There are lots of ways to tell a story. Just start at the beginning and move ahead to the end. That’s one way. One you see used a lot in television is to show a scene where the protagonist is in mortal peril with the outcome uncertain. For example, the scene opens, Jesus is standing before Pontius Pilate and the crowds are shouting “crucify him, crucify him”, then Pilate washes his hands, and the screen fades to black with the on-screen title, “Five Days Earlier.” There are lots of ways to tell a story.

There are lots of places we tell the stories: around a campfire, around the family dinner table, leaning against a car in the school parking lot, the coffee machine at work, family reunions, as many places as there are people and memories.

And then there is the story. We all have stories, I have certainly told some of mine as part of these years of homilies. We all have different stories, but we share a common story, the one that brings us here on Easter Sunday morning – the greatest story ever told. Last Sunday we proclaimed two gospels that took us from Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem beginning a play in three acts:  Act 1: love portrayed at the Last Supper when Jesus washed the apostles’ feet and instituted the Eucharist: “this is my body given for you… this is my blood poured out for you…”  Act 2: love betrayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, all for 30 pieces of silver. Act 3: love on display, arms open wide on the cross, reaching out to connect heaven and earth – all for us.  Everything was for us.

And then we wait. We wonder. Will there be an Act 4? And above all we hope.

Sunday – “the first day of the week”: the curtain is raised for Act 4 and we discover the empty tomb. Hope finds its new spring of living water as we learn that Jesus was raised from the dead. The play closes with the Alleluia Chorus.

And then comes Monday. Now what happens to the story? The world needs to hear the story; and they need to hear your part in the story. St. Peter has a pretty dramatic story to tell starting at the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee, three year trekking to Jerusalem, being told he is the rock upon which Jesus will build his church, denying Jesus three times, being a witness to the Risen Jesus, knowing his forgiveness, spending a lifetime telling the story.

Our story may not be as dramatic. Maybe it is only a moment when all the pieces fall into place. Sitting under a moonless desert sky with million points of light, gazing upon a beautiful, amazing creation of scale beyond imagining. But knowing that all the stars will burn out and fade away, this world will pass from existence, leaving not even stardust. But not us. We were made for and ordered to the everlasting, the eternal. Resurrection opens that door.

In the silence of the desert night the words of Holy Sonnet #10 by John Donne come to mind: “Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so; For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow Die not, poor Death…. One short sleep past, we wake eternally, And death shall be no more, Death, thou shalt die.”

Death does not have the last word. The love and mercy of God raised Jesus from the grave…. love will always win in the end. The love and mercy of God promises to carry us through the portal to eternal life embraced in Love.

It was there from the beginning. Love was on full display in Act 3, arms open wide, inviting us into the Resurrected Life. We are living in the fourth Act, the era of Hope, a new day.

Tomorrow is that new day.

When, where and how will you tell the story?  There are lots of ways to tell a story, lots of places, but it begins with the story and how you tell it. The story now depends on you!

Happy Easter.

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