The Missing Person (2020-05-31, Pentecost)

2020-05-31 _ Pentecost

● Acts 2::1-11    ● Psalm 104 ● 1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13 ● + John 20:19-23 ●

 Title:    The Missing Person

 [_01_]  A missing person.  Is the Holy Spirit a missing person? 

          When my brother was about 4 years old, he wandered away from our summertime “base camp” on the Jersey Shore and was missing for about 25 minutes.

          Spoiler alert: we actually did find him.

          In my memory, that 25 minutes could be 2 ½ hours, 2 ½ weeks or 12 months long. For any parent or teacher or grown-up who has experienced such a momentary or more than momentary separation, the experience of being lost and adrift can be overwhelming.  It’s even overwhelming to think about such … a missing person.

 

[_02_] This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday and we read about the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles in the form of the their speech, their language, their talking.  

          Why is the Holy Spirit manifested this way?

          Boston College Professor Peter Kreeft wrote that the Holy Spirit becomes one with us in the same way as AIR (oxygen) enters our lungs or respiratory system.

          The air is not visible, yet it can be measured. It is extremely close to us and absolutely necessary for both surviving and speaking.

          The air – or wind - which comes into us allows us to connect and speak with others.

          In the Gospel, we read that Jesus – who had also after his Passion and Death become a missing person – came and gave the Holy Spirit by breathing on his disciples.

          This may seem to be an odd image, especially in the age of COVID 19.  Shouldn’t the Savior the world be wearing a mask?

          But, it’s true that we are able to love, to prosper, to thrive, because of God’s love has been “breathed on us.”

          That’s often how we describe the turnaround of some difficult situation – like in the popular basketball documentary about Michael Jordan’s championships… a star player is said to “breathe new life” into his teammates.

          And, this breath creates not social distance but real intimacy.

                   The apostles are able to speak new languages because of the life breathed into them.

          Jesus teaches us about love and forgiveness – making us not only able to forgive others but making us willing to forgive, by helping us to know that our sins are forgiven.

          This ultimately enables us to speak.

[_03_]     One of the things I remember about the incident with my brother was that during those 25 minutes…nobody talked, there was only panic anxiety.

          The breath went out of us

          And, isn’t that what can happen to any of us at any time – and right now – that the breath can be knocked out of us.

          In prayer than, we are not simply explaining or exhaling all of our petitions to God, but also waiting and inhaling and receiving God into our lives, so that we can speak in love of God and of neighbor.

          The Holy Spirit is, then, a missing person we can find each day.

 

[*** PAUSE ***]

 

[_06_]  Recently, I read and saw a video about a successful and relatively new singer of both Christian popular music and secular music named Christopher Duffley.

          Christopher’s life and family history is an example of welcoming a missing person.

          Christopher was born to a father and mother unable to take care of him.

          Soon after he was born, his aunt – the sister of his biological father – intervened to adopt Christopher.

          This seems in retrospect an obvious transitional move  for a loving adult to make for her nephew. But, she also describes as a process of discernment and discovery…. “missing person” ?? reference?

          Christopher’s aunt – who really is his mother would learn –   

that  nephew had been born at 26 weeks, very premature at under 2 pounds in weight,  been born with the effects of cocaine addiction in his system and was totally blind, having 2 completely detached retinas in his eyes.

[_07_]   Christopher would not actually speak until was 5 years old. Christopher is also on the autistic spectrum.

          Early on his care, as part of the intervention, Christopher received music therapy, and therapist discovered that Christopher possessed a remarkable gift for music and and that was able to reproduce pitches and syllables of sound well before he could speak.

          If you Google-search, Christopher Duffley and the song “Open the Eyes of my Heart”, you will see a young boy about 11  years of age with a mature professional voice, on stage with a 12 piece band.

          Christopher discovered early on that he had perfect pitch and superb musical potential.

          But, it took a translation of words into action, a translation of disability into ability, a translation of pain into a petition for Christopher to be loved, to be welcomed.

[][][]  Duffley's story as a popular entertainer began when a video of the then 10-year-old Duffley singing "Open The Eyes of My Heart" at the Capitol Center for the Performing Arts in New Hampshire went viral, garnering more than 8.7 million views on YouTube. News of his remarkable talent spread like wildfire, culminating in Duffley singing the national anthem for the Boston Red Sox baseball team at Fenway Park. Demand for Duffley to release a CD swelled, propelling the young YouTube sensation Christopher Duffley's new CD, Believer, released on August 16, 2015. singer and his family to travel to Nashville to work with Dove Award-winning producer, songwriter and  arranger Steven V. Taylor (Michael W. Smith, Natalie Grant, Kirk Franklin).  The result was an 11-song compilation of inspirational, patriotic and sacred songs, titled Eyes Of My Heart, that reaches deep into listeners' hearts and encourages them to see with new eyes. Duffley's followup project, Believer, released Saturday, August 15, 2015.

 "Although the circumstances have been difficult and we have had challenges, we have found much joy and so many more blessings," says Christine Duffley. "Family life is imperfect and

and messy, and it has been a journey of love, forgiveness and abandonment. Through it all, however, we are grateful that Christopher's biological parents chose life and, now, God is using this life to touch the world for Christ."  [][][]

          All of us have great potential. All of us benefit by recognizing that God is not a missing person out of reach, but a missing person already very close to us in love of God and of neighbor.    Come Holy Ghost.

[_fin_]