Babel-tude

Photo of The Very Rev. Dean Terry White by The Very Rev. Terry White, Dean

Alleluia. Christ is risen!  The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

Come Holy Spirit. Inspire, Enlighten, Convert, and Disturb us with your fire, wind, and power of love.  In his painting The Tower of Babel, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, depicts a tower resembling the Coliseum in Rome, built an incredible seven stories high. (http://www.allposters.com/-sp/The-Tower-of-Babel-c-1563-Posters_i1612815_.htm) A structure of staggering proportions for its day.

Most scholars see the tower as an example of human arrogance, humanity wanting to be like God. Thus, when God disperses the people throughout the world, and does away with their single language, it is seen as punishment for human arrogance.

But some scholars look at the story differently, and read this account to be more likely an eight verse explanation of how various cultures and tribes came to be, since all were descended from the first man and woman. Such an interpretation means God is not punishing anyone, but rather introducing into creation racial and linguistic diversity. This reinforces the biblical imperative that all people bear the imago Dei, the maker’s mark, and are made in the image of God. (Douglas Donley, Feasting on the Word, pp 3-6)

I’d like to call God’s preference for diversity “Babel-tude,” meaning God’s creation requires diversity, which in turn means that all generations must wrestle with the question of what is the essence of being human.  If after Babel people no longer look and sound alike, if skin tones and language henceforth vary dramatically, can men and women recognize that all are nevertheless one, made in the image of God?

This question is at the root of a multitude of issues today. Is humanity truly interested in engaging this question, or is it sadly likely that we have already answered, “No, we are not one human family.”

This is a profoundly theological question, and the Church must not allow secular voices to leave us out of the discussion. We have much to say to the world and to each other on this matter, for it has everything to do with our theology of baptism, how we live out our baptism, and how we undertake the great commission to proclaim the good news of God in Christ.

Douglas Donley writes: We are addicted to Babel. We see in this story rugged individualism. [John Wayne could be the poster child! But when individualism trumps concern for the common wealth and good of all, then, spiritually (taw+)], Babel is what makes injustice thrive, encouraging distinction between rich and poor, male and female. Babel is what makes people think they can own other people, and condemn other people. Babel is often lived out in individual and corporate sin, because we tend not to look to God for ultimate answers, but to ourselves. (Ibid, p.4)

And further, our answers look and sound an awful lot like the majority of us.  Thus, we end up not speaking the same language, nor agreeing on common definitions, and truths become as individual as our preferences for food, music, or clothing.  This is not diversity, it is, and let me use a theological term here, a selfish higgledy-piggledy mess.

Acts describes how God re-forms Babel’s creation of diversity. The Holy Spirit comes to everyone. All can profess the mighty deeds of God in many languages.  The Lord, the Giver of Life, comes to the intellectual and the unsophisticated, the committed and the apathetic, the religious fundamentalist and the pagan --- and for an instant, all speak the same language, (Ibid) share a common purpose, and experience the reality that diversity builds unity, indeed, is essential to unity of the human race.

Notice that no litmus test is required. The doors to God’s family, and to God’s heaven, are open to all.  Babel-tude II. All made in God’s image are called to love God and serve neighbor.

In the movie Titanic, the great ship is society in miniature. The wealthy enjoy the cruise in a style different from the less wealthy.  Those in the fine dining areas look and sound a lot alike, while the great mass of others is composed of different cultures and dialects.  Certain areas are off limits to certain people. A few enjoy lavish service, and others are left to their own devices.  The ship’s crew is charged with maintaining the distinctions, seeing that boundaries are strictly maintained.

But on the journey, things change. An iceberg, an equal-opportunity iceberg, turns things upside down, literally. And then that which all humanity shares becomes crystal clear: all life is precious, a gift, that must be cherished no matter how that life is packaged.

Some say the people of our nation were for a time united on September 12, 2001.  Distinctions of language, race, economics, and education melted away – unless you were an American of Middle Eastern descent.  Whether iceberg, or earthquake or tornado or act of aggression – it seems to take dramatic loss to unite humanity. Which on the other hand sadly means that often gain does not unite, and in fact, often leads to greater division.

A fresh Pentecost, or more precisely, our openness to a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit, is needed to bridge the gaps and chasms we build, or worse, allow others to build as we sit on the sidelines.  The Berlin Wall has been replaced by walls between Israelis and Palestinians, between America and Mexico.  Come next basketball season will a literal wall go up in Kansas dividing Jayhawk and Wildcat nations?  As silly as it sounds to divide people based on basketball affiliation, the truth is any such wall is ridiculous given God’s love for us on the Cross.  And any wall which divides people is outright blasphemous.

In the 1990s the late Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., wrote that “Unless a common purpose binds a society together, tribal hostilities will drive people apart.”  (Michael Jinkins, Feasting on the Word, p. 15)

Our common purpose as baptized followers of the Risen Lord is to proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ. The Holy Spirit has been poured out upon the earth, upon all people. Each generation of believers expresses the Gospel in new and fresh ways, that the Good News may reach to the ends of the earth.

The stories of Babel and the Day of Pentecost affirm that God lives among us as communion, through radical relationships. Diversity does not water down the faith; it enhances it, reveals depth and riches I could not see if it were not for you, truths which you and I together could not see if it were not for others around the corner or around the world.

Today we baptize Anna, Riley, and Lillyanna. Like all of us, they will be sealed by the Holy Spirit, and marked as Christ’s own forever.  In them the flames of Pentecostal fire will burn, and in wondrous ways, they will come to be prophets of the Lord.

Beloved, the Church must speak clearly of God’s love for all.  We must not wait for the next Titanic-like event to remind us of our common humanity. Let this Day of Pentecost renew in us the burning desire to serve, let the justice of God be proclaimed as a loud rushing wind, and may our work to create peace and justice stir up a whirlwind just as mighty.

We have been loved unconditionally. We, too, must love others as Jesus has loved us, taking the form of a servant.  Let us open the doors of our hearts, our minds, and open the doors of the Church, that the same wind which blew through the house on the Day of Pentecost might refresh us now, and propel us forth as Easter People, Pentecost People, burning with the love of Jesus!

Alleluia. Christ is risen!  The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!