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May 11, 2008 Pastor Rolf Svanoe   Click here to watch video of the sermon, click here to read

Day of Pentecost 2008 – John 20:19-23

Sermon by Rev. Dr. Rolf Svanøe

Take a deep breath. Inhale! Exhale! Breathe again. Inhale! Exhale! Breathing is something we take for granted, and yet something we can’t live without. We notice it especially when it isn’t there. If you’re swimming underwater and holding your breath you know the joy of breaking the surface and filling your lungs with precious air. If you’ve ever had the wind knocked out of you then you know the brief panic of not being able to breathe. If you’ve had chronic asthma or emphysema you know that struggle for air every moment of your life. I can picture Karen in my mind, a member of a former parish. She suffered with chronic asthma. Years of being on steroids had taken their toll on her. I would visit and watch her struggle for every breath and pray for her that the Holy Spirit would breathe into her lungs and open those closed passageways.

Breathing is something we often take for granted. We can live weeks without food. We can live days without water. But we can only live a few minutes without air. Breath of life is what defines us. You mothers breathed for your babies in utero. When they are born you watch them take their first breath. It’s beautiful, isn’t it? If you’ve ever been present with someone at the moment of death you’ve seen them take their last breath. You watch as the breath of life leaves and an empty shell is left behind.

In Genesis it says that God “formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being” (Gen 2:7). That word “breathed” is the same word that John used when Jesus breathed on his disciples. After his resurrection Jesus appeared to his disciples and he breathed on them. It’s John’s version of the Pentecost story, and by the word he used, John wanted us to know that in the resurrection of Jesus God was doing something new. Instead of breathing life into Adam, Jesus was now breathing new life, the Holy Spirit, into his disciples. Jesus was breathing into existence a new person, a new humanity. Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

How different is John’s Pentecost story than the story in Acts where the Holy Spirit came in rather dramatic fashion, the sound of a violent wind, tongues of fire, a miraculous speaking in other languages. It was a very public and powerful event. Not so in the gospel of John. Jesus quietly appeared behind locked doors and said, “Peace be with you.” It was an intimate, quiet gathering. And then Jesus said, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you…Receive the Holy Spirit.” And he breathed on them creating new life, new people, a new community with a new purpose. Jesus wanted his followers to be filled with a new breath, the Holy Spirit. Not the old breath of life breathed into Adam and Eve, but a new breath and a new purpose.

When I was ordained some twenty-four years ago this passage from John was read. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” But this verse is not just about ordination and it’s not just for those who are ordained. This verse is for everyone who is baptized. Jesus breathed on you at your baptism, Jesus gave you the Holy Spirit, and Jesus sends you out into the world to give witness to his love. Listen to what he says. “If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” The work of the church, the work you and I are given to do in the world, is the work of forgiveness.

Today we honor our mothers. It’s a challenge today to be a mother or to be a parent. I remember an incident when my kids were young. We were on vacation and there was only one TV to watch. I had an argument with one of my daughters and said and did things I’m ashamed of now. For weeks my daughter wouldn’t speak to me. Years later what we fought over seems rather silly, and yet the memories and perhaps scars of that event are still there. You all know how it works in relationships. Two people who do or say things that are hurtful and all of a sudden there’s a huge wall separating you. You feel it. Things aren’t right between you. But you work through the problem, you acknowledge the wrong, you ask forgiveness and the wall is torn down. There’s reconciliation. Things are good again. If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven. But if you don’t forgive that wall remains. The separation deepens. Sometimes the conflict grows. If you retain the sins of any they are retained.

We are called to the work of forgiveness. It is the work Jesus did and the work he calls us to do. It isn’t easy. It runs against the grain of our human nature, the old Adam in us. When we are hurt we want to hurt back. Someone hits us and we hit back. We breathe the air of revenge and justice: Eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth. That is the work of the first creation. But Jesus calls us to a different task. He breathes on us and makes us new people. He calls us to forgive as we have been forgiven. He tells us to breathe a different air- the Holy Spirit. He calls us to take up our cross, to meet the violence of the world with suffering redeeming love. That’s a pretty tall order. That’s why Jesus told his disciples to receive the Holy Spirit. We need a power outside ourselves to do the things Jesus did.

 Take another deep breath. Breathe in; breathe out. Breathing is an involuntary reflex. They say the average adult breathes about 23,000 times a day. Breathing the Holy Spirit however, is voluntary. Just as much as we need air to live, we also need the Holy Spirit to live as God’s people. We can’t do this work on our own. We need the Holy Spirit. “Receive the Holy Spirit,” Jesus says to us today. Breathe it in, breathe it out. Let God’s Spirit meet our weakness with power. Let God’s Spirit meet our need with the riches of Christ.

 Let’s pray. Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on us. Melt our resistance to your call. Mold us into the people of your new creation. Fill us with the power of your Holy Spirit. Use us to witness to a broken and hurting world of the power of your love. Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on us.