Rev’d Jonathan Gale
Genesis 11: 1 – 9
The Tower of Babel
11Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2And as they migrated from the east,* they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3And they said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.’ And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4Then 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.’ 5The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. 6And 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. 7Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.’ 8So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9Therefore 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, 43 – 47
The Coming of the Holy Spirit
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’ 12All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ 13But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’
Peter Addresses the Crowd
14 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. 15Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
17 “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.
18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.
19 And I will show portents in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
20 The sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Life among the Believers
43 Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. 44All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds* to all, as any had need. 46Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home* and ate their food with glad and generous* hearts, 47praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
John 14: 8 – 17, 25 – 27
8 Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.’ 9Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? 10Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. 12Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14If in my name you ask me* for anything, I will do it.
The Promise of the Holy Spirit
15 ‘If you love me, you will keep* my commandments. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate,* to be with you for ever. 17This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in* you.
25 ‘I have said these things to you while I am still with you. 26But the Advocate,* the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. 27Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.
When I was a child living on a farm in Zululand, we had a man whom we referred to as ‘deaf and dumb’ who would arrive occasionally and babble away with great enthusiasm. “Heh babababababababababa” was the extent of his vocabulary, so not a soul understood a word he said. He was tolerated quite happily by everyone because he was harmless, but I was very aware that he was not getting through to his hearers. His frustration was obvious.
The importance of being able to make yourself understood and to understand was impressed upon me at an early age, not only by this man, but also because when I spoke Zulu to my mother she hardly understood a word. One of my earliest memories was of being puzzled as to why she couldn’t understand me.
Speaking is a powerful thing, especially in the eyes of God.
- God created the universe by speaking it into being. 3Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. (Genesis 1: 3)
- In describing Jesus, John’s Gospel says, 14And the Word became flesh and lived among us (John 1: 14a)
- Proverbs tells us that Death and life are in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21a)
- Paul tells the church in Rome For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. (Romans 10: 10)
So when God sees humankind disobeying his spoken command to Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth (Genesis 1: 28b) he decides to act.
7Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.’ he says.
Affecting speech has an arresting affect on the activities around the Tower of Babel. God confuses the languages the builders are speaking and the project is abandoned.
This passage from Genesis 11 is seen as an archetypal example of human independence from God, of what is sometimes called Humanism. The desire to achieve without God is to fly in the face of God, to set oneself up in opposition to God.
4Then 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.
If we were put on earth to glorify God then making a name for ourselves is competing with God.
They fear being scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth so they come together to build a tower that will unify them in pride and strength.
God has created human beings and given them the task of stewardship over the earth. For this to happen they need to spread out across the earth as he desires them to do, but they refuse. A life of depending upon God involves too much self-denial. It involves listening. It involves trust. It involves faith.
God therefore disempowers the people by giving them what they did not expect, different languages.
Fast forward a few centuries … and we discover that God is not against human achievement. In fact Jesus says to his disciples 12Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.
The critical difference is that they are the works that I do (that is, the work that Jesus is busy with). Building the Kingdom of God in tandem with God is the polar opposite of building a tower to the heavens to make a name for oneself in order not to have to carry out God’s will that involves depending upon God.
Jesus tells his disciples to wait in Jerusalem until he empowers them with the Holy Spirit. They do so, waiting in prayer. And lo and behold the unexpected happens. When the Holy Spirit comes, we read. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.
What might God be doing? Is he confusing the languages again? After all, we see that the different groups of people in Jerusalem for the Feast of Weeks are bewildered.
But what is the final outcome of all this activity?
43 Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. 44All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds* to all, as any had need. 46Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home* and ate their food with glad and generous* hearts, 47praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
The disciples have created a model society.
There is no greater sign that one is submitted to God than is submission to the Holy Spirit. In opening oneself to the Holy Spirit, as did the disciples on the Day of Pentecost, we deny our independence and release our wills to be one with the will of God. Opening oneself to God involves being vulnerable to God. It involves listening. It involves trust. It involves faith. The very things the builders of the Tower of Babel refused to do.
The language proliferation at Pentecost is an undoing of the language confusion of Babel. Initial bewilderment turns out to be a misapprehension. After all they thought the disciples were drunk. They at first didn’t know what was going on. The rushing wind and tongues of flame would have confused people for a start.
- It turns out the Jews who were staying in Jerusalem, and who had come from the four corners of the world for the religious Feast of Weeks, each heard God’s message in their own language and were able to go back to their own countries carrying that message.
- It turns out those who lived in Jerusalem, the epicentre of what God was doing, not only waited patiently in anticipation for the Holy Spirit, but lived eventually together and had all things in common.
- It turns out that the frightened and tongue-tied disciples were now emboldened, empowered to proclaim the good news of Jesus.
Pentecost (the birthday of the church) saw the disciples ready (in Jesus’ words) do the works that I do. Working with Jesus, not for Jesus, certainly not against Jesus. Grace, not law, certainly not licence.
Jesus gave an example of this oneness with God when he said 10Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.
Working with God means relationship, not independence; it means co-operation, not rebellion.
We all like to come upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settle(d) there. There is great satisfaction in forging for ourselves a future. This is the great American dream that is very much a part of the Western psyche. We are taught to be self-reliant and there is a sense of pride in being so.
Very few of us like the idea of:
- being crammed all together in one place;
- of having to wait patiently in a situation where we are not in control,
- for something we have not planned,
- in order to become part of something we have not determined and
- that might not be to our individual benefit.
And yet when we do submit to God’s ways our experience of them is delightful and we wonder why we were at all worried about giving up our own ambitions and fearing that we would somehow be short-changed.
I sometimes wonder whether the people of Babel and the disciples in Jerusalem didn’t hear the same babble – whether the words that came at Babel were simply too much like God to be welcomed, and that God knew the effect would be to divide and confuse them. Pride will never be able to accommodate the power of God.
But the power of God that came amongst the disciples in Jerusalem was yearned for, and welcomed into hearts that were prepared to put Christ first. When God’s power came upon the disciples in the form of the Holy Spirit it brought Jesus deep into the hearts of all ready to receive it, and this little band became, as their opponents in Thessalonica shouted at the city authorities, “men who have turned the world upside down (Acts 17: 6a)
“Heh babababababababababa”
To my deaf ears as a little boy that meant nothing. It still means nothing.
But who was deaf and dumb? Was it the man who babbled away trying to make himself understood? Or were the rest of us too absorbed in ourselves, too trapped in the mundane, to understand what was being communicated?
Amen.