Sermons
"The Wind of God"Pastor Russell Norris |
Who has seen the wind? Neither I nor you.
But when the leaves hang trembling, the wind is passing through.Who has seen the wind? Neither you nor I.
But when the leaves bow down their heads, the Wind is passing by.
The words are from Christina Rossetti, a Christian poet. But if they're unfamiliar, listen to these words from the Apostle John: "The wind blows where it wills and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with every person who is born of the Spirit."
The word is "Spirit". This morning I want us to think about one word -- a word that can be translated as spirit, breath or wind. In Hebrew, it's the word ruach. In Greek, it's the word pneumatos. In English, the word is "wind", which can also be translated as "spirit" or "breath".
Your body is filled with air. Just to get into the spirit of the day, I'd like you all to do a little experiment with me. Cup your hands in front of your mouth -- come on, now! Every body do this. Now blow on your hands and feel the warm air. This may be one of the reasons we say someone is full of hot air! You can feel the air on your hands, can't you? It's a sign you're alive. You can't live without air!
The atmosphere is filled with air. Our little planet earth is the only place we know in the whole universe that has life. And life depends on air. There's a kind of skin, a membrane of air around the earth. It's called the atmosphere. It's eleven miles high. It's densest here on the surface of the earth, and it gets thinner and thinner the higher you go. It's hard to breath on Mount Everest, because the air is so thin. There would be no life on planet earth without our atmosphere of air. Air gives life.
You can't see the air, but we know it's there. And we know it's powerful. We've seen that power in storms like Hurricane Andrew in Florida, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, and just last week the terrible cyclone in Myanmar -- the country we used to call Burma. We can't live without air, but we all know how powerful the air can be, even though we can't see it.
Who has seen the wind? Neither I nor you.
But when the leaves hang trembling, the wind is passing through.Who has seen the wind? Neither you nor I.
But when the leaves bow down their heads, the Wind is passing by.
The Jews -- the ancient people of Israel -- when they thought about God, they thought about ... the wind! They thought of the wind because the wind was like God: It was invisible, mysterious, and powerful. You can't control the wind. And you can't have life without wind. Wind gives life. And so it was with God: Invisible, mysterious, powerful -- a God you can't control who gives life to the whole world.
The ancient Jews didn't know that wind was composed of nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide. They didn't know about weather patterns and warm fronts and cold fronts. They didn't know about the jet stream. To them the wind was sheeeer mystery! They actually called God "the Wind". The Old Testament name for God is ruach -- ruach - r...u...a...c...h -- pronounced ruach, which means "wind". So the very first name of God in the Old Testament is Wind!
In Genesis, chapter 1, in the very beginning there was the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and the Spirit of God, the Wind of God, the Breath of God, breeeethed across the face of the waters. It was as if God gave mouth to mouth resuscitation to the earth, and blew life into our little planet.
In Genesis, chapter 2, we hear the story of God creating human life out of the dust of the earth. And then the Spirit of God breeeeeethed into man the breath, the wind, the ruach of life!
The Jews called God "the Wind" because the wind was mysterious, powerful, invisible. The Jews couldn't see God, but they could see the effects of God, just as we can see the effects of a hurricane. The Jews looked around them and they saw the sun, the moon, the stars, the earth. They saw the autographs, the signatures, the footprints of God, and they sense the presence of a powerful, invisible, mysterious force moving across the face of the waters.
And this morning, we have another story of the Wind, in the Book of Acts, chapter 2. We hear the story of Pentecost: "Suddenly, a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind and it filled the house where they were sitting. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, the holy Breath, the Holy Wind, and they all began to prophesy, to speak in different languages about Jesus."
Who has seen the wind? Neither I nor you.
But when the leaves hang trembling, the wind is passing through.Who has seen the wind? Neither you nor I.
But when the leaves bow down their heads, the Wind is passing by.
That's nice. But what does it all have to do with you and me, with your life and mine? What is all this stuff about the wind? Well, for one thing, you can't have life without air, without wind. So the first thing we can say about the Spirit is that the Spirit gives life. The Spirit makes God alive in you and me.
You and I -- and these eight young people about to be confirmed -- we have come to believe that there is a God here in this universe -- mysterious, invisible, powerful -- a God you can't control any more than you can control the wind. This God, this Wind, gives life. Physical life, of course; but spiritual life, too. The best analogy we have is that God is like the wind - mysterious, invisible, powerful -- without whom there is no life.
This God is all around you -- in you -- above you -- below you -- beside you -- invisibly present wherever you go, whatever you do. The Spirit gives life.
Or maybe some of you here this morning are really closet materialists. Maybe you have trouble with anything you can't see, or touch, or feel. If you can't see it, touch it, feel it, or prove it, then must not be real. Maybe some of you are like a woman I knew who exploded one day in frustration: "People are just like animals. They're born, they live, and they die. And that's all there is!" How sad.
Because God is real and present with us, whether we feel him or not -- whether we're thinking about him or not -- whether we're good or bad, rich or poor, indifferent or concerned. God is here with us ... and that has a lot to do with grace! Because God is mysteriously near you, not because you're good, not because you're kind, not because you're religious ... in fact, none of us are. But God is graciously present in your life because ... Well, because God is God. And it's the Spirit that makes God's Spirit alive in us.
The second thing we can say about the Spirit is that the Spirit makes Jesus alive in us. It makes his words, his teaching, his love alive in us -- his words about forgiveness, about love, about eternal life. His promise that God is our loving Father and nothing can ever separate us from that love. The Spirit makes the words and teachings of Jesus alive and real in our lives.
The most powerful force in the world is the love of Christ. The work of the Spirit is to energize the love of Christ in us. God fills every believer -- young and old -- rich and poor -- men and women -- slave and free -- God fills each and every one of us with his Spirit -- the Spirit of Christ. Not just the religious big shots in the Old Testament, or the religious heroes of the New Testament, or the spiritual superstars of our own day -- but all people -- these eight young people about to be confirmed -- and you and me -- all of us in our ordinary, everyday lives -- we too are filled with the Spirit of Christ.
The third thing the Spirit does is make the church alive. The Spirit of God gets into the church and blows things around. The Spirit blows us out of our pews, blows us out the doors, blows us out of our comfortable, familiar little congregation and out into God's world.
Why is the ruach here, in this place, today, filling these young people, filling this sanctuary? Why are the winds of God bloooowing around your life, filling you and making you strong?
Is it to make you feel good? Well, yes ...
It is to heal your wounds when you're hurt? Well, yes ...
Is it to give you comfort when someone you love dies? Well, yes ...
Is it to give your life meaning when life falls apart? Well, yes ...
It is to forgive you when you live contrary to the will of God? Well, yes ...
But more than that, more than that, the Spirit of Jesus Christ that surrounds you, that's in you and around you -- the Spirit is given to you that you might have power. The Spirit is given to you so you might have the power to proclaim the message of Jesus to all people.
You see, in Pentecost, the Church was given power -- a power greater than a hurricane -- the power of the ruach -- the power to proclaim with authority the message of Jesus Christ. YOU ... not the person next to you, but YOU have been given that power. YOU are filled with the Spirit of God ... and so am I.
Wind. Spirit. Breath. Life. Power.
Who has seen the wind? Neither I nor you.
But when the leaves hang trembling, the wind is passing through.Who has seen the wind? Neither you nor I.
But when the leaves bow down their heads, the Wind is passing by.