Now
the whole earth had one language and the same words. …Then they said,
"Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the
heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, …The LORD came down to see the
city and the tower, … 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; and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for
them."...So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all
the earth… Therefore its [the city] name was called Babel, because there the
LORD confused the language of the earth, and … scattered them abroad over the
face of all the earth.
Excerpted from Genesis 11:1-9 (NRSV)
When
the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven
like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were
sitting. And there appeared to
them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy
Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them
utterance. Now there were dwelling
in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came
together, and they were bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in his
own language. And they were amazed
and wondered, saying, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us
in his own native language?
Acts
2:1-8
The story of
the Towel of Babel, one many of us have known since we attended Sunday school,
has inspired monumental paintings and epic poems. Its meaning is quite simple: human cleverness gives birth to
pride of accomplishment, which grows into arrogance and a desire to displace
God. In the elegantly simple
account preserved in Genesis, God confuses the tongues of humankind, and
scatters the builders of the tower abroad, to save them from a presumption that
could destroy them.
On Pentecost God
reverses the process. In the wake
of Christ's triumph over sin and death, the Holy Spirit infuses the followers
of Jesus with the capacity and will to carry the Good News to the far reaches
of the earth.
With a sound
like a mighty rushing wind, the gathered Apostles suddenly begin to declare the
great deeds of God in languages other than their own. Within minutes a crowd assembles. Foreign visitors hear the message in their own languages,
and while some don’t understand what is happening, others become followers on
the spot.
Babel is
undone, and Peter sees in the wind and flame the fulfillment of the words of
the prophet Joel, who foresaw a day when the Spirit of God would be poured out
upon many, a new era would begin and God’s New Creation would spread out upon
the earth.
These two
events, Babel and Pentecost, speak to us at three levels: they present a
cautionary tale, followed by a foundational principle of life, and then offer a
great hope.
The cautionary
tale warns us that there is, within our humanness, a spirit that wants to
become a substitute for God. In
our time this spirit encourages us to lay aside the God revealed in Jesus
Christ. We are invited to
“reimagine” our faith in ways more pleasing to our individual personalities, or
perhaps to fashion for ourselves gods that accommodate our individual quirks
and demand nothing we are unready to give. If we want to be done with faith altogether we can proceed
into a totally secular future without any gods. Paul describes this impulse to his protégé Timothy:
For the time is coming when people will not
endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for
themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from
listening to the truth and wander into myths.
2 Timothy 4:3,4
Babel's fate
tells us that this is the road to destruction.
The foundational
principle is that while human pride and arrogance are ultimately destructive,
faithful humility and a genuine desire to be of service to God are ultimately
honored. The error of Babel was
the people’s desire to occupy heaven, the country of God, and make it over
according to their own vision. By
contrast, the Apostles followed Jesus' command that they not begin their
mission until he sent the Holy Spirit to guide them in God's Way rather than
their own ways. Their obedience
resulted in success beyond all their dreams.
The great hope
is that if we resist the spirits of the age, and seek instead to serve the
purposes of God, there is available to us wisdom, strength and direction to do
more for God than we could possibly do on our own or in service of other
gods. If we seek first the Kingdom
of God, and its righteousness, the rest will follow, for the same Spirit who
descended at Pentecost is our promised Companion until the end of the world.
Howard
MacMullen
© May 2013
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