From
the Book of Genesis: "In the
beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless
void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept
over the face of the waters."
".
. . then the Lord God formed man from
the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of
life."
From
Ezekiel's vision of the dry bones: God
said to Ezekiel, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them: O, dry bones,
hear the word of the Lord . . . Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and
say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God, Come from the four winds, O breath,
and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. (Ezekiel 37)
From
the Acts of the Apostles: "And suddenly from heaven there came a sound
like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were
sitting."
From
John's gospel: Jesus said to the disciples, " 'Peace be with you. As the
Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he has said this, he breathed on them
and said to them, 'Receive the. Holy Spirit.' "
Emily
Dickinson wrote a poem called "Love." I believe "love" in
this poem is synonymous with "God."
She wrote, "Love is anterior to life / Posterior to death, /
Initial of creation, and / The exponent of breath."
Pentecost
is a rather lame name for our celebration today. Pentecost simply referees to the 50th day
after Easter. Perhaps it should be called, Fire-Wind-Breath Sunday. For God
works through these things to reveal God's self to us and to achieve life for
all humanity.
My
mind has been returning all week to the word "breath." How tremendously essential our breathing in
oxygen is! The end of our lives can be
marked by our breathing rate slowing and slowing until we are no longer
breathing. When breathing becomes
difficult due to illnesses such as pneumonia, emphysema, or lung cancer, we can
become anxious--often making it even more difficult to breathe.
So
the expectation of wind blowing, resulting in God's breath entering a human,
speaks to life and energy. We call this
energizing force, the Holy Spirit, and celebrate her presence among us.
Yet
at another level, a very deep level, our breath can become a holy place, for recognizing
God’s presence within each one of us.
The Jesus Prayer shows this very clearly. Said in the rhythm of our breathing in and
breathing out, we can quiet ourselves to find God's holy presence within. It goes like this: "Jesus, son of the
living God, have mercy on me." Some
add "a sinner." In truth, all
you really need to say is "Jesus."—or simply think "Jesus"
with each breath.
Imagine,
for a moment, the room in which the fearful disciples had gathered. Jesus'
greeting of "Peace be with you" changed the tenor of disciples mood
from one of fear to one of joy. But their joy did not show itself as the babble
of languages, which led the disciples being accused of drunkenness. Rather, they seemed to have held their breath
for a moment as Jesus commissions them a way they could not have imagined even
an hour before: "As the Father has sent me, so I send you." Then he breathes on them and declares the
gift of the Holy Spirit. He breathes on
them not only to energize them for mission, but also to give them the awareness
of God's presence within. For only with
God's presence within could they hope to be witnesses to God's forgiving love
in a hostile world.
So
we have two examples of God revealing God's self in our scripture readings
today. One appears quite lively with
rushing wind and fire-like tongues identifying those commissioned to be
apostles. In tension with this is the
story in John's gospel of Jesus’ commissioning the disciples with a few words
and a simple breath. If you were you
among the disciples at that moment, in which setting would you like to be? Your responses may break down along extrovert
vs. introvert lines. But the key thing
to remember, I believe, is Jesus' breathing on the disciples showed how God's
sustaining presence came to them—and comes to us.
May every
prayer-filled breath we take show us Jesus!
Yes, God's love for us truly is the "exponent of breath."
No comments:
Post a Comment