Sermon for Easter Eve

I love a good story. I love reading, and try to do it every day – and I’ll read just about anything – there’s almost always books strewn around my house. Right now you can find a Bible on the couch, a theological study on the kitchen table, some non-fiction on the other couch, and a novel on the nightstand, and several others lying around. I enjoy hearing stories – I listen to books on tape (well, MP3s these days) in the car as I drive. In conversation with friends, we tell stories, or jokes, or just the details of our lives – but stories nonetheless. Even the music we listen to tells a story in it’s own way, from a twangy country-and-western with a wife/dog/truck/house all being taken away, to the stirring strains of a ballet suite where we can visualise dancers rhythmically bringing a tale to life, to a good old Beatles tune that gets our heads bopping to the fun-but-not-always-profound lyrics. Stories are told in art, in nature, everywhere – if only we are open to them.

And I know I’m not the only one who enjoys stories. Many of us gathered here tonight have discussed books, and shared books, and shared book suggestions. We’ve spoken about music and what we like and dislike. We’ve shared jokes and inspirational messages on email and facebook. And we’ve shared of ourselves, telling one another what’s happening in our lives. They are all stories – and we all take part. In the telling, in the listening, in the responding, and sometimes in the re-telling.

So why are these stories important? Why do we continue telling stories?

There are many reasons. Storytelling is intrinsic to most cultures – look at the variety of fairy tales, folk tales, sagas, eddas, &c. that are available. There are books extolling the benefits of telling tales to children – for example, consider Robert Coyles’ short, fun, and practical “Telling Tales.” Stories awaken the child within us all. Stories give us a way to make sense of the world around us, a way to begin to understand the experiences, hardships, and dilemmas that we face. Stories also provide education, through teaching morals, traditions, language, and imagination. Stories bring people together through shared experience or through entertainment. Stories communicate, re-create, commemorate, and preserve history. And stories offer us an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of one’s experiences and one’s self.

So what makes a GOOD story?

There are several components of a good story. It needs vivid descriptions – not necessarily in the classic European literature kind of way – those folks will give pages and pages of beautiful details of things that don’t pertain to the story – it can be annoying. Trust me – ever read War and Peace? Don Quixote? Les Miserables? Gorgeous literature, some of the best ever written – and some of the longest. The descriptions need to be vivid enough to give us the setting – the where and when that the story is about – in a way that brings them to life in our minds. We also need to know who the story is about – we need characters that we can relate to, folks we like and those we dislike. A good story will also evoke emotions – through suspense or humour, bringing joy or sadness, &c.. A good story will have a flow of narrative that makes us care about the story – otherwise we’ll put down the book, turn off the stereo, interrupt our friends, etc.

And what we have just heard is a story. A long story that covers the entire history of a peoples. Our people – ourselves. We have celebrated the movement from the beginning of creation, through the flight out of Egypt, through many trials and tribulations that people faced over the years. The story shares with us the imagery of an earlier time; we can almost breathe in the lushness of the garden, hear the rain of the flood, feel the dryness of the desert. It brings to us people like us – people who are wandering through their everyday lives as best they can, trying to be as faithful as they can. We can understand the peoples’ relief in deliverance, their fear in times of difficulty, their joy in the promise of salvation.

And we see the thread that has been laid out in front of us – that we have been the chosen people since before we were born. That God’s love and protection has been with our people, our ancestors, for all of eternity. That is what we celebrate this night, as we begin our Easter season. We celebrate the salvation that has been promised to us – and acknowledge that we are opening ourselves to receive it.
Easter is about seeing the light in the world – it’s why we light the new fire this night (though not outside in this weather!), and light the Paschal Candle anew – to remind ourselves of the light of Christ that is active in the world. It’s a recognition of a death to sin and a rising to life – this is why we renew our baptismal vows tonight, reminding ourselves to live these baptismal vows, to live out our faith – at every opportunity.

We are an Easter people – and that means that we are called not only to know the meaning of Easter but to celebrate it in our lives and to share that true God-given joy with the world. We’re challenged to live our lives in such a way that it tells people who we are, and where we’ve come from, and why we live this way. In other words, we’re called to share the story.

So tonight we hear the story. And we hear it just up to the fantastic and mystic moment when the world realises that Jesus is RISEN. The tomb is empty – it’s time to get over our fear and amazement, and to tell the story. We are challenged to tell the history to the people we know, the Peters of the world what we know.

And here is the joy of the story of the empty tomb – it is not the end of the story.

The story, instead, is just beginning a new direction at this point. It will be a story that we know will bring many people to God. It is a story that we know will bring comfort to many people, a story that will bring peace and joy to the world. It is a story that continues.

So tonight I encourage you to consider where this story has been in your life. We each have a faith story, a spiritual journey that has brought us to this point. We each have a reason for being a Christian, a Christ-follower in our daily lives. We each have a reason for being here tonight, for coming out to worship the light in the world.

I encourage you to consider YOUR story – and the impact of Christ in that story. I invite you to think on all the who’s and what’s and when’s that make up your story to this point, to this Easter moment. I invite you to think about where you want the story to go – because God’s story will always go on. I believe that it will go on in and through each of us – I don’t know how, but it will. That’s the beauty of a good story – you never know where it will take you.

So let’s go into the world prepared to write out another chapter of this good news story – a celebration of Christ in our lives which, as yet, remains unwritten.