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| "Pentecost" by Fr Lawrence Lew, O.P. on Flickr |
Genesis 11:1-9
Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 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; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” 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.” So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
Acts 2:1-21
When the day of Pentecost had come, [the apostles] were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.” But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your 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; and they shall prophesy. And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’”
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A little over a week ago, Guido Menzio, a University of Pennsylvania professor of economics, boarded an American Airlines flight from Philadelphia to Syarcuse, on the first leg of a flight to Ontario, where he was slated to present at Queen's University on a paper that he had co-authored.
The woman seated next to him on the flight noticed his dark hair and olive skin, and when she tried to strike up a conversation with him, noticed his foreign accent. She was concerned and frustrated that he didn't want to talk to her. She noticed that he was writing on a piece of paper in symbols that looked like a foreign language or code. She had a bad feeling about this man, and reported him quietly to the flight attendants, who then pulled Mr. Menzio off the plane to question him as a suspected terrorist.
Except that Mr. Menzio wasn’t a terrorist. He was an Italian professor of economics, who was working through a series of differential equations in preparation for his presentation, who simply didn’t feel like conversing with his seat mate. This story pains me because it shows how, in this day and age, we are so quick to be afraid of one another; how we are so quick to be suspicious of people who are different than we are.
The story of the Tower of Babel in our Genesis reading today is only a hop, skip, and a jump away from this incident. It, too, is a story of fear of the other.
In the Biblical timeline, the story of the Tower of Babel takes place as the world is repopulating after the Noah and the flood. In fact, this little story takes place smack dab in the middle of an extended geneaology, listing all of the descendants of Noah. This context is important, because it tells us that the population is growing past the size where everybody knows everybody else. The generations are adding up, and people are starting to inhabit lands farther and farther from the center.
And so the settlers at Shinar keenly observed that the world is growing, and they decided to resist all of the change that comes with growth by instead banding together, making a name for themselves, and protecting their common language and culture. They turn inward, and resist change, because they are afraid. And afraid of what? That they might be scattered.
God sees this and isn't terribly pleased. In the Sunday School version of the story, God is angry about the tower, because it is an insult for humans to try to build a tower up to God.
But take a closer look at today's reading. It's not about the tower. God comes down to see the city, and God's primary criticism is that "they are one people, and they have all one language.” The tower is just a symbol for the human inclination to turn inward and barricade against the outside world when we are afraid of one another. And so God’s judgement comes in the form of confused language, forcing them to confront their fear of difference and change. God forces them to fulfill the charge given to Adam and Eve, when God blessed them to be fruitful and multiply, and to fill the whole earth.
The Tower of Babel has plenty to say to us in our current context. It shows us that fear of the other drives us inward, toward exclusive and exclusionary practices. It shows us that fear immobilizes us even when God calls us to action. It shows us that humans use language and culture and sameness as tools of control. It shows us that we are afraid to learn new languages and see the image of God in people different than us, lest those encounters force us to change or to see our world differently.
And, most importantly, this story shows us that God is persistent in shooing us away from the safety of our self-constructed towers, that we might be sent out to all the ends of the earth, to love all God’s diverse people and diverse creation. The persistence of God toward a world of many languages and many voices is no more apparent than in our Acts reading today, and the story of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
The story begins with details that remind us of Babel: The disciples, as instructed by Jesus at his ascension, are all gathered together in one place in Jerusalem. And they are all speaking one language. And then, in a flash of Spirit and wind and flame, they suddenly are all given the ability to speak in other languages.
Unlike the Tower of Babel, where the confusion of languages was seen as judgement, at Pentecost, the confusion of languages turns into a cacophony of good news, as those gathered begin to proclaim the good news of Jesus in whatever language is on their tongues, and the crowds start hearing the good news of Jesus in whatever language is in their ears.
All the people gathered there in Jerusalem are amazed and astonished, bewildered and perplexed by what is happening. But notice that not once in our reading does it say that they were afraid. This is the difference between Babel and Pentecost. In one, the response to God’s gift of language is fear, and in the other, the response is faith. Faith in the singularly good news of Jesus Christ, who has died and risen and ascended, who gives to each person the same gift of grace and forgiveness and eternal life.
If the Tower of Babel reveals to us our human inclination to fear difference and to go to extreme lengths to protect sameness, then the Holy Spirit at Pentecost reveals to us God's plans to bless our difference and to unite us in Christ.
Peter stands up in the midst of the amazement and confusion, and hearkens back to the words of the prophet Joel, who spoke of spirit-filled people who would see visions and dream dreams and to speak the word of the Lord. Then, in the verses following today’s reading, Peter gives his own firsthand account of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, and upon hearing his testimony, all the people ask, "So what, then, shall we do?" And Peter will tell them to repent and be baptized and to receive the gift of Christ's forgiveness and the Holy Spirit, and then some THREE THOUSAND people would do exactly that.
Can you imagine what would happen if we, as a congregation, somehow preached the good news of Jesus in many and various languages, as the Spirit gave us ability, and then three thousand people showed up to be baptized? We'd need to put on a few more pots of coffee downstairs, wouldn't we? And somebody would have to run to the office to make a few thousand bulletins. And we'd have to quick set up chairs and flip on the sound system downstairs, and maybe send people out to the sidewalk with megaphones for all those people who couldn't fit in the doors. Or maybe we’d just have to throw our worship plans out the window and made do with unscripted prayers and spontaneous singing and divide-and-conquer Bible studies so that all people might be able to receive the good news of God.
Oh, but my friends, the thing is that it is so much easier to be of one language and to remain in one place and to be a congregation that fits neatly into the pews and the traditions as they have been established. It takes less coffee, less paper, and it demands far less of us. It is far easier to build the tower than it is to share the good news of God beyond these walls. It is far easier to be of one tongue than it is to translate the good news of Jesus Christ into other languages - and, of course, by languages, I mean all of the many and various words and means and people and modes through which the truth of God is shared.
If we are being particularly honest with ourselves, isn't it true that we are quickly suspicious and fearful of those who speak the word of God in a language different than ours?
I mean, I know that we love our Lutheran theology of grace and baptism and the theology of the cross and all, but is it not possible the the truth of God might also be spoken in the language of Presbyterianism? Methodism? Catholicism? Even, God-forbid, Evangelicalism and Pentecostalism? And isn’t it necessary that the good news of God be spoken in the language and experience of people of color and people who aren’t the majority? Is it possible that the word of God can be spoken in the language of both high-church and low-church worship, in the language of a Bach chorale and also in the language of a praise song on the radio and also in any song or piece of music that drives one's heart toward God's mercy? Isn't it true that knowledge of God can be conveyed both in the high-level vocabulary of history's theologians and in the simple language of children's prayers? Isn’t it even possible that the good news of God might be communicated by people whom we dislike, people with whom we disagree, and even people we might think are truly terrible?
Because for as many layers of complexity that we can pile upon it, the heart of our faith is quite simply that God so loved the world that he would rather die for our sake than watch us perish. That grace and mercy and forgiveness are real. That there is life instead of death.
Friends, that's it. That is the good news that we are being called to share to the world, in as many languages as the Spirit gives us inclination and ability to speak.
Pentecost teaches us that living by the Spirit means letting the word of truth be spoken in whatever language, instead of trying to shut down voices that our different than ours. Pentecost teach us that living by the Spirit means answering the call to speak in languages that we might have otherwise refused to speak, for the sake of sharing the gospel.
My friends, if we trust that what unites us is not language or sameness, but oneness in Christ, and if we believe that it is not our own strength but the gift of the Holy Spirit that empowers us to speak and hear the good news in other languages, as we are given the ability, then why do we need to be afraid?
For the Spirit poured out at Pentecost is the same Spirit that hovered at creation; the same Spirit that, in the Psalms, is poured out to renew the face of the earth. The Spirit poured out at Pentecost is the same Spirit that Jesus gives us for our comfort and for our peace and not for fear. The Spirit at Pentecost is the bursting forth of a new creation and a new mission, where the good news of God is not for some or for many, but for all, poured out to the very edges of the known world and beyond.
May the Spirit give each of us holy words to speak and humble ears to hear, that we might always proclaim the faith that unites us, the good news of Jesus Christ who is our savior, our Lord, our life and our salvation.
Amen.
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