It was recorded by the Browns,
perhaps you remember it
- but perhaps not -

"Way out here they got a name
for wind and rain and fire,"

"The rain is Tess
The fire, Joe,
and they call the wind 'Miriah'."

"Wind" turns out to be a popular subject for songs.
"You remember the Wreck of ol' number 9"
or, perhaps, "The Wayward Wind",
by Gogi Grant in 1956?

And in other cultures and places,
where lives are ruled by the wind,
there are as many names for wind
as the Eskimos have for snow.

The wind is a mysterious force that one cannot see
yet has the power to change the world.
The wind carves out landscapes and drives the sea
with its persistence and its creative force.

The wind moves deserts
and builds the giant doons of West Africa.
and moans through the mountains and secret places
of all times, ages, and places.

In the holy Scripture
Wind is used as a metaphor
for God's creative, life-giving, Spirit.

What to us is a driving wind
is in scripture, the breath of God,
and it blows, unsettling, de-stabilizing,
creating, rebuilding,
rain-sending, life-giving
through our faith stories, and through our lives.

The Ruach YHWH,
what we call "the Holy Spirit of God",
literally, "the Divine Wind",
begins in the first verses of the Old Testament,
as God moves over primeval chaos
and creates a place
for his beloved.

And, then, for a total of over 500 times
in the Old and New Testaments
the word is used to describe
the power of God
to breath life into his creature,
into you and into me
when we find ourselves
devastated and imprisoned
eroded
by the winds of the world.

"Miriah blows the stars around
and sends the clouds a-flying…"

Today's stories tell of the great event
which blew life into God's little church
on the day of Pentecost.

That day falls 50 days after the celebration
of the Jewish Passover,
which is about the time we celebrate Easter.

The readings tell of the remnant of the disciples.
Thousands had become only a handful -
after the Crucifixion,
and those few huddled,
imprisoned by their fear,
uncertainty, and disappointment.

They had no ideas, no plan,
except to hide in that upper room
for the rest of their miserable, frightened lives.
I've been tempted from time to time
to do just that.
It's an isolating and lonely experience.

"Then, suddenly, from the heavens
came a sound
like the rush of a violent wind;
and it filled the whole house
where they were sitting."

and, as the wind of God, the Holy Spirit,
entered each of them
so was the breath
which came out of them transformed,
and they were able to speak God's words
so that everyone who heard them understood.

Here, at last, is the reversal of the sin of Babal, (in Genesis)
when men tried to build a tower to heaven
but had missed the point
that they were rather to build bridges to humankind.

So, in their self-centeredness
did they loose the ability
to understand one another
and were scattered, and alone.

Here , at last, at Pentecost,
God's wind blows convincingly
through the human heart
and teaches the perfect language of God.

In his commencement speech
given at his high school,
Aaron Eddy spoke of his dad, Albert;
whom we all miss terribly.
Aaron writes:

"'Have I told you I love you today?'
was a frequent question my Dad would ask my family.
We would usually respond with a simple 'yes', or 'no'.
The 'no" resulted in the immediate words,
'I love you today'.
My dad's gentleness was so profound
that it revealed a powerful vulnerability and innocence.
'I love you forever and ever and ever, until the end of time,
and after,' he would say."

With such words does God whisper
in his breath,
and the disciples spill out of their hiding place
to carry God's joy to the world.

Today, God's wind blows
through this place
as it did through that upper room,
sculpting and fine-tuning this people.

Children are baptized
to begin their journey
toward Christ-like-ness,
informed by the Breath of God
which blows through this place.

Vestry Members are today raised up
to learn how to bring us together
in the speaking of one language.
Hymns of praise arise this Pentecost
and his stories are told
here, and in an intergenerational event
in today's Sunday School time.
The bereaved are comforted;
the sick visited with Holy Communion
Hospitality abounds after worship
just on this one day;
and, God has only just begun.

God's Spirit whistles and moans
as God changes his world,
as God changes us, here, now -
one human heart at a time.

"Miriah blows the stars around
and sends the clouds aflying…"