Katie Derksen
I'm the sort of person who believes that people are inherently good, not inherently evil. Some people may call me naive for that, but I choose to call myself stubbornly optimistic. My reasoning is that if we're truly created in the image of God, then we must be created good, and created to be good. I don't deny that there are many impulses within us that are un-Godly, I just choose to believe that, at our basic level, we are created good. In that light, it could be said that sinning is falling short of the Godly impulses that are within us, or letting other, not-Godly aspects of humanity make our Godly impulses go awry. I tell you this to help you understand what I'm about to say about the story of the Tower of Babel.
I was absolutely struck by this story as I read it through in preparation for today - I suddenly saw it in a light I've never seen before. Let me read it to you again, and try to listen without the years of hearing it read and interpreted clouding what you hear:
This obviously isn't the whole story, nor probably even the point of the story of the Tower of Babel. However, I think that it can speak to us today, on Pentecost Sunday. Pentecost is the day that the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples as they gathered in Jerusalem, and suddenly they began speaking in tongues. Not in the babble which at least I usually think of when I hear of speaking in tongues - this wasn't gibberish, needing an interpreter. The disciples suddenly "began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability" (Acts 2:4). Now, Jerusalem was filled with people from all over, people who spoke many different languages. I'd imagine that could cause a number of misunderstandings - I'm sure that we're all aware of the difficulties in translating from one language to another, especially if the other language isn't fully known. Sometimes a word can be mis-interpreted, or even mis-pronounced, and the whole meaning of what was intended is skewed. An innocuous sentence can suddenly inflame spite and rivalry, simply because a person isn't fluent in the language they are trying to communicate in. Or an attempt at a powerful statement can fall flat when the words don't convey the full meaning of what's intended.
What the disciples were doing, though, was speaking fluently in languages that they didn't know, but that people from other areas of the world did. As people on the street walked past the house, they were amazed, "because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each" (Acts 2:6) . And what were the disciples saying? They were sharing the stories, miracles and life of Christ, "God's deeds of power" (Acts 2:11b). Suddenly able to speak other languages, they could share the phenomenal story and fact of Jesus being the Christ in words strong enough to convey what they meant.
The story of Christ -- his life, death and resurrection -- is so amazing that it needs to be shared. In fact, it could be said that the main thing that should stick in our minds about the story of Pentecost is that this day, two thousand years ago or so, was the day that the disciples began their active missionary work, as they were instructed earlier by Jesus.
The Task of the Church
The followers of Christ, both then and now, have a particular task, and there has been made available a particular Aide for that task. The Holy Spirit has many different names, among them the Advocate (John 14:26), and is frequently referred to as a Helper. The followers of Christ are not alone as they work on this task. We are not alone.
The task is both complicated and simple at the same time. It's a task that never really has an end, and yet can be accomplished every minute of every day. Our task is to share the story of Christ, and to therefore infuse the world with hope. Hope that there's more than this, more than what we can see and smell and hear and touch and taste. A few verses after our reading from Romans ends, we hear Paul telling his audience that: "...in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen?" (Romans 8:24, emphasis mine). We're the communicators of a hope that is unseen, and yet it is a hope that can be experienced when believers gather and remember that all that is had is from God.
In our reading from Romans, however, we hear something that I think is tripping people up from seeing the amazingness that is Christianity. Paul tells us that "we suffer with [Christ] so that we may also be glorified with him" (Romans 8:17). There are many other places where we hear that to be Christian, or to even be a part of this thing called Christianity, will be to suffer. And this is a language that scares people.
A Language that Scares
It seems that Christianity is losing its appeal to the newer generations, and to society as a whole as it shifts to more and more of a Postmodern way of thinking, because Christianity is an inconvenience. The suffering is not only taken to mean being persecuted - persecution for faith in Christ is a far-off threat for most people living in North America. For people here, it means giving things up that make life supposedly more fun. It means actually listening to the little voice in our mind and heart that suggests that perhaps what we're planning to do, or perhaps even the way that we're doing what we do, is not the best way. It means living as a part of a larger whole, instead of living a life of individualism, a life where what's best for the individual at that time is what is considered above and beyond anything else. The challenge for the church in the next few years will be to learn to speak in a language that communicates with generations who are told over and over by various media, by their friends, etc, that the only life they have to consider is their own, and only at that moment. We need to learn how to communicate with a people who live almost purely in the now, and in a world where the self is held above any and all others.
The postmodern world is one in which everyone marches to the beat of their own drum, and where it seems that everyone has their own language. I've been in more than one conversation where each person has been using the exact same word, but seems to have vastly different meanings for that one word. It's to the point where, to engage in discussion on particular topics, definitions need to be laid out clearly beforehand: sometimes, even if the same tongue is being spoken, each person seems to be speaking their own language.
Christianity has many things it can offer such a world. In the world of individualism, we're seeing a resurgence of a sense of community, albeit of alternative communities rather than most of the main stream or historical ones, including Christianity. However, Christianity has a long history of community - through the ages, people weren't always able to get it right, but there's lots of wisdom and practice and forgiveness available to help in the process of community. Christianity can also offer a common faith - there are many different ways of going about believing, but at the core all Christians believe the same basic thing. Christianity can offer a sense of connection - to other people in a specific congregation, or to Christian brothers and sisters around the globe. There's more that Christianity has to offer, and all of these things add up to one thing: hope.
I don't think that anyone really has The Answer as to how the church should deal with the shift to postmodernism, but there are many people who are trying to find at least some answers. One of the things that needs to happen is that the church needs to re-learn how to communicate with people, to use a language that everyone can understand, regardless of where they are on the spectrum of postmodern thought. And that's a pretty large challenge.
Help for the Task
Luckily, as believers, we have the assistance of the Holy Spirit, the Being that infuses our world with the presence of God, and the Being that can and does work miracles. I'm sure we've all done things beyond our wildest imaginings at one point in our lives, or known someone who has, something that needed to be done, but that we never thought we would do. It's the strength and courage that got someone out of a life-or-death situation. It's the courage to stand up for what we believe in the face of potential violence. It's the perseverance when all seems dismal, and when it seems that grief or hardship may bear us under.
The Holy Spirit also helps in so-called smaller ways, in the every day. The gift of a job when it's needed most, the gift of a hug when the world seems to be crumbling apart, the gift of finding a moment's peace in a busy world: all these are from the Holy Spirit. A man named Leo Buscaglia is quoted as having said: "too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around" - and I'd also add the potential to turn the world around. In my stubborn optimism, and through the faith-coloured lenses that I see the world through, I choose to see that it's the Holy Spirit working each time someone does something that unknowingly has that sort of effect. And that is cause for hope.
The Language of Hope
In the story of the Tower of Babel, we heard of how the people had one common language, and saw that they could do anything they set their minds to. However, we also saw that their priorities got skewed, and they left off Godly desires for the human desire for self-recognition. As a result, their language was confused, and they were scattered.
We hear in the Pentecost story, alternately, of how the Holy Spirit was gifted to the apostles so that they could overcome language barriers and share with many people from many different places the story of the Messiah, and the hope that goes with faith. And while we may not all be gifted during our lives with the gift of many languages, we can all be gifted with a language that everyone understands.
In a world that is broken, the language of hope is one that can cross all barriers. It doesn't need words. Hope is expressed in the way in which we live our lives, giving evidence in big ways and small that there is more to existence than this physical world that we're a part of. Hope is choosing to believe in the face of doubt, of giving of time and money when it seems that both are short. Hope is smiling at people as you walk down the street, instead of brushing by. It's in the little things, in the touch, in the kind word.
Hope says that we are created to be good, and that we can do good, too. Hope expects that of each of us, and the Holy Spirit is our Helper in that.
According to our story from Genesis, people once had a common language, but it was taken away when people used their ability to communicate to do things that messed up the Godly impulses within. But we hear hope from Acts, when we hear of the Holy Spirit coming to believers to help cross the language barrier. We, too, are to strive for an end to language barriers, and even to have one common language again. But this common language won't be a "tongue" per se, but will be based upon actions, justice, service, faith, and hope. When we learn to trust less in human creations, and to trust more in the Godly impulses within each of us, we learn a bit more of this common language.
We live in a world with countless tongues, and countless world views. The church has something to offer everyone, everywhere, but it shouldn't be daunted by the problem of verbal communication. Even St. Francis of Assisi could be said to not have been bothered by the idea of verbal communication. He's often quoted as saying: "Preach the gospel at all times, and, if necessary, use words." We're called to do the same, to live a life that communicates regardless of spoken language, albeit aided by the words that we choose.
The church has an interesting road to walk in the next number of years, as it decides how to communicate with a world that has moved on. In a world where ideas and values are as scattered as the people of the Tower of Babel were. And yet there is hope: hope that the Holy Spirit will aid us, and hope that we can communicate with the world in a language it will understand.
By the grace that God has extended to us, felt through the presence of the Holy Spirit, may we live lives based on hope: hope that there is more than we can sense, and hope that we can share the life, death and resurrection of Christ with all that we meet. May we spread the story of Christ throughout the world, using a language everyone can understand: hope.
Amen.
"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" (Genesis 11:1-9).
What I was struck by is that there is no mention of an evil intent on the part of the people doing the building. What they're trying to do is build a tall structure to draw people together, so that they're not scattered, and so that they can be in community. Aside from believing that we are inherently good, which, I admit, is a contested view, I also firmly believe that God created us to be in community with each other. And at least within the Mennonite church, this is not as contested a view. It seems, when I read it, that the people of Babel, Noah's descendants, wanted to create an identifier so that people would be drawn together, and not be "scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth" (Genesis 11:4c). Unfortunately, it seems they got caught up in the human desire of creating a name for themselves, and possibly they forgot about the Godly desire to be in community with one another. The consequences of that were the confusion of language, and the scattering of the people across the earth - exactly what they were trying to avoid. People couldn't understand one another, and so they left off building the city and the tower, and I'd imagine that not only did their idea fall to ruin, but eventually the tower did, as well.
All quotations of Scripture, unless otherwise noted, are from the New Revised Standard Version.