Let’s imagine for a moment that we are among the original disciples of Jesus at the time of his death and resurrection. Let’s pretend that we ourselves have witnessed some of Jesus’ teaching moments and miracles that he performed. We have spoken with him and know how he thinks and how he turned the world upside down with his ideas about the first being last and the last being first. He always made everyone feel important, no matter what their station was in life. Even people normally looked down upon like tax collectors, women without husbands, and Samaritans, he treated them all like they were special and important. At the time it was shocking really, but over time we came to understand and know Jesus and his Father and the love that surrounded his compassion for all people and his love for and deep relationship with his Father. Life seemed hopeful if hard, but the love made it all worthwhile. Walking on the journey of life with Jesus was worth whatever sacrifices we made, even if we had to leave some of our loved ones behind, even then.
But in the process of living out this life of love and compassion, Jesus made a lot of enemies, too. He gave the civic and religious authorities a hard time and wouldn’t follow some of their rules – in fact he challenged the rules that everyone had accepted and lived by for hundreds of years. And at that point the journey became so much harder and more dangerous. We heard that some people were plotting to kill Jesus because he represented a threat to that authority and suddenly our lives were in danger, too, because we followed him. And then they trapped him and had a phony trial and suddenly he was gone, crucified, a horrible way to die. We hid in our homes and in friends’ homes and hoped that the soldiers wouldn’t come after us, too. Was it really all over? What about all Jesus’ teachings, was it all just a false hope, a beautiful dream? It was a confusing and terrifying time… But then we heard some strange rumors that Jesus was seen down by the river. And someone else thought they saw him on the road. The women who stayed with Mary Magdalene had told that odd story about his body being secretly removed from the tomb, it was all so unbelievable. What could it mean? Where was Jesus, and what had become of all his followers – and what would happen to us? We knew the life of joy lived with Jesus and then witnessed his death. We felt afraid and yet still hopeful somehow, knowing that he had promised to return, to rise from the dead, though not everyone believed that was possible at all. We talked it over and over in the hours and days after Jesus’ crucifixion. It was on everyone’s lips, trying to figure what had really happened and what would happen next.
So on the first day of the new week we were gathered at someone’s house and the doors were locked for safety and suddenly, Jesus was there with us. Well, we were dumbfounded, no one moved or spoke, and Jesus said in a calm way, to quiet our fears, “Peace be with you.” It sounded just like him, it looked just like him, real flesh and bone, and he put his hands out, we could see the wounds where the nails had pierced him on the cross. Then we were giddy with laughing and touching him and jumping up for joy! Jesus was alive! alive! He lives! And then to quiet us down he said again, “Peace be with you!” and then very serious he said, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And then he blew his breath on us and said “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” And then he was gone from the room. Wow. It was really Jesus, wasn’t it? He spoke to us, we all heard it, what did he mean by sending us out? And in our amazement we ran out into the street and told everyone. We found Thomas, who hadn’t been in the room and told him the whole incredible story. But he didn’t believe us! Even though there had been a lot of people in the room to witness, he still refused to believe Jesus was alive unless he could see it for himself – even touch the wounds on his body to make sure it really was him! And then we beganto doubt our own eyes and ears, too. But could we all have imagined the same thing? So confusing and yet exciting at the same time. And in each of our hearts we heard the beat – he lives, he lives.
So about a week later we were all together again and this time Thomas was with us, too. He still wasn’t at all convinced that we had seen Jesus and then, suddenly, Jesus was there. “Peace be with you.” Then we knew it really was him. Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” And again he was gone. ***************
So here we can stop imagining ourselves to be present in the room with Thomas and the disciples, because now the playing field is level. We are in the same circumstance today as the disciples were after that day – standing on the other side of the cross – not seeing Jesus in the flesh anymore, but believing all the same. How are we able to believe in someone we can’t see, have no hope of ever seeing or experiencing in person? In some ways we are all like Thomas, not quite knowing, wanting more assurance, some kind of evidence. But Jesus gave us a gift, nothing more or less than a breath of air, nothing more or less than a wind as large and powerful as the breath that God blew over the oceans at the time of creation. Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit into the disciples. This gift of Spirit was the power of belief that the disciples needed to fulfill the mandate Jesus gave them to go out into the world. He sent them out to spread his message just as the Father had sent Jesus himself to give the people the good Word of compassion and love. The message that God loves all of us, no matter who we are. And over the years and centuries the Word has spread – sometimes through people who were hunted down and martyred, sometimes by people who were the center of proper and acceptable society, but always through the power of the breath, of the Holy Spirit, our precious gift from Jesus. And the Word has reached us, too, through the original disciples in an unbroken chain from them to us. This allows us as the body of the risen Christ to believe in one whom we cannot see or touch. And the Risen Christ is just as alive now in our hearts as he was to the disciples in the year 33.
I think of all the people in my life who have breathed the Spirit into my heart – my parents who took me to church, the kindly Lutheran pastor who confirmed me and my friends, the Presbyterian woman who welcomed my children at her church’s summer program in SF. And I especially think of the Sunday I walked into St. Michael and All Angels in Concord for the first time. We had just moved to Concord and I had never even been in an Episcopal church, but it was near our new house and so I went. I remember how hard it was to go into a church in a new place and particularly a church of a denomination I had never experienced. When I walked through the door I was immediately scooped up by the deacon, and she said, “oh who are you?!!” Like I was a wonderful gift that had popped through the door. And at that moment I became an Episcopalian and started on the road to being a deacon myself, though I didn’t know it then, and would have been shocked if someone had told me. She breathed the breath of life and love into my heart through the power of the Holy Spirit and gave me the courage to believe in a new life in Christ for my kids and me. We are each one in that chain of breath – and I wonder if we realize the power we have to give others hope and new life, thanks be to God.
At the end of today’s Gospel reading our narrator of the Gospel of John talks directly to us, all of us listening right now here at St. George’s. He wants all the future generations to know that he thought of us, imagined we would exist in the unbroken line of believers who picked up the story of Jesus of Nazareth, received the breath of the Holy Spirit and believed. We are blessed to be among those who have come to believe in and live a life in Christ. John the narrator says, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you (and me – all of us and all those we invite to join us) may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” May it be so. Amen.
But in the process of living out this life of love and compassion, Jesus made a lot of enemies, too. He gave the civic and religious authorities a hard time and wouldn’t follow some of their rules – in fact he challenged the rules that everyone had accepted and lived by for hundreds of years. And at that point the journey became so much harder and more dangerous. We heard that some people were plotting to kill Jesus because he represented a threat to that authority and suddenly our lives were in danger, too, because we followed him. And then they trapped him and had a phony trial and suddenly he was gone, crucified, a horrible way to die. We hid in our homes and in friends’ homes and hoped that the soldiers wouldn’t come after us, too. Was it really all over? What about all Jesus’ teachings, was it all just a false hope, a beautiful dream? It was a confusing and terrifying time… But then we heard some strange rumors that Jesus was seen down by the river. And someone else thought they saw him on the road. The women who stayed with Mary Magdalene had told that odd story about his body being secretly removed from the tomb, it was all so unbelievable. What could it mean? Where was Jesus, and what had become of all his followers – and what would happen to us? We knew the life of joy lived with Jesus and then witnessed his death. We felt afraid and yet still hopeful somehow, knowing that he had promised to return, to rise from the dead, though not everyone believed that was possible at all. We talked it over and over in the hours and days after Jesus’ crucifixion. It was on everyone’s lips, trying to figure what had really happened and what would happen next.
So on the first day of the new week we were gathered at someone’s house and the doors were locked for safety and suddenly, Jesus was there with us. Well, we were dumbfounded, no one moved or spoke, and Jesus said in a calm way, to quiet our fears, “Peace be with you.” It sounded just like him, it looked just like him, real flesh and bone, and he put his hands out, we could see the wounds where the nails had pierced him on the cross. Then we were giddy with laughing and touching him and jumping up for joy! Jesus was alive! alive! He lives! And then to quiet us down he said again, “Peace be with you!” and then very serious he said, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And then he blew his breath on us and said “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” And then he was gone from the room. Wow. It was really Jesus, wasn’t it? He spoke to us, we all heard it, what did he mean by sending us out? And in our amazement we ran out into the street and told everyone. We found Thomas, who hadn’t been in the room and told him the whole incredible story. But he didn’t believe us! Even though there had been a lot of people in the room to witness, he still refused to believe Jesus was alive unless he could see it for himself – even touch the wounds on his body to make sure it really was him! And then we beganto doubt our own eyes and ears, too. But could we all have imagined the same thing? So confusing and yet exciting at the same time. And in each of our hearts we heard the beat – he lives, he lives.
So about a week later we were all together again and this time Thomas was with us, too. He still wasn’t at all convinced that we had seen Jesus and then, suddenly, Jesus was there. “Peace be with you.” Then we knew it really was him. Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” And again he was gone. ***************
So here we can stop imagining ourselves to be present in the room with Thomas and the disciples, because now the playing field is level. We are in the same circumstance today as the disciples were after that day – standing on the other side of the cross – not seeing Jesus in the flesh anymore, but believing all the same. How are we able to believe in someone we can’t see, have no hope of ever seeing or experiencing in person? In some ways we are all like Thomas, not quite knowing, wanting more assurance, some kind of evidence. But Jesus gave us a gift, nothing more or less than a breath of air, nothing more or less than a wind as large and powerful as the breath that God blew over the oceans at the time of creation. Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit into the disciples. This gift of Spirit was the power of belief that the disciples needed to fulfill the mandate Jesus gave them to go out into the world. He sent them out to spread his message just as the Father had sent Jesus himself to give the people the good Word of compassion and love. The message that God loves all of us, no matter who we are. And over the years and centuries the Word has spread – sometimes through people who were hunted down and martyred, sometimes by people who were the center of proper and acceptable society, but always through the power of the breath, of the Holy Spirit, our precious gift from Jesus. And the Word has reached us, too, through the original disciples in an unbroken chain from them to us. This allows us as the body of the risen Christ to believe in one whom we cannot see or touch. And the Risen Christ is just as alive now in our hearts as he was to the disciples in the year 33.
I think of all the people in my life who have breathed the Spirit into my heart – my parents who took me to church, the kindly Lutheran pastor who confirmed me and my friends, the Presbyterian woman who welcomed my children at her church’s summer program in SF. And I especially think of the Sunday I walked into St. Michael and All Angels in Concord for the first time. We had just moved to Concord and I had never even been in an Episcopal church, but it was near our new house and so I went. I remember how hard it was to go into a church in a new place and particularly a church of a denomination I had never experienced. When I walked through the door I was immediately scooped up by the deacon, and she said, “oh who are you?!!” Like I was a wonderful gift that had popped through the door. And at that moment I became an Episcopalian and started on the road to being a deacon myself, though I didn’t know it then, and would have been shocked if someone had told me. She breathed the breath of life and love into my heart through the power of the Holy Spirit and gave me the courage to believe in a new life in Christ for my kids and me. We are each one in that chain of breath – and I wonder if we realize the power we have to give others hope and new life, thanks be to God.
At the end of today’s Gospel reading our narrator of the Gospel of John talks directly to us, all of us listening right now here at St. George’s. He wants all the future generations to know that he thought of us, imagined we would exist in the unbroken line of believers who picked up the story of Jesus of Nazareth, received the breath of the Holy Spirit and believed. We are blessed to be among those who have come to believe in and live a life in Christ. John the narrator says, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you (and me – all of us and all those we invite to join us) may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” May it be so. Amen.
