Hinckley Times

A QUESTION OF FAITH

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With Rev Steve Smith of Hinckley Baptist Church IT never ceases to frustrate me that I don’t remember from one year to the next when things happen. When daffodils will come up, when sticky buds appear, when the clocks will change, when Mother’s Day is; even though I’ve had a good few years to get used to them. I feel less concerned about my inability to know when Easter will be each year; though I’ve always thought it would make life so much easier if we could fix a date for it, like we have for Christmas.

One thing I enjoy about Easter, once I know when it is going to be (the start of April this year), is the sense of familiarit­y it brings as we retell the story in church life. It is such a central part of our beliefs that hearing it again truly refreshes my faith each year; though I often think how hard it must have been for those men and women who were witnesses at the first Easter. The sadness and sense of desolation when the man they had followed for three years, was crucified. The questions they must have had about what he had taught them. Was it all wrong? Had they been misled? What do we do now?

Of course, we have the good fortune to know the end of the story; that on the Sunday morning, when the women went to the tomb, they would find it empty. That when they went to leave, wondering what was going on, they would meet with Jesus again. He wasn’t dead, he was alive, just as he had told them would happen, though, of course, they hadn’t understood him until this moment.

At first those original believers found it difficult to believe and accept that Jesus had been resurrecte­d to new life, just as many people today find it hard to believe in resurrecti­on. Thomas, one of the twelve apostles, became famous for ‘doubting’. Yet he did come to believe and accept that Jesus was truly resurrecte­d and he went on to tell others about it for many years.

It really doesn’t matter if you know when or how or why something happens, it is how you handle the informatio­n that matters. Do you have an open mind to things you find unexplaina­ble, or do you prefer not to think about it? Do you accept there are some things you will never understand, or do you reject anything that falls into that category? Whether Easter is a mystery to you, or something familiar, why not visit a church this year and discover (or rediscover) why it is so important to millions of people around the world, it may just change your life.

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