Build a Tower Lately?

It’s almost Pentecost. Again. On this day when we remember how the Holy Spirit spoke to so many, we too are called to speak in a language that is opposite of the System. Scriptural references contain two stories plus an appeal to Holy Living. We might read them as our own stories as we try to speak of God within a world where the noise of its several speeches drowns out reality under a sea of material and political gain.

“Grandpa, why are there so many languages and so many races?” “Let me tell you a story, sugar…” And around the campfire a hush arose, for no one ever disregarded hearing again how the People of Earth were frustrated when they tried to build a Tower to Heaven. But the story in GENESIS 11:1-9 isn’t about language, but rather human attempts to make a name for themselves: this sin continues through the centuries, even today, as each nation/individual tries to be more powerful, more dominant than the other. To play God. Instead of a Tower, we build walls and draw lines in the sand. We secure our garages, the home of our idols; we distrust our neighbor… Have you built a tower lately?

God saw that difference in language was anathema to the sense of community, so in ACTS 2:1-21 God translates our apprehension into words all others could understand. Not to build a tower, but to build the church! God didn’t do away with our uniqueness, but gave us a universal understanding of God’s purpose. And in the sharing of our own languages with others we take our places as carriers of God’s Word for the entire World.

How shall we know God? Philip spoke for all of us when he said to Jesus, “Show us the Father, and we will be satisfied”. This gave Jesus the opening to answer, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” According to JOHN 14:8-21, Jesus went on to introduce the Holy Spirit as “another Advocate, to be with you forever”. Here is One who gives the impetus to pass on the Holy Story from generation to generation. This text is about knowing Jesus as One with the Father, and thus not afraid to engage ourselves in acts of mercy and the affirmation of forgiveness.

Jeff Paschal writes, “God’s promise is that our ultimate value does not depend upon our building gleaming cities and towers of achievement but upon God’s dazzling and soaring love….We Christians constantly need to be reminded that we do not have to make a name for ourselves because, as Jesus said, our names are already written in heaven.” (FEASTING on the WORD, C 3:5) Have you built a tower lately?

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Join us at horacebrownking.com every Tuesday to be confronted by scriptures from the Revised Common Lectionary to be read on the upcoming weekend.