Spirit as Breath
Is 40:1-11, John 20:19-23

You probably have come across the bestselling book about grammar that was published a couple of years ago entitled Eats shoots and leaves. My children were sent a picture book version of it by their grandmother this week to encourage them to use commas well. The book is introduced by the story of a panda bear who walks into a library, eats the librarian’s sandwich, shoots a gun into the air and begins to walk out. The shocked librarian demands an explanation and the panda pulls down a natural history book which is full of poor grammar, pointing out the page on pandas that describes their habits as “eats comma shoots and leaves.”

The comma is more obvious in written print but even in speech it can be heard. Listen to this poem by Margaret Borrelli:

The comma is where one takes a breath
breathe in for that brief moment in time
one waits, expectant, ear pressed against the wall,
one listens, eager, string taut between two tin cans.
A comma creates a space
so small that it can’t be measured
so large it can contain God.
This God of commas who always speaks
whispers in my ear, breathe, breathe, breathe.

Breath is the clearest mark of the force of life that begins with that unforgettable first cry of breath in a newborn child and continues to the last ragged breath of one who is dying. Breath is also one of the key biblical words for God’s Spirit. In the Old Testament Hebrew it is ruach. In the New Testament Greek pneuma. It can be translated wind and air as well as breath. When referring to God, says Walter Brueggemann, it is a term that “seeks theologically to release into the world a specific force that is linked to Yahweh but is invisible, inexplicable and irresistible”. Right at the beginning of Genesis we are told God’s ruach hovered over the waters of creation. And in the next chapter where humankind is formed, the writer says God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life”. Bruce Prewer calls this “the kiss of life”. In Exodus at the Red Sea the ruach is translated as a strong wind, but it is still the invisible force of God that is being described as the waters are held back for the Israelites to cross.

In the Psalms ruach is clearly identified with life which is understood as God’s gift. Psalm 104 includes these verses:

When you hide your face, they are dismayed;
when you take away their breath, they die.
When you sent out your Breath (often translated “your spirit”) they are recreated,
and you renew the face of the earth.
                             Psalm 104: 29-30

In the prophetic books the ruach comes upon messengers of God in a compelling and authoritative way. And in Joel the ruach is a sign of a new and free existence where all the community receive the power of God just as the prophets had. In each of these examples the breath of God is an invasive power, capable of disrupting and transforming earthly reality. It is the sign of life par excellence. It is the kiss of life.

The Old Testament doesn’t conceive of the Spirit in formulation of the Trinity as the church has preached through the ages. But as Christians we believe that it was the Spirit that enables the ministry of Jesus as set out in the gospels. Jesus received this kiss of life in abundance.

The Spirit was there in the baptism of Jesus, in his temptations in the wilderness, when he was preaching at his home synagogue at Nazareth and of course in his healing, teaching; his inclusion of outcasts and misfits within the circle of his love. John’s gospel records Jesus speaking of the Spirit at the last gathering with his disciples. And in the reading we heard, the resurrected Jesus offers them the Spirit when despite locked doors he comes to them and breathes on them. He is aligning himself with that compelling and transforming power that was known as ruach in Hebrew and signified the presence of God for the Jewish people. But he was offering it to them in a new way. As Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit upon his followers he identifies these gathered disciples with his own life and ministry. Remember how he had told Mary not to hold onto him when she met him at the open tomb? The new creation that the resurrection enabled meant that Jesus was now more present amongst his followers than he had ever been before. Through the gift of the breath of Jesus his disciples could become his body, his ambassadors on earth, proclaiming the Kingdom Christ lived and taught through their lives together. This is partly why we don’t really subscribe to the Pentecostal idea of the baptism of the spirit for the enhancing of one’s personal relationship with God. The gift of the Spirit to all believers is a corporate event, not a personal one. We, together, are the body of Christ, commissioned by Jesus to continue his kingdom work. It is we who will minister the kiss of life in his name.

And yet we too can be people of fear and doubt. So just like the breath that keeps us alive the breath of the Spirit is an ongoing, ever renewed source of energy. We need to be reminded constantly of this reality, so basic to our Christian life but like our own breath sometimes may be forgotten.

In the second section of the book of Isaiah that begins at chapter 40 the prophet who is speaking was amongst the exiles in Babylon. He knew the pressing call of the ruach upon him but like other exiles his experience had been that of fear and doubt. When told to “cry out” (Is 40:6) his answer, like Job’s, is the despair of recognition of his own limitations. “What shall I cry? All people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades. When the breath of the Lord blows upon it, surely people are like grass.” It was the temptation of the exiles, even exiled prophets, to be resigned to thinking of themselves as caught up in the general transience of all things: nothing could be done to halt their extinction – the prophet could think of no message other than this: “just like countless nations destroyed before our time, in our time and after our time, we are a nation that will perish just like grass.” Exile breeds not only doubt and fear, but also resignation and despair. And it seems the prophet was not exempt from this – what word of hope could there be? What use could there be in further preaching?

But the answer comes back strong and clear. “Go up to a high mountain. Lift up your voice with strength. Do not fear. The focus of the message is the Word of God which stands forever. It is not part of the inevitable decay of existence. It stands, it persists, it abides.

This is the Word that gave life in the beginning.
This is the Word that was to be preached in the valley of dry bones by Ezekiel before God breathed into them new life. (ch 37)
This is the Word that preaches peace to the fearful disciples.

Let’s go back to that first chapter in Genesis for a moment, when the Breath of God was hovering over the face of the deep, and then we are told God said, "Let there be light." The word is always linked to breath. In order to speak you must form words and use the energy of breath to bring those words into audible form. So God speaks, the breath of God is given shape, and there we have the Word of God, "Let there be light." Familiar words from the Gospel of John too, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." They are separate, but at the same time, they are one, just as when you breathe and you speak, your words are one with you.

Empowered by the lasting word of God, the prophet is given a new message to speak with strength. And the disciples too in that locked room, are sent out with the breath of Jesus and his command to take the message of peace and forgiveness with them.

Someone once said that Courage is simply fear with breath. I like that. Because with the breath of God despite our limitations we can experience new life and new power.

As a thank you gift for being part of the organising team of the Voices for justice event I was given the small autobiography of the Rwandan Bishop Alexis Belindabagabo who was our guest preacher last weekend.  I read it during the week – I was sorry he hadn’t shared more of his own experiences with us although I understand when he says he has told his story so many times that he is weary of telling it, and it is a difficult story to tell as he lived through the genocide and lost members of his own family during it. In the book he speaks of the incredible despair he felt and the longing for death as he, as a Tutsi, heard daily accounts of the destruction of communities and the death of families known to him and indeed anticipated being killed himself at any moment. He describes praying for peace and the miraculous change from despair to confident hope and assurance that he experienced at that time. He was filled with God’s Spirit of peace and courage – he was breathed into with God’s presence and given strength to continue to work despite the circumstances surrounding him.

There is a good reason why wind power is called renewable energy. I’m told that 1-3% of the energy of the sun hits the earth as wind energy due to the unevenness of the earth’s surface, its orientation to the sun, and the difference between heat on land and sea. The energy from wind has been harnessed for centuries to help humans work, through windmills converting wind to mechanical power and in modern turbines converting to electricity. While the speed and constancy of wind varies, its original source in the sun is constant. It seems to me that we can understand the power of the spirit in these terms. The constant source is the Word, the energy of life, but the creative force is the ruach which inspires us and moves us to action.

A few months ago the lead singer of U2, Bono, gave a sermon in Washington. In it he spoke of what had inspired him to stand and speak so publicly for justice in our world. He spoke of being introduced to the Jubilee 2000 campaign by ordinary Christian people at a time when he thought the church was largely irrelevant to the message that Jesus had given. He said “it was breathtaking. Crazy stuff. Evidence of the spirit.” He now throws his support behind the Make Poverty History campaign, the secular sibling to the Micah Challenge. He says that it is no coincidence that in the Scriptures, poverty is mentioned more than 2,100 times – and that, he says, is a lot of air time. Where is the spirit at work? Given the emphasis on poverty in the scriptures it seems God is at work with the poor. And that is what must inspire our involvement in such things too.  We began our service with a psalm which asserted “steadfast love and faithfulness will meet. Righteousness and peace will kiss each other. Faithfulness will spring up from the ground. Righteousness will look down from the sky.” The words righteousness and justice are interchangeable in the bible. As this week’s Micah Challenge prayer reflection states, “Justice is not a program of God, it is his character. When Justice is only a program, we can choose to either do it or not. But if justice is our character we will have no choice. It will be manifested in our life, in our actions and our priorities.” Bono went on in his sermon to say that for him a turning point was when a wise man said to him “stop asking God to bless what you're doing. Get involved in what God is doing—because that is already blessed.”

Do we have the courage to invite the spirit to be our renewable energy, to inspire us to get involved in what God is doing in our world? Bruce Prewer wrote a poem based on the incident in John 20, which he calls the Kiss of Life. Let me read a few verses:

Come through our locked doors,
you persistent lover,
come where we’re hiding
and blow away our cover.

Come through disbelief,
enter and greet us,
with disruptive peace
come in and meet us.

Come in the doubting
when old fears molest,
come with your own breath
that we may know rest.

Come with your Spirit,
to lives sour and stale,
breathe forth your Spirit
that we may be hale.

Ó B D Prewer 2001

Wind, air, breath, spirit – an energy that is ever renewable. Spirit as breath is a peaceful, restful understanding of God at work in us and in our world. God is the God of commas who always speaks, who is the word that stands forever. Today God says to us “Breathe, breathe, breathe in my breath. Let my Ruach fill you, flow in your blood stream, and saturate your attitudes, your thoughts, your words and your deeds!