I believe in God and all that but

Tuesday May 21^st, Acts 2: When the Feast of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Without warning there was a sound like a strong wind, gale force—no one could tell where it came from. It filled the whole building.  Try as we might, there is no way to control or predict the work of the spirit.  It is as the wind.  As the wind it has no real beginning, it has no real end, it is just their and stirs things up for the good. This is the beginning of the great reversal of Babel, and once again, humanity is not in control, God is.  Where is the spirit blowing in your community, nation, workplace or life this day?  What limits do we foolishly try to place on the wind in our lives?  Who do we foolishly try to cast as being outside the community of faith?  Who do we foolishly try to cast as being inside the community of faith?  How do we try to harness the wind as our personal lord and savior and as a badge to judge others?  All too often the church has not only participated in, but promoted attempts at harnessing the wind instead of celebrating it.  As a culture we are still reeling from that dime store novel theology of the left behind series with its vision of who is out and who is in.  When people in conversation say, “I believe in God and all that but………”  The “but” of their objections to faith are usually not objections to faith at all, they are objections to the way the church has acted in this world.  All too often what the church as done has been to attempt to harness the wind.  The “I believe in God and all that” part of the conversation is the work of the spirit.