Jack Hardaway
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Just open up the window and let in some fresh air.
Like a quiet breath, a whisper caressing our skin and we breathe it in, breathing deep, again and again.
It’s been a good week for opening windows and being refreshed.
A breath of fresh air. That is Pentecost.
That is Jesus.
We see evidence of God.
The readings this morning all touch on the Holy Spirit and the life of living in the Spirit.
The readings are all very different.
The Holy Spirit is seen as many things, and is experienced in many ways.
But what the readings all hold in common is the evidence of God’s presence.
And that evidence is that God gathers and reconnects those who were dispersed and isolated.
What separates and drives us away from each other is turned around and we are now in communion.
Not because we all agree, or are all alike, or because we hold something in common, but because God holds us in common.
The sound of a mighty wind fills the house.
Tongues of divided flame.
Many languages, many native tongues, all can hear, all can understand, none are left out.
The apostle Paul writes of the diversity of gifts and ministries that make up the body of Christ, an incredible diversity that is held in common by God’s Spirit, by the love that activates and animates what was dormant and forgotten. The Spirit is that love.
That is Paul’s great spiritual project, how to discern and edify this unlikely diversity, that is the body of Christ, the body of God alive and moving in the world.
That is where the whole concept of e pluribus unum comes from, out of many one. Memorial Day we remember those who died for that vision at the heart of our country. Evidence of God. Some would even call it proof.
The wild diversity of creation is witnessed in the psalm with the presence of Spirit creating and sustaining all things, especially that leviathan, a creature made for the sport of it, just for fun, the lightness, the spontaneous joy, the creativity, the love that is life in the Spirit.
And then there is Jesus breathing life into the dead world, into a room of dead humanity, the breath of fresh air to those hiding in fear, bringing life to what was dead, and that life has the power to forgive, to forgive sins, to be set free from the power of sin that binds us.
The greatest power in the universe, the power to forgive, to truly start over, to regather ourselves and each other.
A breath of fresh air.
The breath of fresh air.
Evidence.
Jesus is that breath that wakes us from our deadly sleep.
God is like that.
The Spirit holds us in common, and frees us to love.
That is the mission.
That is the Gospel.
We carry that breath of fresh air with us.
It fills us like the sound of a mighty wind.
And it spreads like fire.
Like tongues of divided flame being shared, passed along.
Just open up the window. and let in the fresh air.
A quiet breath, a whisper caressing the skin, breathe it in, breathe deep, again and again.
Pentecost, a good day for opening windows, and being refreshed.