The Day of Pentecost
Genesis 11:1-9 ESV
[1] Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. [2] And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. [3] 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. [4] 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, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth." [5] And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. [6] And the Lord said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. [7] Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech." [8] So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. [9] Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Our sermon text for this Pentecost Sunday is the Old Testament lesson recorded in the 11th chapter of Genesis.
When you learn of the great ones, whether they be an athlete, a politician, a general or whatever is there not something inside you that says I want to be great like them? Is there not this desire, this ambition that says I want to be great like them?
This desire or ambition is not necessarily bad in and of itself. My Maw-maw used to sometimes says, "Don’t just thank God for the food but also the appetite to eat it." By way of analogy God has given each of us gifts and talents and I think the desire and ambition we sense is the appetite to use those gifts and talents to the utmost of our ability.
But as you put those gifts and talents to use according to your desire and ambition what is the goal? What is the purpose? And here, at least spiritually speaking, you can run up against a very serious problem. The purpose is what feeds your desire and ambition and your purpose can lead you to a place that is very far from the heart of God.
This is what we see has happened in our text for this morning. We find those who have used the gift of their mind to develop building technology and then put that technology to work to build a huge tower. We find the desire and the ambition to build the greatest tower that had yet been built. (I do find it interesting by the way that this still remains a feat that man strives after—who will have the tallest building.) But I digress—what we also find in our text besides the combination of gifts coupled with desire and ambition is purpose. That purpose is found in verse four, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."
It is clearly stated that at least one purpose is to make a name for themselves. This construction project is so that they may be great and remembered as such. It was a tower built for their glory. We are told that this tower was built on the plains of Shinar. If you were take a look at the preceding chapter of Genesis you would discover that the genealogy there makes mention of a certain man named Nimrod.
Here is what it says concerning Nimrod, "Cush was the father of Nimrod, who grew to be a mighty warrior on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; that is why it is said, ‘Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the LORD.’ The first centers of his kingdom were Babylon, Erich, Akkad and Calneh, in Shinar." The case can be made then that it is this Nimrod who was responsible for the construction of the tower of Babel. If so, then we gain even more insight into how far from the heart of God his purpose was. You see that description of Nimrod as a mighty hunter before the LORD is negative. It means he was an arrogant hunter in the face of the LORD. And what bigger in your face move could you do then to construct a tower and have people call you great instead of God.
Of course if you are arrogant enough to take on the LORD God in this way then of course you sometimes suffer the wrath. And so it was. The LORD God came down and confused the language so they could not communicate—something essential to building projects and the people unable to communicate scattered across the face of the earth.
So one of the many lessons to be drawn from the Tower of Babel is that making a name for yourself is not a sanctified purpose for putting your gifts and talents coupled with your desire and ambition to use. That of course begs the question then what is the proper purpose for which we should use these things? The answer lies in the spirit. Is it your spirit you are following or the Holy Spirit? If it is your spirit then you will find yourself using what you have and working hard for it for your own good. Everything you do in the end will truly be all about you and making a name for yourself. If it is the Holy Spirit then you will find yourself using what you have and working hard for the glory of God in Christ Jesus and for the benefit of your neighbor.
Today we celebrate the festival of Pentecost because it is on this day that the risen and ascended Lord Jesus Christ poured out his Holy Spirit upon the Christian Church. So for Pentecost this year we simply give thanks for the Holy Spirit because without him we would not even have a shot at the self-less, Christ-like living that we are called to.
In the Small Catechism we learn that the Holy Spirit is responsible for two very important things. The first is conversion—that is turning us from unbelief to belief and thus being saved. The second is sanctification—that is our life of good works that flows from that Spirit wrought faith. The Small Catechism also teaches that when it comes to conversion and sanctification you can do neither by your own reason or strength. In short if you are going to do the very difficult things that Christ calls you to do you need the Holy Spirit whom he has sent. Being filled with the Holy Spirit is less about the big warm fuzzy, emotional experience and more about believing the gracious truth that you are not alone—there is someone there who is helping you and giving you the strength to do the things go along with the great responsibility of bearing the name of Jesus Christ. Helping someone get their groceries is just as spiritual an experience as anything else if its purpose is that Spirit-led purpose of loving your neighbor and putting their needs above your own.
At the risk of creating a certain ‘Lutheran’ pride thus putting us on equal footing with the lot at Babel I will nonetheless mention a person who like Nimrod had great gifts and talents as well as fierce desire and perhaps ambition but had a very different purpose. That man was the Lutheran composer J. S. Bach. While Bach certainly is a name many know it is not because his purpose was to make a name for himself. All Bach composed, every work, was done for a higher purpose: to give glory to the God who had given him his gifts. At the end of every one of Bach’s compositions he inscribed three letters: SDG. They were short hand for the Latin phrase: Soli Deo Gloria! That is, "To God alone be the glory."
Bach understood that he was nothing had God not bestowed these things upon him and so he composed but never for himself but rather for the God who had not only given him these gifts but had given him his Savior Jesus Christ.
You too have been given certain gifts of the Spirit. And at certain times you have felt that desire and ambition to put them to work. So go for it spirit-filled people of God in Christ Jesus. Go for it—not as a mighty hunter in the face of God but as a humble servant to the glory of God alone. Amen.
