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I was listening to the 90-Second Naturalist podcast earlier this morning. Thane Maynard was describing  evolutionary continuity. This theory suggests that  differences between animal species should be measured in terms of degrees of difference rather than rather than the type of difference. (Maynard, April 2014) Anatomical, physiological, cognitive, and emotional lives for all mammals, for example, are "shades of gray, not black and white. ... "If we have something, 'they' have it too." More specifically, all vertebrates (animals with backbones) live and breathe with very similar skeletons, central nervous systems and symmetrical, quadruped structures. We don't exactly look like our pets at home or animals in the zoo but we're actually much more similar than we think we are. This is a profound miracle of our shared life on this planet. 

Yet is it?

The Incredulity of St. Thomas - Rembrandt

Jesus does two remarkable things in John's Gospel when he rejoins his disciples following The Resurrection. First, he offers them peace (tranquility of soul). Second, he shared the living breath of creation (the Holy Spirit) with them. His resurrection is about sharing life, not death. He isn't interested in getting even or violently seeking vengeance. His re-birth in human nature as well as in Divine behavior is life-giving. He shares the Holy Spirit with his closest friends who will soon become the people responsible for sharing that same Holy Spirit with a broader group of people in Jerusalem. 

In short - I view these wonderful activities as a Christian interpretation of evolutionary continuity. The disciples may have thought they were vastly different than Jesus Christ all along. Yet, upon his return, God's unpredictable desire to share love rather than hate keeps unfolding in their very midst with the Son of God sharing with them how it happens.

We too possess the Holy Spirit's life-giving gifts. We can choose to forgive sins or retain them. We can choose to doubt that Darwin's theory of evolution or Christ's Resurrection are true. Regardless, a core of our Christian faith as Anglicans is that through baptism we are buried in death and sin even as we are reborn to life anew in Christ's resurrection. We similarly believe through our baptism that all life on Earth is blessed and beloved by God, vertebrate or otherwise. It is through the beautiful gifts of The Resurrection and the Holy Spirit's presence that we can live as Easter-season Christians, just as the disciples in the Upper Room did centuries ago.