Wind, Breath, Spirit: God at Work in the Ordinary (Pentecost)

Ezekiel 37: 1-14 & Acts 2: 1-21

Roger Lynn

May 31, 2020

Pentecost Sunday

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One of my very favorite words is “ruach” – an ancient Hebrew word which literally translates as wind or breath. It is also one of the primary words which scripture uses to talk about God’s Spirit. As images go, I like it a lot – it is evocative in its powerful simplicity. Wind and breath are so elemental – basic – ordinary, and yet so essential. It doesn’t get much more essential than breath. If we stop breathing for very long we stop living. We cannot even see the wind – only the effects it produces. I also like this image because it is very earthy – all wrapped up in the ordinary, messy business of living as human beings in these very human bodies on this very physical planet. It is such a primal reminder that God is intimately involved with us right here in the midst of our life and our living – as close to us as our breathing.

Both scriptures for this morning offer us portrayals of the powerful difference which God’s Ruach can make in our lives and in our world. It can be as dramatic as the difference between a pile of bones and a living, breathing human being, or as life-changing as the difference between a disconnected group of individuals who can’t even understand each other and a unified community which is bound together for common ministry. God at work in the midst of the ordinary – bringing new life into what can sometimes seem to be hopeless situations. 

I love the wonderful story of Ezekiel’s vision of dry bones. It is a story of a people who had lost hope and lost purpose. They had lost their sense of what it truly means to be alive. And we know something about that. There are times when the circumstances of our lives seem to conspire to drain the life from us. Sometimes we lose our connection with ourselves, with each other, and with God. There is a reason why Ezekiel’s vision has remained such a powerful story for all these centuries – it gives voice to an experience which touches a chord with us. The core of his message is that it is precisely in such times of hopeless disconnection when God’s Spirit does its best work. By the power of God’s life-giving Ruach, even a pile of dry bones can be brought back together and given new life.

This Breath of God brings new life not only into unexpected situations, but also in unexpected ways. The account of the first Pentecost is the story of a remarkable transformation which occurs in the lives of a most unlikely group of people. The folks who were gathered together on that day in Jerusalem had very little in common. The core group of disciples were bound together by their experience with Jesus, but very little else. Some of them were fishermen. Some of them were tax collectors. Some of them were politically conservative while others were radical extremists. And the rest of those who shared in the experiences of that remarkable day had even less in common. The group who were eventually touched by the wind and fire of God’s Spirit included folk who had never before even heard of Jesus of Nazareth. Their cultures, their experiences, their skin color, even their languages were different. A computer generated list of compatible people would not have included this particular group.

We know something of what it is like to be in a collection of folks who share little in common. There are so many ways in which our world seems to grow more polarized by the minute. Our differences are amplified and exploited by a 24-hour news cycle, social media, and a political system that thrives on promoting fear and separation. Sometimes our differences can seem relatively small and we can ignore them or pretend that they don’t matter to us. But at other times they can seem huge and threaten to overwhelm us. They include people who talk differently than we do, or look different, or whose whole way of life challenges what we have always believed. Sometimes we are faced with folks who simply make us uncomfortable for no particular reason we can put our finger on, but we just know we would rather not be around them. And it is in precisely such circumstances, in both the first century and this century, that God’s sacred and holy Ruach can play such a dramatic and vital role in restoring to wholeness that which seems so irredeemably broken. There is no chasm so wide, no difference so profound, no connection so broken that it is beyond the power of Sacred Source to restore to wholeness. We are formed into community and sustained as community not because of what we have in common, but because of the breath, the Ruach, of God which blows through the world.

An ancient spiritual practice is the breath prayer. On the inhale the prayer is simply “fill me.” On the exhale the prayer is “use me.” It is more than merely air which we draw into our bodies – it is Ruach – it is the very Breath of God, restoring us to wholeness, with ourselves, with each other, and with the Sacred Presence which surrounds us. God, by whatever name you choose to use, is as close as the air we breath, bringing us together so that the whole world might experience meaning and purpose and wholeness and life. 

I leave you with these words from the wonderful poet, Jan Richardson.

When We Breathe TogetherA Blessing for Pentecost Day

by Jan L. Richardson

(click here to see this poem paired with the poet's artwork)

This is the blessing
we cannot speak
by ourselves.

This is the blessing
we cannot summon
by our own devices,
cannot shape
to our purpose,
cannot bend
to our will.

This is the blessing
that comes
when we leave behind
our aloneness
when we gather
together
when we turn
toward one another.

This is the blessing
that blazes among us
when we speak
the words
strange to our ears

when we finally listen
into the chaos

when we breathe together
at last.