Towers

Friends are a good thing. There is a group of people here working on church renewal giving some attention to focusing the vision and mission of what it means to be a church. One of the key features we are recognizing is the need to belong. That’s what makes having friends such a good thing. When we have a group of people who accept us for who we are—people that we also accept for who they are—this gives us a place to belong.

God creates humans to live together in relationship—with each other and with God

God made us like that. We are relational creatures by design. In all the steps of creation we read about in Genesis 1, God says each step of the way that “it is good.” Except for once. There is one moment in the creation story when God says it is not good. This is the moment when Adam—the first human—is all alone. God creates Eve. God creates humans to live together in relationship.

God himself in his own trinitarian being is relational

Something of this reflects what it means to be created in the image of God. We profess that the God we see revealed in the Bible and worship is a Trinity. God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God himself in his own being is relational. And we all reflect that image of being relational. So, I say again that it is good to have friends and to have a place to belong. God made us that way.

Instead of reflecting the image of God, our relationships have become tribal, divisive, and exclusive

At the same time, we know from the Bible that we live in a world that is broken by sin. This means that the relational way God made us to live together has been twisted and warped. Instead of reflecting the image of God, our relationships have become tribal, divisive, and exclusive. In our effort to create spaces to belong, we have also made those into spaces where only certain people can belong—spaces where we make sure others outside of our tribe cannot belong. Let’s consider a story today from Genesis which illustrates what it looks like when people stop getting along together.

Genesis 11:1–9 (NIV)

Genesis 11:1–9 NIV

1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. 3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 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.” 5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 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. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” 8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 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.

Let me start with a little reminder about the book of Genesis and how the book of Genesis is supposed to be read. The authors of Genesis had a very particular purpose in mind for writing this book. These are stories meant to give reasons why God has made and arranged the world as he did. By contrast, Genesis was never meant to answer the question of how. That’s a mistake we often make when reading Genesis. Many of these stories in Genesis we read and then ask the question, “how did God do that?” But Genesis was never meant to answer that question. More correctly, we should read the stories in Genesis and ask the question, “why did God do that?” or “why did God allow that to happen?” That is the question Genesis is meant to answer.

Hebrew balel “Babel” = stir up, mix together, mingle

Take it back to the story of the tower of Babel in Genesis 11. We could press into a story like that with all kinds of ‘how’ questions. How exactly did God confuse the languages of the people? Was it just a snap of his finger? How many languages came out as the result of Babel? And how were their languages confused anyway? The Hebrew word Babel literally means “stir up” or “mix together” or “mingle.” That is the force of the action which comes from God in this story; he caused their language to get all mixed up.

why did God allow the languages to get mixed up?

But again, the question here is not how God did it; the question is why God did it. As Genesis goes, the author is not especially concerned about the details of howBabel happened. Rather, the author is mainly concerned with telling us the reason why Babel happened. Why did God do this? Even that question needs a little nuance in understanding the Hebrew language used here in Genesis. It comes across in our English translations as though God is actively performing all the actions. It is God who confuses their language. And it is God who scatters the. People across the face of the earth. After all, in English these words show up as verbs in our Bible. Verbs are action words. In the original Hebrew these are not verbs. In Hebrew these are conjunctive adverbs. You might need to be searching your memory of middle school grammar class right now. I am guessing not many people hold a solid understanding of what conjunctive adverbs do—especially when used in an archaic language like biblical Hebrew.

vs 7 — conjunctive adverbs show cause and effect

In the context of verse 7, conjunctive adverbs are used to explain cause and effect. If this happens, then that will be the result. Now some things in the story start to become clearer when we begin to see the series of causes and effects at play. The first cause and effect in Genesis 11 has to do with the building of the tower itself. It is a group of people who say, “let’s make bricks and build a city with a tower.” The effect the author identifies in the story is so that the people can make a name for themselves. There is plenty wrapped up in that sentiment. These people want to be known as the greatest by the achievements of their own hands.

sin in Eden | to eat the fruit and be like God — tower of Babel represents same sin

The first sin back in the garden of Eden was to fall for the temptation of being like God. That’s the lie which the serpent used to trick Adam and Eve; if they ate the forbidden fruit they could be like God, knowing good from evil. Adam and Eve sinned because they tried to take a step out of their own place and into God’s place. Here in Genesis 11, we are seeing the same thing. The building of this tower is descriptive of the way in which people want to reach above their own place and step into the place of being like God. They are striving towards their own glory, towards their own greatness. It is a venture which effectively declares to God, “we no longer need you; we are taking over your place.”

The next cause and effect comes from God in verse 6.

Genesis 11:6 (NIV)

Genesis 11:6 NIV

6 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.

needs to be something to remind the people of their dependence on God

We should not see this verse as though God feels threatened. It is not as though God is thinking that people will actually become divine beings and take over. The cause and effect goes something more like this. If these fallen and sinful people are actually allowed to succeed in thinking they can take the place of God, then the effect is that there will be nothing left to turn them back towards their dependence on God. God created humans to be in relationship with him. You and I were never meant to live independent from God. We were not created to have life in and of ourselves. We were created to depend upon God for our existence.

the cause of trying to achieve our own greatness to take the place of God results in the effect of falling apart against each other in failure

And so, in the Babel story God points to another cause and effect. The cause of trying to achieve your own greatness to take the place of God results in the effect of falling apart against each other in failure. What the people needed was a reminder from God that they cannot take his place and live without dependence on him. The divisions and scattering at Babel serve as a reminder of this. When we strive to enshrine our own identities apart from God, the result is that we break apart from one another into tribal divisions.

echoes of Babel in our world today

We still see echoes of Babel in our world today. In our own strivings to create and grab hold of meaningful identities for ourselves apart from God, we are reminded over and over again how this effort only leads us to divisions and tribal factions who are set apart from one another. Isn’t it true that for as many people who might count as part of our crowd, there are so many other people who we count ourselves as being against.

define our ‘mixed up’ languages more broadly — cultural, political, generational, hobby/interest

The languages we speak might be defined a little more broadly. We divide against people who don’t speak the same political ideology. We divide against people who don’t speak the same white middle-class values. We divide against people who don’t dress the same way we do. We divide against people who aren’t part of the popular crowd. We have so many “languages” of cultural differences that push us apart. This is what happens when we forget our dependence upon God for our existence. This is the result when we turn to speaking our own languages in our own ways for our own significance. There are examples of Babel all around us in our world today.

At Babel, God allows people to suffer their own consequences of trying to live apart from him

What does God do about this? At Babel, God allows people to suffer their own consequences of trying to live apart from him. God allows into a broken world these constant reminders that we are broken people who just keep tearing apart from one another—these reminders that are meant to turn us back to our dependence on God. But God also knew all along that the reminders themselves would never be enough. Yes, we are dependent on God. But there is no way we can ever dig ourselves out of the mess of sin into which we are born in this world. We can never restore that relationship to God back to what it was before humans sinned and broke away from God. We cannot undo Babel. So God does that for us.

we cannot undo Babel; so God does that for us | Acts 2

If the tower of Babel in Genesis 11 shows us the reason why our broken sinfulness tears us apart and divides us against one another. Then it is Acts 2 which shows us the reason why all that is broken at the tower of Babel has been reversed at Pentecost in the New Testament.

Acts 2:1–11 (NIV)

Acts 2:1–11 NIV

1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. 5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”

Pentecost is the undoing of Babel

all that was broken at Babel begins to find its restoration through the Holy Spirit

Peter goes on to tell the crowd of people about the gospel message of Jesus. At Babel all the people scattered apart from each other in their own languages, their own ways, their own tongues. Pentecost is the undoing of Babel. When the Holy Spirit was given to the church, all that was broken at Babel begins to find its restoration through the Holy Spirit. In the chain of cause and effect, Jesus is the cause and Pentecost becomes the effect. By taking our sins upon himself to the cross, Jesus restores our relationship to the heavenly Father. Because of Jesus, that broken relationship is made right. And then Jesus sends the Holy Spirit with the effect that our broken relationships with one another can be made right as well. In his letter to Corinth, the apostle Paul calls it the ministry of reconciliation.

2 Corinthians 5:17–18 (NIV)

2 Corinthians 5:17–18 NIV

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:

2 Cor 5 — church is set up to be an example of what the opposite of Babel looks like

God’s church is set up to be a shining example in this world of what the opposite of Babel looks like. God’s people are redeemed and restored to be reconciling broken relationships with one another because Christ has already reconciled our relationship to him. When you and I make room in our lives for relationships with other people, the Holy Spirit works that ministry of reconciliation in and through his people—the undoing of Babel.

not a matter of just trying harder to all get along; rather, it’s a matter of embracing the new life we have been given in Christ through faith

It is not a matter of just trying harder to all get along. Rather, it is a matter of embracing the new life we have been given in Christ through faith. Then, it is the reconciling work of the Holy Spirit which is taking place. Don’t keep going back to Babel; we do not need to live like that. Jesus invites you to live fully in a relationship with him, so that in Christ the broken things of this world can begin to be made whole again.