"The Breath of Life"

by Rev. Dr. Amy Chilton on 08/01/24

Last year my tallest sunflower was 9.5 feet tall. This year’s sunflower has topped that by 3 feet! My garden has struggled with bugs this year and some of my crops haven’t produced like I want them to (especially my okra and hot peppers), but my sunflowers and eggplant are reminding me that this good earth was created for abundance.

Have you come to expect a weekly garden reflection?! Growing up I heard a lot of youth ministers use sports analogies at every turn. I was a competitive swimmer, but team sports that involve throwing, catching, running, or kicking are totally not my thing. Not because I think they are bad in some way - just because I’m no good at them and am not personally interested. But, those youth ministers saw God’s presence in something they loved and they shared it, and that I appreciate.

One of the Psalms attributed to King David opens with these words:

            The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, 

the world and those who live in in it;

            For he has founded it on the seas,

                        and established it on the hills. (Psalm 24:1-2)

I am convinced that the Lord is present and at work throughout all of creation - creation that God spoke into being (Genesis 1) and that God’s Spirit continues to breathe into life. The earth is the Lord’s! Thus, we should be able to see evidence in manifold ways: gardens, sports, yarn, books, etc.

In another Psalm attributed to David, we are reminded that the Spirit’s presence is so expansive that we will never accidentally walk our way out of it:

            Where can I go from your spirit?

                        Or where can I flee from your presence?

            If I ascend to heaven, you are there;

                        if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

            If I take the wings of the morning

                        and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,

            Even there your hand shall lead me,

                        and your right hand shall hold me fast. (Psalm 139:7-10)

One of my favorite theologians, J?rgen Moltmann, reminds us that the Holy Spirit is God’s breath of life throughout the breadth of the created world. If the Spirit is the breath of life in all of creation, then we should expect to find God’s Spirit in many diverse ways in our life experiences: in plants, and sports, and yarn, and sunsets, and friends. And we should expect that the Spirit will show up for others in ways we don’t expect - afterall, even “other people” can’t walk out of Spirit’s presence.

Moltmann defines the experience of meeting the Spirit in creation as “an awareness of God in, with and beneath the experience of life, which gives us an assurance of God’s fellowship, friendship, and love.”^[1] We Baptists are certainly a “people of the Book,” who study God’s word to find how God met our ancestors of the faith and spoke truth into their times and spaces. And we let that Scripture reading shape how we understand God at work in the world. And we also meet God where God’s Spirit shows up in our daily lives and the lives of others.  If God is creator of all that is, creativity is a sign of God’s Spirit at work in the world. If God is love, then acts of love are signs of God’s Spirit at work in the world.

This week, as you go about your work, pay attention to the signs of God’s presence amongst us. And when you happen upon any signs of God’s presence, take a deep breath, breathing in the Spirit that enlivens this world, and give thanks for all God’s work.

Come Spirit, meet us here!

Blessings,

Pastor Amy