She Calls For Jailbreak (remix)

Peace, my friends. This is a short excerpt from an unpublished paper I was playing with way back in March of 2016. That said, everything here is a recurring theme and certainly made its way into prayers, sermons, and devotions at the time. Sharing because in yesterday's lectionary reading in a bunch of churches (including the one we attend), we read about Paul and Silas getting busted out by the Spirit. Anyhow, that's it. Hope you dig it. Feel free to share. If you would give this blog (or tomgaulke.com) a footnote for it when you do, that'd be lovely :) Many thanks, friends. Peace. ~Tom 

[Prison at Philippi: image source]

The post-Resurrection Christian faith was founded in the work of the Spirit, breaking locked doors when the disciples were paralyzed for fear. She pushed the disciples into the public square where they spoke out, spoke prophetically, spoke in languages each could understand. She turned their fear of unjust punishment into a proclamation of desire for justice, for the Kingdom, the Reign to come. In a society where voices and dreams are repressed, this act is miraculous.

The disciples told Jesus' stories, "The Kingdom of God is like…" They gathered communities around the proclamation, hoping. "The last shall be first." "The lowly exalted." "The powerful torn down!" They proclaimed. And they became willing to die for a Kingdom, a Reign, a rule, for which they desired, longed for with their whole being—heart, soul, strength, and mind, with their whole body, as the Spirit gave them ability (Acts 2:4).

Christianity came into being as a religion of desire. In an empire, oppressive and repressive, the Christians felt in their bones, their bodies, their being, desire for something new. Their desire was affirmed by Jesus' teachings, embodied in his description of God's Reign.

The Holy Spirit—of wind, of flame, of body, of passion, desiring flesh—is the instigator of desire, the Breath that creates beauty from chaos, that creates desiring flesh from emotionless dry bones, and that creates children of God from the poor and outcast, gathering the crowds, dreaming of and naming God's Reign at hand.

The disciples experienced Her previvification, the new life that stirred in them, even as they remained in hiding, and when She moved in the whole community of hope and desire, all were able to hear, to listen, and to respond. She shook the chains of the disciples in prison (Acts 16:26), desired freedom for all enchained.

When we are in chains, She asks not for the stench of incense (Amos 5:21). Rather, She calls for desire, rebellion.

She, the Spirit, calls for jailbreak.