Spirit.
The Holy Spirit.
What is it? Who is it? What does it do?
What are the images of this the third person of the Trinity?
What comes to mind when we think of the Holy Spirit?
Today we see the Holy Spirit as Breath, we hear the Holy Spirit as breath, we feel the Holy Spirit as breath, the breath of Jesus given to believers that they may believe and that they may forgive, the breath of absolution. What is the scent, the aroma of the breath that is Holy?
The anointing that absolves sin, the gentle hurricane that sets us free, the silent storm, the quiet contagion, the mighty wind, Jesus breathes and holiness spreads like an epidemic.
What are the images of the Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit broods over the beginning of creation in the first chapter of Genesis, brooding like a mother hen over her brood of newborn young chicks.
God gathered Adam from the dust, but Adam did not live until God breathed into him. The breath that is the animating life force, the breath of God, like in the Nicene Creed where the Holy Spirit is called “the Lord the giver of life.”
The Holy Spirit descends like a dove when Jesus was anointed as the Messiah, the Christ.
At Pentecost we hear of a mighty wind and tongues of flame, and the gift of language.
Our next parish art show is to depict the images of the Holy Spirit.
But today the image is of breath, the breath that brings the miracle of belief, the power of forgiveness- the sacrament of freedom.
Jesus breathes into a dead world, a pile of dust that the life had gone out of, like when Adam first received breath and lived, so Jesus gives the breath that resuscitates a dying creation.
Today in John’s Gospel we see creation starting over again, a new start and a breath of fresh air.
Images of the Holy Spirit.
See and hear the first breath of a newborn child, a rude and loud awakening.
Witness the last breath at death, usually so quiet, so easy to miss.
Swim to the bottom of the lake, kick and reach for the surface, with lungs burning then burst into the air gasping for breath, giant gulps thirsting for breath.
The disciples and Thomas were gasping and thirsting for breath.
And the gift came to them, and they suddenly knew what it meant to live to be alive.
The Holy Spirit.
What is it? Who is it? What does it do?
Where do we find evidence of this life giving breath in our lives?
Where do we find the absence, the need for the Holy Spirit?
Where is forgiveness needed?
Where are we imprisoned by our inability to forgive? Or to be forgiven?
Are we a pile of dust waiting to come alive?
Are the doors locked out of fear?
The Gospel, the Good News, is that God meets us there in that breathless dead place.
The resurrection of the dead begins not someday, but here and now.
Just breathe and believe we are told by John’s Gospel.
Easier said than done.
Getting out of a dead place isn’t easy.
Believing isn’t easy either, it always leaves us struggling with what does it actually mean to believe, what does it change and does it really matter?
And so often forgiveness seems impossible or unclear as to what it actually involves.
And sometimes breathing in the Spirit of God just ends up as pretty words, poetry that falls flat.
It is interesting that here as we approach the ending of John’s Gospel we are told basically that the disciples had it easy, they had Jesus in person, the touch, the wounded flesh. All we have is something as elusive as a breath. We are told that we are blessed beyond the disciples because we believe even though we have not seen the wounds on Jesus’ hands and side or heard his words speaking peace and forgiveness.
What we are doing is not easy.
In fact it often seems absurd.
We often settle for saccharin piety rather than admit that we struggle for breath.
John’s Gospel ends with several episodes of the disciples struggling to live this life of following Jesus.
These are stories of struggling to breathe this Spirit filled life that we told is readily available.
When the glory of the resurrection fades from memory, when the angels eventually pack up the band and head home, we are left stranded in history following a whisper, a breath, a Spirit that is holy.
Jesus called this struggle to breathe something especially blessed. In fact that seems to be the great gift of the Resurrection, a holy struggle, to infuse this life with holiness.
Life and relationships are full of pain, misunderstanding, unresolved conflicts and ambiguity. But it is also holy. In all this craziness God chooses to dwell and breathe upon us.
There is really only one possible conclusion, God loves this mess.