SERMON: Breathe in and breathe out!
Before I dive into my sermon, I want you to dive into breathing.
Breathe in and breathe out. Inhale and exhale. Let this be our holy exercise on this Pentecost morning. No this is not Yoga Class, and you did not go to the wrong place. But as with any yoga class, any Worship should also be about breathing.
Breathe in and breathe out.
We do it all the time, 12 – 20 times every minute, every day, year after year, an entire lifetime -, but we rarely think about it or even notice it. We just do it!
So, this morning I would like to ask you specifically to notice how you are breathing in and breathing out. How you breathe life and breath in, and how you breathe life and breath out!
In the beginning of beginnings on the morning of creation, God’s breath gave life to the creation. Like a wind blowing through a wilderness, like a wind breathing life into nothingness, like a gentle breath into the first human nostrils.
Breathe on me Breath of God – and so God did.
And so, he did again on that day of earth, wind and fire, when the disciples were gathered. Behind locked doors of fear and blocked ears of lost hope.
Jesus did not enter the room as they might have expected: berating them for having abandoned him, denied him and even betrayed him. Jesus did not enter the room expressing his disappointment with words like “I would have expected more and better of you…. Did not you listen!!!”
Instead, Jesus comes through locked doors, clocked ears, lost faith and tangible fear and gently says: Peace. Peace be with you!
And you can almost imagine how that greeting would have made that withheld scared breath loosen up to what big AHHHH.
You can be out of breath.
You can lose your breath.
You can hold your breath.
You can stop breathing because something is stuck.
And what a blessed feeling it is when you can breathe freely again – when the breath of life flows free.
So, breathe in and breathe out!
Jesus greeted them “Peace be with you!” like we are greeted here in church. Sharing the peace, Shalom, is a place of equilibrium and calm. There is no place for resentment, envy, or anger og debts of any kind. When Jesus greets them with the word of peace, he is saying: “We are alright, you and I, no matter what you have done or failed to do.”
And then he breathes on them.
A single action. But as the disciples would know their faith stories, they remembered the significance of being breath on. This breath book them way bai to the creation itself when God breathed purposefully and graciously. On that creation day, that breath caused the first human to become a living being.
So, the breathing of Christ would also become a source of new life for them, an inspiration and spirited calling to a new life.
Jesus lost his breath on the cross but left it with his disciples. Breathing, as the displaces before us, we know, is one of the defining differences between life and earth, between a living being and a corpse.
So that breathing on them served like a proof that Jesus was indeed not a ghost but a living spirit, a living presence.
Breath as the uncomplicated process of inhale and exhale is one thing and quite valuable and vital.
Breathing on someone or something is something else. Breathing life and spirit into someone or something is at the center of this Pentecost Sunday.
To breathe, in Hebrew and Greek, is also used to describe flowing to coax life out of smoldering embers, to generate flame and heat and forming fire from faltering kindling.
We believe in the trinity of God Father, God Son and God Holy Spirit. And often the Holy spirit is too mysterious, too windy, too invisible to grasp – but really that Holy spirit, that breath of God, might be the easiest thing to understand and feel.
As that breath of life in each of us.
As that breath of wind when the force of nature captures us and surprises us.
As that breath of hope and faith that gives us new hope and new faith.
As that invisible blowing flowing spirit that moves in us, around us, between us, above us and beneath us.
As that spirit that connects us.
As that spirit that strengthens us.
As that spirit that surprises us and nourishes us.
As that spirit that moves us to tears, to laughter, to community, to fellowship, to change.
As that spirit that constantly nudges us as a gentle wind in the back to get moving.
The Spirit is like a breath, as close as the lungs, the chest, the lips, and we forget to notice until we have a tough time breathing or until a yoga teacher says pay attention: inhale, exhale, breathe in, breathe out.
The spirit is like a fire, gently burning, but also wild and unleashed.
The spirit is like wind that know no boundaries of perimeter: the wildest of all wild things as it travels to every corner, and readies sails, make tree bow and gently lifts a bridal veil.
The spirit is like a bird, between heaven and earth. A dove, an eagle, a free being.
The spirit is flying, breathing, burning, surprising, pushing, and transforming.
There are indeed so many new things to see, so many gifts to give or receive, so many miracles to baffle and amaze, if only we pay attention if only, we dare to see, to breathe, to believe, to wonder, and let the Spirit surprise us and God catch our breath.
So, breathe in and breathe out. Close your eyes for a moment, and feel the breath in you, and the spirit moving within you, around you and between us.
“Peace be with you!” Jesus said to his disciple’s and then he breathes on the.
“Peace be with you!” Jesus says to us and then he breathes new life, new hope, innovative ideas, new hope, new dreams, and new faith into us.
Because we do believe that we live in God’s world where God created and is creating, came through Jesus and works in us and others by the Spirit. We are not alone. Thanks be to God.
Holy spirit,
For all of the ways you speak to us –
in rushing wind, in dancing flames,
in words we understand,
and in all that transcends language,
we give thanks.
Give us courage to speak your love, everywhere we go, to everyone we meet.
Amen.