I’ve been thinking a lot about breath recently. 

My nephew was in the ICU for 5 days when he was a few months old struggling to breathe after a bout of RSV.  A few months later my brother-in-law, his father, described the pain and helplessness of watching someone you love most in the world struggling to breathe. Think about that.  How awful it would be to watch someone you love gasping to take the breath you have seen them take a million times.  

This week I watched a painfully disturbing video of a man struggling to breathe.  It happened a few miles from my home.  I watched it, you have more than likely watched it, people all around the nation have watched it.  His mother has watched it.  George Floyd’s mother watched with the rest of the nation as her most important person fought for breath. 

Last night I heard the sirens and helicopters just a couple miles from my house as people cried out in pain and frustration.  From the comfort of my own home I watched the newsfeed of a community of people lashing out over the injustice in this country.   I held my breath as a community protested their inability to breathe.  As a white and privileged person in this city I cannot relate to that pain and that fear; I can only listen to it with empathy.  I can bear witness to it so that one more person knows the pain exists.  I have the choice to hold my breath.  This is a privilege not everyone has, I know that when I choose to release it, I can breathe again.  

This Sunday we celebrate the breath of the Spirit flowing through the church during Pentecost Sunday.  This breath unites us as a Church and holds us together.  When I say the word “church” I don’t mean the building.  The breath of the Spirit does not hold together the brick and mortar of church walls, steeples, pews or stained glass.  If anything, the breath blows those walls down so that God’s people can be scattered to do God’s work in our world.   

This breath poured through the church of the early disciples in Acts 2, (the text we will be reading this Sunday for worship) is the same Spirit surrounding and comforting us today.  Much like our world today, the people in Acts 2 were sitting in their brokenness and grief.  They were scared and wondering what the future would hold for them.  But with the breath of the Spirit came the ability to hear and understand people who look and sound different.  Scripture says they understood one another’s language, but perhaps they also gained the ability to understand their hearts as well.     

Spend some time today thinking about breath:   

The breath that you have.   

The breath of the Spirit.   

The breath of others. 

What is the breath of the Spirit calling you to do today?  Why is the breath of God filling your lungs right now?  What messages can you speak with that breath today?  How are you using your voice for those who can’t breathe?    

Kristi Larson, Director of Youth and Family Ministry  

I am thankful for Kristi’s words and thoughts today.  I too have been thinking about breath: the breath of life that comes from God, filling us up, making us whole and the power of the breath.  As we think about our own breath, and our calling, I believe too we are invited to notice the words, the breath, the life of others who are powerless, whose words we often dismiss and ignore.  What are they saying?  How is the Spirit filling their beings and how might we bear witness to the sanctity of their breath? 

Pastor Joanna Mitchell 

Let us pray: 

God of life, God of wind, breathe on us today.  Breathe into our hearts, our minds and our spirits your Holy Spirit, uniting us as your people, recognizing our diversity and empowering us to cry out on behalf of others.  We pray today for the bondage, we as your people, continue to live under as racism and injustice continues to pervade our communities and our lives.  Today we hear the cries of our brothers and sisters of color and lament.  Lord have mercy: for the pain and suffering of George Floyd, his family, his friends, his community, and the countless other people of color whose breath has been taken from them.   Hear our cries of anguish, sorrow and repentance. Bring comfort to us in our mourning.  Fill us with your transforming power and birth hope out of our despair. Breathe with us so that we can be saved from ourselves.  Amen