Scripture: Genesis 11:1-9
Dear Church,
Does God just not like tall buildings?
That was my question the first time I heard about the Tower of Babel and no Sunday School teacher ever answered it to my satisfaction.
Why was God so bent out of shape about the people coming together to work cooperatively to build a big tower? Just a few verses previously God was pretty pleased with Noah for building a big boat–what gives?
The Bible is a holy book. It’s best read, not front to back, beginning to end, but in cycles. On a first read, this story is pure mystery. But we can begin to understand the danger God saw on the plain of Shinar once we know about Pharoah’s pyramids, Nebuchadnezzar’s statue and Solomon’s temple.
The size of a vision doesn’t make it righteous. Every common cause isn’t in service of the common good. Everything that seems glorious, isn’t. This ancient story reveals that sin isn’t limited to the actions of individuals, we can also be collectively swept up into sin-filled destructive systems of oppression and harm.
Sin is corporate, too. That’s a terrible, almost incomprehensible truth for those of us raised to take personal responsibility for our own righteousness. How can we be faithful in a world that sometimes gives us no good choices?
The good news is, we have a God who intervenes. A God who makes a way when there is no way. A God who loves us enough to thwart our plans and scatter us, even when that is our greatest fear. We have a God who loves us enough to be good to us, even when that goodness seems like a curse. Come and see how the very worst things that happen to us can sometimes, but not always, be our deliverance.
Things are not always what they seem. Sometimes, impressively great things have the capacity to destroy us. And sometimes, the end of everything and death of our dreams is the door to the wild, free and abundant life we’ve been praying for.
Come and see.
Peace,
Pastor Kate
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