"podcast" Tagged Sermons (Page 78)

Last week, Jesus sent the disciples with the authority to cast out all that which separates us from God’s vision, and today’s reading was a part of that sending. And the location of today’s episode is really important because Jesus shared hard truths about enacting God’s vision­­–namely that those who do will be called names and accused of wrong-doing, they will have their bodies threatened, and they will feel useless and devalued. And Jesus went on to articulate that God’s vision, or to say it another way, God’s kingdom, will produce division- namely, that we will find those closest to us against God’s vision and our enemies more supportive…

“When [Jesus] had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” (John 20:22) Christ’s statement stands in sharp contrast to what we’ve heard this week. The world does not echo Christ’s vision, but rather, we heard the pleas, the gasps, and the belabored words saying, “I can’t breathe.” Parker J. Palmer reminds us that these words are the words that give voice to the terror that has haunted black Americans since the founding of this country. “I can’t breathe” were the dying words of George Floyd as a police officer kept a knee on his neck until his body lay lifeless. “I can’t breathe” might have been the dying words of over 100,000 victims of COVID-19 in America. Yet, into a gasping world, Jesus breathed on them and said “receive the Holy Spirit…”