Breathing Forgiveness and Courage

Scripture 

“Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’ …. Again Jesus said, ‘Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’ And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.’”
(John 20:19-23 NIVUK)

“When the Feast of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Without warning there was a sound like a strong wind, gale force—no one could tell where it came from. It filled the whole building. Then, like a wildfire, the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks, and they started speaking in a number of different languages as the Spirit prompted them.” (Acts 2:1-4 MSG) 

Breathing Forgiveness and Courage

One special sauce in our family gatherings is the laughter that bursts when stories are told. Often the biggest laughs come at my expense and my many foibles. It gets noisy and raucous but all the “inside jokes” give us a sense of belonging together – we are all in on the joke.   

We followers of Jesus keep telling our stories over and over to help us find our own place in the bigger story, to keep us connected to it. We share the same family story even though our lives may be different. We are still family even when we aren’t gathered. 

Yesterday we retold the Pentecost story with two stories.  After His resurrection Jesus appeared and breathed the Spirit on his friends, not to protect them from their fears, but empower them to be forgiving people. After His ascension, a raucous party breaks out involving loud wind and fire over each one. Suddenly the group is yelling in every language represented by all the racial groups in the town. Crazy stuff but it’s what changed the fearful friends of Jesus into courageous story tellers about his life and power to change us all.    

These are wild stories we have at the core of our lives together - the inside joke of the crazy and mysterious nature of our faith should keep us humble, courageous, curious and forgiving.  

A Prayer for Today

Loving God, we particularly praise you, for coming to earth and entering time in Jesus. For his life which informs our living, for his compassion which changes our hearts, for his clear speaking which contradicts our harmless generalities, for his enduring presence, his innocent suffering, his fearless dying, his rising to life breathing forgiveness, we praise you and worship him. Here, too, our gratitude rises for the promise of the Holy Spirit, who even yet, even now, confronts us with your claims and attracts us to your goodness. Amen