Pentecost – Reconstructing Babel

Acts 2:1-11       St John 14:15-27

Suddenly there came from heaven
a sound like a mighty rushing wind.

Today we celebrate the birthday of the Church.  Gefeliciteerd!

That first Pentecost for the Church, was a Jewish holiday, prescribed under the Law of Moses in Deuteronomy [16:9-12] and Leviticus [23:11].  The Feast was to be held 50 days after “the offering of the barley sheaf at the beginning of the Passover”.  It marked the end of the barley harvest (in the holy Land, grain crops begin much earlier in the year) and people gathered in Jerusalem from their dispersion around the Mediterranean with thank offerings for the harvest and offered peace and sin offerings.

Sometime between the last prophet Malachi, around 450 BC and the time of Christ, the Feast also became a celebration for Jews of the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai.  God chose this Jewish feast day to pour out his Spirit, so Jews would see the connection between the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai, the first Covenant, and the giving of the Spirit on the holy hill, Jerusalem, a new Covenant.  God had promised through the prophets that he would write the Law in the hearts of his people through the pouring out his Spirit.  And in Peter’s first sermon ever, he quotes from the Prophet Joel to explain what was taking place.  [New Bible Dictionary, Pentecost]

Just as the Law was given to gather the people of God into one people – so the Spirit is given to gather the people of God into one body, the Church.

On the Church’s first Pentecost, the disciples had now been gathered up, set apart, by their common witness to Jesus’ Death and Resurrection.  They were praying in a room, full of expectation because of Jesus’ promise, and

“suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.  And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.  And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” …And those present were amazed because “we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”

When we hear of this, there is another story from the Old Testament that comes to mind.  The Tower of Babel in Genesis [11:1-9], which is a story of right human desire that went wrong.  That story begins,

They said to one another, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the whole earth.”  And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built.

[the way it’s written emphasizes that human beings actually didn’t get that far in their efforts, God has to come down to view what is happening].

And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do.  And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.  

[I don’t know if you hear a kind of deep irony here.]

Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.”  So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.

The ancient story is an explanation for why we have such a diversity of languages and cultures on the earth and the reason why humanity has such difficulty understanding and getting along with each other.  It is also a warning not to try to construct something glorious reaching into the heavens on our own.

But it also shows two basic good instincts in every human being:

First, a desire for transcendence – the desire to make a tower with its top in the heavens, to get back to that place from which we’ve fallen – and

Second, a desire to do it together.  What would be the good of entering heaven alone, surely we want to share that with as many as possible, that our joy might be full!

But the way the people of that time tried to attain these desires was like in Genesis 3, where human pride inspired them to reach out for the apple to become as gods, knowing good and evil.

After that Fall, humanity was left blinded, in a confused state individually, and, also, whenever we try to form larger community life – we discover how difficult it is.  Watching the fall this week of another Dutch government attests to that!  We can so easily offend and be offended by others.

Pentecost, the pouring out of the Spirit of God on humanity, makes possible both of these universal hopes: to enter the kingdom of heaven and to do it together.  It only becomes possible if we humble ourselves, and allow God to transform us individually; and if we allow God to be the basis for building up of community life.

Pentecost is a reversal of the Tower of Babel, people were being gathered and united into a city, united first in their right praise of God, and they became a city with many holy towers stretching to heaven.

And through the ages we see the Church spreading throughout the world, so that we can imagine now, if we had to move to just about any place on earth, we could surely find a church to join.  This week I was reflecting on it: our own congregation here at Church of the Ascension is made of people from around the world – actually from every continent (except Antarctica!).  How many countries are represented here in our small congregation?  5? 10? Actually from 13 countries: Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Syria, South Africa, Congo, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, England, Brazil, America, Canada.  It is quite remarkable, if you think of it.  We were dispersed, and we have many different languages and cultures, but we have been united by God’s Spirit to a common love of Jesus Christ and of our fellow man.  And I think each one of us here has a desire that we might be built up individually and ascend into the heights… together.

Today is a celebration of the birth of the Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery, so flawed in its earthly manifestation, and yet somehow despite its brokenness, its great divisions, its inner squabblings, its moral failings, its inability to get its worship or doctrine quite right… somehow, the Gospel has been proclaimed to our generation, and we’ve caught such a glimpse as to be moved to join it and to rejoice in it and to come together today to celebrate its birth!

Since that first Pentecost for the Church we’ve being invited by God to join in His plan to construct a city with many towers reaching to heaven, to reconstruct Babel, a city of many languages, the city of God.  But bricks for stone, and bitumen for mortar, simply will not do – without the Spirit, Jesus says, we cannot see or enter the Kingdom of Heaven [John 3].  It is only living stones, you and I indwelt by the Holy Spirit, that will do for the job.

St Peter says [1 Pet 2]…

As you come to [Jesus], a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house…you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Jesus promises to all who are baptised and believe, to all that choose to follow Him in love, the gift of His Spirit:

If you love me, you will keep my commandments, and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth... You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

Jesus promises a new inner relation to God that is now possible.  Because of His death, resurrection, ascension – the means by which we are reconciled to the Father – Jesus can pour out His Spirit on all who believe.  We need not search the whole world to find God, but can turn within and discover His still small voice [1 Kgs 19:12].

Jesus says in today’s Gospel, the Spirit will teach [us] all things and bring to [our] remembrance all that [Jesus] has said to [us] . The Spirit will guide [us] into all the truth…as we can bear it. And Jesus says, the Spirit will comfort us. … Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, Not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.  (as Fr Jos spoke about wonderfully a few Sundays ago.)

Jesus comes to us individually by the Spirit, but does not only want us individually to come alive, as the image and likeness of God is restored in our souls.  But he wants us to gather into one people, that we might see and enter the kingdom of heaven… together.

In the light of the new Pentecost, we can understand Psalm 48 in its fuller way:

Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised:
in the city of our God, even upon his holy hill!
…Walk about Zion, and go round about her,
number her towers,
(Orthodox, Coptic, Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Calvinist, charismatic, evangelical...)
consider well her ramparts,
go through her citadels,
that you may tell them that come after.
For this God is our God for ever and ever.
He shall be our guide for ever. 

Jesus now promises to pour out that same Spirit on bread and wine that it might be for us His Body and Blood.  Let us prepare ourselves to partake once again, together, of that Holy Bread and Wine, not through self assertion, but in humility, in repentance and faith.  By this means we are assured of forgiveness, renewed and strengthened by grace, filled with His Joy, and become living stones, a part of that great City of God, with its towers reaching into the heavens.

Amen +