Babel Fish...

 

“Babel Fish”

 

Genesis 11:1-9
11:1 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.

11:2 And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

11:3 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.

11:4 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; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth."

11:5 The LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built.

11:6 And 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.

11:7 Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another's speech."

11:8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.

11:9 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.

 

What did these people in Genesis 11 do wrong? Did you ever ask yourself that question? I remember being told in the little painted chairs in Sunday School that they were trying to build a tower to “reach God,” and that this had made God angry. I never believed it. Did God really fear they would succeed to build a tower to the domain of God? To Heaven? Using bricks and bitumen? Seriously? You didn’t have to be a rocket scientist, even at age 8, to realize this was a crazy idea. And what of God’s take on the matter in verse six? “Look, they are one people, and they all have 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.” So? Why would God, who created us and put within us a creative spirit, be upset if we follow through with that? And why would God, who throughout the Bible seems to want God’s people to come together into supportive, synergistic community, be “threatened” when that is precisely what these primitive people did in using their common language and imaginative skill to build a skyscraper? In fact, the narrative says they were building a whole city, so what is bogus about that? Frankly, this text can make God look foolish, smallish, and even divinely pedantic. So, what’s the story?

 

Three basic “explanations” have been advanced as to what God’s people were to “learn” from this story:

 

1.    The act of “making a name for ourselves” in verse 4 was a mark of personal/human pride that God saw as setting aside what God had done for the people, OR

 

2.    The people were working toward building their own empire, given the name “Babel” later is applied to an empire where God’s people are cast into exile—Babylon, OR

 

3.    God’s people are “putting down roots” as evidenced by their budding city and the “watchtower” they are building to guard it, while God has told them to “scatter” and populate the earth. 

 

Of course, and all of these could be what was going on, but I’m a skeptic, in this regard. I think the author is giving us a parable that is far more basic, suggesting that God’s people are using their God-given gifts and common language to become so self-sufficient they may be plowing ground toward “not needing” God. The parable suggests that “God” gets put off by this, confuses their language, and intentionally scatters them “abroad over the face of all the earth.” This last “and they all lived unhappily ever after” sure sounds like storytelling language, doesn’t it? Even if the author of the parable is just trying to “explain” why there are so many different peoples and languages throughout his or her known world, it is clear that the author is most likely a Jewish monotheist, as everything has to be under the purview of God, both good and evil. Strict monotheists leave no room for other “gods” who may exercise control over human affairs, so even the bad stuff—that can’t be blamed directly on the humans, themselves—must come from God. This is why we find statements in the Hebrew Bible like: “And God repented of the evil that God was going to do against his people Israel” (i.e. Exodus 32:14; Jonah 3:10). 

 

It is typical that the lectionary pairs this Genesis passage of the scattered people and language with the Acts narrative of the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Being Pentecost Sunday today, we review how the Holy Spirit came upon the “gathered” people in the upper room and caused them to “speak in tongues” such that the bystanders heard the gospel being spoken in their native languages. Putting these texts together, at least on the surface, looks like Pentecost is the “fix” for what happened at Babel. Really? Again, I’m a skeptic. If I’m right that the Genesis narrative is a parable told to discourage God’s people from waning in their loyalty to Yahweh, with the “punishment” being that God would confuse their languages and disperse them, how is the Pentecost story a fix? Other than the brief “miracle” of the Jerusalem tourists hearing their own languages being spoken by Jews, the experience of the church is that few things have been as divisive as some of the Pentecostal “sign gifts” such as speaking in tongues or what Charismatics call “prophecy.” Other, more “functional” gifts the Spirit offers, and ones the early church activated such as administration or “helps,” did far more to advance the growth and safekeeping of the Body of Christ. The Pentecost “miracle” gathered a huge crowd very similar to what the healing miracles of Jesus did, and Peter gives a brief, Spirit-inspired message, resulting in over three thousand faith commitments. Of course, the other gifts of the spirit, as utilized by the church down through the centuries since that day, have resulted in far more Christian conversions. But one thing is for sure, Pentecost did not result in any kind of a “reversal” of the Babel scattering story. In fact, as the church moved forward, it splintered and splintered (and is still at it—ask a Methodist), and speaks in so many diverse theological “languages” that the uninitiated “bystanders” are not drawn to it, but are more and more repelled BY it! In short, we are more scattered, and our languages are more confused now than ever. 

 

I named this sermon “Babel fish,” which is from the book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Here is the actual text from Adams’ profound-yet-farcical explanation of the “Babel fish”:

 

"The Babel fish is small, yellow, leech-like, and probably the oddest thing in the Universe. It feeds on brainwave energy received not from its own carrier, but from those around it. It absorbs all unconscious mental frequencies from this brainwave energy to nourish itself with. It then excretes into the mind of its carrier a telepathic matrix formed by combining the conscious thought frequencies with nerve signals picked up from the speech centers of the brain which has supplied them. The practical upshot of all this is that if you stick a Babel fish in your ear you can instantly understand anything said to you in any form of language. The speech patterns you actually hear decode the brainwave matrix which has been fed into your mind by your Babel fish.

"Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that something so mind-bogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as a final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God.

"The argument goes something like this: 'I refuse to prove that I exist,' says God, 'for proof denies faith, and without faith, I am nothing.' 'But, says Man, the Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and, by your own arguments, you don't. QED.' 'Oh dear,' says God, 'I hadn't thought of that,' and vanishes in a puff of logic. 'Oh, that was easy,' says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing.

            "Most leading theologians claim that this argument is a load of dingo's kidneys, but that didn't stop Oolon Colluphid from making a small fortune when he used it as the theme of his best-selling book, Well That About Wraps It Up For God.

            "Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation."

 

Obviously, what Adams is getting at here is he, too, is skeptical about both the Babel story AND the Pentecost “fix” he would have been taught in his Anglican upbringing. He also offers his main thesis of this pericope in the last paragraph I have quoted here: “…removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation.” I agree that diversity is a good thing, not a liability, and even our differing languages—more a product of history and culture than divine punishment—are to be appreciated, not seen as catalysts for a cataclysm.

 

So, what ARE we to learn from the Babel story and Pentecost? I suggest that the kind of working together the people who built the city and tower in Genesis  were manifesting was a good thing, and something God’s people should emulate. Where the parable writer says they went wrong is that they got up such a head of steam that they began to believe they could “build the kingdom” without the King (God). Otherwise they will just build and build and build, without filling in the necessary supportive, spiritual “center” to the community they assemble. Sound familiar? And so at Pentecost, diverse people are brought together by the Holy Spirit, given a powerful “tool kit” to build a new community, but this time, one that acknowledges and celebrates diversity, while keeping the message of love and redemption in Jesus Christ as its foundation. God DOES “scatter” the church after Pentecost, but to preach the gospel and make disciples, like Jesus commissioned them to do. Diversity in language, theology, and geography are not necessarily bad things in the Pentecost plan, but become so, if they engender competitiveness between diverse groups and so obfuscate the simple message of Christ that subsequent generations of “bystanders” are the ones sent away “confused.” 

 

Today, the “tools of Pentecost” are available to the church, as are the fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and self-control. Were we to use these to “offer them Christ” as Mr. Wesley urged, we may find that love and unity occur not in theological uniformity or doctrinal purity, but in the transforming experience of knowing Christ and making him known. As someone said, by “Keeping the main thing the main thing.” 

 

The gifts granted to Christians and the church at Pentecost are meant to be used to make disciples and nurture the community of faith, not be displayed on a knick-knack shelf. Like books in your library, if you buy them to display them, only your ego gets stroked. Read them, and you may be transformed. So it is with the gifts of the Spirit.

 

The church today could really use a Babel fish! We could hand them out, and if the “bystanders” would stick them in their ears, they would hear the gospel message of love, forgiveness, and redemption in Jesus Christ, translated from the infighting, doctrinal fencing, and overall CRAP being transmitted by so many “people of faith,” including about every sect of Christianity. I’m afraid that without the Babel fish, we sound like the “tongues” of Pentecost without the translation that the Holy Spirit was whispering into the ears of those who had gathered to “see what was going on.” Without a simpler message, translated into the ”language of the people,” all the seeking world is hearing is confusing babble. Hey, maybe the Holy Spirit could BE our Babel fish!

 

To quote Winston from the movie Ghost Busters, “We have the TOOLS, we have the TALENT!” We also have the saving message of grace! The only thing getting in the way of making disciples is US! Amen.