Passage to read: John 3:1-17
By The Rev. Jim Clark
During winter in Scottsdale, I often take a 30-to-45-minute mid-morning walk. There is virtually always a gentle breeze or a more forceful wind.
Both the Greek word pneuma and the Hebrew word ruach can mean either spirit or wind or breath. The context generally determines how the word is being used.
In Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, he uses the word pneuma to refer either to wind or spirit. He also uses the word phona, which can mean either “voice” or “sound.” How these two words are used creates a clever word play impossible to depict adequately in English. This word play results in ambiguity that further mystifies the mysterious conversation.
Here is verse 8 more literally: “the pneuma where it wishes blows and the phona of it you hear, but not you know whence it comes and where it departs; so it is with everyone born of the pneuma.
Is it “the wind where it wishes blows and the sound of it you hear”? Or, is it “the spirit where it wishes blows and the voice of it you hear”?
On my morning walks, I often notice the feeling and sometimes the sound of the wind. I notice its effects on the leaves, the grass, the flowers, and especially the clouds. Clouds are mysterious to me with their infinite shapes and sizes and movements. Often one layer going one way and another layer a different way … the wind moving the various layers of clouds, I suspect.
As I notice and feel the wind, when I am attentive, I intuit the movements … vibrations … whispers … of the Spirit. Frequently, all that I am noticing beckons me to Presence, to rest in the mystery that is always present in everything … known and beyond knowing.
You remain in my prayers,
Jim
