St Oswald’s Rugby Tuesday Morning Worship 26th April 2022
Reading John 20:19-31
The last contestant in Tipping Point answers the final question correctly. The bonus disc hangs over the edge of the second shelf. Can she drop in a piece and tip the bonus piece over the edge and win £10,00? Down goes the piece, rattling down the chute and drops into the slider, and there goes the bonus piece, she has won £10,000 and she is ecstatic and cries out, O my God, O my God, O my God!
How far removed is this from
Thomas who said to the risen Jesus, ‘my Lord and my God.’
Not only in time but also in
sentiment.
I think it would be a reasonable
guess that the God being invoked by the winning contestant is not the
Judeo-Christian God.
But again, without being too
quick to judge, I think it would be safe to say that those who frequently say,
O my God, are rarely, if ever, invoking the God and Father of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
If only they were, then their
words might be properly addressed and an acceptable call upon God, or as an
acclamation of a revealed divine truth such as Thomas encountered.
And almost hidden in this
passage we have just read is a clue of how a person might move from merely
mouthing a meaningless and empty phrase that has become common place, to
standing with Thomas, looking at Jesus, and declaring, my Lord and my God.
Verses 21 & 22…
‘Again
Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am
sending you.” And with that he breathed on them
and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.’
When the Lord God
made the heavens and the earth, no grass or plants were
growing anywhere. God had not yet sent any rain, and there was no one to work
the land. But streams came up from the ground and watered the earth.
The Lord God took
some soil from the ground and made a man. God breathed life into the man,
and the man started breathing. Genesis 2: 4-7
God’s breath, breathing life
into the man.
Could it be that to become
all that God intended we need not only the breath of life to animate us but a
second breath?
I know as a runner I often reach a point of exhaustion and then find my second wind, fresh energy draw from within. Occasionally if it is half marathon I am running in, then it is drawing close to the finish line and the crowds cheering me on.
.” And
with that Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.’
The first breath brings life
to our bodies and the second breath brings life to our spirits.
That I would suggest marks
the difference from someone who uses a phrase such as, O my God without any due
reference to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, or indeed any god
whatsoever. It is merely a phrase that has sadly passed into common parlance. And
the person who stands, or better, kneels with Thomas and declares, ‘my Lord and
my God.’
The transition of moving from
doubt to faith and the ensuing transformation that would include our
vocabulary.
What therefore might be our take away from this Gospel reading?
Well first as people of
faith we acknowledge that God is the source and sustainer of all life.
Acts 17. 28
For in him we live and move
and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his
offspring.’
Job 12.10
For the life of every living
thing is in his hand, and the breath of every human being.
Secondly, we acknowledge
that we need the infilling and indwelling Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 5.18
‘Do not get drunk on wine,
which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit,’
And when Paul says to us, ‘Be filled
with the Spirit’, he uses a present imperative, implying that we are to go on
being filled. For the fullness of the Spirit is not a once-for-all experience
which we can never lose, but a privilege to be renewed continuously by
continuous believing and obedient appropriation.
Think of it like carrying a glass of water. When people 'bump' into you what spills out? If we are filled with the Spirit of God then it will be the Spirit of God that spills out, manifest in the Fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness and self control. Having 'spilled out; we need to ensure we are always being 'refilled.'
2 Timothy 3:16
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness...
For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
And
then in a peculiarly encouraging way we read this at the end of Matthew’s
Gospel 28.17
‘When they saw
him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.’
Doubts
will come partly because as we read in 2 Corinthians 5.7 ‘For we live by
faith, not by sight’ and therefore doubts will arise as they did for
Thomas.
And
as we heard in our Gospel reading…
Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Do
you know yourself to be filled with the Holy Spirit this morning?
Do
you believe and are you living a life that is blessed by God?
Or
are you sitting with some doubts today, and if so, do you know how to handle
those doubts, so they take you to stand before Jesus declaring, my Lord and my God?
O
my God indeed.
Let us now invite the Spirit to come and breathe the second breath of new life into our spirit.
Come breath on us breath of God....
