I’m in a sermon series on the “one anothers” of the Bible. When I began preparing for the series, I knew for sure that it would be interesting, spiritually stimulating, and a great reminder to the church of how Jesus calls us to live.

I wasn’t ready for the gut-wrenching, tear-jerking, mind-blowing impact that it has brought to me and our church.  

Easter has always been the most special day of the year as a Christian. While Christmas is vitally important, Easter completes the story. Easter provides the evidence: they’ve never found His body, and they won’t.  He is risen.

The tomb is empty.

I remember the first time I saw Oklahoma City on the horizon.  My parents were driving my car, and I was driving the small U-Haul truck with my few possessions which would turn an apartment into a home. Oklahoma was going to be my home for awhile, or so I thought.  All I really knew about Oklahoma was the famous Rogers and Hammerstein musical, Oklahoma. Especially the line in the song that says, “Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweeping down the plain.”

It didn’t take long for me to understand the meaning of those lyrics.

It seems as if I blinked and my parents, aunts, and uncles aged, obviously and gracefully. How did life happen so quickly?  

What will it look like when I’m in my eighties--if I’m still alive, healthy, and aware-- will I still be able to have discussions and take care of myself? Will I be dependent on someone who loves me, someone I may not recognize, someone I may not be capable of telling them how thankful I am that they care, that they have not forgotten, that they still find me worthy of a visit?

Many of you have most likely heard of Dr. James Earl Massey.  In case you haven’t, let me tell you about this great man.

From 1954 to 1976, he served as Senior Minister of the Metropolitan Church of God in Detroit and then as speaker on the Christian Brotherhood Hour radio broadcast from 1977 to 1982. He was the Dean of the Tuskegee University Chapel from 1984 to 1989 and Dean of the Anderson School of Theology from 1989-1995.  He is the author of over twenty books. He has walked alongside such great leaders as Martin Luther King Jr. and Howard Thurman.

Dr. Massey has preached and lectured at more than a hundred colleges, universities, and seminaries in the United States and on four continents.

What made Billy Graham the world’s pastor?  How did this happen? Why did he have the privilege to speak to over 200 million people?  Why was he chosen as the fourth citizen in history to lie in repose in the United States Capital?  Why was he the first citizen since Rosa Parks to get such an invitation?  Why has his death been the focus of every newspaper and media outlet in the world?

What is “it” that he had?