Pentecost Sunday
Genesis 11:1-9; Acts 2:1-21; John 14:6-17, 25-27
One summer when I was in grade school my brothers and I got together with some of the other neighborhood boys to dig a hole. It started simply enough. It was a warm summer afternoon and my friend Gary came walking up with a shovel. A couple of us had found a comfortable spot in the shade under a tree behind the lilac bushes in the back yard. I think we had been playing some baseball and taken a break. Any way, Gary came walking up with this shovel. I asked him, "What are you going to do with that shovel?" And he said, he had been reading in a National Geographic magazine about all the great things that could be found inside the earth. He started talking about ancient relics, fossils, coal, diamonds, oil and water. We all thought that sounded really interesting. He said he was going to dig down a little ways and see what he could find. One of the other boys said he had even heard that if you dug down far enough you could actually go straight through the earth to the other side of the world. We all agreed that that would be really cool. So Gary started to dig.
Actually we took turns and as the hole got deeper we started to make it bigger. After a while a couple of the boys ran home to get their shovels. The word began to spread and kids from around the neighborhood started to come by to see what was happening. Eventually a few of the older girls walked by and laughed at us saying we weren't going to find any thing and telling us that we could never dig deep enough but we knew better. We had already found an old license plate and a couple of old crushed pieces of metal as well as some really interesting looking rocks. We dug and we dug until we were called into the house by our mothers to get ready for the evening meal.
That night at the dinner table I remember my father asking us about our day and my youngest brother proudly bragged that we had spent the day digging the deepest hole that had ever been dug in our back yard. I remember there being a great silence around the table and then my mother suggesting that we show the hole to my father after we finished eating. Needless to say, this was my first introduction to a concept that I would eventually come to know as the need for a building permit.
To dig or to build in our world is not something that is done without considering its implications on the greater community. Yet I also remember from this first excavation project how exciting and energizing it is to share a common vision and task. Even if the task is perhaps misdirected and ill-conceived.
Such shared experiences lie at the core of our understanding of our faith. One of the most ancient myths of the Bible centers on the human quest for power, place and identity. The Old Testament story that was read as our first lesson for today is about a great building project without a building permit. We know it as the story of the Tower of Babel. The story is told a bit like the adventures of misguided youth capturing a pre-historic moment perhaps suggested by the ruins that the story tellers had seen of the Sumerian culture from thousands of years before the time of Christ. The story may have been an attempt to explain the ruins of ziggurats (pyramid shaped structures believed to have been built as places of worship to ancient gods.) The Rabbis tell us that this story from the earliest chapters of the first book of the Bible, was probably told as satire of the Babylonian empire (which had conquered Israel) and to explain the diversity of the world created by the one God.
The story is set in the land between the two great rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates. The Greek name given to this region was Mesopotamia--literally "the land between two rivers". We know this region too well today as the nation of Iraq. Here we are told by this ancient story, the great families of humanity all came together and began to build. It was a shared project that all could agree on because they were all one people with one language and one vision. They were building a city and a tower with its top in the heavens. They were out to make a name for themselves.
For later generations, this story would remind the people of the many civilizations that had arisen and fallen each striving to conquer and unite all people together with one form of government and one language and one culture and ultimately, one faith. Just skimming the high points of history we know many of them, Sumerians, Phoenicians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greek and Roman. Each set out to bring unity and order, to build a name for themselves as the greatest civilization with a special place in relation to their gods. The ancient name for the city that was being built was "Bav-el" or "the gate of God" but ultimately we know that the name of the place becomes "Babble Town". In the end the excesses and over-reaching lead to the collapse of the civilization and the confounding of the peoples. Although we know today that the development of language is a complex interplay of factors, this story ends by providing a simplistic explanation for the many languages of the world.
In truth, many scholars interpret this story not only in terms of language but also culture and even religion. The creative breath of God that moved upon the face of the waters in the very first verses of the Bible to create order out of the primordial chaos of the cosmos now blows the people around like wind scattering leaves.
It does not take a great deal of imagination to see this story as a metaphor for the story of human civilization. The challenge of ego and power to the vision of unity and harmony that God created is repeated again and again. There is an all too human need to believe that each of our own perspectives on culture, religion, and community is the best and the greatest. We find it hard to resist thinking that if only enough of the world embraced our way of thinking and doing we could bring true peace and harmony to all. We tend to believe that the language we speak is the best language; that our cultural customs are the most meaningful and important; our religion is the one that has the most unique place before God.
But we know the truth. That since the scattering of the peoples in ancient times the world has been a place of endless conflicts, divisions and battles. Still within the heart of humanity there is also a yearning; a yearning for that which will ultimately bring wholeness, unity and peace. The religions of the world take different approaches to this quest to know God. For some the vision of such wholeness in this life becomes so difficult and improbable that the only hope is to look to a hope beyond this life, a future reward. We know the dangers of such thinking as it removes God from our world. One consequence of this kind of hopelessness in and with this life is that it provides a fertile field for the seeds of suicide terror to be planted and nourished. But for those who know the God who created this world, who know that God created us with the intent that our lives might know blessing and grace here and now, for these who know this living and loving God there is a desire to live God's promise in the present and not just in a hoped for future.
Today is Pentecost. It is a day named for the fifty days after Passover and Easter. In the Jewish community, today marks the culmination of the festival of weeks, seven weeks to be exact reminding Israel of the seven days of creation and the harvest festival of Pentecost marked the celebration of God's blessing and bounty. It was also on Pentecost that the Jewish community celebrated the gift of the ten commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai. For the first century Jews, Pentecost recalled the day the divine word of God that was intended to order all society was handed to humanity. God promised to bless all those who kept the commandments as a faithful and holy people. But we know that such efforts to keep the law ultimately ended in failure because humanity is sinful. And so God sent his son.
Jesus came into the world to fulfill the law and the prophets. To proclaim God's grace for all humanity and promised to provide a sustaining presence that would dwell with us throughout time. Jesus died but then rose from the dead, and after appearing to the disciples and others for 40 days he ascended into heaven. Then ten days later, on the day of Pentecost, fifty days after his resurrection, the Spirit of God which had first moved upon the waters of the deep in Genesis one blew once more. The Spirit of God stirred to life the disciples and gave birth to the Christian church. Many scholars see this day as the reverse of the Tower of Babel because on this day all that divides and separates people is removed.
The story is familiar. The disciples and others were gathered in an upper room. "And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues of fire appeared among them and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them ability." The spirit/wind/breathe of God moved upon them and they spoke different languages only in this case it did not divide them but enabled them to begin to speak the word of God to the many peoples from foreign lands in Jerusalem for the festival. And "each one heard them speaking in the native language of each." Here is the great and amazing truth of the Christian message. It is the word of God offered without restriction or limitation to all people regardless of their language or cultural background. The Hindu religion is taught only in Sanskrit. The Jewish faith instructs those who would embrace the faith in Hebrew. The Moslem prayers and Koranic verse is only uttered rightly in Arabic. But the gospel message of Jesus Christ knows no limit of language.
At last count the Bible had been translated into more than 1,800 different languages and dialects. This is the Pentecost promise. That the Spirit of God breaks forth into the world and our lives embracing the Gospel of Christ. This is a faith that finds unity in the universal message and actions that proclaim God's love for humanity. To feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, comfort those who grieve, bring justice and freedom to the prisoner, restore the goodness of God's earth. To strive for peace and embrace all by grace rather then merit or privilege. Unity can be found in this shared mission and vision for humanity. Jesus sent his disciples out into the world empowered by this same Spirit that visits us this day.
Years ago I began to dig a hole with a friend. By the end of the afternoon every kid in the neighborhood had at least stopped by to see the hole. That's the thing about humanity. We like to share dreams and visions, even when they seem a bit silly and absurd. So it was that on that first Christian Pentecost the crowds gathered and some accepted the invitation to share in the vision. We are told 3,000 were baptized. It was a beginning. But the great thing about Pentecost is that we know it was only day one. That same Spirit continued to move, continues to move even today. It fills our lives with eyes to see and ears to hear and words to proclaim. Words that celebrate the unity we find in Christ even as we speak our different languages and practice our different rituals and struggle to find common values and meanings. The Spirit moved once upon the face of the waters to create the world in all its richness and diversity. The Spirit moves again today through the gift of the waters of baptism to bless the richness and variety of our lives and the world around us. There is a wonderful feeling of grace in discovering the Spirit's presence in, with and around us. It is as if the whole world had found its center once again.
I remember the day I dug a hole and everyone came to see it. We all remember a day the Spirit blew once again...
Amen