April 21, 2023
White Weeks and Lights in the World
The week after Easter, or Easter Week, has traditionally been called White Week. In the early centuries, Christians in the Western churches would be baptized primarily on Easter in the service that lasted from sunset Saturday until sunrise Easter Sunday. This vigil was the central worship service of the year telling the entire biblical story of God’s salvation, beginning with creation and moving through the scriptures to the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, God’s Christ, to the promise of God’s victory in Christ for us. Those baptized would be baptized into that story, grafting their personal story into the ongoing story of God’s salvation. They would also be baptized in the nude, men by deacons, women and children by deaconesses. Afterwards, they would be given a white robe (for their sins have been washed white as snow), salt placed on their tongue and given a lit candle (for they are now light of the world and salt of the earth). The newly baptized would wear their baptismal gown for that entire week (maybe not so white by the end of the week!) as a witness to their baptism and new life in Christ. Clergy would wear white robes throughout the year as a reminder to all Christians of their baptismal identify in Christ: new creatures in Christ, birthed by water and Spirit.
When I first was exposed to this history, it was unexpected. “Why would those recently baptized be so obvious about their faith, wouldn’t they be persecuted?,” I thought. I learned that, although there was sporadic persecution in various times and places in the first few centuries, for the most part Christianity was a public religion. Christian rituals and ceremonies in major cities like Jerusalem, Rome, Constantinople, and Antioch were often public processions through the city attracting great crowds and little resistance.
At the same time, some of the greatest growth in the Church was when missionaries and evangelists were not sent out, but when the Christian witness of love was most obvious and public. In the 2nd and 3rd centuries the Roman empire experienced two devastating plagues. The response of wealthy people in the empire was to get away from cities where concentrations of people were the greatest, because they could afford that option. The majority of people, however, simply avoided those who were sick as best they could. Those who were Christians, on the other hand, reflecting the love and compassion of God, went and ministered to those who were sick and suffering, saving many lives and attracting many to the God that they served. In these early centuries, the Christian faith and its resurrection hope was a light on a hill, in full display for all to see.
It is many centuries later, but we also live in a world with illness, and disease—along with war, human trafficking, and disregard for every human life—that invites a response of love and compassion from Christians. In a nation and world where Christianity is seen as part of an empire, if not part of the problem, what can we at First Covenant Church do to publicly and obviously reflect the love and compassion of God to a world that so desperately needs it? It will take more than wearing white robes, to be sure. Yet, we who have put on Christ in baptism (Galatians 3:27), should wear our faith confidently in the world, reflecting the life-changing love and compassion of God, offering hope to a sometimes hope-deprived and hopeless world.
Might we do this with confidence in our Lord Christ’s victory over all that resists God’s redemption and salvation. Might we be God’s light on Capitol Hill in obvious ways.
Alleluia! Risen indeed!
~ Pastor Todd
