Wind, Fire and Words

May 31, 2009
Wind, Fire and Words
Acts 2
Romans 8
Year B
Pentecost


what images do they think of when an insight suddenly strikes You? Some will say a light bulb coming on. Or an electric shock.
Perhaps a billboard, a text message, a whack on the head...
But none of us would think of tongues of fire, or gusts of wind.
These are the images for the story of Pentecost.
The Pentecost story is clearly metaphorical an image. The biblical text
itself says, _like_ a mighty wind; tongues _as of_ fire...
Metaphor is like the sacraments – defined by Augustine of Hippo as
"a visible sign of an invisible reality." Tragically, our society has lost its
sense of the metaphoric. We distrust metaphors and analogies. We expect facts.
Yet we still speak of getting fired up. Burning with passion.
Suffering burnout. We refer to spirited horses, team spirit, blowing out the
cobwebs, feeling a fresh wind, a storm of change...
Those are all metaphors – a way of expressing something that would
otherwise be inexpressible. Because the Holy Spirit was not a thing, to be
measured and dissected. It was a feeling, an attitude.

For the early church, it was a realization that what they had been waiting for all along had finally come to them.

Research says that in the year of the Pentecost, this was the first year that many of the jews who had been in exile were first able to come to Jerusalem for the celebration of the gift of the word of God. They came from Meds, Pamphlyia, Cappodicia – places all over the middle east. They came speaking their own languages, and abiding by their own customs. But some how they all got along, they all understood one another, they all witness the same heavenly event, the presence of the holy spirit.
That is the gift of the holy spirit – unity where there is no unity. It was the beginning of the work of the church.
Like all gifts of the church, this story means different things to different people and traditions. For instance, for some the gift was speaking in tongues, for others it was the gift of speaking in different languages and being able to be heard. But the main point was that they knew that God was with them in a very special way. They did not have the words to describe it, but they had the hearts to feel it.
As a matter of fact, sometimes I think it is our words that get us in trouble. We can speak the same language, and sometimes not be understood. Because even though we use the same words- they don’t mean the same thing.
Sometimes it is words that makes thing worse. One Christian remembers the time she was looking for a parking space, she waited patiently for this couple to leave, and it seemed that a van pulled up in front of her out of nowhere, and took the space. She had a few words for the driver of the van and none of them nice. The van driver was so sorry that he pulled out and gave her the space. At first proud, she had to go home to pray to God. Her words totally betrayed whom she was as a Christian.
That is the point of the babel story – that a group got together for a common cause. They went into the project speaking the same language. They finished speaking different languages and accomplishing nothing.
Imagine how much chaos is present in the world because people misunderstand one another. Sometimes the best way to create an argument is to use words. The more you talk , the more you realize that there is disagreement.
Karl Barth says always preach the gospel sometimes even use words – but more importantly use who are you in Christ.
Romans states that the whole world is in birth pains. I feel that there seems to be chaos on every level of life. Everyone is hurting, and everyone is lashing out. And no one seems to understand what is really going on. Yet we are to hope – hope for things that we cannot see. And not worry if we have the right words to say- to just make sure that we trust in the spirit – who will interpret everything we say. The bible has been interpreted in ever language in the world. In one African village, they were looking for a word for the holy spirit – until the noticed that whenever a group had to carry a heavy load – there was always one man who went with them, but carried nothing himself. They explained that when someone gave out from exhaustion, this was the man who always took his place, so that the journey could continue.
They had their word for the holy spirit - the one who carries our burdens to God for us, when we are too weak to travel. The one who prays on our behalf.

In our obsession with the concrete, we’ve even made the Holy Spirit
a noun. We capitalize it, like a proper name. But in truth, it was more like a
verb – just as “faith” in Hebrew, mn, was a verb, best translated as “to

trust.”
Likewise, God does not describe godself as a noun, as a static thing, but as a verb, to moses God said not I am who I am, But I will be, who I will be. The spirit of God is always on the move in the world, making a difference.
Our greatest witness to the presence of God is to move in a static world. To be who we are and not to get caught up in definitions of who we were just yesterday.
The greatest image of the holy spirit for the world today in chaos in pain, are the be the people who trust in God. No words needed, just our hearts.