The Wind of Freedom

The Wind of Freedom

May 23 2021

May the Words of my mouth and thoughts of our hearts, be acceptable in your sight,

O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen

And so they find themselves

on the edge of the hopelessness

the sea before them and the armies of

Pharaoh behind

them and nowhere to go.

Caught between slavery

and despair.

Had they known that the way ahead would be this hard

they might have remained in slavery

better to die as a slave

than risk this new beginning.

At least there was the familiarness in slavery

but this.

This, perched on the edge of

having to live as free people.

So what if we have a divine calling?

So what if there is a love

that sees us and knows what we can be.

So what if we have come from God and are returning to God.

Best that we had stayed where we were

and what right did this Moses have

to come and tell us

it was never the intention that we be slaves.

Rather to know a truth

and this truth would somehow set us free.

After all, we have been slaves for generations

slaves to so much

so many self imposed addictions.

Addiction to anger

addiction to jealousy

addiction to fear

addiction to the status quo.

And anger

and war

and revenge

and needing to control

all these forces that would contain us and claim us

so that we repeat the lives of our parents

and their parents

all their wounds

living in us.

The sins of the parents alive in the children.

The thought that there can be something better

that thought that within is the Divine

that somehow we have been created just a little lower than God

and that within us is this world changing power.

But now it’s too late

we made the move and we have become to believe in the possible

and now here we are.

Stuck between all the old addictions

and the unknown

which seems to be death.

And maybe we wonder in this night,

maybe I’m nothing after all,

and maybe there is yet a cry from our hearts,

God, help me.

And it’s night on the edge of this Red sea,

this watery chaos

when we hear it.

A wind.

Gentle at first

a sound of eeriness

and then stronger and louder

and then tearing at our tent ropes here in the desert

blowing through our camp

disturbing, shaking anything that can be shaken

blowing, scattering,

disturbing

all through the night.

Blowing through our minds

disturbing the lies we have told ourselves,

shaking our confidence in the status quo

at the same time clearing away the cloudiness of despair

a wind

a presence of God.

Wrestling with us inviting us to believe we can live

as a different kind of people

this wind, carrying the scent of

home

and another time

and another world before we were slaves,

reminding us of who we are

and One who has been with us all our lives

before we got lost

and enslaved.

And then as the day breaks suddenly before us

what was impossible the night before

a way though the chaos and a path to our true

calling.

And so will emerge Israel.

Come forward how many hundred of years

and generations

to a room where men and women gather

and wait.

Called together to be a new people

a different kind of Kingdom.

A people whose lives would reflect the essence, the love of God.

A people that would show to the world

a better way to live.

A people who would love as God.

Who from their lives would flow streams of life giving water.

A people who would die to selfishness

a people no longer controlled

by such as anger

or jealousy

or fear.

No longer held slaves to bitterness

or such as revenge.

No longer wage war.

And they wait this room of people

people who had lived with

and walked alongside

of, the Rabbi Jesus.

This Jesus who had shown them the power of this Kingdom

the power of love to face their enemies

and return love instead of violence;

men and women who saw they could be stronger

than all the violence of life.

And the pettiness of mediocrity.

Men and women who so wanted in their lives

the power Jesus had

who so wanted

to be what he was.

Thirsty, to be able to love as He is love.

To love the world so much that they would give their lives out of love.

And so they wait

as their ancestors had done many generations before

stuck between the old and the possibility of the new.

And just as happened generations before,

it’s morning

and they awake to a wind

gentle perhaps

and then electric in its intensity

as a presence seems to inhabit the room

and with the presence a

flood of joy, the joy of God

flooding them with a love so strong

causing within them responses that only great love can

do –

maybe laughter, maybe tears, the strange bubbling out of them

of strange words

telling of the glory of God.

And then breaking out into the streets

telling all who will hear

of the greatness of God.

And the church of Christ is born

a church that will change the course of western history.

For these are not events of the past alone.

They are our story

as we sit between slavery to the past

and mediocrity

and fear of new beginnings.

We have tasted of Jesus

and in Him we have seen a love beyond all loves

and we would like that love to be found in us.

And we imagine such a love

transforming our lives

our community

our politics.

And a river of life flowing from our lives out to others

transforming, healing

making new.

And from this place and places where

men and women of the way of Jesus gather

to worship

and gather and wait

between the past and the new

for the gift He promised

even the Spirit of God

and a river of life touching the community

and all places where men and women and families

wait and thirst for the love they long for.

And it all begins with us

open to a love that won’t let us go.

Now unto God the Father, God the Son and God, the holy Spirit, be all the honour and

glory, world without end. Amen

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