NRS Acts 2:1
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.
6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs-- in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power." 12 All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" 13 But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine."
14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, "Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15 Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning. 16 No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
17 'In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.
19 And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
20 The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day.
21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'

A sweat lodge is like a ceremonial sauna that has its roots in ancient Native American spirituality. A few years ago I got to participate in this ritual as part of a service/mission trip to the Wind River Indian Reservation in western Wyoming. For our sweat lodge we drove out late one afternoon to the home of a family we'd worked with, and out in their pasture they had built a dome-like tent that was covered with carpet remnants and insulation scraps, about five feet tall and maybe 12 feet in diameter. Outside the lodge they had a large fire going where for the better part of that day they had been heating these big granite stones that were now glowing red hot. A medicine man had been specially invited to lead the ceremony, and he instructed us to strip down to the bathing suits we were wearing under our clothes and take a seat in the lodge on the ground where several of those hot rocks had already been centrally placed.

Since this was a challenge by choice kind of activity, we had several kids and at least one sponsor look at that tent and those stones and said, "No thanks." But there were kids who wanted to do it, and so I piled in with them into the lodge, all in a circle along with the camp counselors, some host family members, and finally the medicine man. When he pulled the lodge flap behind him the place went totally dark, as in pitch black, except for the very dull glow of those very hot rocks. The medicine man began to sing Indian chants and within minutes the heat was incredible. I'd been in steam baths and saunas and a Honda civic with vinyl upholstery that had been sitting all day long in the August sun with the windows rolled up, but I'd never in my life felt heat like this.

The sweat lodge proceeds in five rounds, and after each round, the flap is opened, you can take a drink of water, and then more hot stones are added as the ritual continues. I had made it through rounds 1-4, and there were still some kids hanging in there. I told myself I could make it, but a few minutes into that fifth round my heart started beating like it was going to jump out of my chest. I felt like I was in a burning building, and I couldn't breathe. In a matter of seconds I was totally panicked, and the next thing I knew I was crawling over bodies left and right to get to that tent flap because no matter what I was getting out. And for as long as I live I'll never forget the feel of that cold night air hitting my hot, suffocating lungs. [Deep breath!]

That night I made myself a couple of promises. One, I promised myself that this was my first and last sweat lodge ever. And two, I promised myself that I would never again take for granted the gift of respiration or the simple joy of breathing in and breathing out. So far, I've kept that first promise and failed miserably at the second. Intellectually, I know that every breath is a gift from God, vital, precious, and free. But practically speaking, I go most days without a second thought to the miracle that happens in, with, and through my lungs 15-20 times every minute. Of course, people with chronic respiratory or pulmonary problems don't have that luxury, but until something takes our breath away, we mostly forget.

Disease is certainly the natural enemy of our daily breath, but other things can take our breath away just as well, and not all of them are bad. Great beauty can also leave us breathless, and sometimes when we're in the presence of towering truth or sacrificial love, we can even forget to breathe. A time or two I've attended concerts where the music was so powerful and enthralling that I felt like I was carried outside myself; I've even heard a sermon or two that left me feeling kind of light-headed. But by far the most common and most pernicious threat to the gift of breath is just plain old, simple fear.

There have been all sorts of studies on how fear triggers all sorts of neuro-chemical responses that directly affect our ability to breathe. If I hadn't panicked, I might have been able to breathe my way through that sweat lodge. But fear does more than a number on our bronchial passages and alveoli. Fear grips our hearts as well as our lungs. Fear presses down on our spirits as hard as it squeezes our chests. Fear puts both our bodies and souls in a vice, and the greater the fear, the greater the pressure to fight or flight, to blind reaction or complete loss of control.

I really don't know if the world today is any more or less scary a place than it's ever been. Fear is, I suppose, a constant threat to every generation, but in every generation that fear, of course, comes at us in different ways and shapes. In pre-critical ages of times past, fear was often personified as demons or devouring beasts. Psalm 91 speaks to us of the "pestilence that stalks in darkness, and the destruction that wastes at noonday" (v. 6). For us, though, while we may understand fear in perhaps more scientific terms, that doesn't make it any less terrifying. For us, fear is a note that the boss wants to see you in his office where he begins by telling you what an asset you've been to the company. Fear is a call from the doctor's office that your test results are in and the doctor wants to talk to you personally. Fear is the late-night voice of a police officer telling you that there's been an accident and they're on the way to the ER. Fear is a news release from a Wall Street investment firm announcing their latest forecast on oil and gas prices. Fear is what leaves your head spinning. Fear is what makes your knees weak. Fear is what knocks the breath out of you.

The Holy Spirit is the breath of God. The English word "spirit," the Latin spiritus, the Greek pneuma, the Hebrew ruah, all basically mean breath, as in the spark of life, the difference between living and dying, the power to live and move and have our being. The Holy Spirit is the breath of God that moved over the waters formless and void at creation's birth. The Holy Spirit is what God breathed into Adam's lungs of clay to make him a living being. The Holy Spirit is how God inspired, literally breathed into the prophets the ability to speak truth and enact justice. The Holy Spirit is the very life of God that was poured into the apostles that Pentecost day so long ago, empowering them to stand before the nations and proclaim to the world the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is, in other words, God's anti-dote to the poison of fear.

The Holy Spirit is life and breath, while fear is death and extinction. And of course, fear is, as always, everywhere. There's fear in the markets. Fear in the halls of government. Fear in our homes and schools and even in our churches. There's fear that we're going under. There's fear that we're not going to make it. There's fear that it's all downhill from here to eternity.

And what does the Spirit have to say to all that fear? Two words: Just breathe.

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.