8 th June: Pentecost

Genesis 11.1–9; Acts 2.1–21

Writing a sermon in advance feels daunting. Events on the world stage are moving incredibly quickly since the inauguration of the 47^th president of the United States on 20 January 2025. Sometimes major changes seem to occur not just daily, but also between dawn and sunset! It is all very dizzying, making it difficult to prognosticate what will be happening at Pentecost, the 8^th June 2025. What will have occurred in Gaza and the West Bank? How will things have changed in the war in the Ukraine? What other major world conflicts will be to the fore? In such a rapidly changing context most of us are deeply perplexed. Are we in ‘a 1938 kind of time’? Is this a time like October 1962 when nuclear holocaust came so close? Prayerful people hope not but we need to remain on alert. Just like the early Church waiting for Pentecost—they were all together in one place (Acts 1:1).

The reading from Genesis 11 about the Tower of Babel has striking resonances with our times. The story is a critique of human hubris and unmasks the demonic agenda of the empire builder. It derives most likely from the period of Judah’s Exile in Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon. It is set in the land of Shinar (Gen 11:2), a biblical name for Mesopotamia. After the confusion that the Lord causes through the diversification of human languages the place was called Babel, i.e., Babylon. The building of the tower will thus have had Babylon’s famous ziggurat in mind, the so-called Etemenanki, ‘Temple of the Foundation of Heaven and Earth’. For Jewish exiles, it was a symbol of oppression and subjugation. It was dedicated to the Babylonian god Marduk. The ziggurat had been destroyed by the Assyrian king Sennacherib in 689 bce. However, the rebuilding was completed by Nebuchadnezzar shortly before his conquest of Judah and his punitive exile of the leaders of the nation.

Looking at the story more closely, we find three repetitions of the Hebrew hābā, ‘Come’, at key points. First, they said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks and fire them thoroughly’ (11:3). The motive is to make resources to build the Tower. This is akin to creating weapons, assembling an army and then massing at the border with the aim of conquest of the neighbouring country. Second, they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth’ (11:4). The aim seems to be to build something that makes human beings invulnerable and no longer accountable to God. Metaphorically, it relates to the gathering of the fruits of conquest, both people and assets. Thirdly, the Lord said. . ., ‘Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech’ (11:6–7). Dividing the people into different linguistic families and nations thwarts the imperialist project. It may lock human beings into competition and conflict, but it is also a divine safeguard against one nation dominating all the others. The world is replete with leaders who want to erect their statues and to build towers that bear their name in the places and countries where they dominate and exploit. It is not difficult to identify the Nebuchadnezzars of today. Rather than being an irrelevant myth, it offers a wise insight, namely that multiculturalism functions not as a curse but as a brake upon human hubris and imperial agendas of the modern tower builders. Perhaps, this is why they rail so much against the so-called ‘Woke agenda’?

The story of the Tower of Babel invites comparison with Luke’s account of the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2. Jerusalem was at the time a multicultural city with residents, both Jews and proselytes, from far-flung lands in the ancient world (Acts 2:9–10). The Temple was set on a hill and would be the focus for the worshippers on the Day. When the Spirit came like the rush of a violent wind and as tongues of fire, the messengers of the gospel proclaimed God’s deeds of power . . . in the native language of each, and the crowd rightly asked, ‘What does this mean?’ (Acts 2:2–12). Understandably many have thought that Pentecost signals that after Jesus’ ministry a new world order in which ‘Babel’ is reversed. However, William H. Willimon is surely right:

It is doubtful that Luke had this in mind. The ‘mighty works of God’ are proclaimed only to Jews at this point. The time is not yet ripe in the story for the division between Jew and gentile to be healed. The story does not claim that there is only one language now. ⁹

The implication rather is that the Spirit comes to ensure that language is not a barrier to the message of Jesus. Indeed, the story may even be said to affirm the place of the many languages in the future of humanity. The gospel can be planted in the language and culture of each race of humanity and grow there. Pentecost calls for a gospel and a Church which values human diversity and does not set out to build a new Tower. Perhaps, therein lies a historic temptation for the Church as well as the powers of the earth. We too have tried to build Empire, to control and enforce conformity. We also have as much need to learn to follow the inspiration of the Spirit of Jesus which seeks to express the love of God in all the diverse races, tongues, and nations of the earth.