How will the rushing wind feel to one
whose neck is pressed into the dust?

Will we hear the Spirit speak
through tongues of fire?

Would you inhale Jesus’s unfiltered breath,
recently stolen by a suffocating death,
reeking of righteousness and resurrection,
the Judge of nations, unmasked?

More than 100,000 people have died of COVID-19 in the US.
Nearly 360,000 people have died from the disease worldwide. Close to 6 million cases have been confirmed overall.
George Floyd died after saying, “I can’t breathe,” as a police officer knelt on his neck in Minneapolis on Memorial Day.

Thanks to the Revd Canon Percy Grant for the image of Jesus’ tomb-breath.

John 20:19-23
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”