Last Tuesday I went into Epiphany House and the aroma reminded me of Easter Breakfast.  What a great event!  Congratulations to our youth and adults who helped make it possible - what a blessing it was to all, not to mention the best breakfast I've had in years!  But with all the cooking, I still had to open the windows awhile, and air the place out, just like most all of us are doing in our homes this time of year.

          It's spring cleaning time!  The musty smell of a closed house needs to give way to fresh air of open windows and a thorough cleansing.  Spring cleaning is a ritual that's common in most every culture.  After a long winter, it's good to air the place out, to cast out the old and get ready for the new.  It's time to clean house!  In Jewish homes every year, the house is swept clean of yeast just before Passover begins.  They're preparing for the Feast of Unleavened Bread, but many Jewish Moms also admit another good reason is to do the spring cleaning.

          And the Garage Sale is the logical extension.  If it's too good or expensive to throw away, we put it in our driveways and try to sell it!  The rest of us go around and buy what everyone else had put out in their driveway.  And this year we can all come to Epiphany's Garage sale June 22-23.  Epiphany women want your old stuff to sell, but just make sure it's good stuff!

          The old "church barn" had quite a cleaning.  Usually a farmer cleans inside of a barn, but last Thursday we brought in a huge tractor and pushed the whole barn over.  It's no longer a barn, but a pile of rubble!  And after today's ground breaking ceremony, we'll be starting building a new "barn," a place where God's precious creatures will gather for spiritual food and fellowship.  In pacing off where our new structure will go, it looks as if our altar will be right where the old feedbunk was.  As the old saying goes, "Put down the hay where the sheep can get it."  Feeding Lutherans where Farmer Shively used to feed his mules!  If you don't find that rather funny, we need to talk!  God's sense of humor in this is just delightful.

          Jesus' disciples were feeling like mules.  They'd seen their Rabbi die, but from a distance, since they'd all abandoned Him.  They'd heard Him speak of destroying the temple and rebuilding it in three days, but that didn't involve a cross!  They stubbornly stuck to their old ideas of what the Messiah would do, and dying wasn't one of them.  This Rabbi born in a stable, who slept His first night in a feedbunk, was the Son of God, but they didn't see it.  It would take the miracle of the Holy Spirit to open their eyes, and that wouldn't happen yet for weeks.

          They were huddled together in the upper room, the place where they'd had their "Last Supper" together.  The doors were locked and that was just fine with them since at any time they expected Roman soldiers to knock the door down and arrest them.  But Jesus didn't knock down the door, He walked through it!  Suddenly, there He was, as big as life.  Before He came they were afraid;  now they're terrified!  Where'd He come from?  How'd He do that?  Is He real or a ghost?

          John's Gospel isn't the only one to tell of this remarkable event.  Mark said He appeared to the Eleven that night and rebuked them for their stubborn refusal to believe the women.  Luke said Jesus stood among them and invited them to touch Him to confirm He was alive.  Matthew jumps from Easter Sunday to Ascension Day and misses it all.  But John gives us some of the details.

          You can imagine their shock and fright at seeing Him suddenly among them.  Knowing this, Jesus calmed them, saying, "Peace be with you."  And then He did something wonderful:  "He breathed on them, and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit."  "Breathing" on them recalled God breathing into the first Adam the breath of life.  Now the Second Adam, Jesus, breathes into His followers the breath of a new life.  Now they would be a new creation, a new Covenant people living by faith instead of rules.

          God here is giving His Disciples a life force that will empower the Holy Christian Church.  In just fifty days the Spirit will blow His dynamic breath into them and jump start a movement that will change the world.  He'll create a Body of Christ that will give hope and light, joy and courage to everyone.  He first breathed on them and then said, "Now go out and forgive others!"

          It's an interesting first directive, to forgive!  You'd have thought Jesus would have given them a method to make converts.  But, you see, Jesus isn't interested in methods but relationships.  He doesn't call His Disciples to do things, but to trust Him.  God isn't interested in their methods and plans, but in their relationship with Him.  Will they trust Him for all things?  Will they believe in His Son?  Will they grow in a loving relationship with Him, or will they write a book about their experiences, maybe Crucifixion - the Real Story, or a best seller for today, Ten Steps Towards Discipleship.

          But they didn't do that.  He started their journey with forgiveness.  "Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven;  if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."  Now that He'd completed salvation for the world, now that He'd forgiven their sins, now they can forgive each other.  In the Lord's Prayer, He'd already said forgiveness was not an option.  "If you do not forgive people when they sin against you, then your Father will not forgive you." (Matthew 6:15)  Not a lot of room to wiggle there!

          But now He gives them a ground rule of the faith - "Forgive, just like you've been forgiven."  Learn to forgive, He said, and if you have to, withhold forgiveness from those stubborn ones who refuse to repent.  This is a hard Word, but also a just Word.  God's love may be unconditional, but it doesn't cover unbelief.  If we believe, we must also forgive.  A person unwilling to forgive usually has a big problem with faith.  It's a hard lesson to learn in our walk with God.

          This last Thursday after we knocked down the barn, we submitted construction plans to the County Building Dept.  I volunteered to do this, as the others had prior commitments.  First I learned one of the sheets lacked a stamp by a Professional Electrician.  Many phone calls and lots of prayer later, I found an Engineer who stamped the drawings for a letter of donation (a minor miracle!).  Then I was told we didn't have the water well test report;  but our Engineer faxed that over.

          Then I had to get a Fire Department permit, and found they didn't want just one set of drawings, but seven sets!  And since they were sure we were a Public Works Project, I'd also need to complete a six page application.  An hour or two later, after $81 of printing, reason prevailed.  The Fire Dept. admitted we weren't a Public Works Project, so the application wasn't needed.  I drove 148 miles that day, and it was a real learning experience.  First I learned that whenever you go through a public approval process, you'll never get it right the first time.  And then I learned it was time to move to Castle Rock!

          It was learning time for the Disciples, too.  They'd made some big mistakes that previous week.  They had a load of musty stuff in their heads that needed to be cleaned, changed and re-arranged.  They'd learned a lot from Jesus and gained some good judgment.  But we all know how we get good judgment - from our mistakes!  I have a saying framed on my office wall that is so very true:

Good Judgment comes from Experience;
Experience comes from Bad Judgment.

          It was housecleaning time for the Disciples, too.  Christ was ready to leave them, and had only a few things left to do.  Here was the first:  to forgive them and show them how to forgive each other.  If He could forgive a doubting Thomas, if He could forgive a denying Peter, or cruel soldiers or a betraying Judas or stubborn unbending priests, then anything is possible - even heaven for you and me!  God grant it to us all!  Amen

Copyright © 2001 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.