For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
~Galatians 5:13-14
 
So often when we think of independence we frame it as freedom from, and rightly so: Freedom from coercion of all sorts, freedom from living according to someone else’s definition of who we are or how we are being called to live among and with the whole of creation. Indeed, we are all too mindful of the ways in which the church has been among those institutions that have used the language of do and don’t, right and wrong to harm.
 
The Galatians text captures the other side of this equation: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The freedom we have is a freedom for life in community that is rich and varied and blessed. Elisha is so compelled by Elijah’s life that he wants nothing more than a double portion of that spirit. Jesus sets his face toward a way of self-giving that turns the world upside down. You see it here, evidenced love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Freedom not from but for—for love, for connection, for life.
 
As we anticipate a Sunday with our siblings from Bridge Ministries we anticipate that this spirit will be on full display. Not that it is not complicated, but it just always is. 

When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?... Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him.
~Luke 8:28,30
 
[God] said [to Elijah], “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.
~1 Kings 19:11-12
 
So. Much. Noise. So many voices.
 
It is constant, this cacophony of sound. Why does Legion shout if not to be heard above all those voices in his head? What is it about the silence that Elijah knows God’s voice will be present there? Atlantic staff writer Ed Yong notes that humans, by flooding the environment with light and sound, have confounded the senses of countless animals and drowned out the cues they depend upon to survive.

​Is it any different with us? Nonsense and deceptive speech, wise counsel and reasoned conclusions compete in the same marketplace. In this moment of technological flux we can find whatever voice we want to justify what we want to believe. But what good is that? How do we find that quiet center, that wise counsel, that shared welfare that lets us thrive?
 
Readings: 1 Kings 19:1-4, (5-7), 8-15a and Psalm 42 and 43 † Isaiah 65:1-9 and Psalm 22:19-28 † Galatians 3:23-29 † Luke 8:26-39

In the gospel for this Sunday, we hear Jesus promising the disciples the Spirit as our future guide and companion. Times move. The world changes. Our collective and individual stories are varied and rich. God, the creator of all, made us this way. And Jesus, God with us, asks us to have faith and to trust that God will never leave us, but will keep showing up in the rich contours of our lives. We are to be bold. We are to be reassured and we are to look confidently for the Spirit’s presence in our lives and in the lives of our communities calling us into the just and peaceful future that God desires for all people. Where do you see this Spirit? What is she calling you to?  
 
 “ 1Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice? 2On the heights, beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand; 3beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries out: 4"To you, O people, I call, and my cry is to all that live.”
~Proverbs 8:1 - 4  


(Image: Trinity – Kelly Latimore [kellylatimoreicons.com]}

Trinity Sunday Readings (Year C): Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31 † Psalm 8 † Romans 5:1-5 † John 16:12-15

And there came suddenly from heaven a sound like the sweeping of a mighty wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
~Acts 2:2
 
New voices. Fresh winds of the Spirit. Chaos and yet, from it, something new and true. And resistance: They’re just drunk! (Acts 2:12). It’s all there in these eras of change. Some days it all feels just so fragile and brittle and unfinished. Truth embedded in our stories is always more complex and nuanced than the ways we talk about it. It can seem easier to just back away than to fail.
 
But, understood differently, there is nothing new under the sun. This is always the way its been. Let Wilda Gafney have this last word as we spend this last Sunday with her texts: While the outpouring of the Spirit on Pentecost might have marked the dawn of the Church, it did not mark the dawn of the Holy Spirit. She was there at creation. She is with us now. She always is.

Pentecost Sunday Readings (Year W): Acts 2:1–18 (or Isaiah 44:1–8) † Psalm 104:1–4, 10–15, 27–30 † Romans 8:14–17 † John 14:8–17