CAMINANDO WITH JESUS: Spirit

The Sunday of Pentecost | June 9, 2019

By the Rev. Audra Abt

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Philip said to Jesus, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, `Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you."

"I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid."

- John 14:8-17 (25-27)

We meet Spirit early, right there with the Creator.
“In the beginning,” we read in Genesis
“God created the heavens and the earth”
And the Spirit of God sweeps
across the dark waters.
Across the chaos and unformed muck, divine wind.
 
This is no cool breath on a hot day.
 
No, this sweeping exhale makes waves.
God speaks something new,
speaks creation into being with a breath, Spirit.
Speaks day and night, stars, and star-fish, and starfruit,
Whales, and mustard seeds, and even weeds.
God speaks as the Spirit sweeps:
Dry land for creeping things, dry tinder for starting fires
honeysuckle, (to stop and smell)
and humankind.
God breathes breath into humankind… and the dance begins.
 
The Bible speaks of God’s Spirit as breath:
pervading all, invading all, enlivening all.
Present across the first dawn sky
and on the lips of a broken messiah on a tree crying “Why?”
Refusing grammar and compact theological articulations,
The Spirit wafts around the corners of the Scripture’s pages
And finds Her way into every place
of ecstasy, and decay. [Life!]
 
(pause, take a breath)
 
In ancient Israel, Spirit-talk was quite common.
Spirit had Her way of choosing and using prophets like Ezekiel
Lifting him up and bringing him down
into a valley full of dry bones, (Ezekiel 37)
Re-speaking life into God’s dismayed people
Re-breathing their wilted bodies until they stand tall together.
 
Spirit needs no temple of stone,
All the Spirit needs are prophets, like Joel,
to speak to God’s despondent people:
“You will know that I am … the Lord your God…
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters,
Your old, your young.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days.” (Joel 2:27a, 28-29)
 
Yes, in those days.
Those days like at Pentecost,
when the Spirit went multi-lingual, Ecstatic
Told the story of God’s glory,
how God’s powerful hand
reached into the grave and brought Jesus, the Son, the Christ,
Lover and Beloved, out of death into life.
 
Spirit that day spoke
in whatever language the people needed,
met them where they were,
did all sorts of things
got some sinners to re-think, and
re-taught some hearts to sing.
 
Spirit that day was poised flame… and rushing wind.
Spirit a river flowing in all directions
without losing strength.
Spirit drawing folk into Her current
That tumbles and tows and churns
with the life of Christ.
 
The Spirit sets the rhythm, dances in step
while we try to catch a glimpse,
Hoping at best to possibly ride on the tops of Her shoes,
Get a sense of that beat, see the sparks
as Her feet slide and strike,
starting fires wherever She sambas.
 
Dare we get close, let Her catch us?
 
In these days of the Spirit,
the Spirit still dances, waits for partners.
Spirit doesn’t sit around,
The Bible says She flows, pours, burns, breathes,
beats her wings, blows
wherever She desires.
 
She’s the movement
at every moment
where life shifts.
She’s.the.movement! Shesthemovement!
 
(pause, take a breath)
 
Spirit also moves sometimes quiet-like,
not always center-stage in Her boldest Pentecost red.
Very alive, but working with nudges, sideways glances.
 
It is possible to miss the Holy Spirit, you know.
 
We do not possess the Spirit.
The Church does not possess the Spirit.
The Church does not tell the Spirit what she ought to do,
or how She ought to do it or who She ought to use.
The Spirit possesses us.
She does not trifle with curiosities and fads,
but is building up the church:
 
The Spirit breathes in and possesses
whomever She chooses, whenever She desires.
And She desires. Oh yes, the Holy Spirit desires!
 
She is desirous and determined.
 
It might be you the Spirit is about to use in this moment.
 
And it also might just be, if we look closely,
That these flames burning here on our altar
have already left the building and
are resting (like the Spirit did on that first Pentecost day)
on other heads, other bodies, other tongues “out there,”
and the Holy Spirit calling us to
be the crowd that gathers in awe and wonder
to hear of the power and deeds
of our unchained God.
 
(pause, take a breath)
 
If the Spirit is a voice, She is groaning,
She is groaning in us,
And praying us to closer intimacy with
“Abba! Father!”
(sighs too deep, too deep, no words)
then whisking us out into the wilderness
Where we can walk with Jesus,
And find new well-springs, new ways
to signal hope and sing new life.
 
So…
If the Spirit is mother bird, as She is named in Scripture,
If the Spirit is mother bird,
then She’s beating her wings in the nest
and sending us out.
 
It’s time to fly.

The Rev. Audra Abt is vicar and mission developer at Holy Spirit, Greensboro.