"I want to learn how to speak Language of Red . . . in world often appearing black and white . . . Open space of desire is red. Desert before me is rose is pink in scarlet is magenta is salmon . . . Palette of erosion is red, running red water, red rivers, my own blood flowing downriver; my desire is red . . . Red sits on the top of the rainbow." (Terry Tempest Williams)
Holy Spirit saving, rescuing, delivering from view of world strictly black/white, cut/dried; bringing nuance, subtlety, empathy, choice; complexifying, diversifying, whole New World of "Other!" Be reddened! Be ripened! Feast of First Harvest! First Fruits of First Resurrection! Joyful Discernment, Just Distribution, every last gift, spiritual, material, praxisible, ideal -- JUBILEE! Resources redly, ripely, richly, routinely -- provided for all!
Show us the Red! Passion, desire, beyond black and white! World as God-in-Jesus sees, as Christ-in-Us, -- awash in all kinds, all colors -- Ultimate Creativity, Infinite Variety, Goodness, Grace -- intended for all.
Worship in Spirit, in Holy Ghost, Holiest Shade of Red! Bridging bonds, breeches, barriers, boundaries of every rite, every rote! Come to the City, Earth- Heart, Jerusalem! Nations still nastily nationalizing, as yet un-uniting, cities
flourishing with non-traditionals: Populist Islam, Pentecostal Christianity . . .
World being prepared -- Repaired? Many "strange bedfellows" under one sheet? -- for our children, grandchildren, all generations -- of "Parthians, Medes, Elamites, residents Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia . . . " How dare we not discover -- new ways of speaking, hearing, acting, building relations with every "Other" -- meeting each in own language, own faith, own culture, own way, own time -- every last Shading of Red?
* * * * *
It was barely dawn, and I was still sound asleep. Then came a noise -- holy racket of sorts. Honking and calling and furious fluttering of wings. I made it to front porch just in time to see eight huge Canada geese land in lake on little farm where I live. With great fanfare they touched down, then skimmered across the water to stop, wings still beating in the air.
Red fire appeared between trees on the western horizon, then slowly turned orange and finally a stabbing yellow. Birds and bugs of all sorts joined in early morning chorus of welcome to day -- humming, chirping, whistling, singing. I laughed out loud. It was the closest thing to Pentecost I am likely to experience.
It descends on us like rushing wings, tongues of fire, a cacophony of voices. Startling. Dazzling. Unpredictable. Enough to make the neighbors think somebody raided nature's wine cellar before the sun ever came up.
(Joyce Hollyday)
* * * * *
Drunk not only on Eternal Nature but on Recent History; fearstruck-dead by what happens to Jesus; wanted by local authorities now wanting us -- stayed afraid, subdued, preoccupied with own survivals; for all purposes good as standing "Church Movement" before it begins! And again, and again, and . . .
Yet Jubilee Day! Some Few Timid-Ass Disciples stepping right through our walls! Transporting resurrection -- pious to public, sanctum to street!
Little wonder suspected of too much to drink! Had to be drunk, or crazy, to witness that name so boldly! Risen Christ ascending -- clearing, expanding, levelling playing, praying field -- resurrecting us, even against better judgment! Instilling us with gifts, with moves for the Open Field, the Whole World we rarely, if ever, dreamed we bore in us! Spirit of Jesus' Radically Grassroots Presence, revealing in us Who he still is, What he still does . . . even in us!
"Pentecost means speaking without confusion. These were just Galileans!" Lay speakers! "There wasn't a seminary degree among them, no studied rhetoricians . . . But on Pentecost they speak the truth with eloquent simplicity."
(Bill Wylie-Kellerman)
Truth world still hungry to hear to this day: "For a long time during those frightful years I waited for a great voice to speak up in the Church. I, an unbeliever? Precisely. For I knew the spirit would be lost if it did not utter a cry of condemnation when faced with force . . . What the world expects of Christians is that Christians should speak out, loud and clear . . . voice condemnation when faced with force . . . condemnation of war in such a way never a doubt, never the slightest doubt, could arise in the heart of the simplest person. They should get away from abstraction and confront the bloodstained face history has taken on today. We need a grouping of people resolved to speak out clearly and to pay up personally." (Albert Camus)
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