God Breathes...

This Saturday Night we begin a new Sermon Series called God Still Breathes. If we trace throughout the Old Testament, we find that the word for wind, breath, and Spirit are the same. In Hebrew the word is ruah. It is the breath of God over the earth that brings order in Genesis 1. It is the breath of God over the earth that causes the waters to recede in Genesis 8. It is the breath of God into the dry bones in the valley that brought life from death in Ezekiel 37. But it is the same word that is spoken when God sends his Spirit upon the prophets, upon Moses and David. This word literally has the connotation of bringing vitality, of moving, of sustaining life.

Now fast forward into the New Testament. Jesus says that unless someone is born of water and Spirit, they will not have life. As a thorough-going Jewish Rabbi, Jesus would have had in mind the word ruah. It is the breath/Spirit that proceeds from God, that traverses the earth bringing order from chaos and invades the life of humanity, bringing life from death. It is the gift of God to creation that makes possible God's intention for life as we should know it. Jesus promises throughout the Gospels that there would come a time when the Spirit would come upon those that follow Him. In Acts chapter 2 we see that promised fulfilled as the breath blows and the followers of Jesus are filled with God's Spirit. It is as they are caught up by God's Spirit...moved by God's breath that amazing things begin to take place.

Over the course of the next 6 weeks we will talk about how God is still breathing. His Spirit is as available to us today as it was in the time of the Early Disciples. We will discuss how this faithful breathing God draws us closer to God and sends us into the world. We will learn to be able to recognize that movement of God as he breathes faithfully into places that we might have otherwise missed. We will gather to celebrate, as we move toward Pentecost, the awesome gift of God's Spirit to both the church and in the world.