DOUBT/THOMAS It is unexpected, but extraordinarily convincing, that the one absolutely unequivocal statement in the whole gospel of the Divinity of Jesus should come from Doubting Thomas. It is the only place where the word God is used ... without qualification of any kind, and in the most unambiguous form of words .... And this must be said -- not ecstatically, or with a cry of astonishment -- but with flat conviction, as of one acknowledging irrefutable evidence: ‘2 + 2 = 4,’ ‘That is the sun in the sky,’ ‘You are my Lord and my God!’ Dorothy Sayers, The Man Born to Be King (London: Victor Collancz, 1943), 319-20. There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds. Alfred, Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam (1850). EASTER Some of us stay at the cross, some of us wait at the tomb, Quickened and raised with Christ yet lingering still in the gloom. Some of us abide at the Passover feast with Pentecost all unknown, The triumphs of grace in the heavenly place that our Lord has made His own. If the Christ who died had stopped at the cross, His work had been incomplete. If the Christ who was buried had stayed in the tomb, He had only known defeat, But the way of the cross never stops at the cross and the way of the tomb leads on To victorious grace in the heavenly place where the risen Lord has gone. by Annie Johnson Flint Tomb, thou shalt not hold Him longer; Death is strong, but Life is stronger; Stronger than the dark, the light; Stronger than the wrong, the right; Faith and Hope triumphant say, Christ will rise on Easter Day. Phillips Brooks

EASTER VICTORY Several hundred years before the birth of Jesus, a crucial battle occurred between the Greeks and the Persians upon the plains of Marathon. The battle raged for hours. In many respects it was a fight to the finish. Finally the numerically inferior Greeks, the underdogs, managed a tremendous tactical win, but there was a problem. Soon the Senate, many miles away in Athens, was to vote and would most certainly ratify a treaty of appeasement. In desperation they sent a runner in full battle gear to go the twenty-seven miles to tell of the news. By the time the young boy got to Athens he had run a Marathon. It is said he was totally spent, that he literally ran himself to death. In his exhaustion he was able to utter only one word to the Athenians: “Victory.” Today we come to church with the sound of the Hallelujah Chorus still resonating in our ears. We have been to the empty tomb. We have heard the glad news of resurrection. And now it is time for the church to send a message back to the world. What should that message be? May I suggest that it could be a single word: Victory. FAITH One night a house caught fire and a young boy was forced to flee to the roof. The father stood on the ground below with outstretched arms, calling to his son, “Jump! I’ll catch you.” He knew the boy had to jump to save his life. All the boy could see, however, was flame, smoke, and blackness. As can be imagined, he was afraid to leave the roof. His father kept yelling: “Jump! I will catch you.” But the boy protested, “Daddy, I can’t see you.” The father replied, “But I can see you and that’s all that matters.” ............................... “Unbelief puts our circumstance between us and God, but faith puts God between us and our circumstances.” F.B. Meyer .............................. God does not expect us to submit our faith to him without reason, but the very limits of our reason make faith a necessity. Augustine