Saturday and Sunday, May 26,27, 2007

Sermon: "Today's Tower of Babel"

Scripture: Genesis 11: 1-9

Reverend Larry Gerber

Build a tower if you want, but someday, the tower's coming down. Perhaps tower-building carries a curse that only Pentecost can lift.

Connect five football fields, end to end.

Stack 11 Statues of Liberty on each other, foot to crown.

Or put the Washington Monument on top of the Space Needle on top of the St. Louis Arch.

That's what it would take to equal the height of the tallest building in the world ? the Taipei 101 Skyscraper in Taiwan stands 101 stories and 1,667 feet high. The developers of this monument designed it with the expressed intent of eclipsing all other buildings in the world.

So not to be outdone, the Burj Dubai skyscraper is already being built in Dubai, and when it is completed in 2008 it will surpass Taipei 101 by more than 500 feet and stand taller than any man-made structure on the planet. It may poke nearby jets.

But, a Danish firm is attempting to shatter the record of the soon-to-be-low-rise Burj Dubai with plans for the Murjan Tower. This behemoth on the tiny island of Bahrain will be a 200-story, 3,350- foot skyscraper. That is double the height of today's tallest building!

There is a well-documented history of hubris in competing for the title of tallest structure in the world. Before 1998, there was no controversy whatsoever. Chicago's Sears Tower was the undisputed loft leader. But when the twin Petronas towers were built in Malaysia in 1998, they stood 20 stories shorter than the Sears Tower, but bested its altitude by 33 feet through constructing architectural spires on top of each building.

Well if spires count, why not give the title to the tallest TV antennae in the world, standing over 2,000 feet tall in famed Blanchard, North Dakota?

So much controversy arose over tower-bragging that a regulatory board known as the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat stepped into the fray. They pronounced several "tallest building" categories (with antennae, without antennae, highest occupied floor, etc.), and differentiated habitable "buildings" from mere "structures," which were then subdivided into categories of supported and free-standing.

That these categories even exist is a bad joke being played on prideful humanity.

But while those stricken with edifice-complex revel in their towering accomplishments, financial analyst Andrew Lawrence sounds a disastrous warning. After crunching a century of financial data, he has developed the "Skyscraper Index," and the basic message for Dubai and Bahrain is bleak.

Constructing the world's tallest building is a sure-fire predictor of economic disaster.
 
This financial boom is often followed by a bust; hence skyrocketing economies that build lavishly into the stratosphere, soon dive dramatically into the doldrums.

Perhaps God knows something of humanity. The Skyscraper Index shows the clever fiscal analysis of Andrew Lawrence, but the Skyscraper Curse comes from Genesis 11. The story is about the Tower of Babel; and the lesson is about hubris.

The Tower of Babel was the first skyscraper ? "a tower with its top in the heavens" (Genesis 11:4). While Lawrence examined the fiscal climate supporting tower builds, we can glean the spiritual climate which created that infamous build on the plains of Shinar.

We read two notable things about that mammoth building effort. First, it was part of a major urbanization effort that was intended to "make a name" for the people. Second, the city and the tower would give them a place of permanence in Mesopotamia ? "otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth."

A previously migratory people would have a geographic and cultural center. It would establish and legitimize them. Those from all around would see their great tower in their great city and Babel would have a reputation.

This tower would create ancient Near Eastern recognition and credibility.

At first glance, this isn't the worst thing in the world. In fact, the Temple of Solomon would be similar in terms of some of its better-than-tabernacle intentions. It became an established geographic and cultural center that created a religious draw for all the world's followers of Yahweh.

The problem is in the details of the Genesis story.

First, the tower was a monument of self-reliance. The phrase "let us" shows up three times in this passage and sounds an alarm of independence and egocentrism.

But in the West, self-dependence is hardly a sin. In fact, it is a lauded virtue. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Rely on good old Yankee ingenuity.

For all visionary leaders, aspiring entrepreneurs, hopeful family planners and others who may accidentally take faith and dependence out of life's equations, James 4 offers a sobering reality check. "Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ?If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that'" (vv. 14-15).

Second, the tower was intended to make a name for the people. Clearly that was not in God's plans, as the covenant call of Abraham in Genesis 12 indicates: "I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing" (v. 2). God is the name-maker, and the purpose of blessing and good reputation is to benefit others and not self.

N.T. Wright summarizes the spiritual selfishness of Babel: "Those who were supposed to be reflecting God's image in the world ? that is, human beings ? are instead looking into mirrors of their own ? arrogant and insecure, they have become self-important."

Everything we have accomplished and everything that we have are the products of, and instruments of God's blessing, intended to be a blessing to others. Not name-makers. Not that which grants us personal fame and recognition. Not that which makes us respected and envied by peers.

Third, the tower was a symbol of permanence in Babel. But again, this was not God's plan. Rather God had a curious "population theology" from the beginning. He told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply and subdue the earth (Genesis 1:28). After the flood, he told Noah's descendants the same thing (Genesis 9:1, 7). It seems that from the garden to Babel, people were to make babies and spread out. But none of them were as obedient as God had desired. 

For believers today, a missional question is begged. Are we actively spreading the gospel beyond the boundaries of the church, or are we sitting comfortably ? and permanently ? within the family of God? Like we have a monopoly on the good news.

 Followers of Christ have redemptive relationships with the lost. They don't hoard the blessing of the gospel within the walls of the city.

In response to this self-reliant and self-focused Babel, God "came down to see the city and the tower." Note the deep irony and humor of God needing to come down to see a tower with its top in the heavens.

And his response to this tower of hubris is fitting given his observation in verse 6. There was harmony of purpose, harmony of thinking and harmony of language in Babel, but there was no harmony with God's will. So fittingly, God confused their language and then scattered them abroad. The divine mandates of the garden, the Table of Nations of Genesis 10 and the covenant of Abraham of Genesis 12 all have their impetus in this divine scattering.

We should note soberly that God will accomplish his purposes, even if we are resistant. And resistance may lead to uncomfortable consequences. For Babel, it was confusion and scattering; for the early church, it was persecution.

Granted, the church didn't always bring persecution upon itself. It's not like they asked for it. But think about it: In Acts 1:8. Jesus tells the church that after Pentecost, they will be his witnesses "in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." But in Acts 8:1, the church hasn't left Jerusalem yet. So God imposes an anti-monopolistic program with more punch than a bagfull of knuckles: "That day a severe persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria." Persecuted into God's will. The gospel is intended to be spread out, not piled up.

So how is God using us to spread out the message right now?

We celebrate Pentecost today ? the in-breaking of God's gracious presence which is actively at work among his people, enabling us to live out the same missional calling given to Abraham, Israel, the prophets, the disciples and the first churches. This passage reminds us of an incarnational God who repeatedly comes down to us ? in creation, at Babel, in Christ, and through the presence of his Spirit in Acts 2.

At Babel, a common language meant unity around arrogant self-sufficiency. The diversity of language brought the confusion that results as people live apart from God's desires. In the Acts story of Pentecost, Babel is reversed. People are reunified by the Holy Spirit as language barriers are removed.

We worship a Christ who broke all curses ? the skyscraper curse of Genesis and the sin curses we see around us. For Christians today, the Pentecost reminder is to join God's Spirit in reversing the curse of sin upon those who live outside of God's will.

Sources:

 http://thefilter.blogs.com/thefilter/Thornton4.pdf.

World's Tallest Buildings: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_tallest_structures. infoplease.com/ipa/A0001328.html.

Wright, N.T. Simply Christian. New York: Harper Collins, 2006, 73.