John 20:19ff

Do you remember the movie Mary Poppins, based on the book by P. L. Travers? Jane and Michael Banks need a new governess, and early in the morning a long line of women in black is waiting at the door of their home. Then the weathervane suddenly moves, and a wind comes in from a new direction. The governesses, who all look as grim and weighty as cannonballs are blown away as easily as thistledown, light as the fluff our rabbits shed every spring and fall. Then out of the sky, floating down on an umbrella much too small to work as a parachute comes Mary Poppins, and the adventure begins.

“Look what the wind blew in!” is what the disciples might have said to Jesus, but naturally they were far too frightened to talk in such an off-hand way. And of course the wind couldn’t blow anything in through a locked door and probably no window at all; but if there was a window, it was covered with a black-out curtain and chinked in every crack, so no draft could enter or sound get out. So Jesus got the first word in:

“Shalom,” he said. “Peace be with you,” a greeting they probably heard several times a day. It was kind of similar to our, “How ya doin’?” and just like our phrase, sometimes it needed to be repeated. “No really, I want to know, how are you doing?” “No really, I mean it, shalom, peace be with you.”

It’s very understandable why he had to repeat his shalom. “Peace” is not a word that normally comes to mind when you’re seeing a ghost. “Cool it, folks! You’re going to be all right. It’s really me. I’m not a ghost, I’m alive. Take a deep breath and c-a-l-m d-o-w-n.”

It’s amazing! Jesus is always surrounded by anxious people, and he never seems to get anxious himself. His disciples generally behave like the famous fellow who jumped on his horse and rode off in all directions. Jesus just stands there calmly, like he’s teaching cucumbers how to be cool. “Peace be with you. No sweat. No fear. Just peace.”

And then he breathes on them. Whooooff! The Hebrew word ruah means breath. The Greek word pneuma means wind. The Latin word spirit means breath. They’re almost the same. He breathes on them. It is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. And he says, “Just as the Father sent me, so I am sending you.”

In Middle Eastern cultures today, it’s a sign of trust and confidence and intimacy to stand so close that you can feel each other’s breath, smell each other’s breath. I wonder if that was true then? I wonder if Jesus was telling these people, “I trust you. You are my intimate friends.” I wonder if he was breathing his trust and courage into them. And breath implied life, and breath implied speech, which is why breath was so closely linked with spirit, the vital spark and mind and voice of Jesus Christ.

“Whoof! You have my Spirit in you! Whoof! You are my intimate friends! Whoof! You have my life in you. You will think my thoughts. You will speak with my voice. So just as I am the Father’s ambassador, trusted with God’s thoughts and voice, so you are my ambassadors, trusted with my thoughts and voice. As I am sent, so I send you. Leave your fear behind, and ride on the winds of God, float on the breath of God.

And whatever happened to the locked door? Well, it’s what would have happened if the big, godly wolf had ever gotten inside the terrified little pig’s house. He huffs and puffs and blows the lock right off the door. He blows the door right off the hinges. And he blows the disciples out like thistledown, floating lightly on the change in the wind.

No longer can they cower in fear and rigid, motionless unity. Their unity is going to become the dynamic kind, a unity based on scattering, a togetherness that comes from being apart. Isn’t that weird!? We would think they were more united inside their locked room. Jesus thinks they are more united when they are out in the community being the church.

There is a wonderful line from the musical Hello, Dolly: “Money is like manure; it needs to be spread around encouraging young things to grow.” We can substitute the word “church” for “money” there. We need to be spread around encouraging young things to grow! The flip side, of course, is to imagine what that manure is like when it’s all packed together in one room behind a closed door [Phew!]. God’s church needs to be spread around encouraging young things to grow.

Locked doors and high anxiety produce disunity. We even begin to distrust the people we’re locked in with. Or the locked-out Thomases distrust the cautious insiders. Being scattered to the four winds produces unity. I don’t pretend to understand it, but I’ve seen it happen. Jesus wants to hold us together by scattering us.

So Jesus tells us the church can’t have any insiders. He unlocks the door and kicks us all out. “Go play in the street. Get to know the other kids. Just as the Father sent me, so I am sending you. With my breath tickling your ears. With my peace surrounding your life. With my unity holding you together, no matter how different you are. I am sending you. Leave your anxieties behind. Be the church. Be light and salt to the world. Be united. Forgive sins. Become outsiders. Speak with my voice. Carry the Spirit!”

Let me change the picture a little here. Consider the slime mold. Slime mold doesn’t seem like a very pleasant topic. Most of us are bothered by both words, “slime” and “mold.” But slime molds are very interesting. Most of the time the little amoebas that make up a slime mold are very individualistic. They slither over and under and around each other, without paying much attention. Rugged individuals.

Then sometimes the food supply gets scarce, and famine strikes. “Suddenly the formerly flippant amoebas lose their sense of boisterous individualism. They rush toward each other as if in a panic, sticking together for all they’re worth. “Gradually, the clump of huddled microbeasts grows to something you can see quite clearly with the naked eye. It looks like a slimy plant. And that plant, a tightly packed mass of former freedom lovers, executes an emergency public works project.” [It reminds me of an image out of another children’s movie, the animated movie Antz.]

“Like halftime marchers forming a pattern at a football game, some of the amoebas line up to form a stalk that pokes high into the passing currents of air. Then the creatures at the head cooperate to manufacture spores, and those seeds of life drift off into the breeze.” [Howard Bloom, The Lucifer Principle, p. 58.]

Jesus Christ is risen! He unlocks all doors. He turns insiders into outsiders. He breaks the bread and the crumbs fly. He trusts us with his life, his thoughts, his message. He may let us clump together briefly in fear, but then he links our tiny lives together into a tower of strength. He breaths on us, and his breath becomes the holy wind, the Holy Spirit, that scatters the spores of life into the world.

And off we float, as light as thistledown, our umbrellas much too small, our powers much too weak, landing and taking root in the strangest of places. And then the adventure begins!

What was that?… Does it seem like the wind is changing direction? Maybe our adventure is about to begin. Let go of your fear, and let yourself float on the breath of God.

(Comments to Don at donaldhoffman379@centurytel.net.)
Creston Christian Church
Creston, Washington, USA