Pentecost

Two things for Pentecost. First of all a Painting by He Qi the Chinese artist, which evokes the spirit and fire and hints of Pentecostal wind.  He was the CMS Artist in residence a few years back and painted a wonderful image for the CMS office in Oxford. You can see it here: The Art of Mission 

And then a prayer by Walter Brueggemann from his excellent book: Prayers for a Privileged People

“The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” John 3:8

We hear the story of the wind at Pentecost,
Holy wind that dismantles what was,
Holy wind that evokes what is to be,
Holy wind that overrides barriers and causes communication,
Holy wind that signals your rule even among us. 

We are dazzled, but then – reverting to type -
We wonder how to harness the wind,
how to manage the wind by our technology,
how to turn the wind to our usefulness,
how to make ourselves managers of the wind 

Partly we do not believe such as odd tale
because we are not religious freaks;
Partly we resist such a story,
because it surges beyond our categories;
Partly we had imagined you to be more ordered
and reliable than that. 

So we listen, depart, and return to our ordered existence:
we depart with only a little curiosity
But not yielding;
we return to how it was before,
unconvinced but wistful, slightly praying for wind,
craving for newness,
wishing to have it all available to us.
We pray toward the wind and wait, unconvinced but wistful.

Walter Brueggemann Prayers for a Privileged People