Focus Scriptures: Genesis 11:1-9; Psalm 104:24-34, 35b; Acts 2:1-21
Each day that we live becomes a moment to remember. From the most glorious morning, to the magnificent sunset, and into the softness of night, God is helping us to remember—we did something worthwhile today. Even the most miserable day—the most potent moment when we question the beneficence of our God—bring us to recount the joys of other days, the comparisons to “even worse” memorials.
Tomorrow is for our nation a day to remember, to pray, and to hope for a future where there may be no war. This weekend celebrates in many divergent (and unique) ways that we come before God to remember those who have fallen in our name, and in our stead. While I am at heart, and in practice, a pacifist and peace-seeker, I always feel called to say thank you to those who have stepped in harm’s way; who have died so that others may breathe free.
When I was in tenth grade, I can remember writing this essay:
Following the end of the Civil War, many communities set aside a day to mark the end of the war or as a memorial to those who had died. These observances eventually coalesced around Decoration Day, honoring the Union dead, and the several Confederate Memorial Days.
According to Professor David Blight of the Yale University, the first memorial day was observed in 1865 by liberated slaves at the historic race track in Charleston. The site was a former Confederate prison camp as well as a mass grave for Union soldiers who had died while captive. A parade with thousands of freed blacks and Union soldiers was followed by patriotic singing and a picnic.
The usual cited birthplace of Memorial Day is Waterloo, New York. The village was credited with being the birthplace because it observed the day on May 5, 1866. General John A. Logan, who led the call for the day to be observed each year and helped spread the event nationwide, was a key factor in its growth.
On May 5, 1868, in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, a veterans' organization, Logan issued a proclamation that "Decoration Day" be observed nationwide. Many of the states of the U.S. South refused to celebrate Decoration Day, due to lingering hostility towards the Union Army and also because there were very few veterans of the Union Army who lived in the South. Many Southern States did not recognize Memorial Day until after World War I since many veterans of World War I were from the south, although they continued to have a separate Confederate Memorial Day, with the date varying from state to state. Not every voice was yet in unison.
Living here, we know the traditions only too well. I imagine if you close your eyes you can see what the National Cemetery looks like today, draped in flowers and flags. That image, that moment, we remember.
But, as Mark Twain once said, “Don't let schooling interfere with your education.”
History, it is said, has a way of repeating itself. The fields of poppy that come to mind as we think of those who have died remind us that time and again, humankind set aside the common good, and entered into a time of bloodshed.
Why? Why in the beauty and majesty of creation do we come to destroy, to injure, to kill? In a word, I believe we have come to thee moments because we forgot to remember. We forgot the lessons that history has taught us.
Listen to the message we receive in Genesis today.
Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then 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.”
This simple story sets the stage for our thoughts today. After the period of creation, God created all life on this our Earth. With the expulsion from Eden, humankind in the guise of Adam and Eve set out on the painful next phase of their walk. Noah’s story reminds us that God admits failures as well as successes. In Genesis, these three stories have just come to pass. Now here, just moments after the Covenant of the Rainbow, God returns to speak of the created ones:
“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. Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore 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.
If you follow the usual interpretation of the story of Babel, humanity, in all its glory, decides to build a tower “with its top in the heavens.” With ingenuity and might, off the “very good” creations go! Daring to reach to the Realm of God, their hubris, their pridefulness, in creating the vast city and tower to the heavens forces God to act. Pride becomes their downfall. The tower is destroyed, and humanity spread out, and the languages stirred up.
God takes counsel with Godsself, and decides to confuse their tongues (by scattering them). God wants to confuse the tongues. Scholars of the Hebrew language also point out the verb “confuse” in Hebrew (n-b-l) is precisely the opposite of "bricks" which humans used to build the city (l-b-n). Thus, God is going to "mix up the bricks" and cause "big time" confusion for the people. The scattering of humans takes place at the command or according to the will of God. But why?
I want to listen to this story with different ears, though, than this classic parochial reading of Babel. To find different ears, look back to the story of creation that we receive in Genesis 1.1-2.4.
“Let us…” “Let us…” “Let us…” “Let us…” “Let us…” and finally “Let us…
Let us create humankind in our image, according to our likeness. (Gen 1:26)
To hear those words again, in the story of Babel, with the memories of the fall and the flood—I think our author is trying to tell us something. Our Creator God is creating again! If you look closely, God destroys nothing, the city is intact. More, God is doing a new thing.
Before this moment, all the nations spoke in one voice. You can almost hear the drone of the conversation. The intonation was perfect, with no hint of regional dialect. The idiom and onomatopoeia were all the same. I have faith that even adults, children and youth spoke together with common understanding (as unbelievable that may seem). It must have been absolutely BORING! No difference in opinion, no new words to better describe the beauty of creation. Only the one voice that brings lock-step, unthinking megalomania. Let us build a tower with its top in the heavens.
Nothing is beyond accomplishment, but God sees that there is yet more to do. “Stir it up!” God says, “and do even more!” Continue creating, sharing ideas, describing this creation in new and wonderful ways.
Humanity, though, walks away from the labor, forgetting what they set out to accomplish.
This “pridefulness,” I have trouble hearing in light of these words—“Let us…” There is no blaming in God’s statement, nor is there punishment. Not directly. There is something else—some part of the song of creation that might be yet hidden. Let us be mindful to listen to for those chords to come through.
There is, however, an antithetical moment here. First, the Voice of God states that humankind can accomplish whatever they should propose. This seems to be something in which the Creator of the Universe would rejoice:
No more war, no more sin, no more pain or suffering.
Finally, the lesson of Eden has been learned. The promise of the Great Flood has been realized. All that humankind sets its mind to do, so it shall be done! So God says to Godsself, “Stir it up!”
In 1951 a linguist by the name of Richard Pittman (1915–1998) produced a mimeographed list of the known languages of the world. He named this his "ethnologue," identifying 46 languages. Today's massive 15th edition of Ethnologue documents 7,299 known languages, including 103 languages previously unidentified in the 14th edition of 2000. From A Fala de Xálima, which is spoken in Portugal, to Zyudin, a dialect of Komi-Permynk spoken in the Urals, Ethnologue has distinguished itself as the best single source of information about all the known languages of the world (including 497 languages threatened with "language death" because they have fewer than 50 speakers).
The Ethnologue was produced by a Christian missionary for the purpose of sharing the Christian Bible to the literal ends of the earth. While its biases exist, and its data called into question from time to time, Pittman’s legacy shows us one wonderful thing—God’s creation is still not yet complete!
Language is fascinating, but it can also be lethal.
Throughout history people have subjugated one another because of language. In the Old Testament, the Gileadites slaughtered 42,000 Ephraimites when the latter were exposed as the "enemy" because they incorrectly pronounced the word "Shibboleth" as "Sibboleth" (Judges 12). The orphan Moses learned Egyptian and its customs, in order that he will be able to communicate with the Pharaoh in his one language. The Babylonian exiles Daniel and his three friends were not only "re-educated" in a new language and literature, but also given new names.
So too are so many other characters in the Bible-especially when they encounter the creative, changing power of God. These are just the Bible accounts. We’ll not look today at the oppression of People of Color, or Religion, or the many modern forms of oppression. These Biblical examples, I bring up specifically, because they each led to the failure of humanity to hear the language of each other. They led to war, to death.
Only God can count the blood spilled because of the innumerable wrong words spoken at the wrong moment. But we who are here can remember those who fell. We are blessed with the ability and the words to honor those who fell, and to pray that no more shall follow.
From one language, to thousands (and that’s not counting the millions of regional dialects!).
Creation leads us to Babel, and Babel to babble. Why? Why does our Creating God decide to stir it up? What purpose can come of this?
Last week, during our celebration of Confirmation, I heard an answer that had never occurred to me. I heard it in one of our youth’s meditations. Rosalind Reischer said:
As In one piece of music, there are many parts. Some low, others high, some that play the whole time and others that just give occasional background harmonies. There are solos, and there are different melodies intertwined in each other. As cheesy as it sounds, a director’s score is a perfect comparison of how people can work together to make good things happen. They have to be willing to do their part, whatever differences they might have.
In his prequel to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, J.R.R. Tolkein painted a picture of words. He painted creation as a song. In The Silmarillion, as it is called, he tells of the time before Time.
First, he names the Father of All (or the One—He that is Alone). Needing companionship, and connection, The One calls into existence the “Holy Ones”. These are the first embodiments of the thought of the One; they are the ‘children of the One.’ Upon their creation, when nothing else exists, the One teaches the children the art of ‘Music’, which becomes their life and work. So Heaven becomes filled with the making of Music.
As Rosalind alluded to in her meditation, each voice must be willing to carry its own part. Tolkein’s interpretation of Creation sings with hers. He continues his description of the One’s creation with creative musical elaborations gradually, through exposure to each other, become collaborative. The compositions revolve around themes given to each individual by the One—themes that correspond respectively to those primary themes/concepts embodied in each one—as gifts or tongues. Through listening and contemplation, an individual becomes aware of other individuals, other musics, and the cultivation and adornment of other themes.
Music happens, and voices—tongues—carry the tune.
The divergent voices come together, uniting in heaven-sent chorus. The cacophony of babble become God’s still-speaking voice to the whole of creation.
There is something else to this voice of music, echoing throughout Creation. If we listen, maybe we can hear the tones, the chords, the voices of this evolving—this creating song of God.
Maybe that was what came on that Day of Pentecost—That Festival of Weeks.
The term "Pentecost" comes from the Greek word pentekostos, meaning fiftieth, from which one of the most important feasts in the Jewish calendar derives its name. Fifty days after Passover the Jews celebrated the "Feast of Harvest.” Centuries later, after their exile to Babylon, Jewish Pentecost became one of the great pilgrimage feasts of Judaism, when Jews from all nations returned to Jerusalem for worship.
The book of Acts describes "God-fearing Jews from every nation of the world" as having converged upon Jerusalem for Pentecost; it specifies at least fifteen ethno-linguistic groups who were present (The Ethnologue would be proud!).
Suddenly, the sounds of violent winds and the visions of tongues of fire fell upon the group of the Followers of Christ, and “all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them” (Acts 2:4). In a miracle of speaking and/or of hearing, "each one heard them speaking in his own language.
The music of God’s continued Creation was sung in a voice that every individual in humankind could hear. At its best, this new community of the Spirit celebrates, incorporates, and then transcends barriers of race, social stratification, economics, ethnicity, language, and gender. Diversity without division, and unity without uniformity, ought to characterize this new community. Through this, they again can accomplish anything
Pentecost and the birth of this new unified-but-diverse community completes the creative action of the tower of Babel. In that beginning, God challenged humanity to bring a deeper understanding through a beautiful cacophony of individual voices. In this Acts passage, the new community that began at Pentecost culminates in a linguistic extravaganza of "a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language.” In that heavenly vision, all 7,299 known language groups will complete the unity of all humanity rather than destroy it.
Now, this call to unity comes to us. I have faith in the desire of our Creating God; that we find a way to bring our unique and wonderful voices into symphony. On this day of remembrance, may our hearts, our prayers, go out to each person-each family-who mourns. May we hear their song, as well as the voices that have been silenced. Let us remember, and honor those who have fallen in our name. Let us join our voices in symphony, so that no other voice will be silenced by conflict—by war.
Go from here this day with a tongue on fire,
to sing for peace,
to sing for love,
for all of God’s creation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_day
http://www.journeywithjesus.net/Essays/20070521JJ.shtml
Rosalind Reischer, Confirmation Sunday 2007 (5/20/07), Rock Spring Congregational UCC, Arlington, VA