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 8 April 2020
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The news from the Genesis experiment, that we can create life now came with all the hype, spin and pseudo scientific knowledge that we have come to expect when something new happens. Frankenstein will stalk the earth, danger, evil and disease will all happen, probably next week or next year, intone the media attracting prophets, sounds like doom and disaster because God' job is being usurped. The media who usually decry the existence of God now ask are we being God? Well in one sense we are God like, made in God's image we are told, made to be creative and curious and experimental and with that comes all the risks of failure and dangers of success. So what do we do? Freeze? What has actually happened is that using the base amino acids which form our DNA strands, and a computer, because to work through the millions of possibilities a scientist has finally found a new DNA sequence which will actually grow in another cell. The DNA tells a cell what it is, what it turns into. To test the sequence he, and I guess an army of the research team, took the existing DNA out of a one cell bacterium and replaced it with the synthetic one and the cell started to multiply like other cells. This gives a possibility that cells can be made with the properties which the maker wants, eg eating up oil spills, if a DNA code for doing that can be made. It is a tremendous breakthrough it may mean that diseases can be cured, but with that always comes the downside that diseases could also be produced. It depends entirely on that other form of life, the human being. Whether we choose good or evil, whether we blunder into disaster our greed or restrain our explorations for wholeness and wellbeing of everyone. At the end of the day , it is our humanity which will decide. One of the stupidest statement about this matter I heard was , now there is no mystery about life. No mystery about life IT makes the mystery about human being even greater. Yes you can come out with a formula for the DNA , but still every person is different, unique as a whole. There is more to our being than being the bundle of chemicals that make us up, or our DNA code which we all share with minor variations. The scriptures knew this. In poetry and prose they tried to express.what life is. The old Genesis says the wind / Spirit moved over the waters, creatures and beings were made but at the end they needed something more to complete them, The wind becomes breath, and God breathes life into God's creation and then there was life, there were people. Today is the day when Luke takes that story and tells us in Symbol and story that Spirit breath from God does more than just enliven us and how the church was breathed into life as the people became filled with the spirit of God's life. . I wondered if how many of you have been in a place where the harvest was celebrated. After that hard work of gathering the grapes, getting in the hay, picking the fruit, harvesting the grains. On the day of Pentecost , 50 days after the feast of Passover, where the liberation and freedom of the people from Egypt was celebrated, Pentecost was at first a harvest festival in which people brought their first fruits to God. But over the centuries, the Day of Pentecost had become primarily a celebration of God's gift of the law to Israel, serving to remind the Jewish people of the fifty-day interval between the Passover in Egypt and the giving of the law at Mount Sinai, the covenant with God and God's people. Pentecost was one of the major festivals - a time to gather together for celebration. Yet many of those who had followed Jesus had retreated into hiding after the crucifixion, waiting quietly for God to act. But the festival remained central to their faith and so they gathered with others to celebrate. And as Luke tells the story, The heavens roared; fire burned. The Spirit of God descended. Disciples preached. The crowds wondered. Those listening to Luke's story would have seen his meaning, that a new law, a new covenant had come.on this day, when the bringing of the law by Moses from the smoking slopes of Sinai was celebrated with fire and flame, Flames like fire danced on the disciples as the law of love came to life in the little bunch of Jesus followers in Jerusalem. On the day of Pentecost, when the first fruits of the land were gathered and presented with thanksgiving, when the new wine was flowing. The streets of Jerusalem are packed and there is a new harvest. The first fruit of the new covenant. These people who spoke God's word with languages that could be heard by all the Jews and others present. People from all over the known world, every language, every people, were given understanding, God's spirit was with them, among them, blowing all the old accretions on the Law out of the way. It gave courage and enthusiasm to people like Peter who had only recently been mourning their leader and the betrayals in their midst. The rumour of resurrection was turned into a new reality as people were brought together and the Spirit of God breathed new life into them. The life that God brings is dynamic, not rote reproduction. It builds bridges, not high towers, she teaches us to hear new languages, he gives us new speech to communicate. It is God featured human language—one of humanity's divisive and also most community building characteristics — to symbolize his kingdom community. Using language to demonstrate the holy possibility - human understanding. No longer is the spirit of God confined to a few prophets and kings. - God is on the loose, not confined to the temple edicts and those who might seek to kill or silence her. He is poured out on all, women and men, the young and the old, enslaved and free, all the categories that the old legalism tries to put boundaries around. Forgiveness is possible, releasing people for new life, not held by the past. Peter quotes from the Prophet Joel, about the realisation that God is among us, loose and its not surprising that has the doomsayers and fearful statements that express our dismay when we find things are out of our control and may even be in God's open freedom. Anything can might and will happen, for it is God who is acting in and through God's creation bringing life in all its mystery. God Spirit, the spirit of Jesus, the deep magic of God, is on the loose This is expressed using the word magic - mystery by Leonard Cohen GOD IS ALIVE, MAGIC IS AFOOT God is alive, magic is afoot God is alive, magic is afoot God is alive, magic is afoot God is afoot, magic is alive Alive is afoot, magic never died God never sickened Many poor men lied Many sick men lied Magic never weakened Magic never hid Magic always ruled God is afoot, God never died God was ruler Though his funeral lengthened Though his mourners thickened Magic never fled Though his shrouds were hoisted The naked God did live Though his words were twisted The naked magic thrived Though his death was published Round and round the world The heart did not believe Many hurt men wondered Many struck men bled Magic never faltered Magic always lead Many stones were rolled But God would not lie down Many wild men lied Many fat men listened Though they offered stones Magic still was fed Though they locked their coffers God was always served Magic is afoot, God rules Alive is afoot Alive is in command Many weak men hungered Many strong men thrived Though they boast of solitude God was at their side Nor the dreamer in his cell Nor the captain on the hill Magic is alive Though his death was pardoned Round and round the world The heart would not believe Though laws were carved in marble They could not shelter men Though altars built in parliaments They could not order men Police arrested magic and magic went with them Mmmmm.... for magic loves the hungry But magic would not tarry It moves from arm to arm It would not stay with them Magic is afoot It cannot come to harm It rests in an empty palm It spawns in an empty mind But magic is no instrument Magic is the end Many men drove magic But magic stayed behind Many strong men lied They only passed through magic And out the other side Many weak men lied They came to God in secret And though they left Him nourished They would not tell who healed Though mountains danced before them They said that God was dead Though his shrouds were hoisted The naked God did live This I mean to whisper to my mind This I mean to laugh within my mind This I mean my mind to serve Til' service is but magic Moving through the world And mind itself is magic Coursing through the flesh And flesh itself is magic Dancing on a clock And time itself The magic length of God © 1966- Leonard Cohen. Rev. Margaret Anne Low
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