But this year, I don’t know what to do. Wednesday the wind was spectacular and
fierce. On this block, trees were blown
over, rain barrels knocked over and the screen door to the church office was
pulled right off its hinges. The only
thing that kept it from heading to the river was the chain and metal piston
that attached it at the top of the door jam.
I looked outside my window and it was like a grey fog there was so much
dust and dirt blowing down the street. I
honestly wondered if it was a tornado, and if I would be heading to Kansas on a
rocking chair!
Wind is dangerous, and unpredictable. It is noisy and flighty. No wonder the people in Acts came running to
see what was happening. Luke, the
writer, combined the two most dangerous and unpredictable forces of nature,
fire and wind, to describe the workings of the Spirit amid that confused
gathering of disciples.
It was also transformative.
The disciples were meeting yet again behind closed and locked doors, afraid
of going outside their safe place. Going
out into the dangerous world of deceitful politicians, violent foreigners, and
religious spokesmen who were more interested in power than in justice. And yet despite all that, they burst out into
the open with joy and enthusiasm, full of the Spirit and unwilling, no, unable
to keep their story a secret any longer.
That the one they had followed as a friend turned out to be so much more
than they had first thought, and his teachings so different than the other
rabbis, that they could not explain it in any other way than that he was the
true Emperor.
Augustus Christos? No way! From that moment on, Jesus
Christos was their ruler, their guide, and the one they pledged allegiance to,
making them traitors to the very empire they lived in. Even torture and death would not, did not
stop them. They forgot that they were
ignorant peasants, they forgot that they were poverty-stricken, they forgot
that they had no education or fancy clothes or rich bank accounts or clever
leadership training in public speaking.
They were inspired to go and make a difference in the world.
A world that doesn’t look too much different than today. Or does it?
We now understand the importance of human rights, something that was
unheard of in Roman Society. We have a
dislike of slavery, something seen as commonplace back then. We have public schooling, we have much better
healthcare and a democratic system that the Romans would have envied.
But we too live in unsettling times where we don’t trust
politicians, authority figures and those we think we should depend on to guide
us through the challenges we face. With
attacks in London, confusing definitions of freedom of speech, elected
officials getting into physical altercations with reporters, and the
fearmongering that is being spread, when we are hearing about bullying and
discrimination in the RCMP and bank tellers being pressured to sell, sell,
sell, it’s hard to know who to trust or how to care about what happens to our
neighbors.
We need a support person, a cheer leader to get, as my
teenagers used to say, ‘our mojo going’.
We do that by remembering that, in the words of 1 Corinthians, we are
many parts of the one body, we are all given different gifts through the Spirit.
Our gifts won’t make a difference if we
use them as individuals for our own benefit, but as part of a community, watch
out world!
We are all part of a community for an important reason. We share our gifts together and we become
more than the sum of our parts. Peter
didn’t start the church by himself.
Jesus gathered a community and trained them to work
together. Paul, as soon as he came into
a new town, made friends of folks before he taught them what he knew. We gather in community because we are
stronger that way. We get inspiration
from one another and from gathering together.
Inspiration. What is
the root of that word? ‘Spiri’ – the
latin root for breath or wind. In spire
means breath in that keeps us going.
Spiri, the root of the word Spirit.
For those of you who speak ancient Greek or Hebrew, the same word for
Spirit also meant breath. Breathe on me
breath of God. But where do we turn for
that inspiration?
I met someone very inspiring to me at Olds, a neighbor from
Lister hall at University. I hadn’t seen
her in over 35 years, and I was astonished that she was United Church. I asked her when she became United, and she
said she grew up in the church. How come
I didn’t know that, I asked her. Because
you were a very cynical, angry atheist!
She was more surprised than I was to see me there. And her example of courage and kindness that inspired
me when I was young was the Spirit blowing me back into church community.
The Spirit moves to inspire us in unexpected ways. All that wind on Wednesday didn’t touch my
empty plastic flowerpots sitting in the front yard. It is a mystery I can’t comprehend. The Spirit blows fiercely and with fire and
energy when we least expect it, but also gently and lovingly at other times. The Spirit is not a tame lion, and will
inspire us not to play it safe but to convert and support wild-eyed bitter
atheists like myself in ways we can’t imagine.
The Spirit is not done with you yet, or us yet, or even the world
yet. God so loved the world, and God is
not stopping. Thanks be to God!