“Now the whole earth had one language and the same words” (Gen. 11:1).
The story begins on the dusty plain of Shinar, somewhere in the land between the rivers. The human race is in migratory mode, on the move from the east, and decides to settle down and build a city. The construction material is Mesopotamian mud, baked into bricks, stuck together with pitch or tar. A city with its fortified towers is a prime piece of technology: the concentration of people allows for specialization and expertise to emerge. You need a water source, and adequate sanitation: here the rivers are key. The concentration of people into a fixed community will require laws and governance, and therefore a political system. Taxes, trade, record keeping, writing: you see, it’s really quite complex.
The building of Babel comes at a particular pinch point in the human story. It’s in the eleventh chapter of Genesis, and in order to get there we’ve already heard about the creation of humanity and its fall from grace, as Adam and Eve are ejected from the garden; also about Cain’s murder of his brother Abel. We’ve heard about the wickedness of the world and its destruction in the flood, from which only Noah and his family were saved.
In a way, the story of Babel is the final chapter in a virtually unbroken narrative of negation: a story of human sin and self-centeredness. People drift away from God, and make their own gods. What is it that it says in our reading? “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves” (Gen. 11:4). They hope to keep themselves together, through the technological innovation of the city, but God has another idea. He knows that that there will be no limit to their ambition unless there is a break. God confuses their language and sets the human race back on the migratory trail, leaving work on the tower unfinished.
Now this is a story to conjure with. Human beings, of course, have continued to build cities; Babel was not the end of it. The problem is not cities, or even technology; after all, the last book of the Bible concludes with a city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God (Rev. 21:10). The problem is our propensity to build our cities and to shape our technology as if there were no God, and we were not creatures: to make a name for ourselves, as it says in our reading. In our pride and self-sufficiency, we drift away from God, and in the end we drift away from each other.
The first eleven chapters of Genesis set the stage for what happens in the twelfth chapter (off stage, if you will). It’s the call of Abram, who becomes Abraham, the father of the chosen nation. He too is living in the land between the rivers, but God calls him to carry forward the plan that had come a cropper at Babel.
God tells Abram to get going, though he doesn’t give him any directions, and tells him he will be with him along the way. He promises that he will turn his family into a great nation and give them a promised land; through him “all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). Most of all, he promises Abram that he will make his name great. As it says, “I will bless you, and make your name great” (Gen. 12:2). If he will listen and be faithful, Abram won’t need to make a name for himself because God will have already made it for him.
Abraham, of course, is the father of Issac, who is the father of Jacob. He’s the father of faith, because he believed God, who was faithful to his promise. From Abraham’s family came the twelve patriarchs and the twelve tribes; the line of Moses, Miriam, and Aaron, and all the priests and prophets; David the king and his family, from which came Mary and her son, Jesus the Messiah.
At Pentecost, we’ve come a long way from the dusty plains of Shinar. After Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, he promised to send the Holy Spirit on his disciples; as he says in the Gospel today, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth” (Jo. 14:16-17). As our reading from Acts puts it, this Spirit enabled them to speak “about God’s deeds of power” (Acts. 2:11). The confusion of language that had begun at Shinar was suddenly reversed, as the disciples were able to speak the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Now the disciples are dispersed, but only in order to bring all peoples together in the fellowship of the Church.
Today, members of St. Peter’s Church will add their own chapter to the unfolding story of God’s plan for the world. God wills fellowship for each of us: in the community of the Church, and fellowship with God. God is once again sending his Holy Spirit to bring us together, in faith and obedience. Today, members of the Church will renew their baptismal vows and receive the laying on of hands for a renewal of the gift of the Spirit. All of us will have the chance to reaffirm our own baptismal vows, and to join in the celebration. Today, we are all sent out into the world, to share the good news of what God has done in Christ.