Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

Climbing a 14,000 foot mountain involves some serious work. To make it to the summit of Long’s Peak I had to get up well before the sun rose and hike by flashlight along hard, dusty, dark trails for hours. To reach the breathtaking alpine tundra I passed through miles of drab forest and upon reaching the tree-line my ability to see only showed me how much further I had to go. As the summit came into sight, even as my muscles ached and feet stumbled, I pushed myself onward and upwards. And then I crested what I thought was the final rise on the mountain and realized I had yet to even see the true summit. So I hiked on, passing boulders, cliffs, and crags, pushing myself through the exhaustion, through the despair, telling myself there was a reason I continued even if I couldn’t name the reason.

Often, hiking is filled with hard, painful, unpleasant work. And yet, when you finally reach the summit, when you finally crest the last rise and stand with all the world spread out below you, you understand. You understand why you traveled through darkness, you understand why you dealt with confusing trails and signs, you understand why you pushed your body so hard. There is no doubt in your mind that all the difficulty, all the hardship was worth this mountain-top experience. Reaching your goal, reaching your destination and the exhilarating joy you find there redeems all that preceded it.

Throughout the story of God’s people we find similar "mountain-top" experiences, times that were preceded by confusion, pain and difficulty but times that eventually became moments of salvation, moments when God’s people understood, when they were filled with indescribable joy and all the pain and fear that had come before was redeemed. On this most holy night we have heard story after story of such experiences. We have heard stories of rescue from the flood-waters of death, stories of deliverance from sacrifice, stories of freedom from slavery and oppression, stories of life brought out of the very pit of dusty death. Story after story has reminded us that our God is a God of salvation—a God who brings life—a God who meets us at the mountain top and fills us with a joy that cannot be contained.

In the same way as climbing a mountain the journey to this joyful night has been long. It has been full of fear, full of pain, full of darkness and confusion. We have been journeying together on this confusing and treacherous road of Lent for 40 days and 40 nights, looking ever towards the looming Cross, knowing the pain and confusion that awaited us there. On this night, however, we have reach our destination, we have arrived at the summit of our long climb and here we see the victory of our God, we see the joy, the life, the love that radiates from this unbelievable place, from the resurrection of the crucified One. And while we cannot take in all of the beauty, just as a hiker can never fully capture the grandeur of a mountain summit, we can see like we have never seen before. We begin to see life in a new way, through the eyes of resurrection.

Through the eyes of the resurrection instead of simply seeing a pitcher of water and a font we see a gateway to eternal life through which Dan, Christopher and Lukas have just passed. Through the eyes of resurrection instead of seeing merely bread and wine on the Altar we see the presence of Jesus Christ. Through the eyes of resurrection instead of seeing the Cross as only an instrument of death we see it also as the Tree of Life from which our God reigned mercy and love upon us. After our long journey through Lent, after passing through sadness, fear, and doubt, we have arrived on this Easter Vigil at the culmination of our faith, the culmination of our journey at the mountaintop of the Christian faith. From this vantage point, we can see anew, we can see with resurrection eyes, we can see how God has redeemed all that has come before and all that will follow.

With these new eyes of resurrection faith not only do we see water, bread, wine, and the Cross transformed, we also see ourselves transformed, knit together into the Body of Christ. From this mountain-top of resurrection we see the life of Christ shimmering all around us, in the midst of our everyday living, in the midst of nature, in the midst of relationships. Through resurrection eyes we see our lives filled with meaning, with beauty, and with a calling, a calling to see Christ, to speak Christ, to live Christ in all of life.

As we leave this place returning home filled with the vision of Christ’s radiant new life, may we begin to see the world in a new way. May we begin to see through resurrection eyes so that we find Christ in everyone, in friends, in family, in enemies, in strangers. May we never see the world the same, for Christ has risen! Christ has broken the power of death, he has freed us from fear and sin! Christ has transformed and redeemed the world, he has transformed and redeemed us.

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!