Psalm 16: A psalm of David, expressing trust in God, commitment to faithful worship, and assurance of God's promise of resurrection - which in the New Testament is taken as a promise of Jesus' resurrection.

1 Peter 1:3-9: Peter encourages the believers as they endure trials, reminding them of the life they have in the Risen Christ and of the joy that they will experience when their faith, having been strengthened by their suffering, leads them into fulness of life.

John 20:19-31: The resurrected Jesus appears to his disciples and breathes the Holy Spirit on them, then he appears to Thomas who had doubted the witness of the other disciples, and shows Thomas his wounds, leading Thomas to faith and worship. After telling this story, John explains the purpose of his Gospel, to show who Jesus is and to lead his readers to faith.

In a world where nothing is certain, where agreements and treaties and commitments are so often broken, the word 'assurance' can seem like a ridiculous ideal. Expediency would seem to be a far higher value, and those who want to keep up had better get comfortable with it fast. Yet, assurance is an important word in the realm of faith. Without assurance faith becomes either a fantasy or a white-knuckle clinging to vain hope. It's not that we need proof of what we believe - as if faith was about verifiable fact. Rather, it's that faith needs to be something we live, that drives us and moves us and defines us. Lived faith requires a confidence which is an experience of the thing in which we believe. Like the small wins that an athlete uses to boost their confidence on the way to Olympic gold, assurance confirms for us that what we have given our lives for has substance and reality to it. To speak of the resurrection with no experience of 'little resurrections' to give us this assurance, this confidence, leaves us in a limbo state of always waiting for something better - "pie in the sky". But, as we work for justice, peace, simplicity and community in this world, we draw strength from our daily experiences of God's resurrection life - in the laughter of a poor child who still remembers how to play; in the commitment to peace among those who suffer abuse from dictatorial leaders; in the mindfulness of those who choose what they eat and buy according to principles of justice and conservation of the planet; in the resilience of those who continue to hope and dream and work for a bright future, even after losing everything in natural disasters. It is when we open our hearts and minds to these signs of resurrection that we find the assurance to keep faith, and to hold on to our integrity, compassion and commitment to ethical living. It is this daily experience of resurrection that empowers us to believe in Christ and the way of God's reign, and, like Thomas, to turn our lives into an act of worship and service.