The world of Scripture is the story of God's ongoing relationship with humanity, and it provides a portrait of the ways people have come into relationship with that God, who is ever calling them to life.  That's why the best Episcopal preaching tries to offer an invitation to God's people that encourages us to seek and enter into a fuller relationship with God, through the biblical story.  For the beginners among us, I invite you to tip-toe into the edges of the story...and as you begin to find your way around the world of biblical story to work yourself up to the boldness of diving headfirst into the lives of our biblical ancestors, seeing and hearing what it is they have to teach us. And one of the things we will find in the heart of the story is this child of God, Jesus.

Easter greetings to each and every one of you, this second Sunday of Easter!  We're invited to wallow in our Easter-joy for 50 days -which will take us right up to Pentecost on May 11^th.  Easter season is bracketed by two formative stories that tell of the origins of the church: Jesus and the Good News of the empty tomb, and the Pentecost story which describes the coming of the Holy Spirit who gathered up Jesus' followers into the community of the church -the body of Christ-on the heels of his resurrection.  These stories of Easter and Pentecost are essential in describing who we are as Christians and remind us that we're defined by the stories we tell.

It's the devotion of Mary Magdalene and her friends that we honor when we get up at the crack of dawn to come to an otherwise empty church on Easter morning, waiting to be told again the Good News:  Put away your funeral preparations.   Jesus is risen from the dead.   And we are the ones who face the daunting task of telling this good news to others, the news that God is alive and well in this small but faithful Episcopal church.

As much as we'd like to leave out the hard part of the story that leads towards the Resurrection -- the parts about denial and suffering and death and grief - our Lenten journey is not quite over, the story of Jesus' life on earth has not quite ended. It is wisely said that: "The happy ending cannot come in the middle of the story."  This morning there are still things to be told.