"You are the Church always" - Sermon for Easter 2 2017

Sermon:

Text: John 20:19-31

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who breathes the Holy Spirit into us, the Church of God.

  

            We often talk about Pentecost, which will be June 4th this year, it’s always 50 days after Easter, as the day the church is formed, or the churches birthday. We say that because of the Spirit coming to the disciples that day in Jerusalem, the tongues of flame anointing them, then the wind pushing them out into the streets to begin their preaching and teaching. Through that Spirit alighting on them, they are pushed out of the building they are stuck in into the world around them, spreading and sharing the Word to the world.

  

But, for John in his gospel, that birth of the church takes place just hours after Christ’s resurrection. The evening of that day is evening on Easter Day. Hours after he is risen he appears to the disciples in the upper room and we experience Jesus telling the disciples, Peace be with you, and breathing the Holy Spirit upon them. The Greek word for Spirit is also the word used for breath or wind. In this passage, Jesus breathes holy breath into them. Another way to talk about the Spirit is that the Holy Spirit is the breath within us, the breath that gives us life. That we breath it in, and we breath it out. It recalls the genesis 2 creation story. God takes mud and forms a man out of it. And into that mud man, God breathes life. “then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.”

Jesus in breathing the Holy Spirit on the disciples, breathes life into them, just as God breathed life into Adam. He breathes breath into the disciples. In breathing into them, Jesus brings forth the people of God, the church. The church is not a building, it’s not an organizational structure, it’s people.

In our text, in that room, that is the whole church. The people of that place are the church, and through what they do, the rest of us, the whole people of God of every time and place, the whole church of God comes forth.

I really like to note that it’s not a gathering of perfect people, it’s full of people from every different group, fishers, tax collector, and a whole rag-tag bunch of others. It has Peter who denied Jesus. It has Thomas, who in our text today does not believe what the disciples are saying to him. And yet because of this breath, it’s Peter the denier who gives the sermon on Pentecost day that we read in our Acts lesson today. Because of that breath, it’s Thomas, labeled a doubter, who now gives the most powerful of faith statements, “My Lord and My God.” It’s this rag-tag bunch, none of which are properly trained people, none have preaching experience, or teaching, or leadership experience. But, what this rag-tag group has is Jesus saying Peace be with you, and Jesus breathing the Spirit upon them.

So, when they are pushed out again on Pentecost day they take the breath that Jesus has breathed into them, and they go out into the world to breathe it out again to all they encounter. They take the breath of God to the world.

            That’s the purpose of the church. To not stay put, but to go out there to the world to share the breath of God to all. That’s our purpose, since we are the church, we are the people of God, we are to take the breath of Christ, the Word of God, out into the world.

But maybe better, we are to realize that the church of Christ is not inside this building, but is already out there. You are not the church of God just on Sunday morning, but all the days of your life. You are part of it in your daily routine, your daily work. In the world, you already spread the breath of God, you already declare to the world, Peace be with you.

  

            Much of the time I think, and most of us probably also think, the sharing of the peace is just the mid service pause and stretch moment. Move the legs a bit, say hi to those around us. But, to Jesus is it the beginning of the church, the beginning of the people of God. He repeats it to the disciples and again to Thomas. Peace be with you. The sharing of peace is the first moment of the breath of the Holy Spirit being shared. When we walk around, when we shake hands and say peace be with you, we are sharing Christ with each other. And in so doing, it’s practice time for when we’re out there.

Do we walk around our daily routine telling everyone peace be with you? No, but we do greet people, we assist, we interact. In your work you encounter people, and you may not realize it, but you spread the breath of God with them. You don’t stop being the church when you leave this building, you are the people of God wherever you are. You don’t stop breathing Christ when you walk through the doors. You don’t stop ministering to the world when you stop doing “church” stuff. You are the church, you are ministers of God all of the time, so everything you do is church stuff.

            When you greet those around you, whether here, or in your daily routine, Christ’s words “peace be with you” echoes within them. When you work with someone, help them checkout at the store, take their vital readings as a nurse, fill out paperwork as an accountant or tax preparer, when you sell someone something they need for their work, when you plow ground and plant seed that will go to feed people, livestock, or to create fuel, when you drive a truck to deliver goods, when you teach children, when you coach them about sportsmanship, when you encourage your children in all they do, class, sports, arts and music, when you do whatever it is that you do. That is the work of the church.

            We finished reading the small catechism just before Lent, this is Luther’s explanation from the Lord’s prayer of what daily bread means.

What then does “daily bread” mean?

Everything included in the necessities and nourishment for our bodies, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, farm, fields, livestock, money, property, an upright spouse, upright children, upright members of the household, upright and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, decency, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.

            At the retreat I attended this week the main speaker made a connection between daily bread and our daily work as the church in the world. Our daily work is all the ways that we help to provide daily bread for our neighbors. And when you look at this list, that’s everything. All you do, your daily life, daily work, daily volunteering, impacts the daily bread of your neighbor, in all that you do you are the church, you breathe Christ to your neighbor, you participate in the Work of God.

            When we go out into the world, the breath of Christ sustains us, Christ breathes the Holy Spirit into us, Christ tells us, peace be with you. Take a deep breath, and let it out. That is the Spirit filling you. Go out knowing that.

Amen.