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Sermon June 4, 2023
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, MSW
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen’s
First Sunday after Pentecost, Year A
https://lectionarypage.net/YearA_RCL/Pentecost/ATrinity_RCL.html#ot1
Audio: /documents/Eucharist__June_4__2023
Video: https://youtu.be/lLOphfex2os
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 wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Genesis 1:1-2
This week, I have been thinking about wind. I happened to live in Kansas for a time and the wind blows all of the time. In the summer, it is an especially hot wind. Some days the wind is stronger than others. In fact when I attended the University of Kansas, there were some days that it was so windy, that certain entrances had to be locked, because if you opened the door, it would blow off the hinges.
Some days it was a struggle to keep your car in the right lane of the highway. And, of course, we all know about how the wind can whip into a tornado. There are some days here that remind me of that Kansas wind.
As you may remember, I was in Tennessee for some continuing education on centering prayer. My teacher, Betsy, had just moved to Tennessee to a town on a plateau. The wind was pretty strong on the days I was there. One day Betsy and I were outside tending to the pasture where Barney the donkey was. The wind was so strong and the next thing I knew, Betsy was yelling at the wind to stop! She was just so tired of having it blow her around. We have often laughed about that. How funny to yell at the wind to stop, as if the wind would obey.
Yes, we do remember that Jesus was able to calm the wind.
Last week we heard in Acts 2:2 “And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.” We often associate wind with the Holy Spirit, although we hear about winds or something like them throughout the Bible, letting us know that God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit is coming among us and is with us.
In this week’s reading from Genesis, we hear about a theological explanation for God’s being with us always, even at the very beginning. According to theologian and Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann, this text, written to Israelites in exile in Babylon 2,600 years ago is not science and not myth. Rather, God is the God of all life and creation. It is a way to understand and know that faith in God is warranted, even when all experience mitigates against it.
In fact, God was there as a wind that swept over the face of the waters. God was in the wind. In some translations it is said that the wind was brooding. Now while we understand brooding to be in a more negative context, the meaning from the 1600s when the word was first used meant hovering and persistently overhanging.
There was this wind – this breath of God – this essence of God in the trinity, even – hovering over the earth – hovering over the waters – persistently overhanging. What will this creation be? What will come of this? And then God shapes this formless void and darkness into something that is beautiful; diverse; something that can sustain all kinds of life…something that brings all kinds of beauty. All kinds of life are created, including human beings.
All of creation is good. All of creation is intertwined. All of creation is from God. All of creation has its purpose, if you will. Each part necessary for the whole. And we who are human are responsible to care for this creation. God gives us and all of creation the ability to keep creating. We are partners with God in changing and creating new things.
We are given the power to have a choice. Do we create that which gives life or do we create that which destroys life?
As we all understand, creating life is not easy. It is definitely challenging. Like the blocks that can take forever to build up, but just a second to knock down, creating life seems to take much more time and care than destroying life.
The Haudenosaunee nation has a practice of thanking all of creation at the beginning of any meeting in what is called the Thanksgiving Address. Here is what they say about the wind:
We are all thankful to the powers we know as the Four Winds. We hear their voices in the moving air as they refresh us and purify the air we breathe. They help us to bring the change of seasons. From the four directions they come, bringing us messages and giving us strength. With one mind, we send our greetings and thanks to the Four Winds. https://americanindian.si.edu/environment/pdf/01_02_Thanksgiving_Address.pdf
Can you still hear and feel that hovering and persistently overhanging wind of God moving among us? Can you breathe the fresh and cleansing air that God brings? Can you feel joy at the change of the seasons that comes from the wind of God? Do you hear the messages from God? Do you feel the strength God gives?
From this wind of God comes life. May we be guided by the wind of God and bring life.
Amen
Interpretation: A Bible commentary for Teaching and Preaching: Genesis by Walter Brueggemann, pg. 25
