Sermon Easter2 2006

Read John 20:19-23

I remember as a child reading “Charlotte’s Webb” by E.B. White: a beautiful story. I was surprised this week to learn – thanks to Jim Harnish – more about Mr. E.B. White whose wife died of cancer. He wrote this about her:

“Katherine was a member of the resurrection conspiracy, the company of those who plant seeds of hope under dark skies of grief or oppression, going about their living and dying until, no one knows how, when or where, the tender Easter shoots appear, and a piece of creation is healed.” (The Expository Times, March, 1989)

I like very much the idea of a “conspiracy of the resurrection”. Jim reminds us of the origins of the word “conspiracy”:

"The word 'conspiracy' comes from the Latin roots 'com,' meaning 'together' and 'spirare,' meaning 'breathe.' Although it has taken on negative connotations, to 'conspire' is literally to be so closely bound in a common purpose that we 'breathe together.'"

This takes on new meaning given our reading for today. The disciples huddle in fear behind locked doors: a Conspiracy of Silence. Then Jesus enters and their world is forever changed. Indeed the whole world was changed. History was changed.

Jesus’ breath has infiltrated everywhere. Legal and judicial systems in modern democracies owe a great deal to Jesus’ ethics. Indeed, our whole understanding of morality has been deeply influenced by Jesus. In the arts: Dante, Shakespeare, Bach and Mozart, to name a few, were inspired by Jesus. The modern university system, the healing professions, social services, the idea of a United Nations and world service organizations owe their existence to Jesus inspired individuals and organisations. In the Wesleyan tradition we can count the birth of trade unions, people’s dispensaries and affordable medicine, as well as the abolition of slavery as ideas that were birthed or nurtured by Jesus ideas.

You may have heard of the idea of “Caesar's breath.” For a lifetime Julius Caesar’s lungs puffed about a litre of air every breath and so great seas of air passed through this long dead conqueror’s body. The molecules of that air have dispersed around the globe and are with us still. You can work out that for every 1kg of air around you there are about 3920 molecules of the air Caesar exhaled. Assuming you inhale 1 litre of air, then you have 5 molecules of Caesar’s air in you!

Now Caesar lived approximately the same time as Jesus and chances are good I am breathing about as much Jesus’ air as Caesar’s air. I have no choice about these circumstances. I have no control over the air molecules I breath. But I can choose my allegiance. I cannot change circumstance, but I can still choose.

The Conspiracy of the Resurrection calls us to at least two reflections:
That we constantly meditate on our common humanity
That we constantly meditate on our connection with divinity

Common humanity
I am breathing 5 molecules of Caesars breath every lungful. I am part of this man of history. I also breath the air you have just exhaled – far more than immediate that that of Caesar’s. We belong to the same earth - all of us. We breathe the same breath.

Caesar used power and military might to create one of the largest and most organised empires ever seen. He did it with a mix of bureaucratical indifference and ruthless brutality. Would I do differently were I breathing his circumstance?

We like to invent differences between ourselves but we are more closely linked than any would care to acknowledge. Am I so different from the boy who gets involved in gangs because it’s the only place he belongs? Am I so different from the parent who in desperation lashes out at his infant child? Am I so different from the soldier who in fear shoots and kills a protestor holding nothing more than a rock? Am I not all of these and Caesar too?

Connection to Divinity
And yet… I breathe the air of Jesus too. More than that, I breathe the idea of the Conspiracy of the Resurrection. The hero of our faith is not unattainable. Jesus’ example is extraordinary not because he is divine but because he is human. Jesus breathes. Despite his circumstances Jesus actively chose the difficult path of sacrificial service. And look at all the other human heroes throughout history who have made choices of exemplary courage and conviction despite their circumstance. They had no more ability that any of us when all is averaged out. Jesus too: he was a man, just a man. Am I so different from this man? Could I, like him, make choices that raise me above my circumstances? Could I become, like him, a transformer of circumstance?

In the end it involves my deliberate choice. Choose to live for Hope. It is a choice I can make more practiced by consistent, regular meditation upon that which connects me with all humanity and that which connects me to the divine: my breath. As I breathe in, let me breath in the Hope of the Conspiracy of Resurrection. As I breathe out, let me breath out my fear, self-interest, guilt and hate of the Conspiracy of Silence.