Psalm 46

What are the odds that a global pandemic would hit during the season of Lent, and national riots of people speaking different languages and unable to hear each other, would happen on Pentecost?

As I write this, sirens of fire trucks blare outside my window, I hear weapons being fired and helicopters roaming all over the city. And the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit sleeps in the sanctuary where we had left Her this morning!

With the pandemic threatening all aspects of our lives, and on top of it the strange and violent events in our nation and city, it feels like God has abandoned us.

Psalm 46 draws an almost similar picture to what we are experiencing today: the earth gives way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall.

But then through these disturbing images of destruction and chaos, the Psalmist declares: “God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.” I love to rest in that assurance, trusting that God is not going to abandon the creation God made and loved, but is going to see it through to the end.

So friends, what are the odds that the Holy Spirit chooses to appear in the middle of a riot? Wild and free and demanding freedom. What are the odds that we need to tune our ears to listen to Her message? A message that we’ve been failing to hear. What are the odds that She is at work through all that is happening, and despite the destruction and harm, calling humans back to see each other in their humanity?

Kenneth L. Samuel, one of the writers of a daily devotional I follow wrote: “Exposing evil is [a] risky business. But the greater threat is the deadly silence of those who consistently sacrifice moral conscience on the altar of social order.”

Today the choice is between moral conscience and social order, and the Holy Spirit has, for darn sure, made her choice!