John 20:19-23
“He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’”
John has his own story of how the Spirit fell upon the followers of
Jesus. It’s different from the traditional Pentecost story, but what he
does is connect the Holy Spirit with the very essence of life. In fact,
there’s a connection between this story and the story of creation in
Genesis 2. In that story, God created the first human being by forming a
body from the dust of the ground, and then God “breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being” (Genesis
2:7). The biblical words for breath and Spirit are the same. So to
have breath is to have the Spirit.
We see this connection in the book of Ezekiel, where the “spirit of
the Lord” took the prophet to the Valley of Dry Bones. Then the Lord
asked Ezekiel – “can these dry bones live?” God then told Ezekiel to
prophesy to these dry and lifeless bones, saying to them: “Thus says
the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you
shall live.” And the bones came to life, with sinews and flesh and skin
covering the bones. Then, comes the breath of God, bringing the body,
which is the nation of Judah living in exile back to life – so that they
might know that God is the Lord (Ezekiel 37:1-6).
Yes, there is a connection between breath and life. Cheryl and I were
present when the husband of a member of a previous congregation was
being taken off a ventilator that was keeping him alive. As soon as the
air stopped flowing, his entire body seemed to deflate. His chest
heaved and then collapsed. The breath of life was gone, and without
breath there is no life.
In this reading from the Gospel of John, the disciples are huddled
together in a safe house. They’re afraid of the authorities who had
arrested and executed Jesus. At that very moment, Jesus appeared, even
though the door was locked. After he demonstrates that he had risen
from the dead, Jesus commissions them. He sends them on a mission, even
as God had sent him on a mission.
It’s at that moment that Jesus breathed on them and said “Receive the
Holy Spirit.” Yes, Jesus breathed onto them the breath of spiritual
life, even as God breathed physical life into Adam. With every breath
we take, we breathe in the Spirit of God, who accompanies us and
empowers us as we take up the mission to which Jesus has called us.
Sometimes we get too caught up in daily life and forget that we are
sustained by the breath of God. One way of connecting with the Spirit
of God is to make use of breath prayers. Bruce Epperly offers a word of guidance.
Begin by finding a comfortable position, with your back straight and feet on the floor. Take a few cleansing breaths, letting go of any stress. Then, gently inhale and exhale, experiencing opening to God's Spirit with each breath. As you inhale, silently repeat the words, "I breathe the Spirit deeply in." Experience yourself being filled with God's Spirit from head to toe. As you exhale, let go of any burdens that you may be experiencing. You may choose to say as you exhale, "I breathe the Spirit gratefully out" or "I breathe the Spirit joyfully out" or whatever describes your current personal condition.
When we breathe in the Spirit, we receive power. When we exhale, we
release that power into the world. In other words, to live in Christ is
to breathe in the Spirit.
One of the emphases of John’s gospel is the way in which Jesus and God
are connected. We see this in John 17, where Jesus prays that the
disciples might be one even as he is one with the Father. In another
place, Jesus tells the disciples that whoever sees him, has seen the
Father (John 12:45). So, if we are one with Christ, who is one with the
Father, then when the world sees us they see God. That doesn’t make us
divine beings, but if we are full of the Spirit, then we represent Jesus
to the world.
I appreciate what the Roman Catholic Biblical scholar Raymond Brown
says about this relationship between us and Jesus, and Jesus and the
Father.
Their mission is to continue the Son’s mission; and this requires that the Son must be present to them during this mission, just as the Father had to be present to the Son during his mission [The Gospel According to John XIII-XXI (Anchor Bible, Vol 29, Part A), p. 1036].
By living in the Spirit, we continue Jesus’ mission, which is an expression of the mission of God.
We continue that mission when we use the gifts of God given to us by
the Spirit of God. As Paul writes, each of us has been given a
“manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:7).
Therefore, each of us has a different role to play in the life of the
congregation as it moves out into the world, sharing the love of God
with the world so that all might experience the common good.
Yesterday, some of us traveled to Detroit and we did a bit of work with Gospel in Action Detroit and Rippling Hope.
Some of us mowed tall grass. Some painted. Some worked on a garage
door. Some cleaned out a garage. In doing this, we were being the hands
and feet of God. We didn’t put up a big sign saying that God was at
work, but I think people understood.
The tag line of the Metro Coalition of Congregations,
of which we’re members, is: “People of Faith for the Common Good.” MCC
sponsored a Transit Summit on Wednesday at the Detroit Zoo. We brought
together business and community leaders and we invited them to work
together to create a world class transit system so that the people of
the region could get to work, to school, and to play. We appealed to
their bottom line, but we also brought the “moral imperative.” I don’t
know if everyone heard the message. The reporters in the room didn’t
seem to catch it, but that’s okay. Time will tell.
In a couple of weeks we’re sponsoring a concert and photo exhibit that
focuses on the lives and concerns of our LGBT brothers and sisters. We
are praying that this event will help us discern how we can be more
welcoming to the diversity of human experience that is already in our
midst.
In each of these events, we are invited to live in the Spirit and ask
the question – what does it mean to be Christ-like? This is a question
that we need to ask about the entirety of our lives. How do we live
with the breath of the Spirit energizing our lives and our ministries?
Jesus gives us one more clue. After he breathes the Spirit upon them,
he gives them the ministry of forgiveness: “If you forgive the sins of
any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are
retained.”
Some of us have been exploring the question of forgiveness. We’ve been
discussing a little book by Marjorie Thompson simply entitled: Forgiveness: A Lenten Study.
She writes about the process of forgiveness, which includes honesty
and repentance. But she ends with the act of forgiveness and
reconciliation.
One of the texts we studied was Jesus’ statement from the cross:
“Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” I think that
they did know what they were doing, but Jesus forgave them anyway.
That’s not easy to do. We struggle with forgiveness, even as we hope
and pray that God will forgive us.
What’s interesting is that we not only have the ability forgive; we
also have the right to retain the sins of others. Perhaps there are
times and places when we shouldn’t extend forgiveness – at least not at
that moment. So, knowing when to forgive and when not to forgive takes
great spiritual discernment.
One of the stories that Marjorie Thompson tells is about two men – Gary
and Wayne. Wayne had caused Gary great harm during a motel robbery
many years earlier, and was now in prison. Through a mediator Gary
sought to connect with Wayne, and in the course of their conversation,
Wayne expressed his deep sorrow for what he had done. What’s
interesting in this story is that we don’t see Gary offering
forgiveness, even though he stays in relationship with Wayne. So, maybe
reconciliation can happen without there being forgiveness.
Preached by:
Dr. Robert D. Cornwall, Pastor
Central Woodward Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Troy, Michigan
Pentecost Sunday
June 8, 2014
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