Have We Seen the Lord?

Highland Avenue Church of the Brethren

Pastor Katie Shaw Thompson – November 6, 2022

Have We Seen the Lord? – John 20: 19-22

I feel like most days in the Midwest are windy. I don’t know if that’s scientifically accurate, but it’s the perception that I have after a full decade of Midwestern life. In this small city outside what’s affectionately known as “The Windy City,” I have basically given up on umbrellas, since they’re as like to become wind sails in a rainstorm as to keep any water off your head.

 The wind is tough to take in the dead of winter when it’s already below zero. But on hot summer days, I am a fan of the wind. I am a fan of the cool relief it offers. I am a fan of the smells and sounds it carries from backyard barbecues filled with neighborhood laughter.

 On days like those, it is easy for me to think of the wind as the very breath of Creation, moving in and out of the lungs of our planet. On days like those, I remember how God breathed life into the nostrils of the first humans, and how in today’s story Jesus breathed on the disciples gathered in that upper room, in order to give them the Holy Spirit.

He tells them “Peace be with you. As my Father sends me, so I send you.” And then he breathes the Holy Spirit on them. Rather than the spread of an unwanted viral-laden particulate, this breathing close to others is a way of sharing something holy.

Those disciples had been cowering, fearful, behind a locked door. Now they are filled with the Holy Spirit as they proclaim, “We have seen the Lord!”

Before this pandemic, I, for one, did not fully appreciate how sacred it can be to share air space with someone else. Throughout this strange time we have lived through, it has become clear to me that every shared breath is in essence a measure of trust, a possible point of negotiation, and a precious gift.

The air Jesus breathed with his disciples was decidedly holy, tender, and compassionate. Notice how, even though everyone in the room had abandoned him and Peter had denied him, Jesus does not berate them. He sets them at peace. He forgives them, and he fills them with the Holy Spirit that they might share it with others.

This risen Christ, in all his physically resurrected glory, resurrects his relationship with his disciples and he resurrects the disciples’ ministry to the world. He breathes on them and fills them with the Holy Spirit so that they may go forth to transform the world.

The wind is a powerful force that we cannot see but like God it has an energy that moves and changes people and landscapes. We don’t need to see the wind to understand its power. We can notice an uprooted tree across a busy city street or watch the massive arms of wind turbines swinging and know that the wind is a substantial force capable of providing energy and power.

In the same way, we see God at work in the world loving the lost, suffering, and broken-hearted, standing up for the least of these, blessing all that is broken, and forgiving the unforgivable. We see it in God’s unstoppable love and grace that goes far beyond the work of humans, and we see it also through the acts of modern day disciples.

Have we seen the Lord? Have we seen the body of the risen Christ?        

I know I have. I have seen the body of the risen Christ in healthcare workers, in teachers, in small businesses owners, and in other essential workers who found a way to persevere with as much kindness and compassion as possible through an exhausting pandemic.

I know I have seen the risen Christ in the kind acts of folks who despite the world still being understaffed, refuse to be unkind to the folks who have shown up to work on a given day.

I know I have seen the risen Christ in the members of this church who have tried to find ways to persevere with each other despite the conditions we face and the disagreements between us about how to face them.

I have seen the risen Christ, too, in all of us who needed to take a break from certain responsibilities or relationships in order to show mercy to ourselves and to others.

The body of the risen Christ has holes in this chapter of John. It’s scarred and bruised and messy. Its new life won’t be the same as its old life but it is still the body of Christ. It is still flesh that God has blessed and sent into the world to witness to love and to life. 

Lots of us would like to pretend everything’s okay now. But for most of us it's not. Our lives are still being affected by the pandemic even if it's just in the exhaustion of having lived through the last few years. Maybe we feel bruised and more hole-filled than holy lots of days. How is it we will catch our breath? How is it we can support each other as we find ways to do so?

Because that’s still you, church. Maybe bruised and hole-filled in certain ways but still entirely holy. Through pandemic and culture change and losses all our own. That’s still you. That’s still us. We are the body of Christ, the inheritors of the gift of Holy Spirit-laden breath shared with those early disciples.

What fresh, Spirit-bearing wind do we yearn for these days?

How will we share a breath of fresh air with each other in life-giving acts of love, forgiveness, and mercy that all may proclaim, “We have seen the Lord!” and know it to be true?                                       

May it be so. Amen.