Breathing marks

Sermon for Low Sunday

There's something

a little bit disturbing 

about being breathed on.

There's the hygiene issue -

getting breathed on

is how diseases

like coughs and colds

and the flu are spread.

And there is something

invasive about it.

We say that we don't want

someone breathing 

down our neck.

We shudder with the person

who picks up the phone

to a "heavy breather."

Yet, for those of you

present at the consecration

of Holy Oils,

or who attended 

the blessing of the baptismal font

at the Paschal Vigil,

it appears bishops have to learn to

be heavy breathers.

Would you really want

to receive the oil of Chrismation

knowing that the Bishop

had subjected it

to a bout of heavy breathing?

But then, 

during Confirmation,

the Bishop puff into the face

of the recipient of the Sacrament,

so you can't escape 

the Bishop's breath!

[PAUSE]

Yet, here, behind closed doors,

where confused and 

disoriented disciples dwell,

Our Lord appears and breathes on them.

Disgusting?

Germ spreading?

Invasive?

What do you think?

[PAUSE]

You say to yourself,

quite naturally,

if Jesus is doing

the heavy breathing

then it must be alright.

It affects us because

we are so aware of the germs

that can infect us

by being breathed in.

And perhaps

we can appreciate

why this couldn't be done

any other way.

In breathing on His Disciples,

Our Lord becomes

the vehicle for 

the Holy Ghost 

to begin His mission

in building the Church.

This is not a germ-ridden breath:

it's the Breath of Life,

pure, incorruptible

life-giving, empowering

and disinfecting.

Disinfecting?

Absolutely.

"Whose soever sins ye remit, 

they are remitted unto them; 

and whose soever sins ye retain, 

they are retained."

Sin is our infection

which we spread 

from the brokenness of 

our hearts and minds and souls

in our thoughts, words and deeds.

Just as we breathe out

infectious diseases from our bodies,

so do we breath out

infectious sins from our fallen nature.

And yet, 

here is the Holy Spirit of God

poured out upon the eleven disciples

for the purpose of 

remitting and retaining sins.

This is the same promise by Our Lord,

first made to St Peter in Matthew 16,

then to all the disciples

two chapters later in Matthew 18.

Here,

the promise is delivered

by a breath.

This Holy Ghost

ignites on the Day of Pentecost

when the Apostles become 

the first Bishops

each one with the power

to bind and loose,

remit and retain

through the authority

and power of the Holy Ghost

Who makes His dwelling 

within the Church.

Just as we breathe on glass

in order to see through it

more clearly

so does Our Lord

breathe on the disciples

to polish them up

for the purpose

of cleaning all those

befouled by the sins of the world

as they enter God's Church.

This is our salvation.

It is also why

we should rejoice

to have Jesus

breathing down our necks.

Paschal Post Mortem

 

How was Lent?

The Man of the Cloth

Sermon for the Feast of the Resurrection

Making your bed

is supposed to be

the sign of maturity.

Taking the time

to refluff the pillows

and fling the duvet out

so that it covers the bed

ready for tonight

is often seen as a chore

by teenagers, 

and by those in a hurry.

But why?

If you live alone,

no-one else will see

an untidy bed,

so it won't matter.

You're just going to

get into it again

tonight.

Besides,

leaving it all rumpled

airs the bed a bit.

[PAUSE]

If you don't live on your own

or share a bed,

then making it

seems a courtesy.

It shows that

you want to keep things nice

for someone else.

It's an act that says

that we want

the other person 

to feel at home,

to feel comfortable,

to feel that everything is in order,

to feel looked after.

Does Jesus make His bed?

[PAUSE]

Peter and John 

are looking in the tomb.

They see the linen clothes

that Jesus was buried in

lying in the tomb.

The napkin that was

about His face,

is lying wrapped together

in a place by itself.

The Greek word

that is used for "lying"

is the same word

used when,

at Christmas,

we see the baby

lying in the manger.

The linen cloths

have not been tossed aside

they are lying

set in their places.

The napkin

is rolled up

and put aside.

Jesus has made His bed.

[PAUSE]

This is significant.

People stealing a body

would do so

as quickly as possible.

They would take the linen cloths

with the body,

or cast them aside

leaving them 

where they fell.

They would not have time

to roll up a napkin.

They would not have time

to gently place the linen cloths

in the tomb.

Indeed, 

if they were in a rush

the napkin would not

be in a place by itself.

No, the body was not stolen.

Jesus gets up,

makes His bed

and leaves.

[PAUSE]

But Our Lord

makes His bed

for a reason more

than an assurance

that He is truly risen.

We make our bed,

when there are others

that might sleep in it.

Jesus makes His bed

because we shall all

sleep where He slept

after His crucifixion.

We shall all sleep

when we face our own death.

It's that one terrible fact

that we must face.

It's that one terrible sadness

that we encounter

with our loved ones

as they pass from us.

Jesus makes His bed

knowing that we must sleep in it

at the end of our lives.

But He shows us

that we too will be making our beds

when we rise through Him.

By making His bed in the tomb,

Our Lord has shown

that Death is not for us.

Death for the Christian

is not a state of being,

it is an event,

just a thing that happens to us

and doesn't stop us

from being ourselves,

because God Himself

keeps us alive in Him.

At our Death,

we sleep until we are woken

by Eternity's sunrise.

And it will be Christ

who bids us rise with Him

into the glorious morning in the garden.

But let us make our bed first!

The Politics of Holy Week

 

How Our Lord reveals Himself as a political figure.

Palm Sunday Question

As usual, in view of the Long Gospel for Palm Sunday, rather than a sermon, I offer this question for your reflection:

Why are we able to go from "Hosanna!" to "Crucify!" so quickly?

Passionate Anxiety

 

How anxious was Our Lord before Holy Week?

The Truth of Life and Death

Sermon for Passion Sunday

"Before Abraham was, I am"

Grammatically, 

that's a very strange statement.

Looking at it

in the original Greek,

we see the idea that

Jesus is,

not was,

is before Abraham enters

into History.

Our Lord is as present

to Abraham

as He is present 

to these unbelieving Pharisees,

as He is to us now

as He is to those 

who come after 

we have long returned

to the dust.

In short,

every moment of Time

is directly accessible to Him

in His Eternal present.

Aside from using

the Name of God,

I AM

spoken to Moses in the bush

and making the Pharisees

ears bleed in horror,

Our Lord is making

a clear statement

that He is truly God

by virtue of His Eternity.

And still people will say,

"Jesus never claimed to be God."

But He is claiming to be God,

because He is God

and, if we take the time

just to simply hear His words,

He claims it,

loud and clear.

The testimony

of the Pharisees' reaction

shows that they hear

His claim to be God

and understand it

as a claim to be God.

[PAUSE]

This isn't the same confusion

of language

that poor Nicodemus has

when he hears Jesus say

that we must be born again

when Jesus means

we must be born from above.

The language is clear.

It is grammatically odd

because it is telling

an Eternal truth

in reference to Abraham

one who was time-bound but is no longer.

Abraham is not dead.

Abraham rejoices to see Jesus' day

because Jesus is God

and He is not the God of the dead,

but of the living.

Abraham lives

because Jesus is God.

And the same is true

for all who receive this fact

and live it out because it is true.

[PAUSE]

And we still hear people say today,

"Abraham is dead.

Moses is dead.

Mary is dead.

Peter is dead.

Paul is dead.

They can't hear you.

They are dead."

We ask them,

"who, then, is their God?

Who is the God of Abraham,

Moses, Mary, Peter, and Paul.

Is He the same God?

And if He is not the God of the dead

but of the living,

how are they dead?"

They are not

and they worship Father, Son and Holy Ghost

in Eternity

freed from the constraints 

of Time and Space,

yet keeping the Great Commandment

to love their neighbours.

[PAUSE]

It is the Pharisees who are dead

in the letter of their law.

Those who live by the text

shall die by the text.

They fail to see

the reason for the text

but rather bask in its certainty

which they and they alone control.

They see only the text

divorced from its history,

divorced from its context,

divorced from its meaning.

And the divorce themselves

from those 

who challenge their viewpoint.

But the reverse is also true.

There are those who see the text

only in today's context,

only in today's view of history,

only in today's meaning,

and thus divorce themselves

from the True Logos seeing Him

only the god of today.

[PAUSE]

"Before Abraham was, I am."

We know Our Lord,

to be the same 

yesterday,

today,

forever.

We know that we are

united in Him

with all who hold onto Him

past, present and to come.

We know that 

Our Lord is changeless,

His Law is Eternal,

His word enduring 

throughout all generations.

But He lives.

[PAUSE]

We hear the same words

of our liturgy each week,

telling us of the truth

of God's unwavering grace to us.

We cannot change

His sacraments

because they are

for the whole Church,

past, present and future.

But by our earnest longing

to be with Him and in Him,

thoss changeless words

carry life

- the same life of

Abraham,

Moses,

Mary,

Peter

and Paul.

And they carry life

because we do not express them

with death, 

as weapons of mass destruction

in hatred, or loathing

of those whom God has made.

The Pharisees hear truth

and seek to kill it.

We hear truth

and we proclaim it.

And what do we proclaim?

The next fourteen days.