Please note: The following sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.

Blessed be God,

the creator of all that is

            in this night of elemental contrasts:

--darkness filled with light,

--silence broken by speech,

--death overwhelmed by life,

-- barrenness supplanted by plenty,

--hunger filled with food,

--dryness giving way to water.

Blessed be God,

            who has given us every good thing.

Blessed be God,

who uses the common and ordinary to be the bearers of his promises

and reminders for us

            of his unswerving and all-encompassing devotion to us.

Blessed be God,

therefore, for water,

            for the water of life.

Ho! All who are thirsty, come to the waters, says Isaiah.

Remember that just as the rain comes down from heaven and waters the earth,

 so will the Word of the Lord

            come upon us

            and do what God wills.

Remember

each time that we use water day by day for washing

            or for nourishing ourselves,

and each time we use

            or recall the use of water in church,

that it is

            in the union of water and God's Word that Good News comes to us.

Blessed be God

for his Word that breaks the silence of death, opening the new and resurrected life for Christ

and the anticipation of new life for us.

Remember the whole story that we have rehearsed this night,

from the beginning of creation

to its central point  and culmination

            in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Remember that at our baptism,

            Christ added us to that story, grafted us in,

            adopted us as his own,

and promises never to remove us from the conversation that is the life of the Triune God.

Blessed be God,

who sees our barrenness, our helplessness, our hunger,

and sets before us the Great Banquet, with the Bread of life, of hope, and of anticipation.

This is the gift not just once, but again and again as often as we need it.

Blessed be God

for the Light that fills the darkness,

that turns this place and this assembly into an oasis of light

even in the middle of the darkness of the night outside.

Remember this night's light\

when the sad and dark times come for each of us,

the times when we think that no one else can understand just how sad or alone or abandoned we feel.

Remember and know that there is light for every darkness,

company for every abandonment,

comfort for every loneliness.

Remember this night's light

as a sign of what will happen

            on that great and final day

when all and every kind of darkness is at length banished forever.

Blessed be God, creator of all that was, is, and ever will be.

Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and forever.  Amen.

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St. Mark's Lutheran Church

142 Market Street

Williamsport, Pennsylvania

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