The Breath of God
The Holy Spirit work within you,
that having been born through water and the Spirit,
you may live as faithful disciples of Jesus Christ.
–The Baptismal Covenant of The United Methodist Church
At the beginning of the year, we had the joy of exploring Jesus’ baptism during worship. As a congregation, we reaffirmed the baptismal covenant. Those who had been baptized came around the water and were reminded to “Remember your baptism and be thankful.” Those yet to be baptized were invited to consider how they might respond to God claiming them as God’s beloved children. For all of us, we began the year considering where God is active in our lives. As the liturgy proclaims, the Holy Spirit is at work within us!
This powerful reminder has stuck with me recently. During my time as pastor, I have found myself drawn more to the quiet work of the Holy Spirit. I know that part of this draw stems from my time in seminary when I served in a year-long placement at a Quaker Meeting. Participating in an hour of mostly silent worship each week, focused on the promptings of the Spirit, was unsettling at first. As a lover of music, I was used to constant noise and found it difficult to avoid distractions. Over time, the worship began to “deepen”, to use Quaker language. One person described the experience as a “peace, this calm, this sense that God is with me, the Spirit is with me”. The contemplative style offered by the Quakers awakened me to the Holy Spirit’s work in the less extraordinary, “ordinary” moments of life.
In recent years, the noise and distractions seem to have only increased. Perhaps you’ve experienced this too? I felt it all the more important to become aware of and listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit. I love how John Wesley describes the Holy Spirit as “God’s breathing into the soul…an unceasing presence of God, the loving, pardoning God, manifested to the heart, and perceived by faith”. If I want to hear this breathing, then I need moments of stillness and quiet.
The theologian Howard Thurman captured this experience of the Holy Spirit beautifully when sharing,
There are days when everything seems difficult, when the ordinary tasks become major undertakings, when one is sensitive and every moment is threatened by an explosion that does not quite come to pass. Then without apparent cause, the whole picture changes and the spirit can breathe again with ease. The spring in the step comes back again. It is good to experience the quiet ministry of the living Spirit of the living God.
Over 60 years later, Thurman’s words still speak to the reality of our times. Flicking from news channels to scrolling through our social media feeds and back again leaves us to believe that we are always under threat. The constant noise drowns out God’s breath within us. In these times, I am grateful that together we seek the awesome power and the quiet ministry of the Holy Spirit. My hope for 2022 is that we follow the Holy Spirit down the wild and wonderful path God has for us as God’s beloved children.