In the vigil, this new-old-new way to celebrate Easter, we meet not in the sunlight but at night, still contained by the darkness of Good Friday.
women and men side-by-side. Always both the old and the new:
For ELCA members, all Christian worship is traditional and contem- porary, never only one.
Rediscovering the Easter Vigil In the past century many Chris- tians around the world have asked whether churches were celebrat- ing Easter in the best way possible. Perhaps a new way might include the very old way—the pattern used by Christians in the third and fourth centuries? Tus came about the rediscovery of the Tree Days (Evangelical Lutheran Worship, page 258) and the restoration of the Easter Vigil (ELW, page 266). In the vigil, this new-old-new
way to celebrate Easter, we meet not in the sunlight but at night, still contained by the darkness of Good Friday. We gather, as have millennia of our species, around a great fire. We light candles. We tell our favorite stories of faith. We hear Genesis 1 because we know that we also have been created anew. We proclaim the Exodus story because we, too, have been brought through the water to dance on the safe side of the sea. In some assemblies, a Miriam dances for everyone, or the people join her in a conga line. In Matthew 12:39-40, Jesus
reminds his questioners about Jonah. So at the Easter Vigil we read the tale of Jonah. And Lutherans love the story in Daniel 3 of the three men in the fiery furnace—in some churches the whole assembly repeats together “the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, drum and entire musi- cal ensemble” (Daniel 3:5). Each story hints at Christ’s resur-
rection. Te world is made new. Te animals are protected in the ark. We are saved through water. A feast is
served on a mountain. Christ walks with us in the fire. Some assemblies choose to proclaim the readings formally from the ambo (lectern or pulpit), as on Sunday. Other assemblies gather for this part of the service in the fellowship hall, with each reading presented by a family. In the early church, Easter was
the primary time of year to hold all baptisms. During Lent the candi- dates prepared for their baptism, and at the vigil the whole commu- nity celebrated what Paul wrote in Romans 6, that in baptism we are raised to life with Christ. Nowadays at the vigil, if there are no scheduled baptisms, we still all remember our baptism, as water from the font is sprinkled on the whole assembly. If you attend both the Easter
Vigil and worship on Easter Day, you celebrate Christ’s resurrection in two different ways. On the Eve of Easter you light a
fire and carry candles, process, hear stories (and maybe dance), celebrate baptism and share the first eucha- rist of Easter. On Sunday morning you wear pastel colors, enjoy the springtime flow- ers, listen to choir music, and share the bread and wine of Easter. Perhaps at the vigil you share a freshly baked loaf of bread, and on Easter Day you use rounds of Mediterranean pita. At the vigil you sing the eighth-century hymn “Come, You Faithful, Raise the Strain” (ELW, 363), and in the
morning the 18th-century hymn “Jesus Christ Is Risen Today” (ELW, 365). In Accidental Saints: Finding God
in All the Wrong People (Conver- gent Books, 2015), ELCA pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber writes about her 21st-century assembly of believers in extremely colloquial English. But she holds her book together with quotations from the ELW Vigil of Easter. For Bolz-Weber and many other Lutherans, one new way to celebrate Easter is helped by the old way. Perhaps most ELCA members will come to agree with her.
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