Movement of the Spirit • Movimiento del espíritu
By Rev. Doris Garcia Rivera
Interim Executive Director
This sermon was preached on Sunday, May 30, 2021 as part of a Pentecost preaching series through Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, DC. Calvary is a BPFNA Partner Congregation.
I want to thank Revs. Sarratt and Swearingen, and Calvary for this opportunity to share the Word. Receive my greetings from the network of BPFNA-Bautistas por la Paz in Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the United States.
In Jn 3: 8 Jesus tells Nicodemus: “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.” NIV.
We don't see the wind, we feel it. It can flow like a gentle breeze or a hurricane. It moves the waves, the clouds and the rain, mold sculptures in mountains and rocks. It stirs fires, scatters seeds, transports desert dust, but also lifts up birds, insects, airplanes and even humans.
By comparing the children of the Spirit with the wind, Jesus provides a powerful metaphor for you and me. The Spirit moves within the church but also in people outside the church. In all those who promote the gospel of change with the values of the kingdom.
Where do I see the movement of the Spirit? Among women survivors of violence and those who accompany them. Among African American, Asian and Pacific Islander families in mourning, but standing up to demand justice and accountability in policing and judicial and criminal areas. In LGBTQ + groups and in their search for respect and recognition of their full humanity. In those spaces where we find discrimination, belittlement and death – there, the Spirit moves.
The text associates corporeality with spirituality. Nicodemus talks about how to get back into the mother's womb. He remains bound by his own knowledge and experience of a world interpreted in a certain way. Meanwhile Jesus rebuilds the materiality of the body in the form of divine will. Nicodemus’ interpretation is alright within the boundaries of “his” world. But within the boundaries of God’s World, he is lost for he doesn’t understand what Jesus is talking about.
How do we recognize a reborn person, a person who moves with the Spirit? -> the fruits of the Spirit! That’s the gauge… The will of God cannot be stopped just as bodies moved by longings for agape love, for peace and justice cannot be chained.
I see the Spirit move in those who share a bag of food and in those who struggle to change the policies that keep the poor, poor and the rich, rich. In the pain and longing for justice and peace of the Colombian and Palestinian people. In the affirmation of your ethnicity, in the creativity of young people.
This time has been one of chaos. Murders, media manipulation, hatred of the one who is different, violent movements overwhelm us. In the midst of this chaos, the Spirit bears fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness and self-control.
These fruits are not “nice”. They are the divine filter, the measure that reveals and provokes evil doers and evilness. The one who deceives, kills, corrupts, steals and build us up as enemies, the one who doesn’t believe in the worth of being human.
The fruit of the Spirit is not a private inner good feeling, it is a concrete public expression of the person who walks (or does not walk) in Christ to achieve the biblical Shalom – that harmony of the human being with themselves, with their community community, with God and with creation
The Spirit moves at the rhythm of the embrace that consoles the loss of life due to COVID and in the words that encourage. But that rhythm also welcomes the struggles and demands for decent jobs, fair wages, and accessible health, homes and good education.
The Spirit moves where she wants and how she pleases
We were moved to celebrate human resilience with our upcoming 40 days of learning, liturgies, and prayer during this year’s Peace Conference. Starting on July 20, we will provide tools with workshops on pastoral care, emotional health, defense of rights, how to confront racism, how to nurture a culture of peace in childhood and much more. We will complete those 40 days on August 28 with a powerful message from Rev. Douglas Avilesbernal, executive minister of the Evergreen Baptist Association of American Baptist Churches.
In this time of chaos, the Spirit moves. She lifts us high, gives us strength and encourages us to build another possible world. There is no way to stop the Spirit, as no one can stop those who move on her wings. I invite you to join us. The ruah of the future dreamed of by God is in you. Move!
