Stephen Hinkler
1 June 2004
Readings
Genesis 11: 1-9
Psalm 104: 24-34, 35b
Acts 2: 1-21
St John 14: 8-17
Tonight, I want to compare and contrast the story of the Tower of Babel with its parallel Christian story about the Descent of the Spirit at Pentecost.
Traditionally, I think that I have read the Babel story from the perspective of its being in contrast with the Pentecost story. I have viewed the diversity of languages in the Babel story as a bad thing and the single language as being the optimum and ideal. In preparing for tonight, I reread it from the perspective of its being a God response, an act of the Spirit.
As I viewed the same language issue, I realised that having one language and one way of doing things was not necessarily a good thing. It could lend itself more to the power dynamics of safety in numbers, and hence excluding the minority.
How many times have I assumed that communication was clear because we spoke the same language and then later found out that the other party ‘heard’ different things!
I had always assumed that sameness was the way to go — even ecclesially (the one holy Catholic Church). I had assumed the action by God was punishment; that the ideal was for all to be the same.
Let’s assume that God had the best interests of the inhabitants of Babel in mind.
Let’s assume that that the confession of speaking different languages was actually a gift. What can we learn from the wisdom of God?
Perhaps God’s intervention helped the society to discover how shaky its foundations really were.
This gift from God forced them to start again, to really listen to one another and to collaborate in doing mutually beneficial activities.
Perhaps they were forced to focus on relationships and mutual need rather than expansionism and empire building.
Maybe they came to realise that the foreigners that they treated as the enemy to be conquered and subjugated were not too different to what it was like to deal with their own kin.
Perhaps they learned great lessons in humility, in being vulnerable, in what it is like to have power taken away.
So, how does this compare with the Pentecost story in Acts?
Certainly, I think there is a similarity in the effect of God’s intervention — the recipients found themselves in a sense out of control. They had a fire within them that they needed to listen to and go with. But they did not have control over what they said and how they were understood. In a sense, they had to trust the process and to discover within it the hand of God. It is only by discerning the fruits, the results of the experience that they knew it to be of God and then they needed to make sense of it — to develop a new theology … The effects at Babel required similar trust. It seemed in their hearts they knew that God was involved — they then needed to make sense of it to develop their own theology.
The readings for me highlight some interesting contrasts —
* The Spirit seems to be able to work more freely when we are out of control and having to rely on guidance external to us for direction.
* While unity may be a good thing, uniformity is not and diversity may not be a bad thing.
When I reflect on the current state of the Church, I wonder if it has been through a Babel experience. Just when the Church authorities and members felt they were getting it together and allegiance is relatively high, God’s Spirit is saying that the reign of God is not about a united Christendom, about a people who speak the same language and believe the same things, but it is about striving to respond to God’s way as uniquely as the people are different.
I can’t help wondering if the church has become like the dry bones in Ezekiel — there is not much holding them together but the Spirit is trying to rattle them.
I look at how the local Uniting Church Synod is struggling with sexuality issues and wonder if God is saying that we really ave to learn to respect the chaos — to listen very closely to all the different voices in an attempt at reconciliation.
Speaking as a Roman Catholic, I admire that you discuss the controversial issues rather than sweeping them under the carpet with an authoritative pronouncement. You risk a lot by bringing issues into the light of day but you struggle with the ambiguity and hopefully strive to rely on an authority that is beyond the predictable.
I guess in all this, the institution gets a bad report, but I guess the institution is the means to the end. It provides many opportunities and safeguards, much that is precious and of God, but it is always most vulnerable to the Babel experience.
So, where does that leave us on this Feast of Pentecost, the celebration of the coming of God's Spirit who uniquely calls us, gifts us and empowers us, Pentecost, the birthday of the Church?
I guess that we are reminded that we are the Church. With Jesus as our head, each of us has a unique gift to offer the Church. We are holy yet sinful, in need of God’s life-transforming power.
We have a part to play, a legacy that values diversity, that seeks healing in division and seeks to reconcile difference. May our legacy be Spirit-driven and beyond our control, and not a barren edifice that bears witness to the powerful and self-serving.