Stories that change lives — Yours, and mine

A sermon for the congregation of St. Saviour Anglican Church, Penticton BC on Easter Day, April 20, 2025 — The Very Rev. Ken Gray

Let’s talk about stories: So who wrote the following?

Les Misérables         Victor Hugo
Murder she wrote   Agatha Christie
Who we are              Murray Sinclair
The Gospel according to John

Concerning the latter, yes, you are correct”: John wrote the Gospel according to John. But which John?

According to William Temple whose Readings in John’s Gospel remains a classic of biblical interpretation, in his preface he discusses authorship. Opinions vary widely. For Temple, John was written by:

• John the Apostle (a contemporary of Jesus)
• John of Patmos (the Book of Revelation)
• John the author of the three Johannine epistles (1 John, 2 John, 3 John)
• OR by Someone named “John”

Regardless of authorship, John’s Gospel holds a unique and prominent place in the New Testament literature in concert  with the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). We hear today John’s version of the discovery of the empty tomb. I do not describe this as a story of resurrection as we only discover Jesus’ absence, at least in the first part of the story. Unlike ascension stories, where we see Jesus rising upwards, no description of resurrection can be found. What the Gospels provide is post-resurrection appearances.

John’s story (20:1-18) is shaped very much like a nineteenth century opera. A beautiful garden scene is the setting for the interaction between a number of characters I now introduce in the order in which they appear:

SCENE ONE

1. Mary Magdalene [1] comes to the tomb. She discovers that the stone has been rolled away;
2. She next runs to find Simon Peter; [2] and the other disciple [3] who Jesus loved;
3. The two men reach the tomb, the other arriving first; he looked in but did not enter;
4. Peter arrived, entered, and studied the scene; the other disciple entered, and believed;
5.  Both did not yet completely “understand”;
6. Then they went home — Which, to me, seems strange.

SCENE TWO

• Mary is weeping (present tense) outside the tomb. She eventually looks in;
• She sees two “angels”; [4 and 5]; Dialogue continues . . . until she turns around and sees Jesus; [6]
• She confuses Jesus with “the gardener”; another character; [7]
• She exclaims “Rabbouni!” (Teacher) [8] in other words the person she was looking for in the first place;
• More dialogue (aka the song: “Please release me, let me go”);
• She announces to the disciples [9-?] “I have seen the Lord”: and she told them that he had said these things to her.

Let’s check in; are you still with me? With tongue slightly in cheek I have enjoyed analyzing the structure of this, the story or all stories, the intimate moment where Mary discovers the resurrected Lord Jesus. All stories have a structure. Remember the examples I suggested a few moments ago.

Agatha Christie kept her audiences guessing in a form where curiosity drags readers forward. Murray Sinclair shared his own biographical history only a few months before he died; some stories were completed by his family. Victor Hugo’s book Les Misérables, is long, lofty, and sometimes divergent; I prefer the either the movie or the musical; Hugo’s story is one of the great epic tales of the modern era. Good prevails in the end, despite many casualties along the way.

In John’s story we see human characters, sore afflicted with grief, facing surprise after surprise. If things felt out of control before entering the garden, confusion only fed more uncertainty . . . so no wonder the men went home. Men do that, sometimes . . .

But then, then, in scene two, a wholly different interaction occurs. Mary and Jesus enjoy a warm reunion, an enthusiastic re-connection, a communion where John’s story changes Mary’s life, and the lives of Jesus’ disciples, and Christians through centuries of history to the present moment in this place. As her spirit is healed, her heart is warmed, strangely.

I am reminded of John Wesley’s heart-warming experience at a religious meeting on Aldersgate Street, London . . . arguably the most famous event in his life. After thirteen years of focused effort to attain a pure heart before God, Wesley learned in early 1738 that what he lacked was an assurance of salvation. Then on May 24^th he found what he longed for:

“In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s ‘Preface to the Epistle to the Romans’.  About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”

Possibly this is your discovery this morning, your own new conviction, a newfound Easter-day confidence. Possibly today is a time of re-assurance, a rekindling of faith always present though somehow rejuvenated, today and every day.

The story of Jesus, experienced as a real presence, changes lives like yours and mine. Not by formula; but by God’s passion and love.

Therefore, today and every day we can say Jesus Christ is risen today. Alleluia.