Listen to the wind

Tuesday in the Second Week of Easter, April 26, 2022                   

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Listen to the wind

The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common.

On my home yesterday from Hillsboro, TX I had a great breakfast at R&K Café, and then I noticed dinosaurs across the street. First I saw a green one with a great long pink tongue, and then a brown and pink one with giant nostrils and tiny hands. The brown guy seemed to be stalking me. Perhaps they escaped from the courthouse, which loomed up behind them.

I felt torn between inviting them to come along with me (I know how much Jasper and Miles would love that) and getting away as fast as I could. Behind them the Texas Through Time sign beckoned me to come back on Tuesday at 11 and meet Andre Lujan, the young paleontologist who loves these green and brown guys from the bottom of his heart.

I thought about the days of the dinosaurs in Texas, long before the days of the cowboys, when no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common. That was in the hunter-gatherer days, when there were no refrigerators either, and we could carry everything we needed on our backs. We found food each day and stored nothing. We didn’t call it manna and quail, as the Israelites did, but it was like that.

Things changed, some say for the better. Hunters became farmers, and over time we could no longer carry things on our backs from place to place, and we found ways to lock up our stuff, and after that it wasn’t normal to have everything in common. As Jesus said, “The poor you will always have with you.” That’s because “the rich you will always have with you” too. Sometimes I long for the good very old days.

There was no needy person among them, for those who owned property or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sale to the Apostles, and they were distributed to each according to need.

Do I trust anyone to do that for me? Well, I trust my church. That’s the system closest to me which receives and re-distributes. I haven’t tried to challenge the economic disparities around me. I have tried to accept my own situation and worry less (or not at all) about that situation deteriorating. If I lose everything that provides the strange comfort of the world called security, I think that would be more OK with me than not.

I get along pretty well with my richer friends and my poorer friends, and I don’t compare myself (much) to either. Jesus spoke with Nicodemus in the dark of night because Nicodemus was a wealthy man, worried about what people might think. I want to go along or hide between a tree. I know I need to listen in.

You must be born from above. The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.

Jesus’ words are for Nicodemus. Are they also for me? Are they also for you? But isn’t Jesus just talking about the wind?

If I tell you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?

Here’s the deal, Jesus told Nicodemus. And me. And you.

The Son of Man will be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

Nicodemus didn’t know what Jesus meant, but we do. And we also know the next verse, even if we only spent a single week in Sunday School.

But we have to wait for tomorrow’s lectionary to hear it.

(Acts 4, Psalm 93, John 3)

(posted at www.davesandel.net)

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