Pentecost, May 27, 2007

Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, �gCome, let�fs make bricks and bake them thoroughly.�h They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, �gCome, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.�h But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The LORD said, �gIf as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.�h So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel?because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?

God looked down from heaven, and way down below, there was some construction going on down there on the Plain of Shinar. It was supposed to be a tower that would reach to heaven, but it wasn't anywhere high enough to be near God in heaven. It was like God couldn't see the puny thing, so he had to come down to see the city and the tower that the people were building. They were trying to make a big tower, but they were using inferior building materials. Rather than strong stone, they used bricks; rather than concrete mortar, they used tar. Tar would stick things together for a while, but in the hot middle east summer, the whole tower would collapse.

Ancient towers like the pyramids often had a temple or altar on the top for sacrifices. Maybe the people of Babel wanted their tower to reach the heavens for that purpose. If the temple was for pagan worship, that may be one reason why God was so disturbed by the tower. The pride and ambition of people was too dangerous for God to let it go unchecked. So God confused their language in order that they could not understand each other. In this way the building project was abandoned and the people scattered from there over all the earth. The confusion of languages sounds like a curse, but it is also a blessing to control the pride and sinfulness of people.

But even as people scattered across the face of the earth, so sin too scattered over the face of the earth. The sin of pride too scattered over the face of the earth. People became proud of their nation or their race or their culture. People continued false worship which also scattered over the face of the earth.

The Tower that replaced the Tower of Babel was the Tower of the Cross. It was lifted up. It was not that the Tower of the Cross reached up to heaven, but rather it was the place where heaven reached down to earth. There on the cross, Jesus Christ was God Almighty come down to earth. By taking the sin of the world upon himself and dying to forgive that sin, he did what the Tower of Babel could not do: that is, he made a name for them, he gave his name to all believers and gave them eternal salvation so that they could not be scattered away from him.

This world is still scattered by different languages, cultures, and false religions. We all know the effect of this on our own lives. We know how pride effects us, the pride of others and our own pride, too. There is the fear of others which leads to intolerance, prejudice, and hate. We build towers to protect ourselves and shut others out. But God will destroy our towers because they are built with shoddy materials, that is, with self love, pride, and sin.

Towers will fall, church steeples will tumble, but the cross of Christ will stand forever. The cross is the tower that reaches to heaven and takes us to heaven.

On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit gathers people from all nations and proclaims the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We remember this in our worship and prayer today. We thank the Lord that the Gospel is spoken to us in the language we understand.

Amen.

May you be filled with the grace and peace of our Lord. Amen.

Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church