This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalms 97 & 99; Exodus 12:40-51; 1 Corinthians 15:29-41; Matthew 28:1-16
This morning’s Canticles are: Pascha Nostrum (“Christ Our Passover,” BCP, p. 83); following the OT reading, Canticle 11 (“The Third Song of Isaiah,” Isaiah 60:1-3,11a,14c,18-19, BCP, p. 87); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 16 (“The Song of Zechariah,” Luke 1:68-79, BCP, p. 92)
Collect of the Day: Wednesday in Easter Week. O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
That same night is a vigil to be kept for the Lord by all the Israelites throughout their generations. — Exodus 12:42. Followers of Christ have a profound sense that when we read the Exodus narrative with the Holy Spirit illumining it, we ourselves participate in its events. As Christ himself was present under the figure of the “Angel of the Lord” who demolishes Pharaoh’s army (as we will read next week in Exodus 14), so he is present now as the Risen Victor over sin, Satan, and death. The exodus didn’t happen just to the nation of Israel back then. The new exodus (which the Old Testament anticipated) happens for all those who become sons of Abraham and daughters of Sarah “in Christ.” The vigil of anticipation becomes ours. The day of rescue becomes ours. The responsibility to bear the sign of covenant membership (circumcision in B.C. days, and baptism in days A.D.) prior to enjoying the sacred meal becomes ours.
Today’s passage in Exodus sends me to prayer:
O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come: Thank you that the time of Israel’s sojourn in Egypt was numbered to the day: “At the end of four hundred and thirty years, on that very day, all the companies of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt” (Exodus 12:41). Thank you that Jesus, bringer of the new exodus, came in the very fullness of time—at just the right time in human history to deliver us from enslavement to sin and death. Thank you that we can know that our days are still in your hands, and that the time of present suffering under the threat of disease and decay will come to an end. In the meantime, hear our prayer, “How long, O Lord?” Amen.
O God, who turns darkness into day: Thank you that you kept vigil over Israel on the night of their deliverance, and that through the Angel of the Lord, on the one hand, and the Glory Cloud, on the other, you protected them from Pharaoh’s army. Thank you that by your Son and by the Spirit who raised him from the dead, you have won the victory over the Evil One who held us under the fear of death. I pray you give us courage in these days to live in the light of your love and strength. Amen.
O God, who makes and keeps covenant: Thank you for the amazing mystery of the Holy Week we have just experienced. Thank you for allowing your own dear Son to be cut off from the land of the living—undergoing at the Cross what the apostle Paul calls “the circumcision of Christ” (Colossians 2:11)—so that we who have been buried with him in baptism can number ourselves among those “circumcised with a spiritual circumcision,” and raised with him in newness of life to be welcomed to the banqueting table of your gracious presence. Amen.
Be blessed this day,
Reggie Kidd+