Blowin' in the Wind

This sermon was delivered at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on the Second Sunday of Easter, April 15, 2007.

Acts 5:27-32
Psalm 118:14-29
Revelation 1:4-8
John 20:19-31

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

One of the several jobs I held while in seminary was as a teaching assistant for New Testament Greek. I was a Greek tutor for a group of ten students. I wasn’t a language geek, on the contrary. The other teaching assistants were all planning to go on to Ph.D. programs and becoming professors. Me, I was just a guy going into parish ministry who loved the New Testament in Greek. I even told my students on the first day that if they needed to take the class for a grade (most students took language classes pass/fail) or if they were looking at going on to a doctoral program, then going to a different tutor it might be a good idea and wouldn’t hurt my feelings. I knew I wasn’t going to be their professor; I was going to be their tutor, their guide, and their pastor.

I knew I had to be pastoral with these students. You see, they had a horrible experience with Hebrew, their first seminary language. Their experiences, or rather their wounds, were still fresh. They were like deer in the headlights that only five months earlier had been hit by a big truck. So on the first day, I spent about an hour getting to know my students.

To break the ice, I asked them some questions about their aspirations, and what they hoped to get from Greek, things like that. The last thing I asked them to do was share their favorite word from Hebrew. Just one word. I knew they had an awful experience, but I hoped if they could remember one Hebrew word that they liked, it might give them that one little toe hold that would begin to let light shine from their terrible experience. I hoped if they were able to make one connection, just one, then the entire Hebrew experience might not be so bad. I hoped this bridge could help them begin to forgive the professor and the seminary for their horrible Hebrew experience.

I started by sharing my favorite Hebrew word, ru-ach.[1] Please, say it with me, ru-ach. How’s that, you’re speaking biblical Hebrew! I love this word. In Genesis 1:2, this is the word our bibles translate as “the Spirit”[2] or “the wind.”[3] Listen to the word again, ru-ach. It sounds like wind and spirit. There is a breathy, otherworldly quality to this word that mystifies me, ru-ach.

In Genesis, this breath of God, this spirit is imparted just before the light is created. It is the breath that blows across the chaos, across the darkness, across the void. This is the breath that precedes life. This is the breath that gives life to all creation.

This is the wind that comes off of the water in the morning. It’s the cool breeze that brings the dew to fall on the grass. It’s the summer breeze that rustles the leaves in the trees and tells us that all is right in the world. It is the Spirit that reminds us that God is in charge and regardless of the chaos of the world around us, it is the Spirit that says Emmanuel, God is with us.

This is the same breath, wind, Spirit received by the disciples in our reading today. This reading picks up where we left off on Easter Sunday in John’s gospel. It is probably a week later since Peter and the disciple Jesus loved had returned and Thomas had left. The disciples are together in a room and the doors had been shut because they were afraid of the Jews. Then, suddenly, Jesus appears in the room standing in their midst and offers his blessing, “Peace to you.”

Jesus offers his peace to them, the peace which surpasses all understanding. He shows them the wounds to his hands and his side. Such violence which would be so grotesque gives reassurance to the disciples. They recognize their Lord and they rejoice in his presence. Then he repeats his blessing, “Peace to you,” then gives them their commission.

“Just as the Father has sent me I send you.” As the Father sends the Son, the disciples are now sent as sons of the Lord. The disciples are no longer helpers or assistants. They are not servants, or slaves, or hired men; they are brothers and sons of the Lord. With this honor, they receive great responsibility. After receiving their commission, they receive their authority. “If you forgive someone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you retain them, they are retained.” This is an awesome responsibility given to the disciples. The power and authority to forgive sin, authority which belongs to God alone, is now shared with them.

But because of the “retain” phrase, it is often assumed that the disciples are given the authority to judge others. But the story of Thomas gives us insight about how to interpret this part of the passage.

Thomas, of course, wasn’t with the other disciples the first time Jesus appears in this reading. So when the others tell him that they have seen the Lord, he tells them that unless he sees Jesus’ hands, unless he sees the marks of the nails, unless he puts his finger into the marks of the nails, and unless he puts his hand in Jesus’ side, surely he will not believe what he has been told. Thomas says “show me.” He must have been from Missouri.

So eight days later with all of the disciples present, Jesus returns to their midst, Jesus invites Thomas to examine his hands and the marks of the nails. He invites Thomas to put his fingers in the holes of his hands and a hand in the hole in his side. The Lord invites Thomas to do the very things he had asked to do. Then the Lord says to him, “be believing, not unbelieving.” Thomas proclaims, “My Lord and my God.”

Jesus then tells Thomas, “Since you have seen, you have believed. Blessed are the ones who are not seeing yet believing.”

This saying is often thought to imply that Thomas is not as blessed as those who will come later because he had to see to believe. But this leap is not found in the text. Thomas had to see Jesus before he believed. The other disciples had to see Jesus before they believed. But Jesus does not say that the disciples are more or less blessed than any other believers. They are blessed differently, but all are still blessed. Jesus’ actions are not about Thomas’ unbelief. Jesus’ actions are rooted in his grace and peace and sovereignty. And this interpretation can help us interpret the forgiveness passage.

In this passage when the disciples forgive sin, the sins are forgiven; sin forgiven is robbed of its power. And when the disciples retain the sins of any, the sin is retained, but scripture does not say who retains it. When the disciples do not forgive the sins of others, they keep the sins themselves. Sins are not kept on behalf of others. When the Lord forgives the repentant, others cannot be forced to retain their sins. That forgiveness is about Jesus’ action, not the disciples.

Both passages accent the sovereignty of Jesus as he blesses and forgives. The disciples’ forgiveness does not overwhelm God’s sovereignty. God’s ability to forgive sin is not dependent upon the choices of the disciples, or any body else. The disciples’ ability to forgive and retain sin affects their relationships with others and with God, not the other’s relationship with God.

It is the responsibility of the disciples to share what they have seen, and heard, and learned from the Lord. It is their responsibility to share the gospel. But it is not the responsibility of the disciples to judge how the listeners respond. “Those who hear are judged by how they respond to the offer of life.” [4]

Wonderfully, gloriously, we are given this same blessing, commission, responsibility, and authority. As the disciples passed these blessings onto the church, we continue this ministry today. Through the breath of God that blew across creation in the beginning, we continue to receive the blessing and power of the Lord’s Holy Spirit.

We are called to take the disciples vocation and make it our own. We are called to do as they did. They were called to receive, believe, and respond. Likewise we are called to receive the Holy Spirit. We are called to believe in the word and the power of the Lord. And we are called to share the word of God; God’s loving words of grace and forgiveness.

Many of us are familiar with the old Bob Dylan song from 1962, Blowin’ in the Wind. It has been covered by folk singers, country singers, blues singers, jazz singers, and even a punk band over the last 45 years. The lyrics themselves ask questions, questions that have no real answers. The song asks things like:

How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?

While these questions are not answered in the song, Dylan teaches the listener where to find the answer to these questions:

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.[5]

I am here to tell you that it is true; the answer to these questions is blowin’ in the wind, the same wind that blew across the void in Genesis and began all of creation. It is the wind that blew across the chaos, across the darkness, across the void. It is the breath that preceded life, the breath that gave life to all of creation. It is the breath that still comes from God and is still imparted on creation. It is the wind that comes from the breath of God, given to the disciples which we still receive today. It is the breath that calls us to believe. It is the breath that calls us to share the word, sharing the breath of God. It is the breath that calls us to forgive.

And still, it calls us to listen and believe. Because when we stop listening to the word of God, when we quit feeling the breath of the Lord blowing across our faces, across our lives, we are not able to respond according to the word. We instead pay attention to the words we hear from other voices. When we stop listening to the voice of God, we stop forgiving and start retianing other’s sins. When we hear other voices, we do not hear the blessing of the Lord, “Peace to you.”


Listen and believe. Listen, and receive the Lord’s blessing. Listen, and forgive. Listen, and read the word of God. Listen, and let us worship together. Listen, and respond to the sick and the poor that surround us. Listen, and be filled with the breath of God. Listen and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

[1] To pronounce this word the accent is on the first syllable and the “ach” in the second is soft.
[2] Jerusalem Publication Society, New American Standard Bible, New International Version, New Living translations
[3] New Revised Standard Version
[4] Cousar, Charles B., Gaventa, Beverly R., McCann, Jr., J. Clinton, Newsome, James D., Texts for Preaching, A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV, YEAR C. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994, page 282.
[5] Dylan, Bob, “Blowin in the Wind.” From “The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.” Music and lyrics published April 1962, song released 1963. Publishing information unknown.