Dear Friends,

It was more than a decade ago when I was the WMPC preacher on the second Sunday of Easter (which a lot of people call “the Sunday after Easter”) and was utterly stopped in my tracks by the scripture lesson of the day.

Said text was John 20:19-31, and every time I’d ever heard the text preached the focus was on Thomas. But whenever I preach (back then and still today) I try my best to read a text as though I’ve never read it before. Or I at least try to hear all of the text rather than the parts that typically get lifted off the page. And, boy howdy, did that approach pay off that day!

Before the Thomas stuff, there is a two-verse Pentecost sort of story at verse 22. Jesus greets the disciples and commissions them for ministry, then, “when he had said this, he breathed (1) on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’ ” In other words, the good Lord delivers the whole forgiveness business into the hands of his followers.

I think about that mini Pentecost rather more often than you might expect. Most Sundays I’m the one delivering the good news of the gospel right on the heels of our having confessed the truth about our lives in both private and public ways: “In the name of Jesus Christ, we are loved and accepted, forgiven and freed. Thanks be to God!” Declaring God’s grace in worship might well be the most humbling thing I ever do as a pastor; I am sure it is the most powerful (2) thing that I ever have the opportunity to do (that, and setting the agenda for a Session meeting, but the two are barely comparable. And I digress.)

What’s even more - what, surprising? humbling? astounding? maybe even horrifying? - shocking is that Jesus gives that responsibility and capability to every. single. one. of. US. “What?!” you ask. Lemme tell you: We are Protestants, and as Protestants we believe in the Priesthood of all believers. So, as a pastor I might agree to step into some different responsibilities than the ones other disciples might step into, but I’m not in some privileged class of people who are granted power that other people aren’t allowed. Pastors might function differently and focus differently, but we aren’t any more or less favored than anybody else.

Apart from the joy of being able to make the bold announcement of God’s grace, that little Pentecost also conveys to us a daunting responsibility. Jesus says, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” In response to hearing that we are loved and accepted, forgiven and freed, it’s utterly up to us - all of us - to figure out how we’re going to live into that good news - or not. It’s as though Jesus says, “I’ve done my part; the rest is up to you. Forgive one another and you’ll really know freedom; refuse to forgive and the walls are just going to keep closing in. It’s all up to you...”

Pretty powerful gift, huh?

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Finally, two postscripts this week:

(1) I kept practicing my “read for what you might be missing” approach several more times as I wrote this post. In the very last read through, I flashed back to Eden, when God breathes life into clay and the first human is born of that breath. There’s a beautiful parallel to the new life breathed into us by way of this mini-Pentecost breath! It’s the breath of life made new by knowing we are, indeed, loved and accepted, forgiven and freed by the same One to gave us our first breath. Maybe I’ll have to unpack that a bit more the next time this text comes around for Easter 2.

(2) Before I sign off, I want to go back to that word powerful that I dropped in a few paragraphs back. I sat and looked at that word for the longest time after I’d typed it. I tried replacing it with pastoral. Gave important a spin. Even auditioned authoritative. They all felt flat by comparison. I think the trajectory of what John’s gospel says as well as the gift Jesus handed over is, indeed, powerful, so I’ve left the word right there in all its uncomfortable, well, power. ’Cuz I think that’s the point.

See you Sunday!

Peace,

Lisa

Photo credit: Alex Shute on Unsplash.