Jesus dies.
Jesus dies. He
breathes his last breath. Everyone packs
their things and leaves. Joseph of
Arimathia retrieves the body and has it entombed.
We are all familiar with this story.
We’ve heard it dozens, if not hundreds of times. We know how Jesus died on the cross. And we know what happens a few days later.
But I don’t want us to gloss over what happens immediately
after Jesus’ death as relayed to us in Matthew’s Gospel.
In chapter 27, we are told that the curtain at the temple is
torn in two. There is an
earthquake. The rocks split. Tombs are emptied. The dead are rising and walking the streets,
appearing to loved ones.
And at this sight, after the earthquake and everything, the
centurion proclaims, “Truly this was the son of God.”
At which point, I’m sure if I had been standing next to him,
I would have turned to him and said, “Ya think?”
The Bible is filled with fantastical scenes like this,
scenes that are—if we’re being honest—hard to believe, which is why the Bible
also offers us commentary from the average Joe, like the centurion, so that we
can have someone to relate to.
This past Sunday’s reading from Acts chapter 2, describes
the moment in which the disciples are filled with the Holy Spirit. Again, we are given this unbelievable scene,
this time of a rushing, roaring wind and tongues of fire. Suddenly the disciples are speaking in other
languages.
And once again the Bible provides us with the average Joe
commentary, as one person is astonished and another simply scoffs and says,
“Yeah, they’re drunk.”
This past Saturday, our presiding bishop, Michael Curry, had
the honor of giving the sermon at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s
wedding. He gave a very appropriate (for
the day before Pentecost) fiery speech.
He was the very definition of “filled with the Spirit.” And judging by the faces of the royals in
attendance, it seems like they may have shared the opinion of those people who
first witnessed the Holy Spirit at work in the disciples.
We don’t talk a lot about the Holy Spirit, do we? We talk about God and Jesus, but the Holy
Spirit sometimes seems to be that awkward middle child of the trinity who’s
hard to understand and frequently gets ignored.
What does it mean, for example, to be filled with the
Spirit?
Does it mean speaking in tongues?
Does it simply mean raising your hands in praise during the
service?
Can you think of a time when you have been filled with the
Spirit?
What did that mean to you?
Today’s readings, from both John’s Gospel and Ezekiel,
attempt to clarify for us, what it means to be filled by the breath of God.
To be filled by the Spirit.
In Ezekiel, we are given another one of these truly
fantastical scenes that even if you have only heard it once, you will always
remember. Although, many of us probably
remember it from the old spiritual we learned as children in Sunday
school. “Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry
bones, now hear the word of the Lord.”
At face value, this scene from Ezekiel, chapter 37, is
pretty creepy. There is a valley filled
with bones, and suddenly the bones begin to rattle and come together and grow
muscle and sinew and flesh. It’s
disturbing.
But in the midst of this are God’s words, spoken repeatedly,
first in verse 5, “I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live,” and
then again in verse 6, “[I will] put breath in you, and you shall live,” and in
verse 9, “…. breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” And then finally in verse 14, something
slightly and meaningfully different, “I will put my spirit within you, and you
shall live.”
What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit?
God is very clear.
It means life.
Without the Holy Spirit, we are nothing, we are broken and
left abandoned like the bones in the valley in Ezekiel.
But with the Holy Spirit, with the breath of God, we are
filled with new life.
In today’s Gospel reading from John, Jesus, post
resurrection, appears to the disciples and breathes on them. “Receive the Holy Spirit,” he says to them.
What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit?
It means to be touched by God.
And here is the beautiful thing about it. You are always filled with the Spirit. Being filled with the Spirit is not something
that just happens on a Sunday morning, sometimes. You are filled with God’s spirit all the
time.
God’s spirit is life.
You are able to breathe because God has put His breath into
you. Call it spiritual CPR if you
want.
God is our oxygen.
God is our life.
Jesus died.
And then he rose from the dead.
And then, he left us.
But he didn’t abandon us.
He didn’t leave us alone. How
could he? How could we survive without
God in our lives?
He left us the Holy Spirit to give us life, to give us
breath, to give us hope, to fill us and lead us.
The Bible is filled with remarkable things, with things
almost impossible for us to believe, to understand.
But believe this … the Holy Spirit is real and within each
of us … all the time, every second, every breath.
Amen.
Wonderful!
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