Come to the Waters
April 4, 2026 • The Great Vigil of Easter • Year A
Vigil Lessons
Genesis 1:1-2:4a • Genesis 7:1-5, 11-18, 8:6-18, 9:8-13 • Exodus 14:10-31 • 15:20-21 • Isaiah 55:1-11
At the Eucharist
Romans 6:3-11 • Psalm 114 • Matthew 28:1-10
In nomine…
Every so often, we see news reports from NASA about the discovery of a new exoplanet. Occasionally, we’ll be told that it’s relatively close to the size of our own planet, and rarely, we might hear that it is in its own solar system’s “habitable zone.”
Based on what we know about life—from our own experience, or what theologians might call “general revelation”—the main criterion for habitability is a planetary temperature where liquid water can exist.
We are here because, among all the other things that God got just right, he set the planets, the sun, the moon, the stars in their courses—all in alignment, so that our earth receives just the right amount of the sun’s warmth for water to stay in its liquid state. The water that makes up two-thirds of our bodies, occupies two-thirds of the surface of the earth, is stored in glaciers and in the air and in the ground and is so precious to us, but also the dangerous side of water that comes in thunderstorms and floods.
In Creation, God tames these waters, separating them and portioning them out, bringing order to chaos. God sees that it is good. And indeed water is good and necessary: a precondition for the life that God brings forth onto this planet, the life that God calls very good.
That any of us exist at all is a miracle, an alignment of circumstances from the existence of liquid water, to the combination of DNA, to a successful birth and healthy childhood. But, just as we mismanage and abuse the gift of water and the gift of life that God provides for us, so did our ancestors.
God finds that Noah’s household is the only righteous one left, and so God unleashes the chaotic nature of water that had been tamed in creation. When Noah and his family are safe in the ark, “all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened, [and] the rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.” The chaos of the water consumes and purges away all that is wrong, all that is not of God; and as it drains away, a new creation is left for Noah and his family and the lives that were saved on the ark.
God unleashes the power of water again when the Israelites are escaping from slavery in Egypt. While they are being pursued, through the ministry of Moses the waters of the sea are parted, and the Israelites rush across on dry land. But just as they pass through, the waters return, engulfing and drowning those who pursued them. Through water, God’s chosen people were saved.
Water is a dangerous force, but it is also the source of life.
Water uncontrolled can be deadly, but water tamed is salvation.
Isaiah invites all of us to come to that water: “everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;” invites us to join in the rich banquet of good food and drink that God has prepared for us, living water, the bread of life, and the cup of salvation that we long for.
A few weeks ago, we met Jesus at Jacob’s well, conversing with a Samaritan woman. To her he said: “those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” And the woman responds, “Lord, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
That water of eternal life is here for us tonight. It’s here for Lilac and Emma, in whom God has stirred up the thirst for the water of life, and who have responded by seeking the Sacrament of Baptism. And it’s here for all of us who are weary and thirsty, in need of refreshment, who like the Samaritan woman come to an old well and instead find a gushing spring.
Soon, we will bless the water in our baptismal font. That water—ordinary water—becomes extraordinary as we rehearse its role in our salvation history: in the Creation, in the Passover, and in the example our Savior Christ gave for us in his own baptism. When we call upon the Holy Spirit to come down and bless this water, the water in the font becomes the water of creation and the flood; the water of the Red Sea and the Jordan River; the water in Jacob’s Well, the water of salvation.
The waters of baptism are both death and life. Lilac and Emma, after you renounce Satan and all his works, the part of you that is enslaved to sin will be drowned in the floodwaters of baptism. All that is not of God in you will be washed away. But those same waters are also the waters of birth, and from them you will emerge, reborn as exactly who God created you to be, reborn with the Holy Spirit. Jesus will lead you through those waters, out of bondage to sin and death, into everlasting life.
By dying and rising in the baptismal waters, you will share with us in the death and resurrection of Christ. Saint Paul writes, as we’ll hear later, that all of us who were baptized were baptized into Christ’s death. Our old selves are crucified with him, dead to sin. But death has no dominion over Christ, and because we share in his death we will also share in his resurrection.
This is the night when we celebrate that death, when Christ our Passover Lamb is sacrificed, paying for us the debt of sin.
This is the night when we celebrate that resurrection, when Christ broke the bonds of death and hell, claiming victory over the forces of evil.
This is the night when we celebrate with all Creation: with the sun, moon, and stars, with every living thing, with beeswax and fire, and with water and bread and wine, joined together and reconciled to God.
Emma and Lilac, soon you will share with us in that life of resurrection and reconciliation. Through your baptism in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and by sharing in the Communion of Christ’s Body and Blood, you will join the Body of Christ gathered here, and in every time and place, in our worship and proclamation of the Good News of God in Christ.
So come, you who are thirsty: come to the waters, come to the feast, come to worship Christ the Lamb who was slain and has been raised, to whom be blessing and honor and glory and power, world without end. Amen.
~The Rev. Charles Martin
