Experiencing The Spirit: Wind - Genesis 1:1-2; 2:7
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 a couple of months ago. The movie was entitled “Hours,” and starred the
late Paul Walker (of Fast and Furious fame). It offered a fictional account 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 and 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 this way:
“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 them[ii]…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, as we experience it as the Breath of God, the Wind of God, hovering
over nothingness—the places where our lives seem empty, hovering over chaos—the
places in our lives where order seems to have gone out the window, entering
into places in our lives that seem to be filled with death, enters in, breathes
in, and blows in Life.
What
does this mean to us?
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 last week, reflecting on the resurrection, we said that with
the resurrection, “Life can never be the same,” that experiencing the
Resurrected Christ leaves us changed people.
It is the Spirit that changes us, that gives us this new life in
Christ—as the traditionalist like to put it, 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,
then there is still growing to be done in this new life. God’s Spirit breathes into us this new life
growth, enabling us, giving us the strength to change, to remove those things,
to blow away those things, that are not Christ like, and to have God’s breath
breathe into us that which does reflect Christ in our lives to the world. My brothers and sisters, it is when we stop
growing, as individuals and as the church, as I’ve said before, that we start
dying. 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.
If
something is living, with the wind of the Spirit blowing across it, it is 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. How can we let
the Spirit blow St Paul’s, and each of us, out of the doors of this church and
into the community? How does Burlington
and the world see St. Paul’s 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, but if we, as
the Church, are not moved by the Spirit, and become like that concrete, set in
place, unmoving, resisting the wind, saying “we’ve never done it that way before,”
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.
In
the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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