The Loraine Smith Effect.

Have you ever heard of it?

It sounds like the life-changing influence of a saintly old Sunday School teacher, doesn't it? Dear, sweet Loraine Smith. But Loraine Smith has nothing to do with the shaping of impressionable young souls. Her effect is all about "oxygen toxicity." Yes, oxygen toxicity. "The Loraine Smith Effect" is another name for pulmonary oxygen toxicity, a condition resulting in damage to the lungs and airways.

It's a pretty awful effect. But Loraine does not tend to strike while you are simply sitting in church - thank goodness. Instead, she poses a threat to people engaged in serious deep-water diving, especially to divers using a cutting-edge device called a "rebreather." Are you familiar with it? A rebreather.

This is not your father's scuba gear.

The story begins in late 1987, when a man named Bill Stone made diving history. He began by immersing himself in 30 feet of water, deep down in a network of submerged caves in Florida, carrying only two 30-cubic foot oxygen tanks and a sack of war novels. Had he been using normal scuba gear, he would have been forced to surface after 30 minutes. But Stone, an automation engineer in DC, was wearing a homemade rebreather.

So down in the water he stayed, for one hour, two hours, ten hours, twenty hours ... just plowing through his stash of novels and breathing away. His rebreather recycled his exhaled air, scrubbing it of poisonous carbon dioxide and squeezing out every last molecule of oxygen in his tanks.

Finally, he emerged. He had been down for 24 hours -- the longest anyone has ever survived underwater with a self-contained breathing device. "When I got out of the water and checked, I found I'd used only half of my consumables," he told Discover magazine. "That was the big shock. I could have stayed under for another 24 hours."

That was 13 years ago. Today, the latest rebreathing device, the MK-5P, features sophisticated gas and depth sensors, three microprocessors, computer displays, and a $17,500 price tag. With such a rebreather, divers can linger for half a day without thinking about their air supply, taking the time they need to survey shipwrecks, frolic with fish, or explore undersea caves that were previously off-limits.

A rebreather works by saving expired air and scrubbing it, instead of sending it all out into the water as bubbles. Of course, the process isn't perfect -- divers still have to watch out for that nasty Loraine Smith Effect! When it is working well, a rebreathing apparatus is like a set of gills, permitting divers to live as though they really belonged in the water all along. It enables people to breathe like fish, turning them into a kind of a new creation - a new creation that feels equally at home on the land or in the sea. (Kathy A. Svitil, "To Breathe Like a Fish," Discover, July 2000, 42ff).

There is a rebreathing lesson in today's passage from Second Corinthians as well. The apostle Paul admits that he "once knew Christ from a human point of view" (5:16) -- seeing him as a land-dwelling, air-breathing, rabble-rouser who was rightly put to death on the cross. But now he takes a very different view. Paul has come to claim the crucified Christ as his risen Lord, and to see him as the heaven-dwelling, Spirit-breathing, righteous reconciler of God and all humankind. What's more, the apostle claims that Christ is the head of a brand new creation -- one in which "everything old has passed away" and "everything has become new!" (v. 17) -- a creation that all Christian believers can now call home.

Talk about radical rebreathing! Suddenly the MK-5P doesn't seem so fantastic. Jesus Christ turns us from land-dwellers to heaven-dwellers, and from air-breathers to Spirit-breathers. "So, if anyone is in Christ," proclaims Paul, "there is a new creation" (v. 17). When we believe in the Lord Jesus, we enter a whole new world, a world in which love replaces hatred, acceptance replaces rejection, and cooperation replaces competition. We sense this new creation whenever we see the church expand and grow and renew itself - as we have done this morning through our celebration of the reception of 18 wonderful new members.

This new creation is a world no less exciting than the world Bill Stone entered with his homemade rebreather. But unlike Bill, we're supposed to do more than sit underwater and read war novels. As Spirit-breathing believers, we are challenged to do the work of reconciliation.

Yes, the work of reconciliation: The restoration of friendship between feuding parties. You see, although heaven is now our official home address, we still have work to do in this sin-sick and struggling society. Christ asks us to be Spirit-breathers in an air-breathing world, using our rebreathing abilities to strive for peace in situations of conflict, and to seek to repair all sorts of strained and shattered relationships. "All this is from God," says Paul, "who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation" (v. 18).

Reconciliation is the key to life in this brand new creation -- it's the work that God began through Christ, and that we are challenged to continue. We are to do this work in our homes, our schools, our workplaces, and right here in this community of faith called Fairfax Presbyterian Church. You know where the strains are. You know where the shattered relationships exist. You know where work needs to be done - as tough as it is to gather our courage and do it.

The original Greek for reconciliation is a fascinating word: Katalasso. Kata means "together," and lasso means "wrapped" or "tied" -- not unlike the lasso that cowboys use to rope wild horses. Paul tells us that God was active in Christ, tying the world to himself, wrapping it close to himself in the bond of forgiveness and love. At the same time, God was entrusting the message of tying, wrapping, and lassoing to us, asking us to go out into the world as ambassadors of Christ.

So our rebreathing lessons have two parts. One, be reconciled to God (v. 20). And two, perform the ministry of reconciliation (v. 18). Let yourself get tied close to God through his Son Jesus Christ, and then go out into the world to do the work of wrapping people together, and lassoing them for God.

A Palestinian priest named Elias Chacour recounts a Palm Sunday service at his church in Israel -- one in which he could see so many people who were at odds with each other. In fact, he realized that there was, in reality, no peace among his people.

At the end of the service, he made a startling decision. He walked down the center aisle and at the back of the church locked the only two doors to the church and took the key. He told the people both that he loved them and that he was saddened to find them so filled with hatred and bitterness for one another. Then, in the midst of stunned silence, he announced that only one person could work the miracle of reconciliation in their village: Jesus Christ.

"So on Christ's behalf, I say this to you," said Elias Chacour: "The doors of the church are locked. Either you kill each other right here in your hatred and then I will celebrate your funerals ... or you use this opportunity to be reconciled together before I open the doors of the church. If that reconciliation happens, Christ will truly become your Lord."

Ten minutes passed, and no one said a word. The people sat in silence, locked inside their church.

Finally, one man stood up. It was Abu Muhib, a villager serving as an Israeli policeman, who was in his uniform. He stretched out his arms and said, "I ask forgiveness of everybody here and I forgive everybody. And I ask God to forgive me my sins." He and Chacour then embraced, with tears streaming down Abu Muhib's cheeks. Within minutes, everyone in the church was crying, laughing, embracing and sharing Christ's love and peace.

Elias Chacour then announced that "this is not Palm Sunday any longer. This is our resurrection! We are a community that has risen from the dead, and we have new life. I propose that we don't wait until next Sunday, until Easter, to celebrate the resurrection. I will unlock the doors and then let us go from home to home all over the village and sing the resurrection hymn to everyone!" (L. Gregory Jones, Embodying Forgiveness [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 180-181).

Rebreathing lessons can be dramatic -- as they were for this congregation in Israel. Suddenly reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, they reached out to each other and to the world in an explosively exciting ministry of reconciliation. They discovered that they were united in Christ - the only one who COULD unite them in the midst of their differences and disagreements. After years of being choked by hatred and conflict, they were finally able to breathe.

The same is true for us. It doesn't require a high-tech diving device. And Loraine Smith has nothing to do with it.

Call it "The Jesus Christ Effect." Amen.