Today I preached about Thomas, how he is so much like us--doubting and believing at the same time--and how he, of all the people Jesus encountered, acknowledged who he was when he said, "My Lord and my GOD!"
I was going to try to recreate that sermon here but instead found one I did 8 years ago to share instead. Today I did talk about how intimate and lovely it was that 'Jesus breathed on them'.
Here it is.
EASTER II, 2009
OK,
let’s get this straight—the doors were locked and Jesus just showed up. That’s
weird enough, nevermind that he had
been dead and wasn’t dead anymore. Already we have two confounding facts that
have to make us re-think what we are convinced ‘reality’ is about.
That’s
what the season of Easter is for, afterall—to make us reconsider the nature of
‘reality’.
But
let’s leave the ‘reality’ bending and altering events for another time. Let’s
concentrate on what Jesus ‘did’ in that far-away, long-ago upper room.
He
breathed
on them.
That’s
what John tells us and what we are left to wrestle with—after showing up
unexpectedly in a locked room, this man who everyone knew was dead, “breathed
on them”.
Let’s
do an experiment. Let’s notice, for a few moments, that we are breathing……
Try
counting your breaths—up to four and then count up to four again….
Astonishing,
isn’t it? We just breathe—or, perhaps more accurately, breath breathes us….We
don’t have to think about it most of the time, it just happens—when you’re not
paying attention, when you sleep, always—your breath breathes you.
And
Jesus ‘breathed’ on them….Just like that….He must have leaned in close and let
them feel his breath. What an intimate moment.
How often do we get to ‘feel’ the breath of another on our skin? We feel
it with babies and small children, certainly, holding them near; with lovers
and partners from time to time; with people in hospital beds, straining for
breath when we lean in close to kiss them and say good-bye, that we’re going
home for the night or that we know their last breath is near.
My
God…I mean that literally, “My God,
what a gift to have that polite distance between us at all times violated so we
might feel the breath, the very ‘life’ of another on our faces.
I
toyed with the idea of having you ‘breathe on’ the person beside you or near
you…but that would be so uncomfortable, so awkward, so embarrassing to us
because we value the space between us and other people. That’s really ok. I
pull back when people get in my personal space.
And, there is this: there is no
“personal” space with God. God is right against us, all around us, ever close
to us. Breathing on us….Breathing on us….Breathing on us….
There is a hymn that invites that
holy and astonishing intimacy with God.
Hymn 508….”Breathe
on me breath of God,/fill me with Life anew/
That I might
love what thou dost love,/and do what thou wouldst do.
Breathe on me
breath of God/until my heart is pure,
Until with
thee I will one will, to do or to endure.
Breathe on my
breath of God/until I am wholly thine/
Until this
earthly part of me/breathes with thy fire divine.
Breathe on me
breath of God,/so shall I never die,’
But live with
thee the perfect life/of thy eternity.”
That is our legacy, our
inheritance, our indescribable intimacy with God. That is what we give to these
children today. Marked as Christ’s own forever.
When you breathe, remember this,
God is breathing on you as well…..
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