Credo - I believe

From Wellington Cathedral of St Paul

Credo – I believe: 24th April 2011, Easter Day: am: The Very Revd Frank Nelson

• Acts 10: 34 - 43
• Matthew 28: 1 - 10

“The Easter Vigil was mysterious and beautiful, with the imagery of fire and water and the Paschal candle lit in the great, vaulted dimness of the abbey church. Brother Gilbert the precentor’s voice mounted joyfully in the triumphant beauty of the Exultet; all the bells rang out for the risen Lord, and the voices of the choirboys from the abbey school soared with heart-breaking loveliness in the music declaring the risen life of Jesus. Easter day itself was radiant with sunshine for once, as well as celebration. Oh, the joyful splendour of a church crammed full of people, a thundering of voices singing ‘Credo – I believe.’ ...” This description of an Easter service in an ancient monastery was written by Penelope Wilcock in her book, The Hawk and the Dove. The words are those of Brother Thomas, one of the monks of the monastery. They resonate with much of what we do here today, as we gather to celebrate Easter and the Resurrection. This morning I’d like to focus your attention on four things in this Cathedral: the Easter, or Paschal, Candle; the baptismal font; the altar on which we will later place bread, wine and money; and the Easter Garden, which children who came to the Farmers’ Market yesterday began and others have added to this morning. Each, in a different way, will help us to echo those words of Brother Thomas: Credo – I believe. The Candle first. Look carefully at it and you will see it is decorated with a variety of symbols, pictures, letters and numbers. Each has been carefully selected for its meaning. Some of the symbols are there each year; others have been added specially for this year. At the top the wax has been cut into jagged steps, and the picture of a stone tower has been painted. This is to represent Christchurch Cathedral and the Bell Tower that collapsed in the earthquake on February 22nd. Underneath that is a cross, with this year’s date, and two Greek letters – Alpha and Omega. The cross is a symbol that Jesus died and rose again. The Greek letters, the first and the last of the alphabet, refer to Jesus Christ, who is the beginning and the end of all that is, both seen and unseen. The date, 2011, suggests that this year too, belongs to God as does all time. Embedded into the wax on the cross are five nails, a stark reminder that Jesus really did die, nailed to the cross. We can’t get to Easter without going through Good Friday. We can’t have resurrection, without death. Just as the cross with its nails and association with death is not the end of the story, so the broken bell tower of Christchurch Cathedral will not be the end of that city. At last night’s service I sang a long chant known as the Exultet. It is a hymn of praise to God reminding us of the very long history of God’s love for the world, and how, at Easter, we celebrate something wonderfully unique. The Paschal Candle, which will burn for the next fifty days at each service in this Cathedral, invites us to join Brother Thomas and say: Credo – I believe. The baptismal font, placed today in the middle of the Cathedral, but normally at the entrance, has holy water in it. The water was blessed at last night’s service, when two adult members of the Cathedral family were baptised. After some questions Sarah and Bronwen lent over the font, and three times water was poured over their heads. In the name of God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, they were baptised into God’s Church and formally welcomed as fellow travellers’ along the way of Jesus Christ. The shape of the cross was traced on their foreheads, and each was given a lighted candle. As Christians they will be a light to the world, proudly wearing the cross, the badge of Christ. The font with its holy water, the cross on the forehead and the lighted candle reminds those who have been baptised of their own commitment to Christ, and invites us to join Brother Thomas and say: Credo – I believe. The altar, way up at the far end of the Cathedral, will become the focal point of our service in a short while. On it will be placed the bread and the wine used for Holy Communion, and the money that we will put into the Offertory Bags. These three elements, bread, wine and money, are symbols of our daily life – all that we are, do and want to be. In the prayer known as the Great Thanksgiving, we are reminded how Jesus, on the night before he died, took bread and wine and gave a radical new meaning to these very ordinary things. They were to become his Body and his Blood, given at great cost for the good of others. While the money you give today will mostly be used to keep the life, mission and ministry of the Cathedral going, the symbolism is far wider. Our money suggests that all things come from God, and that we should live as God’s people all the time, not only on Easter Day. As we come forward this morning to receive the sacrament of Holy Communion, the Bread and the Wine, the Body and the Blood of Christ, invites us to join Brother Thomas and say: Credo – I believe. Finally there is the Easter Garden in the Narthex – you passed it as you came into the Cathedral this morning. The empty tomb, the three crosses on the skyline, the people milling about – all remind us of the extraordinary claim of Christians that Jesus was raised from the dead. This is what is at the heart of our Christian faith and belief. We constantly try to find ways of expressing this belief – through modelling figures for an Easter Garden, singing beautiful music, helping those less fortunate than ourselves, speaking out for those whose voices are lost in the din of the world around us, living and loving as Jesus did. Christian belief and life is a choice. We don’t have to believe. You made a choice this morning – to get up and come and worship here today. The choice you made this morning invites you to join Brother Thomas and say: Credo - I believe.

Let me read to you the end of the account of the Easter service I began with. “... standing in the sunshine and soaring music of Easter Day, Brother Thomas was glad and sure, at peace to his very soul. This was where he belonged. ‘Credo in unum Deum – ¬ I believe in one God – oh yes!’”