Sermon for September 30th, 2012

Genesis 12:1-4

1Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." 4So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

Matthew 28:16-20

16Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. 18And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

We Go Forth in God's Name

After the scripture passages had been selected for this week's sermon, but before I had finished writing the sermon, somewhere in my process of studying, researching, and meditating on the scripture passages, I think the Holy Spirit nudged me in a different direction. It was while I was studying today's Old Testament scripture from Genesis 12, where God calls Abram, and my eyes wandered up the page a few paragraphs to the beginning of Genesis 11. It's a familiar story--the Tower of Babel--but I think it holds an important message for us today as we conclude our sermon series on the Heart of Worship, focusing on Going Forth in God's Name. It's short, so I'll read it in its entirety:

11Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3And they said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.’ And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4Then 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.’ 5The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. 6And the Lord 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. 7Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.’ 8So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9Therefore it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

The traditional interpretation of this story is that as humanity becomes more technologically advanced (they can make bricks and build things) they become more arrogant, put themselves on the same level as God: "Let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with it's 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." So God comes down from Heaven and punishes them by confusing their language and making exactly what they are afraid of come to pass.

I have to admit, I've never been satisfied by this interpretation. If building a city or a large building is a sign of arrogance, why does God allow David to build Jerusalem and Solomon to build the temple? For that matter, why doesn't God come down from Heaven today and stop us every time we build skyscrapers and metroplexes that likely make the tower of Babel look like so many Lincoln Logs and Lego sets? And if you listen closely, I'm not so sure God's assessment of the situation sounds like he's that angry or offended: "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." That doesn't sound like a criticism--it sounds like high praise. Did God really intend for that moment to be the height of human achievement, and for them to go no further? If so, it didn't work so well.

I'd like to propose a radically different interpretation of this story. I'd like to suggest that the sin of the people of Babel wasn't arrogance...it was fear. They weren't trying to put themselves on the same level as God, they were trying to make a name for themselves so they wouldn't be scattered abroad on the face of the earth! Remember way back in the Garden of Eden what God commanded Adam and Eve to do? He said, "be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth." Ten chapters later, and the descendants of Adam and Eve are huddled together in one city, focusing all their talents and energy on building upward and inward, rather than building outward. This is a condition known quite well to parents of college graduates who are still living at home as "failure to launch."

The descendants of Adam and Eve have truly graduated, hence God's proud words: "Look...this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them." They can make bricks and mortar! They can build buildings! They can communicate in a common language! They've got some serious job skills! And they're really comfortable at home.

So God kicks them out. Not as a punishment, but just like a mother bird nudging her baby out of the nest...so it can soar! God scatters them to the ends of the earth to be a blessing. We see this in God's words to Abram just one chapter later, when He says "Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing." By the way, if you think your kids took a long time to move out, Abram was 75 when he finally left his father's house. That's also a good reminder to the 70-somethings in our congregation that you are now at the perfect age to begin something new!

-Peeling Back the layers of the Onion: -God's Word, Jesus, is the Heart of Worship -What's the heart of Jesus?