Pentecost

Please pray with me: may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

I follow another pastor on Facebook who, every single day for the past 87 days of quarantine has posted the same message on her Facebook page.

Good morning.

 She offers a one-sentence commentary on the events of the previous day followed by:

 Pause.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Repeat.

On Tuesday evenings, our Cantor Steve leads an 18-minute silent meditation. Participants sit in silence over Zoom as they slowly inhale and then exhale. This is repeated until Steve rings a gong, reads a line from a Psalm, and calls us all back to our awareness. Inhale. Exhale. Repeat.

My yoga studio has moved online and is offering classes on YouTube live. Each class begins with the instructor guiding us through an exercise to center ourselves on our breath. Inhale. Exhale. Repeat.

A laboring mother is taught to breathe through each contraction. Inhale. Exhale. Repeat. As the pain rocks through their bodies. Inhale. Exhale. Repeat.

The beginning of life is marked by an infant’s first breath. Inhale. Exhale. Repeat.

The end of life is marked by a person’s final breath.

Inhale. Exhale.

One of the symptoms of COVID-19 is shortness of breath. People with severe cases of the disease require ventilators to push breath into oxygen-starved lungs. Inhale. Exhale. Repeat.

Ahmaud Arbury, a 25-year-old black man in Georgia, went for a run on a sunny February day. Running makes a person breathe heavily. His breath was taken from him on that run by two white men who walked free for months before they were taken into police custody. Inhale. Exhale.

George Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis, Minnesota cried out in pain as a police officer put his knee on his neck, cutting off his breath. His cry of “I can’t breathe” echoed that of Eric Garner, another black man whose breath was taken from him too soon. Inhale. Exhale.

Crucifixion is a brutal form of death. A person is hung on a cross by their arms until they no longer have the strength to lift themselves up to breathe. Inhale. Exhale.

This Sunday is Pentecost, the day that we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit to the gathered disciples and the birth of the Christian Church.

In the Hebrew Bible, the Holy Spirit is referred to as ruach, which is Hebrew for “breath” or “wind.”

The Holy Spirit was at the dawn of creation as the wind sweeping over the waters and the breath that God breathed into all of creation.

She was the breath enlivening the words of the prophets, the dove hovering over the waters of Jesus’s baptism, the breath that filled Jesus’ lungs at the time of the resurrection.

She is the gift that Jesus bestowed by breathing on his disciples after appearing to them as they huddled in fear in the locked room. He bade them peace and breathed the Holy Spirit on them. This Spirit filled them with new life and pushed them out of the locked room to bear witness, to set free, to proclaim good news, to release those bound as ones who were set free from fear themselves.

The Holy Spirit came upon the disciples in the room on the day of Pentecost, appearing as a roaring wind and tongues of flame. Again, after receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, the disciples were pushed out to bear witness, to set free, to proclaim good news, to release those bound. They were empowered with the gift of tongues, the ability to speak in another language, the ability to use their breath to reach across difference to proclaim that there is one who has broken down every dividing wall and unites all in his body.

The Holy Spirit comes upon us as well, as we are gathered in our own homes. She is a gift given to us at our baptisms. She pushes us out to bear witness to Christ’s reconciling action, to set free those trapped in systems of racism, to proclaim the good news that we are all one in Christ Jesus, to release all who are bound by their dependence on white supremacy, a system that centers whiteness as what is normal, what is good, what is beautiful, what is right. White supremacy is a lie.

Racism takes away the breath of too many, too soon. George Floyd. Breonna Taylor. Ahmaud Arbury. Tamir Rice. Philando Castile. Freddie Gray. Eric Garner. Michael Brown. Sandra Bland. The Emanuel Nine. Trayvon Martin. Many of the 100,000+ Americans who have died of COVID-19 as a result of racial disparities.

But resurrection begins with breath. The Holy Spirit brings the possibility of life to a world that is struggling to breathe because it is being choked by sin.

 The Holy Spirit creates new realities marked by an abundant life in Christ. The Holy Spirit sends us out to be co-creators of these new realities.

As followers of Christ, we are called to be co-creators of a reality where racism and white supremacy do not have the final say. This is a reality that has already been created by Christ’s resurrection and that the gift of the Holy Spirit can help us recover.

Let us breathe in and out together to remind us of this powerful gift. Inhale. Exhale.

Repeat.

Resurrection begins with breath. Hope is carried by breath.

I’m going to conclude with a poem by poet Ross Gay. Close your eyes and keep breathing as you listen.

“A Small Needful Fact”

Is that Eric Garner worked

for some time for the Parks and Rec.

Horticultural Department, which means,

perhaps, that with his very large hands,

perhaps, in all likelihood,

he put gently into the earth

some plants which, most likely,

some of them, in all likelihood,

continue to grow, continue

to do what such plants do, like house

and feed small and necessary creatures,

like being pleasant to touch and smell,

like converting sunlight

into food, like making it easier

for us to breathe.

Keep breathing.

Thanks be to God, Amen.