Inhaling New Creation W/Pastor Andrea

The Sunday after Easter is sometimes called "Low Sunday..." As Barbara Brown Taylor noted, this is because "The attendance is low and so is the adrenaline." It is the week after all the hype and the resurrection joy. But now it's a week later. So now what? Christ is Risen. Does it matter? Eastertide is a church season in which we might answer, "Yes." And so this week we begin our series on the Holy Spirit and consider the mini-Pentecost before Pentecost, when Jesus breathed on his disciples and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit." We too, inhale this breath of New Creation, this resurrection life, and it animates us as the Body of Christ to come out from behind locked doors and oxygenate the world with the Love of God. This God-breath of the Spirit revives us and resuscitates us even in the "low places" of a broken world. For the Spirit who raised Jesus from the grave, can also raise us up in that Resurrection Life. 

Transcript

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As Doyle was saying, this Sunday is called a few different things, and he had mentioned a couple. Thomas Sunday or Quasimodo Sunday, the Sunday after Easter. Actually, sometimes it's also called Low Sunday. Low Sunday. A few years ago, Barbara Brown Taylor spoke in Duke Chapel the week after Easter, and she said it's called Low Sunday because the attendance is low and so is the adrenaline. The attendance is low and so is the adrenaline. She said some people call it guest preacher Sunday, but haha. No guest preacher today. But it's the week after all the hype. After the choirs and the trumpets and the dances and the Easter dresses and the Easter eggs. And it can feel a little bit like all the other weeks after that we know about. The week after the wedding. The week after the graduation, the week after the baptism, the week after the death. Fatigue sets in a little bit, uncertainty creeps in just a little bit. What do we do now? What do we do now? So here we are on low Sunday together, and I feel it. Remember, I told you this was the lentiest lent I have ever lented. And I thought, well, maybe Easter will come in and just undo all of that. And then it didn't. It didn't. Feel a little bit like I've had the wind knocked out of me over the last few weeks, and maybe you feel it too, after the Lent we just had, with the world full of troubles and threats of more trouble, and and with all the recent deaths and the funerals of people that we loved and new and ongoing diagnoses and disasters and disappointments. Christ is risen. But does it matter? That's what we ask on Low Sunday. We say Christ is risen, but does it matter? Does it make a difference? And I do think that part of what we are here to do together today on Low Sunday is to remember that it does. That even if we have to whisper it instead of yell it, if all we can do in our breathlessness is say, Christ is risen. That he is risen indeed. That it does matter, that it does make a difference. And so I'm glad to be in this season of the church calendar called Easter tide. Easter tide. 50 days between Easter and Pentecost. 50 days perhaps to answer that question together, to ask if it matters, to ask if it makes a difference. 50 days to walk in the light of the resurrection truth that we heard about last week. And these 50 days between Easter and Pentecost, these two high holy days in the church, on each end of this. But then, you know, we don't want to skip over the low place in between the two. And so we're going to spend these weeks of Easter tide considering and getting ready for the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Because, of course, since Jesus resurrected and then said, I must ascend to my Father, but I'll send you a helper, therefore, the Holy Spirit comes to us. This helper who accompanies us in low places. You don't just need the Holy Spirit at the mountaintop experience, although that's often where people say they experience the Holy Spirit. Oh, but the low places, the valleys on low Sundays. You need the Holy Spirit to accompany you. And we'll get to do, you know, the whole big fiery outpouring of the Spirit on the church at Pentecost. But today I actually want to start us with sort of a mini Pentecost. On that first, very first resurrection Sunday, not even to Thomas' Sunday, who came, you know, a day late and a dollar short, but that first resurrection Sunday for a group of disciples who probably feel like they had the wind knocked out of them on that low Sunday. The group of disciples that gathered together and just said, What do we do now? They didn't even know yet about the truth of the resurrection. What do we do now? And then Jesus shows up on that first day of resurrection and shares himself, shares his life, his own resurrected life with them. Not so much an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, but an outbreathing of the Holy Spirit, putting that first breath of new creation into their lungs directly from his, which they will need for the journey. And so will we. We're gonna need that resurrection life breathed into our lungs anew for the journey. And so that's what we'll look at today. Our text is from John 20, only a few verses, and even though it's a very short text, I actually thought, oh, I could do a three-part series out of this text. But John 20, and we're just gonna read verses 19 through 23. So if you would rise in body or in spirit for the reading of God's word, we'll start at verse 19. On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you. After he said this, he showed them his hands and sighed. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. 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, they are forgiven. And if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven. This is the word of the Lord. Maybe seated. God, would you open our eyes and our ears and our hearts that we might understand what is here for us today, in this moment, on this low Sunday? Would you animate us with the breath of new creation? Would we inhale what the Holy Spirit has for us this morning that we might go out and also bear fruit in your kingdom? In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So John tells us that the disciples are together in an upper room with the door locked because they were afraid. It didn't feel safe to go out at all. They're probably thinking about what had just happened to Jesus a few days before, and chances seem pretty high that his tragic fate would become their tragic fate if they are not careful. And so they're clustered and cloistered in this hiding place, locked up, shut up, the air feeling stale in that place among them. But danger waits outside, and so they are gonna stay put. What do we do now? Maybe they came up with a secret knock to get into the room. Too long, too short, and only if they heard that would they open the door to let you in because they didn't know what's gonna happen next. The disappointment that they must have felt in themselves and in the situation. The regret, the shame, the fear. They're trying to sort of recreate this week they had just been through, talking about it together from Palm Sunday at the beginning of Holy Week to the growing unrest in the city that was happening to Jesus, then washing their feet and sharing a Passover meal with them that he then said was himself. Right to the accusations and the soldiers and the arrest and the trial and the beatings and the cross. It all went so fast. Where could they have done something differently? They're replaying it in their minds. What had Jesus been trying to tell them that whole time last week? He had said so many things to them. So many things to them, but they didn't know how important it all was in the moment, and so they weren't totally listening very closely all the time, and because they thought they were gonna have more time with Jesus, and now they're trying to remember what were all those things he said. Do you remember? What did he say about this and that and this? And I imagine them falling quiet and just staring at their hands. And then Jesus appears. No secret knock, no knock at all, no door open at all, just Jesus appears and is standing there in the midst of them, which of course is always where Jesus wants to be, in the midst of his disciples, in the center of everything. Jesus is standing there, and I'm trying to imagine what their brains are doing in that moment, and they hold their collective breath. And he says to them, Peace be with you. Now, I could think of a few different things I would have liked to say in that moment to them. Peace to you does not even crack the top of my list of things I would want to say. Peter denied he even knew Jesus. John ran away. Thomas is nowhere to be found even now, even today. But Jesus doesn't spend any breath on their abandonment or on their denial or their betrayal. He doesn't give them a running play-by-play back of their failures. He says, peace. And then he shows them his wounds. And they are filled with joy. Because it was the wounds where they realized that everything sad had come untrue. It was the wounds that helped them see that this is not just a vision or an illusion. This is not an apparition. This is not just a dream. They're not all hallucinating together in their grief. No, no. This is the real deal. This is their friend, their teacher, their rabbi, their Lord. He's alive in the flesh. Look at my wounds. Peace be with you. And that breath they had been holding, they must have finally just exhaled it, let it out collectively. This breath that they had been holding because they weren't sure what Jesus was going to say, and they weren't sure if he was really standing there real and alive in the fresh, because flesh, because there was no secret knock at the door. And so that didn't make any sense to them at all. But he was right there in front of them. The first words of the risen Jesus to them are a blessing, a gift, not a rebuke, not a command, not a reminder of their failure in crisis, no demand for repentance first, not even a call to faith in this moment, just a gift from Jesus to them. Peace be with you. But if they were wondering what's next, I think Jesus wants them to know that sitting around in this locked room is not it. That's not what is next for them. Being afraid and not going out, that's not what's next for them. That's not the plan going forward. Here's the plan. Just as the father sent me, so I am sending you, he tells them. And I think the word as there, just as the father has sent me, I'm sending you, that's that word as is doing some heavy lifting. Like, wait a sec. As the father, so just as, like, like as the father has sent you, you're sending us in the same way. Like like comparable to that, is isn't that a bit much? I mean, we we saw what happened to you. We saw what happened to you, and you're gonna send us in that same way out into the world. But then we need to realize what Jesus has been saying to them over the last six chapters in John. You almost need to read backwards. You need to read like the last week of his life and the crucifixion and the resurrection, and then go back and read all the chapters leading up to it because Jesus has been trying to prepare them for this very moment this whole time. He washes their feet and says, Look, I'm giving you an example. Now you go do this for other people and for one another. He says, I am gonna leave, but he comforts them in advance. He says, I'm gonna send you a helper to be with you forever. And he warns them, listen, the world is gonna hate you. The world's gonna hate you. But then he promises them, but the advocate will be with you. And then he says, I will not leave you as orphans. I promise I will not leave you as orphans, because I'm gonna send the helper, the spirit, who will help you testify to all truth. He promises them, and I love this one, he promises them that their grief will turn to joy. So he had been doing all of this teaching leading up to this to prepare them. We often think of Matthew 28 as the great commission. I think this is a pretty great commission. Preparing them for this commissioning, just as the Father has sent me, so I am sending you. And that just as is critical. Because how did the Father send Jesus in the flesh, living by the Spirit, and because of love? Because of love, right? For God so loved the world that he sent his son, not to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. The Father sent his son into the world to preach good news to the poor, and not to be served, but to serve, and to wash feet, and to forgive and to heal and to pray, and to lift up the lowly, to lift up the oppressed, give them freedom from their oppression, just as the Father has sent me, so I am sending you. So if anyone in like a Christian sphere is saying, Well, God has sent me to do this, and it's violent or it's oppressive, you can say, I don't think he has. I don't think he has because he sends us as he sent the Son, and He sent the Son in the flesh by the Spirit and in love. So this doesn't track for us. Anyway, that's an aside. Just gonna get back on track here a little bit. Now, in the same way, just as he sends us us today, disciples, Christ-bearers, little Christs, Christians into the world to do these same things. And this feels like an impossible task because it is. It's an impossible task. But Jesus wasn't gonna send them just ill-equipped, he wasn't gonna send them with nothing, he was going to equip them for this task. Then he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit. Jesus had already told them he had to go away, but that while he is away, they collectively, we will make up the flesh and body, blood of Christ in the world, that we will become his hands and his feet in the world in his absence. And what good can a body do, even if it has hands and feet, eyes and ears, head and shoulders, knees and toes? What good can that I couldn't resist, what good can that body do? What could it accomplish with all those visible parts but with no breath in it? And so he gives them the breath. Not as an individual sort of private experience, although the Holy Spirit can work in the gathered and scattered church. He gives it to them together. He breathes on them as a group, breathes on them collectively. So both Pentecost and this little mini early Pentecost are these communal outpourings of the Spirit on a gathered people, not to deny the individual work of the Spirit in your life. However, I always want to keep us thinking communally that God is at work among us communally as we gather, because the church collectively is the temple of the Holy Spirit. And because we lose all those U's in English, we lose the plural, like that they're actually plural so often in the New Testament. So it's this collective breathing on them. That's why when we sing that song again at the end of the sermon, we're gonna sing, breathe on us, breath of God. Breathe on us together. We're gonna sing it differently because of that truth. Jesus had promised them earlier, do not let your hearts be troubled and do not let them be afraid. I will send an advocate to help you who will be with you forever. And in breathing on them, he keeps that promise that he had made. His breath, this spirit of new creation, this rare air, breath from the other side of death was now their air. Breathing breath on the other side of death, filling up their lungs, inflating their mission, making them new, right? Quasimodo to being formed in new creation. And new creation is important, of course, because if you remember the book of John, how does it begin? In the beginning. Where have we heard that before? Genesis, right? They begin the same way. Genesis in the beginning, John in the beginning. Because John is reframing the creation story with a new creation story. Back in Genesis, God breathes into Adam's nostrils and he becomes a living being. But that God breath, that divine airflow, gets cut off by sin. The curse knocks the wind right out of humanity. Now, instead of moving and breathing by the Spirit, humanity groaned with creation instead. And it huffed and it puffed with the hard toil of working the ground full of thorns and thistles and had to breathe through painful labor, and it sighed at the end of their days in death. Adam was exiled from the garden because of sin and death. And then God's people lived out that same reality as Adam, exiled from the land that God had gifted them because of their sin, because they kept breaking covenant. This is the vision of Ezekiel 37. This valley of dry bones, this low place for God's people. Talk about a low place, a valley of dry bones, that is the lowest of places. The church ought to take heed of that text which I preached last year on Easter because it shows us uncreation. Right? We have creation, sin comes into the world, and exile is this uncreation. And even when those bones get put back together, remember, they get put back together, they even get flesh on them, and then they stand there like this great army, and they can't do nothing. They can't do anything. Why? Because there was no breath in them. There was no breath in them. The church should read that text often and remind themselves that we can have all the visible parts of a church. The steeple and the chairs and the pulpit and the platform. All the visible parts of a church. But unless there is breath in it, unless it is animated by the Holy Spirit, then it's just a body with no breath in it, which is useless. Useless. And so the Lord told Ezekiel, Prophesy to these bones. He said, Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live. This was a vision given to Ezekiel to encourage the people in their low place. Can these bones live? Only you, Lord, no. And God is saying, They can, but I've got to breathe into them by the Spirit. Breathe into them by the Spirit. And it's interesting that the Spirit is reinvigorating these bones, but in the same way, in this room, in this upper room, the spirit is reinvigorating those disciples who had the wind knocked out of them, who had been sort of holding their breath, wondering what's next. This reinvigorating spirit is still at work. This this recreation, this resuscitation, this echo of Genesis 2 and Ezekiel 37. Can these disciples live? Lord, only you know. And Jesus breathes on them and breathes on us. Why did the Spirit have to breathe in them? So they could move, so they could do something, so they could be sent in the same way God has sent me, I am sending you. Because you don't just breathe in. How long do you think you last if you only breathe in and never breathe out? I told Pastor Christie have the kids hold their breath as long as they can this morning. Safely. Safely. So if. Any kids get lightheaded or anything, that's my fault. Because I said, have them just hold their breath, just breathe in and never breathe out. Well, that you don't last very long doing that. You have to exhale. We inhale this new creation breath of the spirit, but then we also have to exhale that breath, even in times and places of trouble. It's not just for us, it's for the world. We're not just brought to life for ourselves. We're brought to life, recreated for the good of the world. A couple of days ago, Christianity Today posted an article, maybe some of you have seen it, called The Iranian Church Persists. I'd encourage you to look it up and read it. In the low place of war, Christians in Lebanon and Gaza and Iran are continuing to live by the Spirit and not by fear. They are preparing food for their neighbors and displaying acts of generosity and sharing the good news of the gospel with people they meet. And this particular article, it highlighted some different people, people like Yah, Yahya, a leader in a house church movement of Iran, who, even before the war, was already being interrogated, detained, abused, and soon will face a summons to serve a prison sentence for his Christian ministry. Shouldn't he stay behind locked doors? Out of fear? Wouldn't that be the wisest thing to do? Even more so now, in a time of war? Shouldn't he hide away and perhaps hold his breath until all of this uncertainty passes? He does not do that. He does not do that. Even as many Iranians are, for good reason, hiding in their homes behind locked doors, afraid to travel, afraid to be out, afraid to be seen. Yahya is going from place to place to place, traveling to villages to serve the poor and to share the gospel and to hand out little New Testament Bibles. Life is very hard, Yahya told the author, but we are continuing. I'm just gonna read that again. Life is very hard, he told the author, but we are continuing. And the Lord is showing us glory, he says. In that low place? Glory in that low place? Yes. Even in a season of fear and turmoil and uncertainty, the author writes, the Iranian church is courageous and generous and growing through their commitment to witnessing in times of trouble. That church is growing. The American church is struggling. But that church is growing. Why? Because how dependent do you need to be on the Holy Spirit when you are in that environment? Fully dependent. And this is after a long and grueling history of Christian leaders being killed by their faith, by hostile regimes. This author was totally amazed by the outward focus of these house church leaders not talking much about their own suffering at all. Because, see, when the spirit is breathed into you, that breath of new creation, you can't help but breathe it back out again. Right? The CT team, the Christianity Today team suggested to some people they were interviewing to relocate to a safer place, but one couple gently declined, he said. No, we want to stay and help the people. And if the situation allows, we want to spread the gospel. They know they are being sent just as God sent Jesus. See, they know the heavy lifting that that word as is doing in that text. Just as the Father has sent me, so I am sending you. They're sent as Jesus was. He didn't avoid trouble, he didn't avoid persecution. Like Jesus, they are praying for the people who are persecuting them. We have a lot to learn from the church that is existing in house church and underground spaces in countries all around the world, in suffering spaces. This is a reminder to pray for them. This is a reminder not to let the political layer be the only one we consider in this war, but to remember that we are connected to the church everywhere that it is. They are our brothers and sisters. Even when politics tries to put us on opposite sides of a combat zone and say you don't belong to one another, yes, we do. Yes, we do. The author writes, When I asked them why they are ready to suffer for Christ, they said, Because we have tasted and we have seen. We have tasted and we have seen. Have you tasted and have you seen? Have you tasted and have you seen this is Easter mission? This is resilience in this spirit-led persistence that they are doing. Easter mission, he is risen. Does it matter? Yes, it does. It matters so deeply to this church, and it matters deeply to our church. And I'm not telling you this story this morning to give you a really extreme example and say, okay, well, if the Iranian Christians can do this in their bombed-out cities, then uh you can do it in your life too. That is not the connection I'm trying to make. I'm telling you this because the resurrection of Jesus matters. When we say he is risen and he is risen indeed, it does matter even in the week after, even in the low places, not just the high holy days of the church where we're gathered in song, but like for the low places where the church is hiding out. And the low places that we are even feeling the week after Easter. It matters for those what's next places. Does any of this work matter? The scary places, the needy spaces. It matters in Iran, it matters in Grand Rapids, just as the Father has sent me as. I am sending you, Jesus told his disciples. And yeah, yeah, and all these brothers and sisters in the underground church are taking that very seriously, very literally. We are sent as Jesus was sent. They're not motivated by safety or by comfort or by attention, nor are they held back by fear. And I just think that is a great template for the church. A great template for the church. But they've been animated by the spirit. They're not doing this in their own power. They're not saying, look at us, we're so strong, we're so resilient. They are animated by the spirit, full of the breath of new creation, even in a place that is being broken by death and destruction. The church everywhere, here, there is meant to be this imagination station that enacts new creation right in the face of old creation. Because what would make the most sense for them? To pray for those who are persecuting them or to like fight back? In old creation, it would make sense to fight back. Say, violence, you want violence? We've got violence. No, new creation says, I'm gonna pray for you. I'm gonna be generous, I'm gonna keep serving in these neighborhoods. We too are meant to be an imagination station. We too are meant to enact new creation right in the face of old creation, gaining ground, taking territory, enacting the kingdom, but not through force, through love. And according to John, the first work of the spirit-filled community is the work of forgiveness, which I don't even have time to go into that today, but I think that that is beautiful. That the first work of this inhalation of the spirit is to go out and communicate forgiveness to people. And then being examples of it ourselves, just as Christ was sent. I can't, I know I can't, I know you can't either, but receive the Holy Spirit, Jesus says, and he breathes on them. The Holy Spirit is God's way of being present with us and making our life and work continuous with the life and work of Jesus. We cannot do it on our own strength. I know we can't, I know you can't. And I just think Easter tide is a great time of year to practice the pulmonary rhythm of gathering together, to inhale a deep breath of new creation, an inhalation of the spirit, and then going out, because you can't just hold your breath, you won't last very long, to go out and exhale that everywhere we go. And I'm telling you, the church has bad breath in a lot of places. We don't want to be exhaling bad breath out in a world that needs the truth of the spirit and the truth of Christ. So we come here, we gather, we inhale a breath of new creation, and then we oxygenate the world with it, breathing out everywhere we go, sent as Christ was sent, this body of Christ animated by lungs just full of the spirit. And so then we reincarnate the life of Christ afresh to a watching world everywhere that we go. If they say, What was Jesus like, we can say, Well, hopefully, look at the church. We're supposed to look like what Jesus was like, because we've been sent as He was sent. So take a deep breath, you faithful ones. Everybody do it right now. That's right. Take a deep breath, you faithful ones. Those of you gathered here today on this low Sunday in this low place, wondering what's next. If the Spirit can raise Jesus from the low place of the grave, which the Spirit did, so even though we say up from the grave he arose, we should sing up from the grave he was raised. But anyway, it's a whole other conversation. But if the spirit can raise Jesus up from the low place of the grave, the spirit can raise you up from your low place, from all the graves you've been laying down low in, the spirit can raise you up and into this resurrection life because Jesus said, I will not leave you as orphans. I will not leave you as orphans, and he promises that our grief is going to turn into joy. Some of us get foretasts of that already in this life, and some of us don't get to taste a whole lot of that, but the promise is still true, and it is yes in Christ. Your grief will turn into joy. So take up your place in this holy community, receive the Holy Spirit, breathe deeply, breathe in, and then let's go from out of this, it's not locked, but out of this locked room, from out of these doors to exhale everywhere we go. Amen. Amen. Let's pray. God, I thank you for the breath of the spirit that does not end. It never runs out, it is never breathless. Would we be those who can receive? We thank you for the gift that the Spirit is, that it's not something we must strive for or not something that the disciples had to jump through any hoops to get. Jesus said, Peace be with you, and he breathed his Holy Spirit on them. So would you breathe on us here at Madison Church on this Sunday, this low Sunday, the week after Easter, because we too are somewhat locked up in that room going, What's next? God, we need your breath. We need to inhale the spirit so that this body of Christ, this flesh and blood body of Christ on earth, would be more than just a standing army that can't move because there's no breath in them, but that we would inhale the spirit and be animated out in the world to be sent as you were sent in the flesh, in love, preaching good news to the poor. Speaking of forgiveness, I pray, God, that you would strengthen us for the task at hand because the world is broken and there is enough fear to go around. But God, we will not be afraid. We will join in prayer for our brothers and sisters in these war-torn countries who are doing the work of God in these places. Would you help us to come alongside in prayer and in attentiveness, but also in our own way in grand rapids, just as you are sending Christians into cities all over the world. You are sending us here. Help us to love the city enough to be sent as Jesus is sent. Help us to have your eyes and your hands and your feet that we would continue to exhale, oxygenate this place with the Holy Spirit. I thank you for this pre-Pentecost, this mini Pentecost, this filling of the Holy Spirit. For those of us who feel low and out of out of breath, God, would you breathe on us anew this morning? We give you thanks for the gift that is the Holy Spirit, this advocate, this helper who will be with us forever, Jesus says. So in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we say amen. Amen.