Friends, I found it difficult to write for you all this week--
about Pentecost,
and about unity,
and even about the Spirit giving voice to those first persecuted Jewish Christians so that they might prophesy anew to all those people.
There are probably a lot of reasons for this difficulty,
But a major reason it that
in preparation, I felt disturbed
every time I read this famous line from St. Peter’s speech,
and this line from the prophets:
This line that says: That everyone who calls out
Or that everyone who calls on the Lord
shall be saved.
You see…
All I could see when I read this line (again and again) was that image from the video of George Floyd being murdered in Minneapolis.
And all I could hear was Mr. Floyd calling out for help:
“I can’t breathe.”
He said it again and again.
And though he cried out,
There was no deliverance.
Just an armed person
protecting a murderous person
as he killed another person in cold blood.
With events like this one, and so many more,
Just this week
what do we say about Pentecost?
What does the Spirit (in the midst of all of this) have to say?
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The word spirit in Hebrew and in Greek (ruach and pneumati) is also the word for wind and for breath. In English, it’s where we get the word “aspiration” or “to aspire” or “to con-spire!”
And it seems to me that when we see visions of the Spirit at work in the bible, they are always aspirational images--they are images that are meant to be planted in us, to be breathed-in, to fill us, and to move us, just like those first disciples were moved,
so that we might be freed ourselves to take loving action
and to create loving communities just like they did.
God’s Spirit blows over the waters (in the bible) and creates beauty from chaos.
God’s Spirit descends (like doves and fire) at Pentecost,
and, for a moment, creates a space where all have the power to prophesy and to be understood.
Here, at Pentecost, the Spirit creates a space where, especially those who were in hiding,
especially those criminalized-by-association,
the first disciples, living in fear of persecution and death,
traumatized as their friend and Messiah was killed
were freed to speak and to dream and to be understood.
In other words: God’s Spirit and God’s breath descended upon those who were not allowed to breathe or not allowed to breathe-easily every day.
God’s Spirit descended and became for them the breath of life.
And, according to the story in Acts,
this was their aspiration:
One day,
On the Day of the Lord,
on that great glorious Day, they prophecied:
Everyone who cries out,
All who cry out,
And everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord,
shall be saved.
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May this be our aspiration, too.
May we deconstruct all within us and all around us that would allow for the dehumanization and degradation of any of our neighbors.
May we confront the racism that lies within and around us.
May we pray for and strive for a world where every race and ethnicity,
every nationality and those without a nation,
may be drawn together,
crying out,
prophesying,
and being heard.
May we create a world where no one is ever, ever robbed
Of the right to breathe!
And…
May we create a church and a world
where anyone,
and everyone,
and all who cry out,
all who call upon the name of the Lord will be healed, restored, and saved.
May we aspire to live Pentecost every day.
Amen.
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