Narrator: You may extinguish your candles.

Dear brothers
and sisters, now that we have begun our Easter Vigil, let us
hear the stories of Gods great faithfulness and love for us.

A reading from Genesis, chapter 22

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him,

Abraham!

Here I am, Abraham replied.

2
Then God said,

Take your son, your only son, whom you loveIsaacand

go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt
offering on a mountain I will show you.
3
Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his
donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son
Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering,
he set out for the place God had told him about. 4 On the
third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the
distance. 5 He said to his servants,

Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over
there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.
6
Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it
on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the
knife. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up
and said to his father Abraham,

Father?

Yes, my son?
The fire and wood are here, but where is the lamb for the
burnt offering?

God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my
son.

And the two of them went on together.

9
When they reached the place God had told him
about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the
wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the
altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand
and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of
the LORD called out to him from heaven,

Abraham! Abraham!

Here I am, he replied.

12
Do not lay a hand on the boy, Do not do anything to him.
Now I know that you fear God, because you have not
withheld from me your son, your only son.
13
Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram
caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and
sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So
Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this
day it is said, On the mountain of the LORD it will be
provided. 15 The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from
heaven a second time 16 and said,

I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you

have done this and have not withheld your son, your only
son, 17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as
numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the
seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities
of their enemies,18 and through your offspring[b] all nations on
earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.
Narrator: A Reading from Exodus 14
10
As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there
were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified
and cried out to the Lord. 11 They said to Moses,

Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you

brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us
by bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Didnt we say to you in Egypt,
Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians? It would have
been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the
desert!
13
Moses answered the people,

Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the

deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you
see today you will never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for
you; you need only to be still.
15
Then the Lord said to Moses,

Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move
on. 16 Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea
to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the
sea on dry ground. 17 I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians
so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory
through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and
his horsemen. 18 The Egyptians will know that I am
the Lord when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and
his horsemen.
19
Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of
Israels army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of
cloud also moved from in front and stood
behind them, 20 coming between the armies of Egypt and
Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to
the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near
the other all night long.
21
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all
that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east
wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were
divided, 22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry
ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.
23
The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaohs horses and
chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. 24 During
the last watch of the night the Lord looked down from the
pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into
confusion. 25 He jammed the wheels of their chariots so that
they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said,

Lets get away from the Israelites! The Lord is fighting for
them against Egypt.
26
Then the Lord said to Moses,

Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may
flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and
horsemen.
27
Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at
daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were
fleeing toward it, and the Lord swept them into the
sea. 28 The water flowed back and covered the chariots and
horsementhe entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the
Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived.
29
But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with
a wall of water on their right and on their left. 30 That day
the Lord saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and
Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. 31 And
when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of
the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people
feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his
servant.
A Reading from Isaiah 55, An Invitation to the Thirsty
55 Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
2
Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and you will delight in the richest of fare.

Give ear and come to me;

listen, that you may live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
my faithful love promised to David.
4
See, I have made him a witness to the peoples,
a ruler and commander of the peoples.
5
Surely you will summon nations you know not,
and nations you do not know will come running to you,
because of the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel,
for he has endowed you with splendor.
6
Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
7
Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
8
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,
declares the Lord.
9
As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10
As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the
eater,
11
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
A reading from Ezekiel 36
24
For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you
from all the countries and bring you back into your own
land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be
clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all
your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit
in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give
you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and
move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my
laws. 28 Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors;
you will be my people, and I will be your God.
A reading from Romans 6
3
Or dont you know that all of us who were baptized into
Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were
therefore buried with him through baptism into death in
order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through
the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we
will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like
his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so
that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,[a] that
we should no longer be slaves to sin 7 because anyone who
has died has been set free from sin.
8
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live
with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the
dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over
him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the
life he lives, he lives to God.
11
In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to
God in Christ Jesus.