A Spirit Explosion

Pentecost Sunday – “A Spirit Explosion” Rev. Billie Watts

Dr. Ruben Habito, professor of World Religions at Perkins seminary, practicing Buddhist, encouraged us as we studied the different religions to seek the holy in each one. It is true that if you seek, you shall find. He began each class with an exercise in mindfulness, having us practice the Buddhist discipline of “sitting” – and breathing. His mantra was, “It’s all in the breath!” Think about it – the Hebrew word for God – YHWH – is like breath (demonstrate). Imagine that each breath IS an expression of prayer. Our “sitting” would last about 5 min, where we were instructed to plant both feet firmly on the floor, sit up straight, hands relaxed, and eyes slit. We weren’t to close our eyes, but keep them open enough to be constantly aware of what was around us – and breathe – for it’s all in the breath. Doing this exercise rooted and grounded you on the earth and connected me with all other “souls” (no pun intended) touching the earth. Dr. Habito ended each session this way, “Come Holy Spirit. Come and renew the face of the earth.”

 

Psalm 104:

Bless YHWH, my soul! YHWH, my God, how great you are! Clothed in majesty and glory, wrapped in a robe of light, you stretch the heavens out like a tent. You lay the beams for your palace on the waters above; you use the clouds as your chariot and ride on the wings of the wind; you use the winds as messengers and fiery flames as attendants. You fixed the earth oh its foundations and it can never totter, and wrapped it with the Deep as with a robe, the waters overtopping the mountains. At your rebuke the waters bolted, fleeing at the sound of your thunder, cascading over the mountains, into the valleys, down to the reservoir you made for them; you imposed boundaries they must never cross so that they would never again flood the land. (It goes on to describe the provisions made for all the creation, including wine to cheer our hearts, oil to make our faces shine, and bread to sustain life.

v. 27 All creatures depend on you to feed them at the proper time. Give it to them – they gather it up. Open your hand – they are well satisfied. Hide your face – they are terrified. Take away their breath – they die and return to dust. Send back your breath – fresh life begins –AND YOU RENEW THE FACE OF THE EARTH.” GLORY FOREVER TO YHWH.”

It IS all in the breath – creator, redeemer, sustainer of life!

 

The breath is life-giving and renewing. This Psalm sounds like YHWH, the Breath, has made a home for us on earth – a home where we are in God, and all interconnected to our Creator.

 

Reading Genesis 11, we read a story of a time when connection seemed to be at an all-time high. The descendants of Noah settled on the plains of Shinar. They spoke one language, using all the same words. They made bricks and decided to build themselves a city – and even a tower to reach the heavens (God). They would make a name for themselves.  But God predicted that with one language and one people, nothing would be impossible for them. Their plan was to stick together. Problem was that they would get used to the sound of their own voices, and drown out God’s, becoming a danger to themselves and others. They would set the standards – they would dominate – and this is the negative side to being a great city, nation, and its breeding nationalism. Their ways would become normative. They would be power mongers. When so, is oppressive conformity be far behind? God gets wind of it and says, “No way!” God confused their language so they could no longer understand one another. This building project was over - deconstructed, for THEIR SAKES. God is, most definitely, not scared OF them overpowering God, but God protects them from themselves. By scattering them, God beckons them back to life with God – where they are able to hear God’s voice – God’s calling, God’s purpose – God’s KIN-dom living.

 

There is nothing new under the sun in these days where people chant to make American great again. Great for what? For ourselves? We must remember that the nation of Israel was blessed not because they were so good, but because God is so good – they were just available. They were blessed to be a blessing to others, a city on a hill, a light to the nations, expelling darkness (Isaiah 42:6). How will we be a collaborative force for the good of all? How will we avoid our own tendencies to seek our own survival and well-being over and against the call to live as a people of God, taking risks to insure the life and good of others? How will we seek the well-being of others, those on our shores and beyond? Why should we? Because Jesus did – and invited us to follow him. Perhaps it isn’t necessary to take ourselves off the grid of human power IF we follow the Spirit and convert that power into a something that generates life for more than ourselves.[1]

 

Let’s follow the Spirit to this Pentecost celebration. These Israelites knew stuff about the Spirit – the quivering Spirit hovering over the waters at creation when the Word was spoken and chaos was ordered. They knew the stories of the Spirit coming upon different people for a certain period of time with a certain task. The Spirit came upon Jesus in the form of a dove at his baptism – and the Spirit anointed Jesus to preach good news and bring wholeness to the world. Jesus even gave his broken body so all may live, and said, “Follow me.” And now, we will see this promised Spirit power converge on these fearful disciples and change them into bold witnesses of God’s love and goodness. The timer is set, the clock is ticking. Will they know it when it happens?

 

They gathered for the Pentecost celebration, as they had done for years, to celebrate what was first a thanksgiving offering for the wheat harvest – and later a celebration of the giving of the Law to the covenant people of God. It was a perfect time for the Spirit to show up – and the Spirit explodes. The Holy Breath – the wind/Spirit (the pneuma), blew through the rooms and set their hearts on fire. They experience the presence and love of God in a new, explosive way. It was a love connection – and it blew the doors open and sent them into the streets.

 

We know that people of all nations and languages were gathered and living there. These Galilean disciples were able to speak their languages. What WAS happening here? These Galileans were known by their accents. They were country boys – they are not that smart – and you could tell by the way they talked. Accents – they give you away every time. When our family moved to St. Louis due to a job transfer, I was the eager mother of a kindergarten student, so anxious to attend PTA. I stood in the back of a packed auditorium, raised my hand to ask a question, and as soon as the first word was off my lips, every head turned to see who was talking. Suffice it to say that I felt exposed and growingly self-conscious, and small. It wa my first and last public question. Now, imagine adding to that the fear of being stopped by an authority figure, knowing you don’t look or sound like the majority – and being asked to show your papers. As we would travel back to Dallas, we would stop at the Golden Arches in southern Oklahoma – and it would be there that I would hear my first “y’all.” Oh – I was home, baby!!!

 

In today’s text, God is calling people home – for after all, YHWH created this great, beautiful home. We are the ones who divided it all up, building social barriers, economic barriers, language barriers, borders, and even physical walls. Now, imagine the world from a higher viewpoint. Astronauts describe the experience of seeing the earth from space as something profoundly holy. John-David Bartoe, a U.S astronaut reported:

“As I looked down, I saw a large river meandering slowly along for miles, passing from one country to another without stopping. I also saw huge forests, extending across several borders. And I watched the extent of one ocean touch the shores of separate continents. Two words leaped to mind as I looked down on all this: commonality and interdependence. WE ARE ONE WORLD.

 

An astronaut from Syria reports: “From space, I saw earth – indescribably beautiful, with the scars of national boundaries gone.”

When people heard their own languages spoken, they knew they were home regardless of geography. God had made a place for them, and they, too, were God’s children. An image that expresses this is that we are like spokes on a wheel with God at the hub, the core, the Breath. The closer we get to God, the closer we get to one another - the closer we get to kin-dom living. In this outpouring of the Spirit, all languages and peoples are honored, respected, and affirmed. In others, we find the holy. This is the gift of divine hospitality.

The Spirit exploded and broke down language barriers to life in God and life together, but does it end here? Lord No – Before we finish the book of Acts, the Gentiles will even be accepted into God’s ever expanding house. The aftershocks continue and reverberate today.

This week is our Rio Texas Annual Conference and clergy and laity will converge on Corpus Christi. We pray for Pentecost. As a denomination, we struggle with how to live together with our differences. There will be protests! Our fate will not be decided this week, but the question looms large – will we remain a “united” church or will we be “untied?” Rev. Amy DeLong wrote a very insightful article posted this week, entitled, “The Exhausted Right.” In it, she reported about those on the more conservative side, who want to pull away from the United Methodist Church to start their own church because THEY are exhausted from the conversation. She then lists all the harmful actions against LGBTQ people and clergy that have been taken since 1972, including her own trial for who she is and for marrying a same sex couple. She writes, “The religious right should be tired. But imagine how tuckered out they will be after they break away from the United Methodist Church to start their own church (free of the ambiguous and gritty reality of human sexuality), only to find that there are little Queer kids singing in their Cherub Choirs who, when they grow up, won’t want to be thrown out of their churches either.”[2] I agree with Rev. DeLong. Their plan won’t work for leads to oppressive conformity – and God seems to be against that.  

We are called to carry on the boundary breaking work of God, evidenced in Jesus, and empowered by this wild, unpredictable, uncontrollable, contagious Spirit of God. And no one gets to control the Spirit and our boundary crossing God. “Any human dictator can control a homogenous society (or church) but only the Living God can hold together a divisive global world in love!”[3] Kind-doms can only be united through the work of the Spirit, and the Spirit does not discriminate.

Psalm 104:27

v. 27 All creatures depend on you to feed them at the proper time. Give it to them – they gather it up. Open your hand – they are well satisfied. Hide your face – they are terrified. Take away their breath – they die and return to dust. Send back your breath – fresh life begins –AND YOU RENEW THE FACE OF THE EARTH.” GLORY FOREVER TO YHWH, Allah, Dios, Gott, Zulu – Unkulunkulu, Swahili “Mungu,” Thai “Phrah Jao (pra chow), and the Lakota tribe “Wakan Tanka – “The great Spirit.”

All God’s people laughed, and said, “Amen.”