Paperless Wings

Last week Caitlin and I stepped across a pale stone threshold into the vast and beautiful sanctuary of Peachtree Road United Methodist church.  We were attending the Festival of Homiletics, a preaching conference where preachers get to hear really good preachers preach multiple times a day.  It may or may not be your thing, but we had a great time with the seven or eight hundred other ministers who were in attendance.  But of course we needed a big place to meet and Peachtree Road UMC with its sanctuary seating 1800 people fit the bill.  The room has a high arching ceiling with dark wooden beams.  Your eye is immediately drawn to the massive organ behind the stage at the front.  A blue and purple light filters through a starburst stained glass window adding color and drawing your eye further up the room and toward the heavens.  As I said, it was a beautiful structure, solid and well planned to aid in the liturgy and worship of this congregation.  

However, in the midst of this stone structure I couldn’t help but notice a flock of paper wings floating around the top of the ceiling, hanging from strings across the pillars. It was an art installation for the Centennial anniversary of the church’s founding, 1300 paper doves to represent the movement of the Holy Spirit in the life of their congregation. The doves spiraled down from the top of the balcony across the pews were the congregation worships, spinning over the pulpit and then back up towards the luminous star at the front. It was beautiful and distracting and chaotic, yet clearly orchestrated with precision and intention. Perhaps a good representation of the Holy Spirit which is the vital power of the church in Acts and also the cause of many stern rebukes from Paul to maintain orderly worship for the benefit of the whole congregation.  Baptists don’t talk about the Holy Spirit very well.  We are Trinitarian, but usually only if you mean God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Bible.  I think we tend to be uncomfortable talking about the Spirit.  We like the concrete, imprisoned, written word of God, but often we are uncomfortable with the intangible, moving presence of God in our midst.  Seeing these paper wings floating above my head all of last week has me wondering what might the Holy Spirit look like in Highland Hills today?  How do you know when you have experienced the presence of God?  And perhaps most difficult of all, in what new ways are we being invited to respond to God’s Spirit? May we listen and may we follow.