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Easter 2

The Good News Written

Psalm 150

¹Praise God! Praise God in the sanctuary; praise God in the mighty firmament!

²Praise God for mighty deeds…!

³Praise God with trumpet sound; praise God with lute and harp!

⁴Praise God with tambourine and dance; praise God with strings and pipe!

⁵Praise God with clanging cymbals; praise God with loud clashing cymbals!

⁶Let everything that breathes praise our God! Alleluia!

John 20.19-22 (NRSV)

¹⁹When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the [authorities], Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” ²⁰After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced… ²¹Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the [Eternal] has sent me, so I send you.” ²²When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the holy Spirit.”

The Good News Proclaimed

Preached by the Reverend Doctor Durrell Watkins at the Sunshine Cathedral on Sunday, April 11, 2010.

For some reason I was remembering the other day those gum commercials where couples could kiss longer because cinnamon gum had made their breath so fresh.

It reminded me of the time my great-aunt Gladys experienced a weak moment and committed an indiscretion. My great-uncle Arthur came home and caught her in the kitchen kissing the milkman! Uncle Arthur snapped, “Gladys! What are you doing?” Aunt Gladys answered, “if you knew the answer to that question, I’d be doing it with you.”

We are in the seven-week season of Eastertide where we continue to focus on the power of Resurrection, not to argue about whether or not it once happened, but to discover how in our own lives we can experience it for ourselves today. And of course, we can.

In John’s gospel today we see the disciples having a resurrection experience. Jesus’ significance, his impact on their lives, the power of his message could not be ended by the evils of torture and capital punishment. And so the early Christians insisted that they still experienced Jesus somehow, and indeed, don’t we as 21^st century Christians affirm that we continue to experience Jesus somehow?

In this morning’s gospel reading the anonymous writer that we have traditionally called John imagines Jesus speaking words of hope and encouragement to his fearful, hurting disciples in the wake of his execution. When they were feeling anything but peaceful, John puts these words in Jesus’ mouth, “Peace be with you.”

And more than a wish that peace would eventually return to them, maybe John’s Jesus is actually affirming something in the present tense… Peace BES with you, that is, Peace IS with you. You’ve focused on the outer drama and you’ve gotten caught up in your story, but deep within you there is a reserve of peace that passes understanding… peace that conditions can’t shake, peace that comes from knowing that wherever you are, God is, and wherever God is there is peace. Peace is with you.

And then he says, “Get to work!” The Eternal sent me; I’m sending you. You can’t be hold up, frozen with regret and fear. God is with you; peace is with you… access the power of this truth and get to work. Get out there and start offering good news. Resurrection means very little if it doesn’t lift US up, and we are lifted up to lift up others. So here is the Omnipresent Life that expressed through Jesus still finding ways to express, and saying to Jesus’ followers, YOU TOO are expressions of the Omnipresent, loving Reality. Remember that! Embrace the peace that is within you, and start spreading the good news around.

And then the strangest thing happens. John imagines Jesus blowing on his friends. Boundaries! John says, “he breathed on them and said, ‘receive the holy spirit.’” The word for spirit can mean wind, or breath. Jesus breathes on them and says Receive the holy Breath, the breath of God, the breath of life. When they feel life has stopped, has become frozen in time, Jesus breathes on them and says, get to living again. Resurrection says – get back to living again.

Of course, omnipresent Life is everywhere fully present, that’s what omnipresence is. The psalmist got it when he wrote, “Where can I hide from your spirit? From your presence, where can I flee?” (Psalm 139.7).

If God is omnipresent, we can never be lost from God, because God is everywhere, fully present… the Principle of Life is present to all life, the Source of Life expresses through all life, wherever we are, God is!
We say it every Sunday at the benediction, wherever we are, God is, and all is well; but sometimes we are still tempted to think of God being far away. But if God is omnipresent, there is no such thing as far away. Breathe in Life, because it’s right where you are. Receive the holy Breath!

It’s an interesting literary image, and a very familiar one in scripture:

Let everything that breathes praise God ( the Breath of Life, the Source of Life) says the psalmist in our first reading today (Psalm 150.6).

The psalmist also wrote (Psalm 51): A clean heart create for me, God; renew in me a steadfast spirit (energy, breath of life)… Restore my joy… sustain in me a willing spirit (a joy in living).

In the beginning when God was creating the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless wasteland and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty Wind (Breath, Spirit) swept over the waters (Genesis 1.1-2). Creativity, life, manifestation occurs when and not until the Breath of Life begins to flow.

The Eternal formed the earth-being out the clay of the ground and blew into the earth-being’s nostrils the breath of life, and so the earth-being came to life (Genesis 2.7).

[On the day of Pentecost] there suddenly came from the sky a noise like a strong driving Wind, and it filled the entire house… and they were all filled with the holy Spirit (the Wind, the divine Energy, the Breath of Life) and they began to speak in new and powerful ways [they woke up, they came alive]… (Acts 2.2-4)

Can these bones live again?…The Eternal said to Ezekiel, “Prophesy over these bones! Tell them that God will put spirit (Breath, Energy, Strength, Life!) into them…” (Ezekiel 37.3-5). Ezekiel is then told to speak to the spirit, the breath, the wind, the energy… and what does he say to the spirit, the mighty wind, the breath of life?
“From the four winds come O Spirit, and breathe into these dead bodies that they may come to life” (Ezekiel 37.9).

And again, another mystic gives us the same message in today’s gospel reading: Jesus breathes on them and says, “Receive the holy Breath!” Snap out of it. Come back to life. Get to work. You’ve had some time to feel sorry for yourself, to grieve and worry and be anxious and disappointed and afraid. Now, shake it off… remember the reserves of peace and power within you, come back to life and do what you can to improve other lives! Breathe in the Breath of Life! And get back out there to share a life-giving message.

Don’t let the opportunities that are present pass you by. Release the past to the past, let the future unfold as it will, and in this moment remember to Breathe!!! Be present. Allow whatever joy this moment has to offer take up residence in your soul.

The disciples are defeated, afraid, grief-stricken, overwhelmed… John’s Jesus seems to say to them, “Remember the Omnipresent Reality? Embrace it, be encouraged by it, and start living again.”
But what if the Roman authorities do something terrible to us? Well, that may happen, but it hasn’t happened yet; so why are you stuck for fear of what “could” happen? You are missing the good that is available for fear of what could go wrong! By spending your life in worry and regret, you are robbing your life now. Snap out of it. Breathe. Don’t miss today by worrying about tomorrow.

In the sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span? Why are you anxious… Seek first the presence of God in you and the right-use-ness (righteousness) of divine principles and everything you need will be given to you” (Matthew 6). In other words, relax. Breathe. Take heart. As Leo Buscaglia said, “Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow; it only robs today of its joy.” Remember to breath. Receive the holy Breath.

Yes something terrible might happen down the road… but in this moment… this very moment… Life is expressing as you. Divine Life, God’s Life is filling you, flowing through you, enfolding you, blessing you. There is quality to be had in your life, right now. Don’t miss it. Receive the holy Breath! Peace IS with you. Experience the joy that is available now. Experience the gladness that is available now. And if we’ll do that, we’ll be better able to handle the difficulties when they come and we’ll have fewer regrets no matter what happens.

Peace is with you. Receive the holy Breath. Remember to breathe, to be here now. Tell yourself right now that the wholeness of Life, that is, the holy Spirit is anointing you and flowing through you; and this is the good news. Amen.

The Good News Affirmed

The past is over.

The future hasn’t yet been written.

Now is where I am.

And so I relax.

I breathe.

I welcome the blessings Today is offering me.

And I am thankful.

Amen.

The Good News Repeated

“Worry [&] stress… are ways of essentially saying you don’t trust God… When you worry… you block the working of Spirit… Everything has a flow, but stress, fear, anxiety — they block that flow. In a way, worry is meditation in the wrong direction.” Bishop E. Bernard Jordan

Audio readings and sermon (http://sunshinecathedral.org/sermons/audio/20100411_1.mp3)