June 8, 2025 ☩ The Day of Pentecost

on
Genesis 11:1-9; Acts 2:1-21; & John 14:8-17, (25-27)

“A Spirit of Curiosity Draws Together”

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In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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The beginning of most of sermons begins with a form of Psalm 19:14, which says: “Let the words of my mouth and the mediation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”  This Psalm, like the multi-lingual liturgy before you today, stresses an importance on understanding.

For understanding, perspective helps.  To understand any one thing, we must not settle with simply one alternative view but find ways to incorporate a multiplicity of perspectives to create a fuller understanding.  For example, if I were to hold a coin up in the middle aisle facing each side of the church, half would say they see the face of the coin while the other half say they see the back of the coin.  The few who might be closer to where I stand, may see the edge of the coin.  We could argue what is in front of us, each taking the standpoint of ‘heads,’ ‘tails.’ or even ‘edge.’  However, our own perspective is limited on its own.  When we merge all three viewpoints, we all come to a deeper understanding and can say a deeper truth – ‘we all see a coin in front of us.’

Taking this one step further, sometimes inverting our perspective does not reverse our view, but fills out our understanding.  If the coin was simply flipped around for each of us, we do not say we now have the opposite of a ‘coin.’  Rather, we come to solidify the full appreciation of all that is the coin.

God’s Word is much the same.  One thing happens to appear to do one thing but actually lead to another. 

Taking a careful look at the reading from Genesis, we are placed in Babel.  Babel is a city of, or a name for Babylon.  Much later in the Old Testament, we come to perceive Babylon as a foreign place that eventually conquers the people of Israel.  Since the early accounts of Genesis, the very first book of Holy Scriptures, bring us through circumstances at Babel, we can appreciate that even what we come to perceive as foreigners later, are actually central ancestors in faith to us.  Perspective matters, especially when considering anyone as foreign.

So, we jump into the story of a people who all spoke one language, and who strove to bring themselves closer to God by building a tower that would reach into the heavens.  These people were united in a task to bring themselves physically closer to God.  In this perspective, should not we expect God to bless their unity?

We often say babies are ‘babbling,’ a derivative from the city of Babel where people spoke differently.  In modern times though, we use the phrase to express our inability to understand what is said from a baby.  It is worthy to note, some specialists have found commonalities to sounds even babies make which indicates a shared language from birth.  Following the usage of this term, the presumption is that the maker of the sound is incoherent and unintelligent.  We can invert this thinking, and suggest, if we are humble enough, that perhaps there is intelligence of a form WE cannot recognize.  There is a challenge in understanding – one that is not always single-sided, but requires curiosity and humility from both sides.  Communication, like ‘sound’ in Physics, requires a sender and a receiver.  Still, somewhere in the interaction of the two, understanding is challenging.

In our liturgy today, we hear many languages – Portuguese, Latin, Spanish, Italian, and English.  We might hear ‘babbling’ in the languages with which we are unfamiliar, but our bulletins provide a layer of understanding with translations provided.  The hope is to appreciate the wisdom that harkens from unfamiliar sounds – to develop deeper understandings.  This, I believe was God’s desire in the account of the Tower of Babel.

David M. Carr, in the New Oxford Annotated Bible (Fully Revised Fourth Edition, 2010) suggests that the account of the Tower of Babel was one to delineate a separation between the Divine and humanity.  Carr implies an understanding most of us feel – that God felt threatened about humanity’s unity and approach to heaven.  God’s ability to shift languages and confuse [cf. Gen. 11:7] often appears as a punishment in that light.  Then, the people are scattered among the earth [Gen 11:8].  Surely, we might think, God was punishing people by stifling them from accomplishing great things.

American culture often takes this same stance.  There is a fear that the greatness of some takes away from the greatness of others.  There is a presumption that only a few can be great.  Hear Jesus’ words in John’s Gospel: “Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” [Jn 14:27]

This is all one side of the coin.  If we try to move our perspective to grab full understanding of Scripture, we might also see how we project our own fears of uncertainty, displacement, or inability to communicate with others.

I propose, God was speaking with hope when God said: “Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.” [Gen. 11:6]  I propose that God was not preventing humanity from striving to reach heaven, but reminding them that it is not a place.  Instead, God was guiding them across the world to understand nature and the beauty of the connectedness of the natural order that brings us a greater understanding and closeness to God.  I believe various languages were a gift, for us to understand different ways of communicating as many languages are inherently structured differently based on their cultural understandings.

Humanity was gifted a variety of tongues, just as the Apostles in the reading from the Acts of the Apostles.  The gift was to enhance our perspectives and find various angles from which to understand the world.  To move beyond the negative connotation of ‘babble’ (from the multiplicity of languages at Babel), we are simply encouraged to step into a multitude of perspectives, to see the coin – and life – from every angle, especially from others’ since we already know our own so well.  Through openness and curiosity, we will come to a greater understanding, bridge humanity on a greater scale, and find we have moved closer to God than the Tower of Babel, and even uniformity of language, could have ever brought us. 

This day of Pentecost, we celebrate the Spirit of understanding, openness, curiosity, and compassion that God has gifted us and draws us closer (in unity with) to our neighbor and God with a greater understanding so we may continue in the greatness for which God knows we are destined.  Amen.