SPEAKER_00: Tonight is the night.
SPEAKER_00: The night of all nights.
SPEAKER_00: The night that changed everything.
SPEAKER_00: Over the past three days we have walked closely with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: On Holy Thursday, we sat with him at the table.
SPEAKER_00: We heard him say, This is my body.
SPEAKER_00: This is my blood.
SPEAKER_00: We watched him kneel, the Lord of the universe, on his knees, washing feet, teaching us that in the kingdom of God greatness does not wait to be served.
SPEAKER_00: It bends low.
SPEAKER_00: It serves.
SPEAKER_00: On Good Friday we stood at the foot of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: We saw innocence nailed to the wood.
SPEAKER_00: We felt the silence and the catastrophic loss.
SPEAKER_00: We faced the truth of our own sins and the suffering face.
SPEAKER_00: We watched love bleed out.
SPEAKER_00: Then on Holy Thursday, the world held its breath, the tabernacle empty, the altar bare, everything suspended between death and life, as if creation itself did not know what came next.
SPEAKER_00: But tonight everything moves.
SPEAKER_00: Tonight we gather around fire and flame, around word and water, altar and allelujah.
SPEAKER_00: Tonight we dare to proclaim what no darkness in the history of the world has ever been able to extinguish.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ is risen, hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: And here's why that changes everything.
SPEAKER_00: When the women came to the tomb early that first morning, they came with spices.
SPEAKER_00: They came to finish the burial properly.
SPEAKER_00: The crucifixion had been rushed.
SPEAKER_00: The Sabbath had cut things short.
SPEAKER_00: They were going to do the last loving thing that they knew that they could.
SPEAKER_00: Say their last goodbye.
SPEAKER_00: But when they arrived the stone was gone, rolled away.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew tells us an angel rolled it.
SPEAKER_00: And I need to stop there because I think we've misread that moment our entire lives.
SPEAKER_00: We assume the stone was rolled away so that Jesus could get out.
SPEAKER_00: But think about that for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Do we really believe that the one who walked on water, who passed through locked doors, who spoke a word, and the dead came walking out of the graves needed help with a rock?
SPEAKER_00: That stone was never an obstacle for him.
SPEAKER_00: The rolling away of the stone was for you.
SPEAKER_00: It was rolled away so that you could see, so that you can walk up, look in, and discover with your own eyes that the place you thought was the end isn't the end.
SPEAKER_00: If you go to Jerusalem today to the Holy Sepulchre, it is empty.
SPEAKER_00: The resurrection is not Jesus escaping death, it is Jesus conquering it, entering the darkest place imaginable, and walking out on the other side, alive, undefeated, and completely, unmistakably real.
SPEAKER_00: Now to our catechumens, I need to speak to you directly.
SPEAKER_00: This day has finally arrived.
SPEAKER_00: You've been preparing for it for a while now.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to tell you something no amount of preparation can fully capture.
SPEAKER_00: Tonight is your night.
SPEAKER_00: Not because you have everything figured out, not because you've lived the perfect life or arrived here without doubt still trailing behind you.
SPEAKER_00: You're here because along the way, through questions, through searching, through ordinary moments that turned out to be anything but ordinary, you heard something, a voice, and you followed it.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe quietly, maybe with hesitation, maybe not even fully understanding what you were saying yes to, but you did say yes.
SPEAKER_00: And tonight heaven answers that yes.
SPEAKER_00: In a few moment, water will be poured over you.
SPEAKER_00: It will look too simple, too small for what it means, but do not be deceived.
SPEAKER_00: You will go to the waters carrying your past, your sins, your wounds, your whole complicated story.
SPEAKER_00: But you will rise from that water brand new, completely washed clean.
SPEAKER_00: The same spirit that hovered over the waters at creation, the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead will claim you tonight, seal you, live inside of you, not temporarily, not conditionally, but from this moment on forever.
SPEAKER_00: And then you will come forward to this altar for the first time, and you will receive not a symbol, not a ritual, but a person, Christ Himself, given entirely for you so that his life can now become your life.
SPEAKER_00: Your name changes tonight, not legally, eternally.
SPEAKER_00: Tonight your name is Christian.
SPEAKER_00: And now to the rest of us, don't tune out.
SPEAKER_00: This moment is for you too.
SPEAKER_00: There was a day maybe decades ago when you had water poured over your head.
SPEAKER_00: You may not remember it, you may not have chosen it, but it happened.
SPEAKER_00: You were claimed for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You were marked.
SPEAKER_00: The same promises that you will make tonight were made over you.
SPEAKER_00: And somewhere along the way, if we're all honest, maybe you forgot about that.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the fire dimmed.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe faith became routine, something you do rather than something that you are.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've been living as though the tomb is still sealed, as though the stone was never rolled away.
SPEAKER_00: So I ask you when we renew our baptismal promises in a few moments, don't just mumble through it.
SPEAKER_00: Say them like someone who's known exactly what they mean.
SPEAKER_00: Reject sin, not politely, ferociously.
SPEAKER_00: Profess your faith like someone who has stalked their life on, staked their life on it, because you have.
SPEAKER_00: Step out of whatever tomb you've been calling home.
SPEAKER_00: In catechumens, when you rise from the water, heaven will not be polite about it.
SPEAKER_00: Every time a soul moves from death to life, it echoes into all eternity.
SPEAKER_00: And that's for all of us as well.
SPEAKER_00: Let this night do what it's always meant to do.
SPEAKER_00: Let it shake you awake.
SPEAKER_00: Let it call you back to the thing that you said you believed, but maybe stopped living like you did.
SPEAKER_00: Because we are not Easter people because we love the music, the lilies, the beautiful flowers, and the church.
SPEAKER_00: We are Easter people because our God has wrapped his burial cloth, placed in that cold dark tomb, and has walked back out.
SPEAKER_00: Because love refused to stay dead.
SPEAKER_00: Because in Christ every wound can be healed, every sin can be forgiven, every stone moved, every grave emptied.
SPEAKER_00: Don't keep standing at the entrance of the tomb God has already conquered for you.
SPEAKER_00: Don't keep calling home the place Christ has already walked out of.
SPEAKER_00: Step out of the tomb, step out of the cave, out of sin, out of fear, out of the version of your life that is smaller than what God has promised you.
SPEAKER_00: Because your past is not your prison, your wounds are not your identity, and your grave is not your future.
SPEAKER_00: The stone was there, was never there to keep him in.
SPEAKER_00: It was always there for you, so that when it was moved you would know.
SPEAKER_00: You would know that nothing, not your sins, not your shame, not your failure, not even death itself, gets the final word.
SPEAKER_00: Christ is risen.
SPEAKER_00: He is risen indeed.
SPEAKER_00: Now it's up to us to go out and live that good news.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.