“When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were.”
We are conceived from the noise of lovemaking. We are born from the noise of childbirth. We grow up with the noise of laughter and play, shouting and warnings too. We walk through the woods and hear the call of a bird or creature in mating season or perhaps it is a cry of hurt or danger. Some noises on our journey are fitful like a fly or bee caught in a web. We know fitful noises too well. They reveal feelings of nervousness and fear for we too are caught in a web. It is not just one of us here and there. Nor a few of us. Feeling nervous and afraid and groaning with such fitful noise is a whole nation and all its people who are caught in a web. The empire is dying, caught in the web of its own making; the hypocrisies of supremacy, the mindlessness of consumerism, the bilge of violence. It has caught us in its nervousness and fears and wants us to die with it. We are dying as we do not breathe as one, as we do not care for all, as we do not heal as we are able. We cannot pretend we do not hear dying’s fitful noise and just keep idling by. Nor can we focus only on it and keep despairing. Musicians who are part of the Noise Music genre are dabbling in the noise of Nazism, hatred of nonwhites. Others musicians refuse to despair and use Noise Music to interrupt all the U.S.’s Fascist and Nazi discord and open up space to explore a new future that uses noise to free us, to transform society. They know it serves no purpose to give in to hostility or to plan violence. Amidst these fitful noises of death and dying, peacemakers hear the rising noise of Pentecost, “there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind.” Early peacemaker heard the noise of an earlier empire dying, Rome. Present peacemakers hear the fitful noise of another empire dying, the U.S. We, like them, are not content to merely survive its dying. None of us are content to remain behind in the death chambers of empire to pick at its carcass. We too are propelled forward, together, with the noise of joy and hope and rebuilding. We all lead and we lead together. We all keep our eye on the vision of communion. We all stay connected and are energized with love. We all move forward with the power of healing – creating new life for a peaceful world. We move forward with a new Pentecost, a new gathering of diverse people willing and able to make joyful noise that transforms an empire. We have been with the dying and we have heard the fitful noise of those rendered dead and we are not afraid. Henceforth it is our Beautiful Spirit that is making a ‘noise like a strong driving wind, and it is filling the entire house.’
“You must be able to think back to roads in unknown regions, to unexpected encounters, and to partings you had long seen coming… a number of profound and grave transformations… You must have memories of many nights of love… memories of women screaming in labor… But you must also have been beside the dying, must have sat beside the dead in the room with the open window and the fitful noises… and ‘go’ forth from them.” (The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge – Ra
Prayer: Beautiful Spirit, we bellow with the noise of new life.
Question: What is a group or community I belong to or can join to help lead people through the dying of this empire?
May 28, 2023 Gospel John 20:19-23 Pentecost Sunday