Isn't that right? Hmmm! I see some blank stares out there! What's the matter? Can't understand what I said? Well then, maybe I should try a different language. How about English: "Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Is that better? Now you can understand what I said, can’t you? That’s good.
Both of our texts for this morning’s message tell us something about human language. Now, human language is an interesting thing isn't it? If you know the language a person is speaking, then you can understand what they're saying. You feel like you can communicate with them and that you are in some sense connected to them. But if you don't know the language, then their words sound strange to you. And then that makes you feel separated from them. You feel like there's a barrier between you and that other person. And, figuratively speaking, there is. It's called a “Language Barrier."
And that’s the fascinating thing about how human language works. It can either serve to draw people together, or it can keep them apart. In our scripture readings for today, we have two situations which illustrate these two opposite effects of language on people. And on this Pentecost Sunday, we want to consider these two different historical events - the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, as well as another event which occurred over two thousand years earlier, outside the city of ancient Babylon, at a tower called Babel. And in each of these events we will see God’s use of foreign languages. In fact, today we will learn that, at Babel, God Used Foreign Languages to Scatter Mankind, and at Pentecost, He Used Foreign Languages to Unite Mankind.
Our first text, from Genesis 11 begins as follows, "Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there." This is Moses' description of world history in the century which immediately followed the Great Deluge, otherwise known as Noah's flood. Now, if you draw on your knowledge of Bible History, you may remember that when Noah's ark came to rest on Mt. Ararat, in the modern day country of Turkey, there were only 8 people alive in the whole world: Noah, his wife, their 3 sons and their wives. And at that point in time, God gave them the command, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth." And we can expect that that's exactly what that handful of believers did. They had lots of children. And each family, each generation, spread out further into the world. And as Moses tells us, some of them came to settle on the plain that was in the land known to them as Shinar. Now Shinar was located in modern day Iraq and Kuwait. It was the name for the land, later called Mesopotamia, which lies between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The very land in which our troops are fighting in today!
And what did these people decide to do once they got there? They said to one another, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." Nothing wrong with that idea is there? But let’s go on. Then they said to themselves "Let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens..." Now there may not immediately seem to be anything wrong with that either. But what was their reason for building this tower? Well, they go on to say, "So that we may build a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."
Now, there's the problem. Do you see it? These words tell us two things that are wrong with the people's plan. First, it is clear that these people are building for their own glory, not God's. They are looking to gain fame for themselves. They are putting themselves up on a pedestal. Rather than saying, "To God be the glory," they're saying "To US be the glory!" Somewhere between the time of Noah, and the time of Babel, this segment of the human race had turned its focus away from God, and back toward itself. These people had begun to practice a new religion. A religion which would later be given the name "humanism."
But wait! That's not the only mark against the people. Consider the second reason they want to build this tower. "So that we will not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." Remember what God had told Noah when he got off the ark? "Fill the earth." So by their determination not to be scattered over the face of the earth these people were acting in willful defiance of God's command. They're saying, "God, you want us to do this? Well guess what. We’re not going to do this. We're going to do what we want to do instead. (Kind of like sticking your tongue out at God.) And in doing so, they proved exactly what the Apostle Paul later said in Romans chapter 8, "The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so."
Now, because God is a just as well as a merciful God, he determined that he was not going to let these people just do whatever they wanted to do. He determined instead to put a halt to their arrogant plans. Speaking as the three persons of the Trinity, God said, "Come let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other." And then, with one divine snap of his fingers, God suddenly caused everyone to speak a different language. The Bible says that God confused their language. That's where we get the word "Babel." In the ancient Hebrew language, "Babel" means confusion. You might even say that, suddenly, it sounded as if everyone was just babbling.
Just imagine for a minute what that must have been like. I mean, talk about mass confusion. Suddenly, you can't understand the person standing next to you. So you start walking around looking for somebody (anybody!) who can understand what you're saying. It would have been pure chaos. It reminds me of a game we once played at a District Youth Gathering, back in my DCE days. The leaders wanted to divide up this large group of several hundred teens into 6 separate groups. So they said, "If your birthday comes in January or February, then make the sound of a pig. And if it’s in March or April, then pretend you're a cow. And so on, down through the barnyard. And then what did we have to do then? Well, you had to go around and find everyone else who made the same noise you made.
Now can you imagine the scene? Several hundred teens in a hotel convention hall running around going "moo" or "woof-woof" or “oink-oink”, until they found everyone else who "spoke the same language" as they did. That's what the scene at the tower of Babel must have been like. Hundreds, maybe thousands of people wandering around trying to find the people who spoke the same language they did, and then going their separate ways. Talk about a major dividing point in the history of the world!
But now, the question is, "Does that bit of ancient history have any application for us today in 2007?" Sure, it does! First of all, it answers the question "Why are there so many different languages today?" I mean, modern linguists who trace the history of languages back in time, still can't get back to just one common language. They can only narrow it down to, at a minimum, 10 families of languages. And those language families are very different from one another. And why is that? Well, now you know the answer. At the tower of Babel, God spontaneously created a significant variety of largely unrelated languages.
And secondly, the account of the Tower of Babel answers another question. A question that you've maybe asked as you tried to place an order at the local Chinese restaurant, or tried to carry on a conversation with a foreign speaking cab driver, or like me back in college, trying to understand a teaching assistant in one of my lab classes. And what is that question? "Why can't I understand this guy?" Or maybe you remember studying for your Spanish final, or working on your French grammar, and you thought, "Why can't we all speak the same language? Well, the answer is once again found at the tower of Babel. You see, the wide variety of languages in the world is not a testimony to the versatility or adaptability or the advanced evolution of the human race. Rather, it's a testimony to the perversity of the human race. Because mankind wanted, back then, to use its God given unity to make a great name for itself, God said, "No, from now on, you will be separated. You will be scattered. There will always be language barriers among you." That's kind of a sobering thought, isn't it? God, in an act of divine justice, used foreign languages to scatter the human race.
And yet, that's not the whole story, is it? For at a time many years after the Tower of Babel, God once again used foreign languages, but this time for a completely different purpose. For on the day of Pentecost, God once again had people spontaneously speak in foreign languages. But this time not to divide the human race, but rather to Unite It.
Think about the miraculous scene on Pentecost. The believers were gathered together in Jerusalem, when suddenly there was the sound of a rushing wind, and tongues of fire descended down onto their heads. The apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit and then what happened? Suddenly they were all speaking in foreign languages. You might even say that it was like the Tower of Babel all over again. The only difference is that this time there were other people around who could understand those languages. Luke tells us that there were "Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia." And what did those people say? They said, "We hear the disciples declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!"
Think about it. Here you've got all these people divided by nationality, by culture, and especially by language. And what does God do? He equips his disciples with the ability to speak in foreign languages, in order to share with these foreigners the one thing that could truly unite them together. God gives his disciples the ability to tell these people about Jesus in their own language. You see, when the disciples spoke about the wonders of God, they weren’t talking about the sun, moon and stars. They were speaking about the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. These disciples were sharing the message of a universal Savior from sin.
My friends, you realize, don't you, that that's a message that transcends all the language barriers in the world? Every human being, regardless of race or language, has certain needs they need to have met. Every human being has the need to be right with God, the need to be forgiven, the need to be loved unconditionally, the need to have a purpose for life, and especially, the need to have peace in death. And all of these are needs which the world’s philosophies just cannot meet, but needs that are met only through the life and death of Gods' Son.
And as the Holy Spirit leads people to put their trust in Jesus, whether through the preaching of God's Word or the washing of Holy Baptism, he also unites them together as one. They become members of the one Holy Christian Church, the Communion of Saints. And within that invisible, universal Church, there are no barriers of race or language or culture. As St. Paul says, "You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus…There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."
A number of years ago, I was reminded of that fact when I had the opportunity to watch a video tape sent in by one of our foreign missionaries. It was a recording of a worship service conducted by his African congregation. And as I listened to that African congregation singing in their native tongue, I couldn't understand a word they were saying. But I still knew what they were singing, because I knew the tune. They were singing "Jesus loves me, this I know." And it struck me at that moment, "Wow, what a miracle! Even though those people seemed so different from me. Even though their culture and their language seem so strange. Still, I am united to them through Jesus' redeeming love for them and me.
My friends, on this day of Pentecost, we celebrate the fact that God poured out his Holy Spirit on the Christian church and gave those first Christians the ability to speak in foreign languages. But more importantly we celebrate that God has done the same thing for us, as well. He has poured his Holy Spirit upon us. And he's given to us the ability to speak a language which is understood and appreciated by all. No, it's not Greek or Hebrew or Parthian. Rather, it's what we might call, the language of God’s love. A love which God first spoke to us. A love that takes sinners like you and me, and treats us as if we are the most precious creatures in the whole world. A love which says, "Take heart, my child.” You see, it’s not just that Jesus came into the world to forgive sins generally, but more importantly, that because of Jesus, each and every one of you personally are forgiven.'' That's the language of love God has spoken. And he speaks it right here and now to you and me individually. He speaks it so that we can now in turn speak that same language of love and forgiveness to one another. How do we do that? Through that same unconditional forgiveness that we share with those who have sinned against us. By the conversations we engage in that build people up rather than tear them down. And by those little acts of kindness, done without thought of reward or recognition. Here’s the key! As we live a life of love, we are reflecting the reality of Christ’s love in our own lives. And in so doing, we are speaking the language of Christ’s love: Both Christ's love for us and Christ's love in us.
My friends, on this Pentecost day, rejoice in the love God has shown to you in Christ. Speak of it to others and live it throughout the week. No, you may not be able to speak Greek or know Latin. Your French may be rusty and even your English may not be so good. Yet when it comes to the language of love, God the Holy Spirit has made you fluent. May God give you and me the ability to speak that precious language more distinctly - today, tomorrow and forever. Amen.
And may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith unto life everlasting. Amen.