Experiencing the Spirit: Wind

 This morning, as we are still in the midst of the Easter season, we are going to begin preparing for Pentecost. We are going to embark on a journey of Experiencing the Spirit. This morning we are looking to experience the Spirit as Wind. It is the most basic aspect of life...and has been since the very beginning. Go into any delivery room and the sound everyone is waiting to hear is the sound of that baby crying. Why is that? It is because the cry reveals that the baby has taken a breath and is alive. The sound of that cry was emphasized in a movie that Anita and I watched several years ago. The movie was entitled "Hours," and starred the late Paul Walker (of Fast and Furious fame). It offered a fictional story of a young man who rushes his pregnant wife to the hospital just as Hurricane Katrina is set to hit New Orleans. The woman gives birth prematurely, dies, and the baby is in critical condition. Unable to breath on her on, she is placed on a ventilator. The doctor informs the father than the next 72 hours are critical for the baby to be able to start breathing on her own. As the hurricane hits, the hospital is evacuated, but because of limited space, there is no way to transport the baby on the ventilator and so dad and baby remain behind with a skeleton crew that soon leaves them as well. In the meantime, the hospital loses power and eventually the backup generators succumb to the floodwaters, leaving the hospital (including the breath-providing ventilator) without power. The dad is able to find a hand-crank generator in the hospital which provides three minutes of power to the ventilator per charge. The rest of the movie focuses in on dad as he battle fatigue, scavengers, and eventually a broken generator when, at around the 72 hour mark he simply collapses from extreme exhaustion...as the scene fades out and then fades back in with rescue personnel scouring the hospital for any signs of life, they find dad, and then the rescue team hears the sound that dad had longed to hear, the sound of a baby crying, Abigail's first breaths giving life not only to her, but also a renewed life to her dad. Breath...the sign of life...has been the source of life from the very beginning. I know that we are supposed to be talking about wind. And we are. In Hebrew, the word for wind is ruach. Ruach is also the Hebrew word for both "spirit" and "breath." In Greek, the word for wind is pnuema, but it is also the Greek word for, yes, you guessed it, both "spirit" and "breath" (which is, of course, where we get the word pneumonia). Within the context of Scripture, the same word is used, and translators over the years have offered us the different understandings. As we seek, today, to understand our experience of the Holy Spirit as "Wind," we also experience the Spirit as "Breath." The Wind of the Holy Spirit, is, by its very nature, is the true Breath of Life-an understanding that goes all the way back to the instance of Creation. Hear the Creation story read in these various ways: "In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters." "In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep while the Spirit of God swept over the face of the waters." "In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep while the Breath of God swept over the face of the waters." Then God said, "Let there be light," and with a massive explosion and bang, life as we have come to know it eons later began... As the "days" of creation moved forward, we find that God's Breath/Spirit/Wind continued to bring new life to being...in particular our lives. "...then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being." "...then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the wind of life; and the man became a living being." "...then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the spirit of life; and the man became a living being." This isn't the only time that God's Breath/Wind/Spirit brings life where there was no life. Consider Ezekiel's vision of the Valley of Dry Bones-where God is giving Ezekiel a vision of the restoration of Israel, His people, Ezekiel has prophesied and watched the bones come together and flesh appear on them, then God says, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God, Come from the four winds, o Breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.' "Prophesy to the Spirit, prophesy, mortal, and say to the Spirit, Thus says the Lord God, come from the four winds, O Spirit, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.' "Prophesy to the Wind, prophesy, mortal, and say to the Wind, Thus says the Lord God, come from the four winds, O Wind, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.'" "I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath, the Spirit, the Wind, came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude."i When Jesus is baptized, the Spirit descends from above as God breathes his affirmation of blessing upon His Son, and gives life to the ministry set before Him. In the Gospel of John, Jesus breathes His Spirit out upon the disciples, giving birth and life to the mission of ministry set before themii...while the Book of Acts depicts this as occurring as the Spirit of God rushes in like the wind and giving life to their ministry on that Day of Pentecost.iii The Spirit of God, the Breath of God, the Wind of God, continues hovering over nothingness-the places where our lives seem empty; the Spirit continues hovering over chaos-the places in our lives where order seems to have gone out the window; and the Spirit continues entering into places that seem to be filled with death. The Spirit enters in, breathes upon us, and offers us Life. What does this mean? It means that where God's Spirit blows, there will be signs of God-given, Spirit-infused life. Again, you're saying, "What does that mean?" It means that where the Spirit is present, we will see signs of life! If something is living, it is growing. Remember experiencing the Resurrected Christ leaves us changed people, new creations. It is the Spirit that changes us, that gives us this new life in Christ-when the Spirit of God breathes this new life into us, we are "born again," and until we are completely Christ-like, meaning until every aspect of our lives is identical to Christ, there is still growing to be done. God's Spirit breathes this growth into our lives, enabling us, giving us the strength to change, and to remove those things that are not Christ like. At the same time, God's breath breathes into us that which reflects Christ in our lives and to the world. That growth is seen as we let the Spirit blow away the dead chaff from our lives-hatred, prejudice, greed, gossip, addiction, promiscuity, and others, and we find ourselves given new life as we see love, acceptance, generosity, encouragement, freedom, commitment, and control increase. My brothers and sisters, it is when we stop growing, as individuals and as the church, that we start dying. If something is living, with the wind of the Spirit blowing across it, it is also moving. Just as the wind blowing across the beach picks up sand and moves it from one place to another...just as the leaves that fall from the sky are blown about our lawns in the fall, and the pollen from the trees are blown across every visible surface in the spring, just as the grass and the trees rustle in the breeze and a kite flies or a flag flutters in the wind...when the Spirit of God settles upon us and blows life into us, we must be moving, we cannot be still. It means that as God's Spirit blows upon us, that we will constantly be looking at how we can move and change. We must let the Spirit blow here, amongst us, and upon each of us, blowing us out of the doors of this church building and into the community. Our community and the world need to see Harkers Island Methodist and each of us as members, moving through this community and in other places, changing the landscape, and bringing the new life of the Spirit into places of darkness, chaos, dust, and death. Short of the winds of a tornado or hurricane, the concrete and mortar of this building are not going to move, and if we, as the Church, are not moved by the Spirit, and become like that concrete, set in place, unmoving, resisting the wind, then we become an unmoving body absent of the signs of life, in other words, a corpse, the likes of which filled that valley of dry bones. When the winds blows it fills that which it enters with power. Consider the power generated by windmills. Consider the power of a newborn's cry. Consider the power that the wind, breath, Spirit of God brought upon the earth, brought upon the valley of bones, brought upon Jesus, brought upon the disciples...it is that same empowering Spirit that has blown into our lives. It is THAT SPIRIT THAT WILL EMPOWER US TO GROW...IT IS THAT SPIRIT THAT WILL EMPOWER US TO MOVE...IT IS THAT SPIRIT, MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS, WHICH BLOWS INTO OUR LIVES AND BREATHES INTO US THE VERY LIFE-GIVING POWER OF GOD. Experience the Spirit, feel the wind of God blowing over you today! In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. i Ezekiel 37:9-10 ii John 20:22 iii Acts 2:1-4 --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ Experiencing The Spirit: Wind Genesis 1:1-2, 2:7