I have to admit that throughout the Easter season this is certainly one of the most powerful and beautiful of the Easter stories of Jesus appearing to his friends, to his disciples after the resurrection. They were broken hearted. They thought everything that they had hoped for had ended with his crucifixion and his burial in the tomb.

They were walking away from Jerusalem as he joins them and then he begins to tell stories. He reminds them through stories of all the things that were said about him and what needed to take place.

They didn’t recognize him until they began to hear the stories once again. And bringing hope back to people who were terribly despondent.

You know, when you gathered on Easter, when you gather on thanksgiving or Christmas as families, when we gather to celebrate birthdays. What’s the first thing that we do? Not just when we gather, but throughout the entire meal to the very end of it?

When you’re with your family, when you’re with your friends celebrating you tell stories. Stories are the fabric that connect and remind us who it is as we are as family, who it is we are as god’s people.

Every time we gather to celebrate eucharist, like we are today, we tell the stories of god. The stories of how god has loved us, his people. The stories of salvation. And then we do what Jesus did with his disciples, this beautiful story:

The road to Emmaus. And as he was with them, as they told the stories and they reminded one another who it is that they belong to. Who it is that they are truly loved by. They recognize him in the breaking of the bread. In the sharing of the eucharist.

How privileged all of us are during the Easter season once again to gather around the table. To celebrate eucharist and to recognize the lord’s love for us in the breaking of the bread.