“From Babel to Pentecost”

Main Text – Acts 2:1-21
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 their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”

Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”

Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

“‘In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.
I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

First Reading – Genesis 11:1-9
Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The LORD said, “If 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.”

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.

I remember the first time I really heard the story of the tower of Babel. Growing up in the church, I’d obviously heard the story before, but it wasn’t until college that the story came alive for me. I was a sophomore at Seattle Pacific University and in the dark, rainy, winter quarter I took a required introduction to the bible class. I loved the class and it was that professor who first told me I should major in theology, but the moment that I remember best was a study session with a seminary student named James. He was assigned to tutor my study group and he was helping us get ready for our Old Testament exam. There’s a lot of content to study in the Old Testament but all I remember from that day is listening to James talk about this passage from Genesis because James loved this passage. Although saying that doesn’t quite capture it. James was on fire as he talked about it. James pointed out the importance that we might miss if we just read Genesis 11. You see, the previous chapter, Genesis 10, ends just after the ark has safely landed on dry ground and the sons of Noah have their own descendants. Verse 32 says, “from these, the nations spread out over the earth after the flood.” There is geographic spread and diversity. God’s people are once again filling the earth. But then, in the next verse, the narrative has apparently jumped forward in time and we learn that somehow, all the people world had come to the valley of Shinar and had only one language. 

I remember James excitedly telling our table of 19-year-olds how in this one moment, we see the world reject diversity in favor of the more palatable homogeneity. Instead of a world with different foods, different customs, different climates, and different languages, the people chose uniformity. As we will see, that is not the same thing as unity. Without diversity of thought, opinion, and experience, the people had a wrong and overly inflated understanding of themselves and their ideas. They thought they could do no wrong. Today, psychologists refer to this as "groupthink" where a group of similar individuals makes bad decisions due to social pressure and a desire for conformity. 

The people of Babel thought they were invincible and so they tried to build a tower all the way to God. “Come,” they said, “let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” They wanted power and they want security. They wanted to be rid of the anxiety of the unknown and they believed they could control the uncontrollable. 

You know how the story ends—the Lord scattered them all over the earth, although interestingly, the tower itself is not mentioned by God as a reason for the scattering. It’s not God’s power that is at risk. Instead, God only references their common language. From this point on, the people of the world would have no choice but to create different cultures, traditions, religions, and languages. The diversity of the people of the world would now be inevitable. 

And so, we might wonder, is diversity a gift or a punishment from God? If we read this passage in isolation, we might be tempted to see it as the latter. But that is why we never, ever pluck out a single bible passage to read it on its own. We always read it in conversation with the rest of scripture. And today, as lectionary pairs Genesis 11 in conversation with Acts 2. 

The day we know as Pentecost occurred during the Feast of Weeks, or Shavuot in Hebrew. Shavuot was a joyful festival, in which the first fruits of the harvest would have been given to God and a celebration of the giving of the Torah in Exodus. This is why the city was filled with people from all around the known world of the middle east. The Torah is central to the Jewish faith and defines what it means for the Jews to be the people of God. 

It is on this day, that the Holy Spirit comes in a new and profound way to the followers of Jesus. In the days since Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension they have been through a lifetime’s worth of emotions. They have grieved the death of their teacher, feared for their lives, rejoiced at his resurrection, stared ahead to an unknown future, and tried to build a new community unlike one they’ve ever known before. While they are together, the Spirit moves in a new and dramatic way—suddenly the disciples are speaking languages they have no way of knowing. Luke goes out of his way to list more than 15 different people groups so that we get the message straight. The Spirit is enabling the disciples to share the good news with everyone, no matter where they are from. 

Sometimes I imagine, just a moment, what I would have done if I were God. To be honest, I probably would have done just the opposite—all those pilgrims and immigrants who could not understand the language of the Galileans? I would have changed them to be able to understand the same language. But of course, it always seems easier to make other people change than ourselves, doesn’t it? 

This is what European Christians did for centuries. Our spiritual ancestors conflated spreading the gospel with conquering in the name of their kings. Missionaries from Europe went around the globe under the twin signs of the cross and the flag. They did not just bring the gospel—they brought and forced their culture, their language, and their traditions on the people they thought they were coming to save. Our spiritual, and for some of us, literal ancestors believed that to be Christian meant to be European. It was that belief that led to the creation of Indian Residential Schools in the US and Canada with the mission to, “kill the Indian and save the man.” They were so committed to the belief that to be Christian was to look and act and pray exactly like white people did that they were willing to commit horrific acts of violence against children. In Oregon, Presbyterians helped found the Forest Grove Indian School where children were forcibly taken from their parents and not allowed to speak their own language. The school was moved to my hometown of Salem in 1885 where it was renamed the Chemawa Indian School, where it is still in operation to this day. This is our story as much as it is anyone’s. 

Our ancestors tried to take Pentecost into their own hands and caused generations of trauma to indigenous people. They didn’t want a world that looked like the Pentecost of Acts 2—a world filled with a cacophony of sounds and languages and people. They wanted a return to the valley of Shinar—a world where everyone looked and acted and prayed exactly as they did. They wanted to change others instead of being open to the Holy Spirit changing them. 

What we see in Acts 2 is that the Spirit of God does not act how we do. The Holy Spirit does not create uniformity as a way to share the good news. The Spirit gives Christ's followers the ability to speak the languages of the outsiders in their midst. These are not random “tongues” with only a spiritual meaning—these are real languages, words understood by people from around the world. At Pentecost, God’s desire to be known by all humanity is made clear. There is no one culture, one tradition, or one language that owns God’s truth. The ever-loving, sacrificial, incarnational God desires to be known by all people, in all their beautiful differences. 

Peter sees what is happening and he knows what it means for he has studied scripture all his life. Immediately, he makes the connection to what the prophet Joel once prophesied—God will pour out the Spirit upon all flesh. It is a radical prophecy that includes everyone—men and women, young and old, slave and free. No matter who we may try to exclude, God does not discriminate. God comes to all people, just as they are. In Pentecost, we see that Babel was not a punishment, but an opportunity to see the world as God sees it. God does not see homogeneity and uniformity as the ideal. Diversity is a gift. And how could we think otherwise? This is the God who created foliage as vastly different as Redwood trees are from orchids; the God who created sunsets in vibrant colors, bright blue oceans, red sands, and snowcapped mountains. Of course, this God also cherishes and delights in the diversity of the people God created. In our different languages, customs, and traditions we are more than we could be on our own. When we worship with those who are different than us, we see parts of God that we could never have seen before. 

On Pentecost, we see that God delights in our differences and wants to meet us just where we are at. So I ask you, “how can you live out the blessing and mission of Pentecost in your life today?” There is no one right answer for me to instruct and you to obey. For just like the disciples, you too have been filled with the Holy Spirit. You can dream dreams of the world as it could be, not just the world as it is. Who has God uniquely called you to know and love? How can you stretch yourself outside of your familiar comfort zones and into relationships with those who speak, pray, vote, eat, and love differently than you do? Could you pray, not that God would change your neighbors who you find so difficult, but that God would change you? 

People of God, Pentecost is a cause for celebration. May we delight in the knowledge that God's love is far bigger than we could know. May we delight in being in a world full of diversity and beauty. May we see difference not as something to fear, but as something to celebrate. May we give thanks to God for pouring out the Spirit upon each and every person. May we live in that truth, this day and always.