Background:
John’s account of the giving of the Holy Spirit on Easter differs from the account of the Pentecost event in the Acts of the Apostles.
Still, his short account with its double salutation of ‘Peace be with you” gives that common greeting new significance for the early followers of Jesus and for us today.
Coupled with the commission of being sent forth as Jesus had been sent by the Father, it sets the stage for their reception of the Holy Spirit with its power and responsibility of forgiveness.
Story:
Once upon a time a new family moved into a neighborhood. It was a nice neighborhood and it was very close to where the Daddy worked, so close he could walk to work. There was only one thing wrong with the neighborhood. Most people weren’t Irish! Yes, that’s true there are such neighborhoods!
They were Mexican and Thai, Jewish and Korean, Japanese and Indian, Polish and Columbian, Lebanese and Chinese and just about every other nationality that you could imagine. The children in the neighborhood swarmed around the new kids. Are you really Irish?
We don’t have any Irish living in our neighborhood. What’s it like to be Irish? Can you teach us Irish songs and dances and tell us Irish stories? Our new family was not dumb at all. They realized that there was some pay-off in being different. They had to look up Irish songs and stories and learn some Irish dances. They became very popular. They also learned a lot about all the strange people (i.e. those that were not Irish in their neighborhood and decided that while they were not Irish it wasn’t their fault and they were pretty cool kids anyway. They loved the cooking even if some of it was a little too spicy.
Do you want to move back to the old neighborhood, their parents asked them anxiously. No way, said the kids,
God made us all different and we enjoy it! All Irish neighborhoods are BORING!