By the Reverend Canon Anne Moore

Margaret Sangster Phippen wrote that, in the mid-1950s, her father, British pastor, W.E. Sangster, began to notice some uneasiness in his throat and a dragging in his leg. When he went to the doctor, he found that he had an incurable disease that caused progressive muscular atrophy. His muscles would gradually waste away, his voice fail, and his throat become unable to swallow.

Sangster threw himself into his work in the British home missions, figuring he could still write and would have even more time for prayer. "Let me stay in the struggle, Lord," he pleaded. He wrote articles and books, and helped organize prayer cells throughout England. Gradually Sangster’s legs became useless. His voice went completely. But he could still hold a pen, shakily.

On Easter morning, just a few weeks before he died, he wrote a letter to his daughter. In it, he said, "It is terrible to wake up on Easter morning and have no voice to shout, 'He is risen!'—but it would be still more terrible to have a voice and not want to shout."

The worst situation, however, would be that there wasn’t anything to shout about! But there is! Regardless of the weather, regardless of tragedies, both personal and world-wide, regardless of the booming or sinking economy, regardless of anything you can think of, Jesus has overcome the grave.

Jesus is alive!

That truth changes everything. No matter how devastating, overwhelming, frightening, or hopeless our situations might seem, we Christians have hope. Because Jesus is alive, we have access to our heavenly Father, through His Holy Spirit. God has “called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” as Peter put it (1 Peter 2:9). John says that Jesus has “overcome the world” (John 16:33). That means that we can face the future, whatever it might bring, knowing that we are not traveling there alone, knowing that God will not allow anything to overcome us. In the end we will have victory in heaven.

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

The Lord is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

May resurrection joy be yours this Easter season.