dry sand, fear turning to exhilaration and joy as they reached the other side.
But the powers that be were not done. Their politics and their religion would not allow them to stop, even when they saw how much damage they had done and how much danger they were in. They urged their soldiers and weapons of war into the dry valley, going between the walls of water, chasing after the children of God, unwilling to let them go free.
And the wind drew back, and the waves crashed down, and every violent pursuit that day was drowned in the waters.
But the children of God walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.
And the children of God sang with joy: Come healing, come healing! God has triumphed over oppression; every violent way has been cast aside. Come healing, come healing, come wholeness and love!
Even the angels in heaven sang with them. But God wept to see how the powers that be would not turn from their pursuit of oppression, even to the point of death.
This would not be the end of the story. The children of God had been freed from the powers that be, the crushing under the weight of all-day work, the sacrificing of families, the declaration that their understanding of God could not be worshipped. But they would still need to learn what that kind of freedom meant. And so do we. We too have been set free. But now we have the task of learning what that means.
Ingestion: Jonah 1:1–4:11
Reader: The Lord’s word came to Jonah, son of Amittai: “Get up and go to Nineveh, that great city; their evil ways have come to my attention. Prophesy to them, and change their hearts; for my grace is not for the people of Israel alone, but for all to love and serve their neighbor.”
So Jonah got up—to flee to Tarshish, in the opposite direction. He found a boat, paid the fare, and went aboard, running away from the Lord. But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, so that there was a great storm; the sea rose up in protest:
All: Withholding grace is not your right!
We all are precious in God’s sight.
Reader: The ship looked like it might be broken to pieces. The sailors were terrified, and each one cried out to his own god. Jonah was sleeping under the deck; the ship’s officer woke him, saying, “How can you sleep through this? Get up! Call on your god! Perhaps your god will save us.”
Reader: Before he came on deck, the sailors said to each other, “Let’s cast lots to find out who is at fault for this storm.” They cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah, the dice rising up in protest:
All: Withholding grace is not your right!
We all are precious in God’s sight.
Reader: So they said to Jonah, “Tell us, since you’re the cause of this evil happening to us: What do you do and where are you from? What’s your country and of what people are you?”
He said to them, “I’m a Hebrew. I worship the Lord, the God of heaven. But I am fleeing from the Lord.”
Then the men were terrified and said, “What have you done?” In their voices was the rising whisper of protest:
All: Withholding grace is not your right!
We all are precious in God’s sight.
Reader: Jonah said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea! Then the sea will become calm around you.”
The men cried out to Jonah’s God: “Please, Lord, don’t let us perish on account of this man’s life!” They picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased its raging. The men worshipped the Lord with a profound reverence. In the quieting of the wind, as Jonah sank to the bottom of the sea, they could hear the promise of creation:
All: Withholding grace is not your right!
We all are precious in God’s sight.
Reader: But the Lord sent a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights.
Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish:
“I called out to the Lord in my distress, and God answered me.
You had cast me into the depths in the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounds me.
All your strong waves and rushing water passed over me.
When my endurance was weakening, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you.
I will offer a sacrifice to you with a voice of thanks.
That which I have promised, I will do. Deliverance belongs to the Lord!”
Then the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto the dry land. And even in the muck and bile and krill spat from the fish’s mouth, there was the rising protest:
All: Withholding grace is not your right!
We all are precious in God’s sight.
Reader: The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: “Get up and go to Nineveh, that great city; their evil ways have come to my attention. Prophesy to them, and change their hearts; for my grace is not for the people of Israel alone, but for all to love and serve their neighbor.” And Jonah got up and went to Nineveh. He walked about one-third of the way into the city, and cried out the shortest prophecy in history: “Forty days more and Nineveh will be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed in God. They proclaimed a fast and put on mourning clothes, every single one of them, even the king. The king then proclaimed, “Let every person stop their evil behavior and the violence under their control!” He thought, Who knows? God may see this and turn from such righteous wrath.
God saw what they were doing—that they had ceased their evil behavior — so God did not destroy them.
But Jonah thought this was utterly wrong, and he became angry. He prayed, “Come on, Lord! Wasn’t this precisely my point when I was back in my own land? This is why I fled to Tarshish! I know that you are a merciful and compassionate God, very patient, full of faithful love, and willing not to destroy. At this point, Lord, you may as well take my life from me, because it would be better for me to die than to live.”
The Lord responded, “Is your anger a good thing?” But Jonah stormed out from the city. He climbed a hill and sat down, to see if God would destroy the city after all. Then the Lord God sent a shrub to grow up over Jonah, shading his head and saving him from his misery. And in the leaves of the shrub came the rising protest:
All: Withholding grace is not your right!
We all are precious in God’s sight.
Reader: Jonah was very happy about the shrub. But God sent a worm, and it attacked the shrub and killed it. And in the munching and crunching of the worm, there was a rising word of protest:
All: Withholding grace is not your right!
We all are precious in God’s sight.
Then God sent a dry east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint. And in the wind there was a rising protest:
All: Withholding grace is not your right!
We all are precious in God’s sight.
But Jonah heard none of this, and begged God: “Kill me. It’s better for me to die than to live.”
God said to Jonah, “Is your anger about the shrub a good thing?”
Jonah said, “Yes, my anger is good—even to the point of death!”
But the Lord said, “You ‘pitied’ the shrub, for which you didn’t work and which you didn’t raise; it grew in a night and perished in a night. Yet for my part, can’t I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than one hundred twenty thousand people who did not know the difference between evil and good, and also many animals?”
And all the people of Nineveh, and all their cattle and sheep and animals, and the hot wind that blew and the sun that beat down, and the worm that ate the bush, and the fish that swallowed the prophet, and the sea that raged all rose up in protest:
All: Withholding grace is not your right!
We all are precious in God’s sight.
Resurrection: Luke 24:1-12
Narrator: On the first day of the week, at early dawn, the women came to the tomb where Jesus’ body had been laid, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, the body was gone. While they stood there, aghast and bewildered, suddenly two messengers in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and dropped to the ground, hiding their faces, but the messengers said, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.
All: We have seen the Lord.
Leader: What?
All: We have seen the Lord!
Leader: That’s impossible.
All: We went to the tomb and it was empty.
Leader: I don’t believe you.
All: Heavenly messengers told us he is alive again.
Leader: Why would you be told?
All: We were brave enough to go to the tomb.
Leader: This is ridiculous. I’m in charge here. I won’t believe such nonsense unless I see it myself.
Narrator: That evening, two disciples headed toward a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were discussing everything that had happened. While they were talking, Jesus himself joined them, but they did not recognize him.
He said to them, “What are you talking about as you walk along?” They stopped, their faces downcast.
The one named Cleopas replied, “Are you the only one who doesn’t know?”
He said to them, “Know what?”
They said to him, “About the man Jesus of Nazareth, who had powerful deeds and words; he was recognized by God and all the people as a prophet. But our chief priests and our leaders handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him three days ago. But now, some women from our group are telling an impossible story. They went to the tomb early this morning and didn’t find his body, and are saying a vision of angels told them he is alive. But that’s impossible talk; they’re just foolish women.”
Then Jesus said to them, “But wasn’t it necessary for the Anointed One to suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” Then he interpreted all the scriptures for them.
When they came to Emmaus, he acted as if he was going on ahead. But they urged him: “Stay with us. It’s nearly evening, and the day is almost over.” So he went in with them. He took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They said to each other, “Weren’t our hearts on fire when he spoke to us along the road and when he opened the scriptures for us?”
They got up right then and ran back to Jerusalem. They found the eleven and the other disciples gathered together. Then they shared all that had happened along the road, and how Jesus was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
All: We told you. We told you. He is alive! Death does not have the last word. Our Lord is alive again!
Leader: I was wrong to doubt your witness. Christ has been made known to you in the breaking of the bread.