In Defiance of Babel

Scripture Lessons: Genesis 11: 1-9 and Acts 2: 1-21 Sermon Title: In Defiance of Babel Preached on June 9, 2019 It’s amazing how relevant Scripture is. The great theologian of the 20th Century, Karl Barth, would advise his students to prepare their sermons with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other, as ancient Scripture comes alive day after day. This seemed eerily relevant advice last Monday morning as I read the Marietta Daily Journal. You may know that our current Habitat for Humanity house is a joint effort. Just yesterday, members of our church, coordinated by Tim Hammond and the Mission Council, were scheduled to join together with Methodists, Episcopalians, Catholics, and Unitarians, as well as members from Temple Kol Emeth Synagogue and two mosques to build a single mother named Belinda and her two children a new home. We’re working together with all of them, but this is the funny part. Considering all the different religious groups involved in the build, last Monday morning our paper quoted the project’s co-chair who said, “We call it our Tower of Babel.” Now that we’ve read what God did at the Tower of Babel, I’m not sure I’m glad that’s how he referred to the house. However, I get his point. We live in this world where most of the time, different people can’t do anything like this. It’s as though we’re all speaking different languages. Oftentimes, even those who speak the same language can’t understand each other. If you need proof of the massive level of misunderstanding prevalent in our culture, of course the obvious example is always Washington, DC where “the aisle” is like some deep, unbridgeable chasm. Only, there’s no need to look all the way to Washington for a failure to communicate. Spouses often can’t understand each other. Neighbors don’t always know each other’s names. Then there’s always someone at the family reunion who seems to have come from a completely different planet rather than the same gene pool. The two Scripture Lessons we’ve just read tell two of the accounts where all that changes: first in Genesis, when “The whole earth had one language and the same words,” and then in Acts, when the gathered believers began “to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.” Recorded then, are at least two brief instances when we all understood each other. Because such understanding is rare, it’s good to pay attention to both these passages of Scripture, but we must also pay attention to how they are also different. These two Scripture Lessons are very different in the sense that in one instance humankind uses their common tongue to work together to build a tower so that they might “make a name for [them]selves”, while in the other, it was not humankind, but God who was glorified. That’s a significant difference in motivation. The difference reminds me of a great quote: “It’s amazing how much can be accomplished if no one cares who gets the credit.” So often we care about that, trying to “make a name for ourselves,” which is a bad idea, for be it Ancient Egypt, Mussolini’s Rome, or wherever else masses of soldiers goose step in identical uniforms, when self-interest, vain glory, and pride guide the project, not only a tower, but tyranny is being created. “Let us make a name for ourselves,” they said in our First Scripture Lesson. These are dangerous words. [So] The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. And the Lord said, “Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” I used to think that God confused the languages of those who were building the Tower of Babel because God was threatened by what humanity was able to do. However, on heels of the 75th Anniversary of D-Day, I know that what God was worried about was how whenever humans are able to build a tower, we nearly always also build a gas chamber. Every time one nation sets her mind on making a name for herself, she does so with violence and inhumanity towards other nations and ethnicities. That should someone say, “Let’s prove, once and for all, that Marietta is better than everyone else,” the football team will face recruitment violations, the mayor will be tempted to accept bribes, and the chamber of commerce will turn into a den of graft and favors, because when making a name for ourselves is the goal, winning becomes more important than righteousness, control more important than justice, order more important than grace, silence more important than hope, and survival more important than love. Last Thursday night our girls had a swim meet. I had the honor of being a line judge. My duty was to report which kid won each race. Did you know that one each side of the pool there have to be two line judges? One parent from each team, because even in a kid’s swim-team competition, if one subdivision has the chance to “make a name for [her]self” honesty and integrity are bulldozed in the pursuit of vain glory. On the other hand, something different happened at Pentecost. They weren’t speaking the same language, but they could all understand each other. Did you notice that? All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability… And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Scripture doesn’t say that each person in Jerusalem could suddenly understand one language. What Scripture says when describing Pentecost is that each could understand the voice of God speaking to them in their own language. One Bible Scholar named Diamonthi Niles translates this passage saying, “each one heard them speaking in her mother tongue.” I like that. You know why? Because Siri can’t understand my accent. Neither can Alexa. I once heard about an airport in Wisconsin, posting a “help wanted” add for telephone operators who could speak Spanish, German, Mandarin, and Southern. I hate that we live in a world where everyone is supposed to speak like a news anchor and where “ain’t’s” not a word, but on Pentecost it was different, because God’s love is different. Those who seek to make a name for themselves push us towards uniformity. Commerce wants to give every kid a mass-produced Happy Meal and will judge every woman by the same standards of beauty, but God speaks to us in the voice that we don’t have to think to understand. Industrial progress makes us cogs in a wheel to build their towers. Stations on an assembly line to build their fleets. Our jobs can demand that we do things the same way, again and again, all according to the manual rather than our creativity, but God sees us as individuals who are uniquely suited to serve His greater purpose. Scripture tells us that those who are determined to make a name for themselves, will violate and objectify us every time. Though Scripture also proclaims over and over again that God speaks to us in words of love because all our God wants is that we would be saved. As Peter explained to the crowds: In the last days it will be, God declares, That I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, And your sons and daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, And your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, In those days I will pour out my Spirit; Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. The crucial word there is at the end: “everyone.” That word “everyone” is so different from, “us.” “Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” is so different from, “Let us make a name for ourselves.” For there to be an “us” there must be a “them,” but are we not all children of Abraham? Of course, “everyone” is a problematic word as well. The idea that everyone would get a trophy or that everyone is a winner feels like a culture of pampering rather than reality. On the other hand, how wonderful the world would be if everyone was happy for whoever who won the trophy. If everyone celebrated whoever was given the honor of having his name on a mighty sea vessel, tall tower, or scenic park. If everyone sought good and no one cared who got the credit, and everyone did what they believed was right without worrying so much about who benefited. When life is one long competition between “us” and them, sooner or later everyone loses. But if the Spirit moves again and we all realize once more that life is one long blessing from God to all His children, then truly, everyone will be saved. Early this morning Jim MacDonald, a great leader in our church, sent me the message Tim Hammond emailed to all of yesterday’s Habitat for Humanity volunteers. I didn’t ask Tim if I could quote him up here, because he would have said no, and this is just too important to miss: Hello friends, sisters, and brothers, I have been thinking about this day. We had to get up too early, we had to get on a bus and ride to Mableton, we had to endure incredible rain, slosh through mud, and bump into each other trying to accomplish jobs under the confines of one roof. But I want to be clear about this day. We arose early to come together as missionaries in service to our Lord Jesus Christ. We sloshed through rain and mud with smiles. Under that roof we saw each other, not as people in our way, but as those we might serve. We did our best to give Belinda a safe place to live and take care of her family, as well as worship Christ. Friends, today we cemented our family ties. To God be the glory. Amen.