May 31, 2009
Genesis 11: 1-9
Acts 2: 1-13
"Listen to God, Listen to Each Other"
This is Pentecost, the celebration of the Birthday of the Christian Church. What kind of party was it? Well, there were people from all over the map in attendance. The disciples were there and there were devout Jews from every place Jews had ever lived gathered in Jerusalem for the party.
There was great noise at the party. There was a sound like a violent wind coming out of heaven, surrounding and threatening the people. You know about that. And there appeared to be flames in the sky and people were suddenly speaking in tongues.
The people were bewildered. The people were stunned by the noise and fire and wind. It was so raucous that those standing around, those still thinking straight, thought the partygoers were drunk at 9 a.m. Living here, you know about that as well. That's what the Church's birthday party was like.
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There is another place in the Bible were no one understood each other and where confusion reigned. This story of mass confusion begins in absolute unity. The whole earth is one people speaking one language. People moved together in lock step.
And the people decide to build a tower so high it will rise up into heaven itself. The people will plan the tower, build the tower and ascend to its peak. They will make a name for themselves. They will not be insignificant. They will never be scattered and lost.
Into this scene of human endeavor and pride, this godless scene, steps God. What God sees is this: not greatness and unity but a people bent on doing everything without God, without acknowledging their debt to God or their need for God. God sees a people ready to impose their will upon the earth.
God destroys their single-minded unity of purpose. God sows confusion and disorder among the people. Their clear purpose to impose and dominate is ruined. The people are scattered, united no more.
The "tower-builders" had perfect unity and feared being scattered and becoming insignificant. God destroys their powerful unity and scatters them. How strange.
Is not God the one who desires unity? Is not God the one who is always bringing his people together? Is not God the One who gathers in the scattered and the lost? So what does this Babble story mean?
Unity is desired, but not unity based on human will or human power or unity based on human achievement. Unity without the presence of God is disaster.
To be scattered is not always bad, not always punishment. The direction of the Gospel is found in the God's call to Abraham and Sarah to have children and multiply and to scatter their descendants - those who seek the will of God - throughout the earth.
It is the risen Jesus who tells his disciples: You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1: 8)
To be scattered, to be sent into the world filled with the Holy Spirit, to proclaim the good news of Christ is good, it is a blessing.
The key to the Tower of Babble story is that the people forged unity through power and self-centeredness. Their perfect understanding of each other was founded on a relentless desire to conquer, to rise up to heaven on their own power for their own glory. God destroys that heartless unity. God makes these people, who refuse to listen to God, fail to listen to each other; who refuse to understand God, fail to understand each other.
A people who do not listen to each other, who will not hear each other are doomed. A people who seek unity through dominance, through the loud voice of their power and authority are doomed to be scattered.
When people no longer listen to God, they stop listening to each other. Once we stop listening, we stop trusting, we stop acknowledging that anyone has anything to teach us, anything to offer us, or that we have anything to learn.
Once we stop listening we declare the other person to be of no value, no worth. As soon as we come to believe that all we need do is to plan and to use our power to tell others what to do, we lose our ability to hear and understand. We no longer communicate. We lose our very humanity. And we lose God.
Why on earth would I need to listen to God when all I really need is for people to listen to me? That is the "tower-builder" speaking. That is the voice of a doomed church, the voice of a scattered people with no message but angry confusion to spread.
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The birth of the Christian Church was wild and raucous and total confusion. Those on the outside looking in thought the people were drunk. But those caught up in the Spirit knew better. The people caught in the Spirit knew they could listen, they could hear, and they could understand.
The Pentecost story is not just about loud noises and speaking in tongues. It is about listening and hearing the voice of God and the voice of the other.
God came as a sound heard like rushing wind.
There was the sound of speaking.
There was hearing each person speak as if speaking in one's own language.
There was hearing foreigners speak as if in your own native tongue.
The birth of Christ's Church came in hearing, listening and understanding. The Church of Christ was born in hearing the other, the stranger and the foreigner, speak one's own language: a new language of resurrection, of hope, of unity. The Church of Christ was born when the people gathered to listen for the voice of God, the voice of the Holy Spirit, and the voice of their sister and brother proclaim the Good News of a new unity based upon life and love.
The "tower-builders" thought they were drunk. The "tower-builders" scorned and mocked the crowd. But the people listened to God, they listened to each other and they heard a new message.
Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them. 'People of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and listen to what I say. … Listen to what I have to say: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders and signs that God did through him among you, - this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law. But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power. (Acts 2: 14-24)
The church of Jesus Christ was born in the listening and hearing of God's word spoken through the Holy Spirit and the people of God. Let us listen to God; let us listen to each other. Let us witness the joyous birth of a new congregation in the hearing of the Word of the Lord.
Happy Birthday Church! |
