Healing Breath

For several months I have been having trouble with my breathing.  I had surgery on March 21 that showed no cancer and  hopefully corrected the breathing problem.  I am now recovering very well.
So when the Risen Christ shows up Easter evening and breathes on the disciples, as a disciple I feel very blessed to receive his Holy Breath (the Greek word "pneuma" used in the passage means both "breath" and "Spirit.") that fills me with his very life and healing love.

Breath

On the evening of his resurrection the Risen Christ appeared to the disciples.  "He breathed on them and said 'Receive the Holy Spirit (John 20:22)'"  In the Greek in which the New Testament is written the word "pneuma" meant both "breath"and "spirit."  Breathing on them would not seem strange to the disciples.  When I was ordained 57 years ago the priest breathed three times on a baby who was being baptized.  The practice was discontinued because people in our culture found it offensive.  The Risen Christ is overflowing with the Holy Breath and shares it with the disciples and with us.

The Shape of Love

Unable to perceive the shape of you,

I find you all around me.

Your presence fills my eyes with your love.

It humbles my heart 

for you are everywhere.

These words guided me through Easter last year.  They are spoken by a narrator at the end of the movie, The Shape of Water.  The director calls his movie is "a fairy tale for troubled times,"  He says that the shape of water if the shape of love.  Resurrection enables the Risen Christ to be everywhere throughout the universe as well as within every one of us.

Handing Over

Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris seen from a walkway along the River Seine.

"And having bowed his head he gave over the spirit.(John 19:30)" As he tells us that Jesus died, John  words his sentence to give it a richer meaning.  He has already told us that the mother of Jesus and the disciple whom Jesus loved are at the foot of the cross.  Jesus looks down at them and whoever else is with them and gives them the Spirit.  He gifts us too with the Holy Spirit as we gather this week at the cross.

Fragrance of Love

Small daffodils down by the lake hiding from whatever frost or snow cruel April has in store.

Martha, Mary, and Lazarus are throwing a dinner for Jesus in their home at Bethany (John 12:1-9.)  Mary takes a liter of perfume worth a year's wages, anoints the feet of Jesus and wipes them with her hair.  Jesus sees this extravagant gesture as a preparation for his coming burial.  Mary expresses her reverence and love for Jesus with a fragrance that we can still smell two thousand years later.

Confident Last Words

In keeping with the peaceful, non-violent mood that Luke strives for, he puts a different psalm  on the lips of the dying Jesus.  The scream of agony that Mark and Matthew recount is too harsh for Luke's portrait of Jesus.  Instead he says, "Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'Father, into your hands I place my spirit.' (Luke 23:46)"  Those words are from Psalm 31:5, a confident prayer about deliverance from enemies.  "Father" added at the beginning creates a sense of an intimacy and security.

Thinking of Others

"Weep not for me but for yourselves and for your children." (Luke 23:28)
"Father, forgive them." (23:34)
"Today you will be with me in paradise." (23:43)
Luke continues to show Jesus, even in his passion, as compassionate and merciful as he pictured Jesus in his lifetime.  Dante called Luke "the scribe of the gentleness of Jesus." He shows God's love, forgiveness, and healing already present in the passion.  Forgiveness is offered even before repentance.

A Loving Universe

"How can we fail to be struck by the revealing growth around us of a strong mystical current, actually  nourished by the conviction that the universe, viewed in its complete workings, is ultimately lovable and loving."
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin died on Easter Sunday, April 10, 1955.  With insights like that of above, he led us to think about God as Ultimate Reality that is capable of loving us and being loved by us.

Peace

Instead of the triumphant cry of "Hosanna" Luke has the crowd greet Jesus as he enters Jerusalem with "Peace in heaven and glory in highest heaven," an echo of the angelic greeting to the shepherds at the birth of Jesus, "Glory to God in the highest and peace to God's people on earth."  Between these two greetings Luke encloses his story of the peace and mercy that Jesus brought to earth.  Luke also prepares us for his peaceful, more merciful view of Jesus in his Passion.

Devotions

Devotions is the perfect title for Mary Oliver's selected poems.   In "It Was Early,"  she describes ordinary things she sees and says,
"Sometimes I need
   only to stand
    wherever I am
     to be blessed."

We are safe

The parable of the all forgiving Father ( Luke 15:11-32) is my favorite 21 verses in the whole Bible.  In a brief and winning story Jesus tells us that God never stops loving us, no matter what we do.  Because we cannot earn God's love.  It comes simply from God who is Love.  It can never be stopped.  Gordon Jackson in his Lincoln Psalter translates it "love that never runs out."