Thoughts from Pastor Al

(Pastor Al has been my parents' pastor for the past 3 years.)

On Saturday, after Brenda Wingate’s service of Celebration, I had a conversation with Bob Wheeler
that I’ve had myriad times with other parishioners over the course of my ministry. The gist of it was
―How do people go through this death experience if they don’t have faith and the community of faith to
rely upon?

Then I ran across this quote from Elaine Pagels.
Elaine Pagels begins her book Beyond Belief with a reference to standing in a church
vestibule. She is not a churchgoer. But a few days before, a doctor had told Pagels and
her husband that their two year old son was terminally ill.
―Standing in the back of that church, I recognized, uncomfortably, that I needed to be
there….Here was a place to weep without imposing tears upon your child; and here was a
heterogeneous community that had gathered to sing, to celebrate, to acknowledge
common needs, and to deal with what we cannot control or imagine… Here is a family
that knows how to face death.‖

As the community of faith, we know how to face death because we believe in the One Who Is the
Resurrection and the Life! We gather together and sing the songs of faith, we pray together, worship
together and tell the stories of faith in the sanctuary, and in the fellowship over potato salad and the
Risen Lord is with us. We receive comfort in the valley of the shadows, and God’s healing light
shines upon us.

The family and friends of Brenda Wingate and Virginia Roy had that faith that Bob
Wheeler and I were talking about on Saturday. God’s grace is sufficient. We know as John
Buchannon says, ―Death does not have the last word about us, God does.


Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our faith in Jesus
Christ.