One of the things that I inherited from my Dad was a box of over 30 handwritten journals that he only wanted me to read.  I brought them home with me after the funeral and I picked up the first one a couple of weeks ago and spent an hour on a Saturday reading through the first half.  It so happened that it was written at about the time I had decided to go into ministry.  He mentioned it a couple of times in his writing.  My father wrote about a lot of things, but much of what he mentioned related to his work as a pastor.

It was strange for me since Dad had written the words about 30 years ago, but as I read them I started to realize that I could have written many of them myself.  There were his frustrations with never feeling caught up with the work he had to accomplish.  Remember how I wrote an entire newsletter article on my messy desk, my father could have written a book about his.  There were his frustrations with plans that hadn’t gone quite as he hoped or ministries that seemed to be stalled out.  There were the books he had been meaning to read for many years, but the pile just kept getting bigger.

There was also the flip-side of the frustrations.  There were meetings that had yielded great results.  There were individuals who had thanked him for his time and inspiration.  There were sermons that had hit home with individuals so powerfully that he had to write about them.  There were worship experiences that had moved the congregation and bible studies that had opened understandings.  There were new persons coming to find a place in the church to grow their faith.

I could theorize that my Dad’s journal might be similar to mine because I carry his genes.  I could theorize that the changes I thought had occurred in ministry over the past 30 years weren’t as powerful as I thought they had been.  I think ultimately the answer is that doing ministry is about working with people on behalf of God.  The fact is that the ways of doing ministry may have shifted, but we as people are still about the same.

30 years ago my father was just a couple of years older than I am now.  My suspicion is that he was facing similar issues to what I do today not just in ministry, but in daily life.  We walk similar paths from generation to generation.  We can’t learn everything from the mistakes of our parents.  We can’t pass on everything we have learned to our children.  We can share our faith and fortunately I was open enough to learn from my parents’ faith.  The joys and sorrows of daily life are refined when we look through the lens of faith and I am glad that I continue to share mine with you. 

The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.  He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.  Then go quickly and tell his disciples: `He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you."  So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.   Matthew 28: 5-8

The message of Easter touches us at the place of our greatest fear and our greatest joy.  The place of death has become a place of life.  The moment of grief is now challenged by the truth of resurrection and life everlasting.  I have spent a lot of time with people in that moment over the past year since last Easter.  I have been with several persons including my own father at the moment of death in just the past six months.  It was a moment of intense grief even when I did not know the dying person, but it is also the moment when our faith blooms into the fullness of Christ’s promise to us.

The women had expected to have their encounter with grief when they came to the tomb on that first Easter.   Their friend and teacher had died a horrible death and now there were going to have their moments alone with his body to say goodbye, to weep and to mourn.  The angel said to them, “He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.”  Jesus had passed through death into life.  That journey created a new reality for all of us.  Death would no longer be the end.  The tomb could not hold Jesus and it will not hold us.

We are told that the women “hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy.”  Their reaction in many ways describes where we are left when we meet the death of a loved one.  There is fear and pain for our loss is real and great, but we know that their death is not the end.  The promise of resurrection reminds us that we will meet again.  The joy of resurrection tells us that life will continue without end.

When we hurry away from the tombs of our life, we need to decide like the women to tell the story of resurrection.  We can’t keep it to ourselves.  If the women had done that, there might not even be an Easter.  May this Easter be our chance to bring our fear and our joy to the place where Jesus’ promise is fulfilled.  Where we discover that Jesus is not among the dead, but with the living.  Here and now he leads us beyond our fear to the place of joy and life everlasting. 

The afternoon that my father died, my sister, mother and I got into the car and headed to the funeral home in Augusta, Maine.  The funeral home sits in an out of the way place back behind a church at the end of the road.  As my sister was pulling the car into the parking space, we looked up to see a beautiful bald eagle spreading its wings and landing in a tree at the other side of the lot.  As the funeral director came out to greet us I said, “Do you arrange for this with every family?” as I pointed out the eagle that he hadn’t noticed.  He was just as shocked as we were.

We stood there for a few moments just watching the eagle sit on top of the bare tree.  My sister tried to take a picture with her cell phone, but didn’t have much luck.  The director said he hadn’t seen an eagle there before although he knew they were down by the river.  My mother said she had never seen a bald eagle that close before in her 81 years.  When I mentioned the eagle at the end of our appointment as we were leaving, the director said, “We usually just have crows out there.”

For those of you who heard me preach about my dad on February 12^th, you are probably wondering, “Why didn’t he tell that part of the story?”  To tell you the truth it was hard enough to just type it, let alone preach it!  I suspect some day I will preach it and when I do I will open the Bible to Isaiah 40:28-31:

Do you not know?  Have you not heard?  The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.  Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

For the last decade of my father’s life, he was not able to walk reliably.  There were periods where the steps would come reasonably well, but his reliance upon the wheel chair became more and more of a necessity.  The process of Parkinson’s for him was a slow deterioration of what most of us take for granted.  His walking and speech were two of the greatest losses.  The eagle for me became a symbol of what my father gained on the day he died.  My father spent the years of his Parkinson’s waiting for his foot to move or waiting for someone to figure out what he just said, but my father always had the hope of his faith.  He walks and speaks again with no more waiting.  He has gained the wings like eagles that one day will carry all of us home. 

It has been a windy fall.  If you didn’t realize that, you haven’t been paying attention.  At points it has meant that the leaves that have changed color have gotten blown off the trees before anyone had a chance to enjoy them.  It has also meant that you needed a windbreak or a wind breaker when you went outside to keep from getting a chill.  Before all the acorns had a dropped a couple of weeks ago, it was a dangerous idea to walk down our driveway without a helmet on, but that was especially true on a windy day.

When you look at scriptures that speak about wind, you discover that it usually refers to things which can’t be controlled.  In Ecclesiastes, chasing after the wind becomes the standard definition for a waste of time.  The wind is also what would be called upon in the Psalms to “blow away” your enemies.

One place in scripture where wind is seen in a new way is in the story of Jesus walking on the water.  You can read it in Matthew 14: 29b- 33:

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!"  Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?"  And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God." 

I don’t know what you think about when you think about seeing the wind, but for me it brings up images of all which we can not control.  Whether, it is as simple as the wind catching a piece of paper that you wanted to save or as complex as the wind knocking a tree down on top of your house.

The gospel Of Mark, puts its own spin on Jesus ability to command the wind.  When Jesus is asleep in the back of the boat, a storm comes up and the disciples are convinced that they will drown.  When they awaken Jesus, he gets up and rebukes the wind and tells the waves to be still. Then he turned to his disciples and said, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?"

When things out of our control begin to swirl around us, we tend to get afraid or angry or we try to hide.  Maybe like the disciples we start to blame someone like Jesus for not caring enough to save us.  Jesus thinks the answer is faith.  I have spent my entire life around people with very powerful faith.  I would tell you that I often feel like I am still an apprentice.  That still seems to be true in my 50^thyear.  I have seen incredibly powerful acts of faith and courage made possible by faith in just the past five weeks.  Some have said it has been a hard time, but I understand now that it has been a time for faith.

Don’t wait for the wind to blow before you develop your faith.  Give Jesus the chance to strengthen and sustain you today because the wind will blow and when it does you want a friend who knows how to calm it.

With my face to the wind, Jesus is holding my hand.