Easter Vigil - April 7, 2007
“La Nueva Creacion”
Deacon Carole Maddux, St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church, Alpharetta,
Georgia.
On the wall of my office at work is a bright and
colorful cross from El Salvador that my husband gave me for Christmas
one year.
I like to look at it, especially if I need a
boost, for it depicts a beautiful world, over which the resurrected
Christ holds out his arms, not so much in a posture of crucifixion but
more like a loving embrace.
Above Him, in crudely hand-drawn letters are the
words, “La Nueva Creacion”---“The New Creation.”
It occurred to me the other day that the order of
the Spanish words was unusual. Shouldn’t the adjective come after the
noun in Spanish? So, I asked my children, who are becoming nearly
fluent, why would my cross say “La Nueva Creacion” and not “La
Creacion Nueva”?
Excitedly, for they had just learned this
grammatical construct, they explained that the traditional order is
for matters of fact, while putting the adjective in front puts
emphasis on both the adjective and the personal nature of the item.
For example, a “carro nuevo” is a new car, one that has never been
sold. But a “Nuevo carro” is a new car to me, it could be an
’87 Ford, but it’s now mine!
Christ has brought us a New Creation, with the
emphasis on new.
Christ has brought us,
each of us,
personally,
into a whole new
world.
Seventeen years ago this month, I was a part of a
new creation when my daughter was born.
During my pregnancy, total strangers would come
up, touch my swelling abdomen in an almost irresistible communal
gesture, and ask if it was my first. When I would say, yes, they
would look at me solemnly and say, “It will change your life.”
What a frustrating thing to hear.
No one could explain how it would change my life
or why, but everyone was in agreement that it would.
Maybe I don’t want my life changed, I thought
mulishly, I’m fine the way I am. It’s just that now I’ll have a baby
to take care of, that’s all.
Or sometimes I would think, well, yeah, it will
change my life. I’ll be a mother, Top will be a father and we’ll be a
family. A change, sure, but no big mystery.
Then, on April 23rd, a doctor placed
in my arms this new creation we named Katherine Marie.
And my whole life changed.
Now I really knew what it was like to love
someone so completely that it was indissoluble.
To love so completely that my life for hers would
require no thought at all.
To love so completely that mercy would always
trump judgement and salvation would always trump loss.
A love that could never, never, be severed by the
grave.
I finally had a glimpse of the love that God has
for us.
And it changed my life.
I started to hold myself to a higher standard. I
found a greater compassion. My love for God and everyone, not just
my daughter, deepened.
For if God loves me like that, so completely and
without end, than how can I respond in any other way than to love him
back in the same way?
If God’s love for all of His children is like
that, how can I deny mercy or kindness?
God shows that love for us throughout the stories
we heard tonight.
In the story of the flood, He shows His mercy to
Noah and his people, promises to never contemplate a destruction of
creation again, and gives us just the tiniest hint of the new creation
to come.
In the story of Abraham’s tender surrendering of
Isaac, God finds in Abraham the same trust and love that He will later
show us by sending and sacrificing His only son.
God fights for and rescues the children of Israel
from the Egyptians in Exodus.
And through the words of Isaiah and Zephaniah,
He sends us the prophecy and promise of the New
Creation,
Letting His people know that the steadfast love
He held for David,
he holds for all His children,
and that they cannot even
imagine how that love will change their
lives.
But it is in the last story we heard tonight that
God’s love for us is made complete and clear.
In that empty tomb, we find the fullness of God’s
love.
For with the resurrection of Christ, our whole
lives are changed.
The New Creation is now here.
The old, from Adam’s sin to Peter’s
denial to the finality of the grave,
is gone…gone!
and we are all now citizens
in the Kingdom of God!
Congratulations! You have all been born again!
Born again, through your baptism, into
La Nueva Creacion.
Naturalized members of the City of
God.
It is a new day, a new song, a new
life.
Some decades ago, there was a popular poster that
proclaimed “Today is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life.”
At times, it seemed trite, as we prepared another
breakfast, on another Monday, starting another work week.
But tonight I want to tell you;
Tonight is the First Day of the Rest of
Your Life.
Tonight we realize our resurrection through
Christ into God’s New Creation.
Tonight we defeat death and separation.
Tonight our lives have changed.
Tomorrow we sing our new song.
What will yours be?
Amen.
© Deacon Carole Maddux. All Rights
reserved.
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