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Page 38

Blown by the Spirit.. .

We Know Not Where

Walter Brueggemann

Cincinnati, Ohio

We hear the story of the wind at Pentecost,

Holy wind that dismantles what was,

Holy wind that evokes what is to be,

Holy wind that overrides barriers and causes communication,

Holy wind that signals your rule even among us.

We are dazzled, but then—reverting to type—

we wonder how to harness the wind,

how to manage the wind by our technology,

how to turn the wind to our usefulness,

how to make ourselves managers of the wind.

Partly we do not believe such an odd tale

because we are not religious freaks;

Partly we resist such a story,

because it surges beyond our categories;

Partly we had imagined you to be more ordered

and reliable than that.

So we listen, depart, and return to our ordered existence:

we depart with only a little curiosity

but not yielding;

we return to how it was before,

unconvinced but wistful, slightly praying for wind,

craving for newness,

wishing to have it all available to us.

We pray toward the wind and wait, unconvinced but wistful.

Used by permission: Prayers for a Privileged People, Walter Brueggemann, Abingdon Press, 2008.

Journal for Preachers