There are many ways of telling Easter stories.

A man was blissfully driving along the highway, when he saw the Easter Bunny hopping across the middle of the road. He swerved to avoid hitting the Bunny, but unfortunately the rabbit jumped in front of his car and was hit. The basket of eggs went flying all over the place. Candy, too.

The driver, being a sensitive man as well as an animal lover, pulled over to the side of the road, and got out to see what had become of the Bunny carrying the basket. Much to his dismay, the colorful Bunny was dead. The driver felt guilty and began to cry.

A woman driving down the same highway saw the man crying on the side of the road and pulled over. She stepped out of her car and asked the man what was wrong. "I feel terrible," he explained, "I accidentally hit the Easter Bunny and killed it. What should I do?"

The woman told the man not to worry. She knew exactly what to do. She went to her car trunk, and pulled out a spray can. She walked over to the limp, dead Bunny, and sprayed the entire contents of the can onto the little furry animal.

Miraculously the Easter Bunny came to back life, jumped up, picked up the spilled eggs and candy, waved its paw at the two humans and hopped on down the road. 50 yards away the Easter Bunny stopped, turned around, waved and hopped on down the road another 50 yards, turned, waved, hopped another 50 yards and waved again!!!!

The man was astonished. He said to the woman, "What in heaven's name is in your spray can?" The woman turned the can around so that the man could read the label. It said:

"Hair spray. Restore life to dead hair. Adds permanent wave."

There are many ways of telling Easter stories.

There was a choice of two gospel readings set for today – I was supposed to pick one – but I wanted to read both of them so that we can reflect on how different they are.

John's account is simpler, more mysterious. It takes place in the gentle light of dawn. The tomb is simply open and abandoned. The disciples do not grasp what is going on. Angels feature, but simply as two men, dressed in white, sitting in the cave. Jesus is unrecognised for a time, then glimpsed through the tears.

Matthew tells the story very differently. Thunder and lightning, earthquakes and descending angels

Some people have attempted to put all the 4 gospel stories together and show how it is possible to fit them all into one series of events with different writers talking about different parts of the events. But personally I think this approach does some violence to the stories as they are written in the gospels.

I would see John's story as closer to the experiences of that first Easter day, but Matthew is closer to the beliefs of the disciples once they had reflected on their experiences, so his account is more embroidered with verbal illustrations – like medieval monks illuminating their manuscripts with imaginative pictures and symbols, Matthew colours in the borders of the story to reveal the meaning behind the history.

For Matthew and for the church Easter Day is earth shaking – and how better to make that point than have the earth shake.

For Matthew and for the church, Easter Day is the victory of God – and how better to make that point than with the great slapstick gag of an angel casually throwing the rock aside and sitting on it.

There are many ways of telling Easter stories.

Once a vicar was testing out his young confirmation class, seeing if they knew the easter story.

He told them the story of Jesus appearing to his disciples in a locked room and asked them, what did Jesus say to them? Little Johnnie put his hand up enthusiastically. Yes little Johnnie the vicar said, what did Jesus say.

Little Johnnie said “He said “Ta-da!””

Some Easter stories feel like that. Magic spray cans, Painting over the cracks.

Ta-da moments and chocolate eggs. A brief amusement, a distraction from the cares of life.

It will probably not surprise you to know that I prefer John's telling of the story. In my Christmas sermon I said “That first Christmas God did not descend in power waving his magic wand or his smiting stick. Rather he came quietly alongside the world, and alongside us, in the ultimate weakness and dependency – in new born child, in the animal shelter in the basement of a tavern.

Christmas is not so much a demonstration of God's power, it is his embrace of our weakness. It is not a cure for it, rather he is a companion in it.”

And as he entered our world so I believe he left it.

Despite the earthquakes and the angels, the gospel stories of the resurrection are for the most part quiet and mysterious and surprisingly ordinary. They take place on dusty country roads, in locked and fearful rooms, at a graveside, at a beach BBQ. Jesus is usually unexpected and unrecognised at first, sometimes glimpsed in the face of a stranger. And he comes amongst his people not with thunder and lightning but with a gentle word of love and of peace to those who need to hear it. And he is gone as suddenly as he was there.

There are many ways of telling Easter stories and a few years ago the then Bishop of Durham, David Jenkins, got into terrible trouble for saying that the empty tomb was just a conjuring trick with bones. The next day his Cathedral was struck by lightning, much to the delight of the tabloids.

I hope we have had our lightening conductor tested recently, because I agree with him. What he was saying is that if Easter is just a story to be told, however earthshaking, however meaningful it may be to us, to the rest of the world it is simply God jumping out and saying “ta da”.

There are many ways to tell Easter stories, but for me the most gospel stories of resurrection are the ones we see around us every day. On dusty country roads, in locked and fearful rooms, at a graveside, at a beach BBQ. Where the only power available is word of love or of peace, where Jesus may go unrecognised or be glimpsed through tears in the face of a stranger.

In recent weeks I have heard many Easter stories.

Stories of broken relationships beginning to heal.

Stories of people who have dared to make a new beginning.

Stories of those who, despite great grief of their own, are still offering care and support to others. The stories of those who have refused to allow serious illnesses, mental and physical, to limit who they can be and what they can become.

Stories of couples who despite several failed marriages between them, have the courage to love again and come to the church for blessing on their Easter.

Stories of individuals becoming free, day by day, of addictions that have bound and shrouded their lives.

These Easter stories and many more, tend not to have much of the magic spray can or the “ta da” about them. But they are better Easter stories for that. They are not conjuring tricks with lives.

There are many ways to tell the Easter story. But it can only truly be earthshaking if it becomes our story too.