Title: Receiving God
Scripture John 20:19-23
Author: Chris Harbin
What we think, what we project, often controls our lives, our actions. Walter Wintle is often credited with the poem that begins, "If you think you are beaten, you are. / If you think you dare not, you don't. / If you like to win, but you think you can't / It is almost certain you won't." What we think and expect matters, if for no other reason, that expectations limit the range of actions we are willing to take. When it comes to God being present in our lives, granted freely to all disciples, what results do we expect as a consequence? Does receiving God's Breath into our lives make a difference?
When we think of Pentecost, our attention points us to Acts chapter 2, where God's Breath dramatically came upon the disciples gathered on a rooftop. It is a scene made for the movie-screen, with displays of power, flames of fire, and extra-ordinary action. While we do well to link that special day, the annual Feast of First Fruits fifty days after Passover, Pentecost is more than that. The granting of God's Breath, God's presence within and among us is not limited to that event with its eye-catching display. John records this other, much calmer moment when Jesus communicated God's Breath to and upon the disciples.
It is not only in times of extra-ordinary events, of high emotion, of crowd-wowing moments chock full of wonder that God's Breath and presence invade our lives. It is not just in those moments that grab our attention and we are wont to write home about. It is also in the calm, quiet, hidden away moments when we are seemingly alone, when we are hidden behind locked doors. In fact, there are no rules for when the Breath of the Holy One is with us. Well, there are no rules but one. If we belong to God, God's Breath lives in and with us-always.
There is a sense in which this was ever the case among the people of Israel. We read the psalmist's wo ...
Scripture John 20:19-23
Author: Chris Harbin
What we think, what we project, often controls our lives, our actions. Walter Wintle is often credited with the poem that begins, "If you think you are beaten, you are. / If you think you dare not, you don't. / If you like to win, but you think you can't / It is almost certain you won't." What we think and expect matters, if for no other reason, that expectations limit the range of actions we are willing to take. When it comes to God being present in our lives, granted freely to all disciples, what results do we expect as a consequence? Does receiving God's Breath into our lives make a difference?
When we think of Pentecost, our attention points us to Acts chapter 2, where God's Breath dramatically came upon the disciples gathered on a rooftop. It is a scene made for the movie-screen, with displays of power, flames of fire, and extra-ordinary action. While we do well to link that special day, the annual Feast of First Fruits fifty days after Passover, Pentecost is more than that. The granting of God's Breath, God's presence within and among us is not limited to that event with its eye-catching display. John records this other, much calmer moment when Jesus communicated God's Breath to and upon the disciples.
It is not only in times of extra-ordinary events, of high emotion, of crowd-wowing moments chock full of wonder that God's Breath and presence invade our lives. It is not just in those moments that grab our attention and we are wont to write home about. It is also in the calm, quiet, hidden away moments when we are seemingly alone, when we are hidden behind locked doors. In fact, there are no rules for when the Breath of the Holy One is with us. Well, there are no rules but one. If we belong to God, God's Breath lives in and with us-always.
There is a sense in which this was ever the case among the people of Israel. We read the psalmist's wo ...
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