Is this the birth or the conception of the church?
Gospel Reading: John 20:19-31
For Sunday, June 12 , 2011: Year A - Day of Pentecost
All the doors are shut, locked, and there are about a dozen or more men, in tight quarters, sweating, stinking of fear. They are not sure what has happened or what they should do. They feel the heat. Then Jesus came and stood among them, saying: Peace be with you.
Jesus Comes
He came and stood among them. He didn’t approach them from behind or appear in a corner and then clear his voice to get their attention. In that closed up space with barely enough room for another body—Jesus stood among them, there was really no place else he could be. He is in the center of the sweaty mass, everyone crowding in around him, jostling to see the holes in his hands, the gash in his side, that he is showing them. Peace be with you, he says again, as the Father sent me, so I send you.
Jesus Breathes
He pauses and everyone leans in, craning their necks so as not to miss a whisper — then he breaths on them.
They are close enough to feel the heat of his breath, to smell it. Receive the Holy Spirit.
The Great Exhalation
When it comes to Pentecost, the, so-called, birth of the church, Acts 2 is the narrative that gets the most play. I think the lectionary-ers realize this is one of the few Sunday where the Gospel is going to take the back seat, or at least shotgun, but it is not driving. They are, in fact, encouraging it. They want you to preach on Acts 2—why else would they assign the same Gospel text that we just preached on six weeks ago? They want us to preach on the birth of the church from Acts 2. It does seem much more like a birth than this John text, what with all the glossolalia, the pouring out, and the rush of the violent wind. This John text seems more like conception than birth. It is intimate, close, whispers and a great exhalation.
If John’s Pentecost is the birth of the church it is a very different vision of the church than is found in Acts. It is more personal than powerful, more comfort than command. It is quiet. It is breath not a violent wind.
The Hardest Question
Is this the birth or the conception of the church?
Russell Rathbun is a preacher at House of Mercy in St. Paul, Minnesota, the author of Midrash on the Juanitos (Cathedral Hill Press, 2010) and the curator of The Hardest Question.
