SERMON BY THE VICAR EASTER 2026 – THE TOMB IS THE WOMB

I want to talk about oil.

Not the hydrocarbons to which the whole world is so violently and belligerently addicted but the three sacred oils which underpin the ministry of this and every church. Here they are. They were all blessed in St Paul’s Cathedral on Maundy Thursday, three days ago, a day which began our three-day journey to reach here Easter morning.

This, oil of baptism reminds us that faith is a gradual journey where grace cannot be rushed and seeps in through the skin like osmosis – this journey continues in and through the death bed.  Second, this perfumed oil, the oil of chrism, points to an internal transformation so that all believers may become eventually sweet smelling – we call this conversion of the mind and heart, or metanoia, and thirdly and finally this oil of the sick, used to anoint the sick and dying.  This oil points to the pastoral closeness to which priests are called to be with their communities – in a way it’s the oil of accompanying in the field hospital in which we live.

I’m talking about these oils because they underpin all that we do, and their blessing on Maundy Thursday began our journey to Easter, because contrary to popular expectations, the risen Christ of Easter Day is not the Easter Bunny of popular belief but the archetypal human and divine person who leads through suffering and death through to Resurrection – so here we are on Easter morning. These three days since Maundy Thursday form the road which has brought us here. And I used the oil as an illustration that not all oils end up in greedy violent confrontation such as we now see in our world. So here we are on this joyous Easter morning.

Easter morning always begins on a road. For the women who went to the tomb, it was a road walked in grief. For the disciples, it was a road walked in confusion. For many of us, it’s a road we know well—the road you take when your heart is heavy, when you’re longing for something or someone, when you’re not sure what comes next.

In Korean tradition, Arirang is a song of longing and journeying. It’s a melody carried by people who walk long roads—sometimes in sorrow, sometimes in hope, always with the belief that the path leads somewhere meaningful. BTS boy band re-emerged this year in Korea as the biggest thing since the Beatles. And if you have ever listened to BTS’s “Spring Day,” you know that same ache: the longing for reunion, the hope that winter will not last forever, the trust that even separation is not the end of the story.

Easter speaks directly into that longing. Because Easter is God’s declaration that every road of sorrow is met by a Saviour who walks beside us, and every winter of the soul is answered by a risen Christ who says, “Life begins again.”

So that’s why we are here. For Christians, the tomb is empty – this is not a symbolic Resurrection but a real one. The Tomb is the Womb.  The Tomb is the Womb. Christ is Risen, And because Christ is risen, this is the destiny of all who are marked with these holy oils with which I began. Christ’s destiny is our own. People instinctively know this, which is the underlying movement right now for what is called The Quiet Revival. And it’s happening across the societies of secular Europe, including this one, where the end of the road of secular society is seen as a culture of death – be it the death of babes in the womb right up to the moment of birth, to a disposable culture of the elderly, who are neither tolerated nor wanted. Against the prevailing secular culture of death, we see this yearning, this Arirang in a longing for meaningful life. This is happening both in this country and across secular Europe- In secular France 10,000 adults were baptised at Easter 2025, and in 2026 the number of adults and adolescents baptised in France was 21,400.  The Archdiocese of Westminster received 800 adults this year at Easter, and in our little Parish of St John we had 4 baptisms, 8 confirmations and 2 children admitted to Holy Communion last night.  The Christmas services here in 2025 were increased by a third over previous years. The quiet revival is choosing meaningful life over the secular culture of death.  The Hebrew Scriptures put it very plainly – “Choose Life”

The Resurrection of Jesu Christ from the dead is that meaningful life, and it answers all our longings. In Christ’s Resurrection we see the archetypal human – so it will be with us – we will become and know our full humanity after the physical death of our bodies. Christ has died – so will we. Christ is Risen – so will we. Christ will come again at the consummation of all things, bringing with him the whole created order. This is who we are.

So that’s it. Our three-word message. Christ is Risen. And because Christ is Risen, Arirang is our longing and Alleluia is our Song.