It's a marvelous experience, isn't it? Flying a kite. Feeling the pull of the string on your hands, watching that mix of sticks and string and paper soar with the wind. But what makes it work? I am told that kites technically should not fly. Nor should bumblebees. But they do. So how does it work? Let me propose three unscientific, but crucial things needed for the kite to fly.

1) The wind - it sets the course and direction, how high the kite is able to fly.
2) The tale. Without it's stabilizing influence, the kite spins helplessly out of control.
3) The string. Only when the kite is tethered to your hand or the ground, is it able to anchor itself into the wind and soar freely.

Now, what, you might be asking yourself, does any of this have to do with Pentecost Sunday and the coming of the Spirit? I propose it is the same three elements that allow us to become the people of God whom the Spirit uses.

1) The wind. Acts describes the Spirit as a strong wind. John tells us that Jesus breathes on us to give us the Spirit, in that intimate sharing of his own life and love. Why breathing? Why not spit? He'd used it before? Because the RUAH, the breath of God is what God breathed into Adam and Eve at the beginning of creation. So, only a new act of creation can create us anew. Jesus, the new Adam, breathes into us the breath of the Father - whom we know as the Spirit. That Spirit enables us to fly, puts courage and love and knowledge into hearts. It lifts us to the heavens.

Sometimes, the wind blows strong and gusty - and we are swept with it higher than we could imagine. Perhaps it is what the newly graduated feel - free, yet a whole world ahead of them. Wondering where will their future and the Spirit lead them? Sometimes the wind is gentle - inviting us to slow down and feel the love that is always there for us, when we were thinking it was about us... Like the kite, soaring gently in the sky, we discover the wind that sets us free...

2) The tail. As St. Paul discovered at Corinth - the Spirit that blows so freely must have that which guides it. In a charismatic community that had more headaches than most pastors would like to face - factions, people inflating their importance, people fighting at Eucharist - Paul says: 'Christians inspired by the Spirit can't just say: Look, I am being blown free by the wind.' There needs to be a force that stabilizes it, that helps to control the wind's freedom. Paul uses the image of the body. Each has a different function, a different role. But what they cannot do is pretend they are not a member of each other. So as often as our freedom wants to separate us from one another, we have lost the tail that guides us. And as often as we want to hang on to our importance at the expense of others, we're not living according to the spirit that shapes us. "To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good..." The true Spirit of God will guide us to the common good...

3) Finally, what is the string that allows us to resist the wind enough to float upon the breeze? Is it not the very freedom of choice that Adam got so horribly wrong? Isn't is the 'Yes' that you and I say to the one who created us that tethers us to him, and that keeps us from flying from him? Pentecost is not about relinquishing our freedom to God's Spirit - but tying it more deeply in trust and hope and love.

So, this Pentecost Sunday, we are invited figuratively to 'go fly a kite' - to let the love of God so fill us that we are willing to let the church of God, the common good guide us, to wherever the freedom of God - and ours - leads us. And perhaps, as a way to pray into all of this, look at the three aspects of the kite to sense where the Spirit is inviting us this year. Perhaps we need to rest in the 'Wind of God's breath within us.' Then find time in quiet prayer. Perhaps it is the need to be guided toward the common good - how is God calling you to put your gifts at the service of the greater good? Or perhaps it is your freedom that needs a boost. Then recommit yourselves to the Baptismal promises we renewed at Easter - so that your recommitted 'yes' will send you soaring with the grace of God's spirit...

In one way or the other, we are invited today to make the ancient prayer of the church our own. "Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in us the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit, and we shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the