The resurrection story has
Always seemed to be quite
Unbelievable.

The evidence of the power that
Enabled those disciples is almost
Incredible.

Nevertheless, their plain and
Simple stories made it seem
Inevitable.

Thus god's Love for us, in
Christ, makes resurrection
Realisable.

The challenge to our faith
Is to make resurrection
Transmittable.

The people of God have
Often been struck down
But God has raised them up.

The purposes of God have
Often seemed to be thwarted
But God has never let go.

The teaching of God has
Too often been ignored but
God's wisdom ultimately prevails.

The truth of God has
Often been denied
But god's truth will out.

The praise of God has
Often been muted
But we must praise Him aloud.

Thanks be to God who Has given us such a
Firm foundation on
Which to build our faith.

Thanks be to god who
Has raised up such a
Saviour to enable
Our life of faith

Thanks be to god who
Has been so consistent
In his love for us as
To sustain our faith.

We see here something of the fatalism that arises when there is no hope of resurrection. This passage from Job gives us a vivid image of the hopelessness of the human condition without the resurrection message. Thus we can see in answer to the question posed, in verse 12, that our Christian hope is vital to the development of a positive attitude to living.

One of the most interesting features of human thought is the way in which, in every race and from long before recorded history, we are aware of 'something out there, something greater than ourselves'. This realisation receives powerful expression in the ancient Hebrew concept of one creator God. Our Christian message shows this God's care for us in the incarnation of Christ. The key to this intervention in human history is shown by his death on the cross and in being raised from the dead for our everlasting hope.

Whilst our materialist-scientific-technological society is limited to a 'horizontal' view of life; our Christian viewpoint also has a 'vertical' component that 'lifts' us out of the limitations of this life to a real and powerful hope of new life in Christ.

The challenge is to
Change both our thinking
And our way of living.

The challenge is to
Our, almost exclusive,
Materialist view of the world.

The challenge is tour
Unquestioning acceptance
Of the limited horizons of science.

The opportunity is to
A whole range of new
Dimensions for living.

The opportunity is to
Develop a widely inclusive
Spiritual view of the world.

The opportunity is to
Explore a questioning 'vertical'
Relationship with God.

He had rescued me from
A life of shame and shown
Me my true self.

We had seen him cruelly
Killed on that dreadful cross
And put him in a tomb.

Now we had come to lay
Him out properly in death
But he was gone.

My shock and anguish was
More than I could bear, the
Tears just flowed and flowed.

Suddenly a man was there
The gardener? "Sir where
Have you laid him?"

"Mary"! such joy! He
Is alive again: He sends me to tell the others.

When Mary came with
Her shocking message
We raced to see if it
Was really true.

Nothing had prepared
Us for such an event;
Who could have done
Such a thing?

I was quite at a
Loss as to what to
Make of it, but John
Said "Yes of course"

We went back to
The house arguing
Between us what it
Really meant.

The descriptions that we have of the resurrection event are, of necessity, somewhat confused. This is not in the least surprising since this was an occurrence unique in human history, and certainly far beyond anything the witnesses were capable of describing. We should not be, ourselves, confused by apparent contradictions of detail - these are, after all, quite unimportant trivia. The overriding and utterly astounding fact is that Christ was raised from the dead.

This key event, one of three, in the Christian story was subject to ridicule, even systematic deriding, from the beginning. The resurrection, together with the 'virgin conception' remain a major problem for many. We, as Christians, need to assert most positively the reasonableness of the event in the light of god's love for us. This is tremendous evidence of God's creating power. Here god transforms the lifeless body of a real human being into an identifiable form which gives us a clue as to the nature of the "new life in Christ" in the "heavenly realm". This was never merely "a conjuring trick with bones" but a "new creation".