‘…abandon the tower!’
June 5,2022
Scripture: Genesis 11:1-9, Acts 2:1-8, 12-21
As a child I remember a collection of pictures…copies of paintings depicting popular bible stories. Pictures which it seems were always put up on the walls of Sunday School classrooms. They seemed fairly true to life and showed scenes such as David slaying Goliath with a sling and a stone, or of Jesus kneeling and weeping, with his elbows resting on a pile of rocks in the Garden of Gethsemane.
And pictures depicting both readings for today were also there on the walls of my childhood. The fairly terrifying one of the destruction of the Tower of Babel, with bricks and mortar sent flying and falling roundabout with lots of dust and great confusion as people ran to and fro trying to escape the carnage. As well as one showing the day of Pentecost, with small and mysterious tongues of fire dancing just above everyone’s head, a look of sheer joy and amazement on each one’s face.
And in many ways, these pictures framed my early understanding of the stories of our faith, as well as cast them squarely in the understanding of the mind of the artist who painted them. So for years I always thought of the Tower of Babel as some sort of great sinfulness that God needed to fix, so he came down and destroyed it all and sent the people of the time scrambling for cover. However, this in fact is not what the scripture actually says. The Hebrew word ‘Babel’ translates as ‘confusion…as caused by mixing up’ which is far from the notion of the widespread and total physical destruction I had previously understood the story to mean. In fact the scripture tells of God coming down and deliberately confusing the language of everyone on earth so that they could no longer communicate effectively…so they had no idea how to talk to one another in such a way as to continue to work together to finish building the tower, forcing them to abandon the project and effectively scattering them all across the face of the earth.
And my understanding was modified even further when I went to Seminary and heard the story again within a framework that showed me that many of the stories of our faith were actually reflections on the state of current reality by the writers of those words, attempts to explain what people were seeing within the framework of their faith. In other words, given the fact that there are many and widely varying languages and cultures in the world, perhaps the Story of Babel was in fact a wondrous thing, revealing how God ensured that diversity and difference of thought, language, and opinion were the good and proper way for humanity to evolve and grow into a community with multiple strengths and varying points of view. By this understanding, diversity within the human story resulting from the events at Babel was a good and blessed thing and in fact a gift of God…something quite different indeed from my childhood memories of a painting on the Sunday School wall.
The story of Pentecost was fascinating as well, although I didn’t really understand the meaning of those tongues of fire until much later on. The look of amazement and joy on the faces of those gathered there that day made it seem as though it must have been a good day, but ‘tongues of fire’…even if they were supposedly the Holy Spirit, still seemed strange. And as with the Tower of Babel story, the meaning of Pentecost evolved in my understanding over time as well. I came to see that day as the birth of the Christian church. A moment in time, which interestingly enough, also included multiple languages all together at once, but this time offered the ability for all to understand one another, even though the language they were hearing was not one they actually knew. Somehow there was a profound difference when it came to this latter story of God’s intervention into the language of humanity and our ability to communicate. So I wonder, what might God be trying to show us through the juxtaposition of these two passages today?
In rereading the story of the Tower of Babel I heard echoes of what it seems that our country, and in fact the global state of affairs is currently dealing with. I heard talk of ‘sameness’ and a ‘lack of diversity’, thoughts and words about human strength and power as opposed to divine guidance. I heard words about striving for results or ends that are not necessarily aligned with my understanding of God’s desire for humanity.
And in the story of Pentecost I heard Peter’s quote of the words of the Prophet Joel as though again for the first time. Surely I had heard them before as they are echoed in Isaiah and Zechariah. However, in re-reading the prophecy again this week, contrasted with the story of the Tower of Babel, I heard them calling out with a new urgency, and a renewed promise. I heard God promise once again to literally pour out his Spirit upon all of humanity, such that the truth of our loving God can be heard from the lips of our sons and daughters, individuals who often are not given either the room to speak, or the creedence their words deserve. I heard a promise that good and truthful visions of a world according to God’s love and providence shall be in the hearts and minds of our young, and that those who are older shall once again be given dreams in which to hope and believe in. And I heard of an overall inclusiveness that cut fully across all of the artificial barriers we have so carefully constructed and maintained to preserve the wealth, power, and position of the privileged.
And I also heard again that most encouraging promise, a promise we all should hope for and take heart in. The promise that the Lord’s great and glorious day, is still in the offing, and that all is not lost, and that absolutely everyone shall be saved as they reach out and call upon the Lord. I heard Peter speak of these promises anew on that day of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
And yet, too often it still seems that these words are seldom heard today and even less frequently taken to heart. And I think that is because we as a people, and as a nation have set forth on a strangely new, and yet sadly also an ancient course, a course that feels like foriegn and uncharted waters. I also hear within the words of the tower builder’s rationale echoes of what I hear more and more each day. Echoes of a growing nationalism and increasing calls for isolationism within our nation. Calls for people to strengthen their own positions in order to make an even greater name for themselves, calls to fortify their positions and ‘their homeland’. Echoes calling out from long ago; ‘Let us build for ourselves a city with its top in the heavens…in order to insure that no one shall be able to conquer us or to scatter us about’.
And I hear as well echoes of a God who laments that his people are so deeply focused on striving to eliminate or minimize diversity, seeking instead after sameness in thought, sameness of language, and a single way only of being Christian…or at least ‘American’. A God who still grieves that such a focus may become their sole and exclusive reason for being…leading to lives centered solely on one’s self, lives disinterested in the plight of any ‘others’, others who may in fact reflect a diversity of race, language, creed, or opinion. Indeed it is not too much of a stretch to imagine that in many ways current global geopolitics increasingly reflect many of the qualities of the society who first set about building the Tower of Babel.
Which causes me to worry that we might in fact be in an age of ‘tower building’ once again. I worry that conversation and dialog regarding the future of humankind has deteriorated into small, almost ‘tribal discussions’, no longer inclusive, no longer focused outwardly on the whole of humanity. Demonization based mostly on race, color, or creed has become a new normal. Actual, constructive dialog that is open and inclusive of all viewpoints seems increasingly rare, all but replaced by narrowly focused and deeply held convictions that seem to have become all but non-negotiable.
Twice this past week I heard warnings of darker days to come. One was a dear friend who is sure that the ways we as a nation are going about policy and practice are ultimately unsustainable and will soon collapse into something far different and far less bearable for those with little resources. And then again from Jamie Dimon the CEO of JP Morgan Chase Bank who says even they are bracing for an ‘economic hurricane’ soon to come.
As such, it truly seems as though change, overwhelming change is coming. We simply cannot sustain the current state of dysfunction, social dissonance, and ‘economic confusion’ without something giving way somewhere. And as a person of faith, I believe that we need to find a way to get to those ‘promises of Joel’, if there is to be any sort of a blessed future for humanity. One only needs to pick up a newspaper or check out the headlines on their phone, or even tune in to one of the daily political commentaries on television to know that pressure is building, perhaps closing in on a breaking point. And I say ‘breaking point’ because that is how radical it seems, that is how far apart the poles of political power seem to be from individual personal needs and hopes.
Hopes for a peaceful transition to any semblance of a future America that is strong and free of internal strife, one that is peaceful and united in the worthy and holy cause of freedom for all seem less real or possible every day. That dream of decades and centuries past has been lost, and is now replaced by an army of disaffected and bitterly angry people, the vast majority of whom are much worse off in many ways than they ever would have imagined.
Except for the light of hope that still burns brightly in the minds and hearts of some. Some ironically, who live in the margins of our culture and society. Some who came here, perhaps quite recently, who have tasted and seen that the original hope of an America for all is still possible through hard work, close-knit and interdependent community, a free and willing sharing of resources, and a willingness to engage in personal sacrifice for one’s own family and for the community. Sort of like the early church of Acts in the days just before and immediately after Pentecost…and just perhaps a vision we need to seek after.
Indeed, many who are close to, or stand lowest on the ladder and who are last in line are often the ones whose hearing is that much clearer. For their hearts are attuned to the Holy Spirit, both as a result of their deep need, and their familiarity with a life that is no stranger to ‘want’. They know they need each other, and they are not uncomfortable asking for it.
Truly, the Holy Spirit seeks out, and speaks most clearly through those who serve the rest of us…be it the youth, or the young men and women who are seeking only to work their way up to a better future for their families and children. These, who believe that ‘freedom that is still a promise’, are willing to work hard to realize that promise, and maintain a dogged determination to ‘keep on keepin on’ even in the face of the worst that the long-entrenched structural bias and inequity our culture has to throw at them.
Indeed, we are quite close to Babel now. We are in a place with great confusion as to who we are and how we should move forward. We need to find the ways, and begin to walk the pathways that will bring us finally to the promises of Joel…those promises of dreams and visions that by grace truly will come to be.
And get there…we will…for ultimately, that is God’s will for humanity. It is not just some ‘good idea’ of our own, it was God who made the promises. And ours it is, to structure our ways of living together and caring for one another in order to finally bring those blessed ways and days about. However, I truly believe that this will only come to be if we can all agree to meet together as one wonderfully diverse human family…standing in humility back at the edge of the river Jordan…that river separating us from the promised land of God’s goodness…standing arm in arm, black, brown, white, and every other shade in between, every nation, every language and faith together, waiting and praying that the Lord will once again part the waters before us that we might walk across together to a blessed and forgiving land.
There is hope to be found in the words of the Prophet Joel…hope wrapped up in a promise that our Lord is still out there, still waiting for us to turn to him and to listen anew for the voice of his Spirit. Still waiting for us to hear those words of life that are for all…words powerful enough to prevail in the face of whatever the world seeks to throw against the force of love…words powerful enough to sustain us even as all our ‘towers of individualism’ collapse in holy disarray.
So, let us all travel together, back to the river’s edge…there to cross over together, leaving Babel behind us forever…
…amen
