Homily for the 1st Sunday after Easter, 2022

Our Epistle this morning is from 1 John 5 and the Apostle John is writing about what it means to be alive in God. “WHATSOEVER is born of God overcometh the world.” It is very appropriate that this passage is appointed for this Sunday because we have three baptisms when we celebrate that someone is reborn in God. 1 John 5 is incredibly sacramental, and it gives us a window into just how sacramental the early Church was. John says there are three witnesses that bear record of Jesus here on earth: Water which refers to Baptism, Blood which refers to the Eucharist, and the Spirit which refers to Ordination and/or Confirmation. The one who is born of God has the witness of the Spirit living in him, and John concludes this section by saying that whoever has the Spirit of Jesus living in him has Life. “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son hath not life.” This is given on the Octave of Easter, meaning the 8th day of the Easter season, because the Resurrection of Jesus gives us a second layer of Life. We not only have life by virtue of our birth in Adam, we also have the eternal life that Jesus gives because He was raised from the grave that Adam dug. So, in summary, we have life because we Jesus and His Spirit live inside us, and this means that we will “overcome the world.”

The Gospel for this Sunday fits together perfectly with the Epistle. Here we see Jesus freshly alive right after the Resurrection. He walks into the room where His disciples are sitting and breathes on them. He breathes on them. What is going on here? Genesis 2 is going on here. The life that Jesus has within Himself after His Resurrection is so ALIVE that it is as if the disciples are dead. They must be brought to REAL LIFE but an act of New Creation. So, just like God did in Genesis 2 when He knelt down and breathed into the clay nostrils of Adam to make him a “living soul”, so Jesus breathes on His apostles who have a form of Life, but who need the Resurrection Life of Jesus Christ to be truly ALIVE. And this is what brings us back to 1 John 5. “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son hath not life.”

This Sunday we contemplate what it means to be ALIVE in Jesus. What significance does it have the Son of God, fresh out of the tomb, breathed Resurrection Life into the nostrils of His disciples? If we see this action of breathing on the Apostles in light of Genesis 1 and 2, then the significance the action becomes clearer. First, the Life that Jesus gives has a Vocation, a calling on the life of every believer, a purpose for living, a great task that we must all work to accomplish together. “Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you…whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.” In other words, “Go and tell everyone that in Me their sins can be forgiven and that they can have eternal life. Go!” It should not surprise us that Jesus would give his newly alive disciples their marching orders. What was one of the first things that God did after breathing on Adam and Eve? He sent them, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it.” So part of what it means to be alive in Jesus is to be sent out into the world to share this new life, and this is a vocation and purpose to our living.

In addition to a Vocation given through our new life in Jesus, we also have Victory promised. Vocation and Victory. “WHATSOEVER is born of God overcometh the world.” The Greek word here is for “overcome” is nikao, from where we get the word “Nike”. It means Victory. Whoever is born of God will not only have a vocation to their life, but they will have Victory in that Vocation. It is interesting that this Greek word, nikao, is often translated as subdue. It has a “dominion” idea in it. Whoever is born of God will take dominion over the world, just like Adam was supposed to do, only this time they will overcome the world and the world will not overcome them.

Finally, those who are born of God, breathed on by the Son of God, in addition to having Vocation and Victory, also have…V…v…Peace. When breathing new life into His apostles, Jesus says two times, “Peace be unto you.” Peace. This, too, connects back to Genesis 1-2 because the Hebrew word for Peace is “shalom”. The idea behind it is, “Everything will be alright. God is in control. This is His Garden, His World. We have our orders directly from Him. Our victory is in His hands. Therefore, do not be anxious.”

Vocation, Victory, and Peace. Do you know how wonderful these are? How fortunate are we that we have such a Life? The Bowen children were baptized into this Life this morning, and how different will their life be because of it. How many people wake up every morning with no purpose to their life? How many people have only the certainty of Death hanging over their heads, and perpetual failure in this life. How many people are crippled by anxiety because they have not been awakened by the fresh breathe of God into the New Creation? They only see a world in decay, a creation ruled by entropy and injustice. But not so for the Bowen children, not so for all who are born of God. We have Vocation. We have Victory. We have Peace. Far greater than all of these for it is a mystery beyond our ability to comprehend and articulate, we have LIFE because we have the Son.

So, CTK, what should we do about this new breathe and new life? We should rejoice! We should shout Alleluia! We ought to have wonder. Our hearts ought to be filled with gratitude and joy and peace. And if you feel that the breathe of God has gone out of you and that you have been overcome by the world, there is nothing that our gracious Lord loves to do more than kneeling down again and again to breathe fresh life into our soul. If you feel dead, instead of alive in Christ, you just have to ask. If you feel like nothing matters instead of filled with a purposeful vocation, you just have to pray. If you feel defeated and overcome by the world instead of having nike, victory, you just have to call out. If you are overcome with anxiety instead of having the Peace that Jesus gives, then sit and breathe it in. The moment we pray, fresh wind comes our way. You can do it now. “Lord, fill me with your breath. Renew my purpose. Remove my sin and give me Joy and Peace.”

Beloved, “He that hath the Son hath life.” Let us rejoice and be glad that Katy Jo, Annabelle, and Brennan have Resurrection Life in them, and that we have it in us, and let us go forth from here with Vocation, Victory, and Peace. Amen.