Remembering the Past...
        Planning the Future

    Park Christian Church
                                                                    (Disciples of Christ)

May 31, 2009

Scripture:         Acts 2:1-13

Sermon:           “Wind”

            When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.  And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and filled the entire house where they were sitting.  Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them ability.

            Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.  And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.  Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?  And how is it that we heard, each of us, in our own native language?  Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopatamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the part of Libya belonging to the Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.  All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”  But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

[From the children’s area.]

            Ruah.  Say that with me.  Ruah.  Good.  Ruah.  It has a sort of “ck” sound at the end.  Ruah.  Ruah.

            It’s a Hebrew word, ruah.  It means something like breath, or wind, or even spirit.  Ruah.

            I want everybody that can to stand up for just a minute.  Stretch out a little bit.  Good.  And take in a deep breath with me.  Stretch your arms out to the side, and don’t hit your neighbor.  Breathe in deeply.  And then exhale, letting your arms float down to your side.  On the exhale, say “ruah”.  Ruah.  Ruah.  Ruah.

            It feels nice.  Breathe in deeply, slowly.  Exhale.  Ruah.

            I had a class in seminary that began every morning this way.  Breathe in deeply.  Ruah.  We’d also stretch and turn circles with our arms.  It’s a good way to get centered, actually.  You’re having one of those days and the stress is just welling up in your body and soul—stop and take a deep breath.  Ruah.

            You can have a seat now.

            Now, this is the time of the service we call the sermon.  And there are an awful lot of people that think it is just too long and boring for children to be able to sit through and understand.  I’m sure that they are right sometimes.

            But, I think that when we invite you to come and be a part of the worship of the church—because you are a big part of the church!—we can find ways to make it work for everybody.  And I’m glad that you are each here today.

            In the sermon, you know the time when I speak to the congregation about God and about how God loves us and asks us to live our lives, that is when we all do our best to pay attention.  So, I’m going to ask you to try that with me this morning.  We are going to pay attention the very best that we can.  And I promise that I have thought all about you in putting this sermon together.  There are things for you to do.  But, we try to pay attention.  That also means that we do our very best not to make a lot of noise.  Everybody else is trying to pay attention.  So, we don’t want to mess that up.  Just stick with me.  And Dawn and Rachel are here to help us pay attention over here.  Okay?

[from the pulpit]

            Now, everyone received a paddle fan on the way in this morning.  We used to call these Funeral Home Fans because there was usually an advertisement on it for a local funeral home.  You’ll notice that the air conditioning is working today.  But, back in the day it would get really hot inside the church.  And you’d see folks waving these things around in order to stay cool.

            Since we are talking about wind, talking about ruah, feel free to fan yourself at any time.  In fact, fan yourself now.  And if you’re sitting with someone you know, or someone you love, you can fan them, too.  And just feel the nice breeze upon your face.

            I think it is one of the most refreshing things in the world to feel the wind upon your face.  It makes me kind of stop where I am and just breathe in deeply.  Ruah.

            Fan away.  No need to be dignified today.

            In fact, if you think about it, this whole Pentecost story that we just read wasn’t all that dignified.  What a commotion!  Talk about noisy and disruptive.  Luke tells us in Acts that there was suddenly from heaven a sound like the rush of a violent wind.  So noisy, in fact, that everybody around came running to see what the noise was all about.

            And then what happened?  You’ve got all these people speaking at the same time and it’s a bunch of different languages.  What do you think that sounded like?  I mean, noisy.

            You want to try that?

[again from the children’s area]

            What they were saying, it turns out, was about the mighty deeds of God’s power.  I don’t exactly what they did say.  The bible doesn’t tell us that.  Just that they were going on and on about God.  So, I’ll keep it simple.  God’s deeds of power, I think, can be summed up by saying, “Jesus Christ is Lord!”  So, say that with me.  Jesus Christ is Lord.

            Now, I’ll do the best I can to teach you a few other languages.

            Jesus Christo es el Senor!  That’s Spanish.  (get a volunteer)

            Dominus Iesus Christus!  That’s Latin.

            Eesa al-Maseeh! That’s Arabic.  I’ll say that one.

            And we need an English volunteer.

            That’s just four languages.  And listen to the commotion we make when we all say it at the same time.  What a ruckus!  Thank you.

            Maybe this has happened to you.  My car died out on the highway several years ago.  A tow truck came and hauled it to the nearest shop.  I rode shotgun.

            Now, the mechanic looked over my dead car and provided a diagnosis for what was wrong so that I could authorize him to fix it.  The problem is that he spoke in some Southern dialect of auto-mechanic, you know.  He was describing what had happened inside the carburetor or something.  Maybe it was in the transmission.  There was a pressure problem somewhere or something.  I have no idea.  He knew.  It all made perfect sense to him.  I have no clue.  It’s not my world.  And it’s not my language.  I said, “Whatever.  Just fix it.”

            I have this suspicion that he charged me an additional fee for being ignorant.

            That happens at the doctor, too.  They all speak in some form of Latin mixed in with Greek and a touch of German.  And they know what it is they are saying to you.  But, you don’t know.  They’ll be describing some mild form of heartburn to you in these very scientific and medical terms.  Nothing serious.  Just need to watch your diet better.  But, what you hear the doctor saying, because you don’t speak his or her language, is that you are going to die within the next few hours.  Better get your papers in order.

            It’s very frustrating not to speak the language.

            I was traveling in the Middle East a few years ago.  Israel.  The West Bank of Palestine.  Very contentious part of the world, you know.  And the folks in Israel have this incredible sense of security.  You think you’ve given up some privacy and freedom in the last few years?  They laugh at us.

            And I was preparing to leave the county from the airport in Tel Aviv.  I don’t really know what happened, but at the security check a young woman mishandled my bag before analyzing it for explosives residue.  All I knew was that her face went blank and she called for her supervisor to come and help.  Within minutes there were Israeli security people running toward me.  And they were all huddled together speaking very quickly in Hebrew.  I don’t speak Hebrew.

            They were pointing at the security attendant who had made a mistake.  They were yelling at each other.  They were pointing at my bag.  And whatever was going to happen because of all of this was a total mystery to me.  I had images of being sent directly to prison where the American embassy would spend several years cutting through red tape to win my release.

            Finally, a young officer stepped aside from the commotion and walked over to me.  He said, in perfect New York English, “Mr. Brown, please come with me.”

            I didn’t care if I was going to prison at that moment.  The fact that somebody spoke my language made me feel like I was finally at home.  Just his calm voice made me feel like everything was going to be okay.  And it was.

            Do you think that folks experienced this on Pentecost?  There they were, strangers in a strange land.  Suddenly somebody was talking to them just like they were at home at the kitchen table with family and friends.

            All this because the rush of a violent wind.  Did you hear that?  The rush of a violent ruah came over the disciples.  There’s that word again.  Ruah.

            Let’s put this together a little bit, and see what’s happening.  The bible starts out with this story, and I’m sure you’re familiar with it.  “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 ruah from God swept over the face of the water.  Then God said, ‘Let there be light!’” (Genesis 1:1-3)

            Ah hah!  Did you catch that?  There’s that ruah.  In the very beginning!

            And, of course, later on a bit…”then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and God’s ruah entered the nostrils, the breath of life.” (Genesis 2:7)  That’s one way to translate it.  God’s ruah.  God’s breath, remember.  Wind.  Spirit.  Breath.  Ruah.  All the same stuff.

            So, what happened on Pentecost?  A rush of a violent wind?  God breathed life into those disciples, right?

            And that makes sense.  They were probably huddled together in a room somewhere, scared for their lives.  Their Lord had recently been crucified.  Yes, he was resurrected and spent 40 more days with them on the earth.  But, he’d been crucified, an awful way to go and die.  And now that Jesus had left them again, ascending like he did into the heavens, those disciples were starting to remember that crucifixion again.  And then God breathed life into them.  See how that works?

            So much so that they started trying to reach out to others and tell them the good news of Jesus Christ.  Didn’t matter who they were or where they came from.  God gave them ways to reach out and speak to anybody.

[to children]

            Now, so that we all keep on trying our best to pay attention and help everybody else pay attention, I’m going to invite you to use the paper there to make paper airplanes.  Make one or two.  But, don’t try to make them fly, yet.  I promise that you’ll get a chance.  Just make your planes, and you can use the crayons to decorate them.

            You can also color on the coloring sheets if you want.  You’ll see that the picture is a flame, which is also what this story is about.  Wind and fire!

            I know all of you want to make planes now.  You can if you like.

            Did you hear that part about God giving them ways to reach out and speak to anybody?  And that there was really a big, noisy, commotion that day.  It ought to say something to us about trying to do whatever we can in our worship to reach whoever might come and be a part.  Gosh, that kind of fits in really well with doing things differently today!

            Now, I heard somebody once say that this ruah business, this wind of God’s spirit, this breath of God, is actually how some rabbis believe God’s name came into being.  The ancient Hebrews understood God’s name to be Yahweh.  And it was so holy that you weren’t even supposed to speak it.  It’s all throughout the Old Testament, God’s name.  Yahweh.  But, you’ll look for it and never find it.  Instead, your Bible says “the Lord.”

            Did you know that?  Wherever you see the English words “the Lord”, it actually is a way of avoiding the name of God as Yahweh.  Jews would then, and still do, say “adonai”.  That means the same thing, “the Lord.”

            But, some rabbis said that the Hebrew letters themselves of God’s name, Yahweh, are actually the sounds of breath.  Yah.  Heh.  Vah.  Heh.  Yah.  Heh.  Vah.  Heh.  Yahweh.  Now, think about that.  Every breath that every living creature takes and makes is a speaking of the name of God.  Yah Heh Vah Heh.

            And the end of life comes when we are no longer able to say it.  Maybe that means we are utterly dependent upon God for every moment of our lives.  Yah Heh Vah Heh.

            It is certainly true for the church, utterly dependent upon God for every moment of our life together.  That’s part of what this Pentecost story is all about, you see.  It’s like God taking the lifeless body of Christ and breathing life into it to live again.  Yah Heh Vah Heh.  Or maybe it was the sound of a mighty rushing wind.  And every breath that we have taken since then is a testament to the living God.  In our best moments we can sense it.

[to children’s area]

            Okay, so you have made your airplanes?  Anyone want to give them a try?  Come on up to the children’s area and give them a fling!  Let’s see how far they go.

            Finally, so that you get a deeper sense of the breath of God, the mighty, rushing wind, the Holy Spirit, let’s remember this day.  It will be the day we blew bubbles in church and the preacher said that it was okay.  We’ll all walk around and fill these bubbles with our own breath.  But, that’s just speaking the name of God, you know.  And as these bubbles make their way through the congregation and float down upon us, remember that it is God’s own breath, breathed into your nostrils, that gives you life.  And together, we are the body of Christ, receiving and giving that breath to the earth and all that dwells on it.  Doesn’t matter how broken you came this morning.  Doesn’t matter if you don’t think God wants anything to do with you.  Doesn’t matter much at all, really.  That’s God’s breath, the Holy Spirit, filling your soul to go from this place renewed.  So, may you be renewed.  And may you, in turn, renew all that is around you.

[children go through congregation with bubbles.  Chad begins to play communion hymn.  David joins in.]

Rev. David James Brown

Park Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)