God's Wildness - June 21, 2009
Sermon Notes for Psalm 104:1-9
Key Verse—Psalm 104:2-3: “You are dressed in a robe of light. You stretch out the starry curtain of the heavens; you lay out the rafters of your home in the rain clouds. You make the clouds your chariot; you ride upon the wings of the wind.
According to J. Philip Newell in “The Book of Creation: An Introduction to Celtic Spirituality”, the ancient Celt peoples gave to Christianity the gift of appreciating and recognizing God’s presence in the vastness and wildness of nature. Newell cites a sixth-century monastic community that took the name Kildare (Church of the Oaks) because of a nearby grove of oak trees that the Celts before them had considered sacred long before the advent of Christianity in Ireland.
The Celtic reverence for the wildness and wonder of creation manifested not only in a practice of sacred outdoor “cathedrals”, but also in the ways the Celts organized themselves as a loose but connected federation, rather than a strict hierarchy. In their worshiping community, they valued the wildness of nature and the creative spirit, and were willing to trade away control and predictability to celebrate it in the way they related to God, to nature, and to each other.
In Genesis 1, God brings all of creation into being from the unformed and void stuff of chaos, when the wind from God swept over the surface of the deep in the darkness. Think honestly a bit about that description and it’s not too hard to experience feelings of fear and awe. The Hebrew Bible often encourages the Jewish people to fear the LORD, and often employs the metaphor of wind to describe the person and ways of God’s Spirit. Jesus, steeped in this symbolic tradition, reminds Nicodemus that this unruly and unpredictable wind not only describes god’s Spirit, but everyone who is born of the Spirit as well (John 3:8).
Psalm 104 employs this wind language in describing God’s glory and in honoring God with praise. Christians celebrate the miracle of Christ’s walking on water. The Psalmist celebrates God’s ability to walk on the wings of the wind. The Hebrew word for wind, ruah (רוּחַ) bears the meaning of “air in motion”, and can mean wind (Exodus 14:21), breath (Genesis 6:17), mind and spirit (of God, as in Exodus 31:3 or of humans, as in Numbers 27:16). It occurs nearly 400 times in the Hebrew Bible, typically in its feminine form, according to the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament.
The phrase, “on the wings of the wind” occurs in two other places in the Hebrew Bible, besides Psalm 104:3. king David sings a song of praise and thanksgiving for God’s deliverance from his enemies, recorded in two places, 1 Samuel 22 (the phrase is found in v. 11) and Psalm 18 (the phrase is also found in v. 11). In that other (repeated) instance, the Psalmist celebrates God coming on the clouds (sounds like Paul’s second coming of Jesus imagery, doesn’t it?) to rescue his faithful servant. Psalm 104 celebrates the clouds as the highway of God as a general celebration of the awesome nature of God’s being.
The Hebrew word ruah relates this powerful description of God to human beings, who have received the breath of God in creation and who have been blessed with God’s inspiration (think a bit about how that word breaks down!) and Spirit. Celtic Christianity calls all people to recognize God in the air we breathe—and to realize the power of God in our wild, sometimes reckless, and powerful creative spirit.
Reflection Meditation (from J. Philip Newell’s “The Book of Creation”)
- Find a quiet place where you will not be interrupted and repeat silently the phrase “You ride on the wings of the wind” while allowing images and memories of wind and wildness to be recalled within you.
- Try saying the words “You ride on the wings of the wind” as you breathe out (downwards). Allow this to remind you that in prayer you are addressing the One who dwells at the heart of your life and of all life. Then as you breathe in (upwards) and feel your body expanding, be aware of the creative energies that you are opening up to from the depths of your being.
- After these movements of meditation, begin to express silently the prayers of your heart, allowing your own heart’s desires to link you with the yearnings for new beginnings and creativity that are deep within people throughout the world. Pray for and with them as well. After this experience of prayer, you may want to share some of what you have experienced with another person or write down some of your thoughts in a journal.
- How did the Holy Spirit speak to you in worship today?
