RESURRECTION SUNDAY

A little while a go, a friend of mine told me a joke that went
something like this:
A group of scientists constructed a computer of such astonishing
complexity and sophistication that they began to wonder whether
they had gone further than that, and created human life!
But how to determine whether this was the case, or not? After much
debate, they decided that the only way to resolve the question would
be to ask the computer, which, with due trepidation, they then did,
“Are you human?” To which the answer came back, “Let me tell you a
story …”!
Every day of every week, we live stories, and tell stories. We humans
are story–making creatures; and healthy stories enable us to be
human, “fully alive”. Healthy stories enable us to enter into that “life
in all its fullness” that Jesus promised us (cf Jn 10: 10b).
At St Johns this past week, we have been watching DVD’s – the
stories of The Lord of the Rings, Shrek, Billy Elliot, Mr Holland’s
Opus, Powder, and Happy Feet.
We have done this, in order to help us better understand the mystery
that is our Salvation; we have done so because it seems that part of
the problem of Easter is tied up with the fact that the bare “facts”
don’t do justice to the full wonder of our liberation – they can’t.
Instead, we need to connect those bare facts with the drama of that
Passover almost 2000 years ago - the events that unfolded in Jesus’
life, in the lives of his disciples and followers, and in the lives of those
who opposed him; and also the events that were therefore also
unfolding within all of Creation! We need to connect the “facts” to
“stories”, in order for them to have meaning, and to change our living.
As we gather again this morning, I wonder, which story of salvation,
liberation, new hope, or new beginning, in your life will connect with
the Easter story we will hear? Which story in your life will help you to
celebrate your faith again? Which story will help you to worship
today, despite all the many perplexing and even difficult
stories that are simultaneously working themselves out in your
life?
Rod