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| "Northern Lights over black church at Budir, Iceland" by Diana Robinson |
Acts 5
'Pneuma' and Wind
†
A Greeting
Teach me to do your will, for you are my God.
(Psalm 143:10a)
A Reading
Now many signs and wonders were done among the people through
the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico.
None of the rest dared to join them, but the people held them in
high esteem. Yet more than ever believers were added to the Lord,
great numbers of both men and women, so that they even carried
out the sick into the streets, and laid them on cots and mats,
in order that Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he
came by. A great number of people would also gather from the
towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those tormented
by unclean spirits, and they were all cured.
(Acts 5:12-16)
Music
This medieval Icelandic hymn is a request to God for personal healing.
Meditative Verse
I commune with my heart in the night;
I meditate and search my spirit.
(Psalm 77:6)
A Reflection
Open your heart to Him
and let yourself receive the one
who is opening to you so deeply.
For if we genuinely love Him,
we wake up inside Christ's body
where all our body, all over,
every most hidden part of it,
is realized in joy as Him,
and He makes us, utterly, real,
and everything that is hurt, everything
that seemed to us dark, harsh, shameful,
maimed, ugly, irreparably
damaged, is in Him transformed.
- from - from "We awaken in Christ's body", by Symeon the New Theologian,
a 10th century orthodox monk. Found on the website
Poetry Chikana: Sacred Poetry from Around the World. English version by Stephen Mitchell.
Verse for the Day
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.
(Psalm 51:10)
†
Signs and wonders characterize much of the storytelling of the book of Acts, as the apostles seek to evangelize and form the earliest Christian communities. Healing miracles are the most common, and the reading makes clear how even a passing encounter with the apostles was believed to be renewing. These acts of healing include sending ’unclean spirits’ out of afflicted people. The Greek word used for ‘spirit’ in this case is the same as that used in the phrase ‘Holy Spirit’ - ‘pneuma’. There are five Greek meanings for ‘pneuma’: the Holy Spirit; the soul; a spirit greater than human beings but lower than god like an angel; that which fills us with emotion; and a simple movement of wind or breath. The reading reminds us, however, that there is such a thing as a ‘pneuma’ that is ‘unclean’. Because our human spirituality is vulnerable to harmful influences, our understanding of the Holy Spirit as part of the triune God allows us to find our way back to the ‘pneuma’ of renewal. This is perhaps why at all times, Peter and the others resist personal credit: “We are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit”, he says. The meaning of ‘pneuma’ that conjures the ‘wind’ or ‘air’ will be explored further in coming days. For now, take a moment with the video below, to imagine lying beneath a tree. Let the wind revitalize you, stirring and perhaps cleaning out the darker places, and creating a space where the Holy Spirit may revive you.
The next devotional day is Wednesday, May 25th.
LC† Acts of the Spirit is a project of
Lutherans Connect / Lutheran Campus Ministry Toronto.
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