The Tower of Babel
sermon by Manfred Schreyer
(Gen 11:1-9 NIV) Now the whole world had one language and a common
speech. {2} As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled
there. {3} They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them
thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. {4} Then
they said, "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."
{5} But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were
building. {6} The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language
they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible
for them. {7} Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will
not understand each other." {8} So the LORD scattered them from there over
all the earth, and they stopped building the city. {9} That is why it was
called Babel --because there the LORD confused the language of the whole
world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
• There are some stories in the bible which we do not forget: the ‘Garden of
Eden’, ‘Noah, the tower of Babel’ . . . and that is the story I want us to
think about today which is called ‘The Tower of Babel’
• The culture was different, people had different desires in their lives.
They wanted to be close to water, they did not want to work so hard every
day for food and then produce enough to trade; they did not want to quarrel
with the neighboring clan over pasturing rights and water rights . . .
• So over time cities developed like in Babel and the statement is here:
“let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly” . . . so they last a long
time. “Let us build a city, so that we can be happy not to fight . . . over
rights . . . not work so hard . . . not to be scattered . . . let us
experience the good life!”
• And they did. They must have built a great city: I can envision it right
front of me, trading, it was dry in the wet season, it was cool in the hot
times, . Kids were playing with no fear of wild animals, produce was there
by the traders, people knew each other well. Homes were builds for security
and to give to their children . . . no more moving around. Old men sat
around and played games and drank the water they were thirsty for.
• The good times had arrived.
• The story tells us about unity in our desires for something which we feel
is not right in our life. And we take action, in unity because we can. . . .
we are powerful creatures.
• And here then, they want to build a tower that reaches into the sky
because they want to make a name for themselves.
• What is in a name? Why a name?
• “Well, we have achieved” “We have arrived” “Look at us we have what you
don’t have.” “We are a strong unit out of the darkness of ages and we are
about to change the world.”
• What is wrong with building a tower, we may ask. But is it really the
tower that we should be concerned about?
• No, the story relay tells us that we as humankind often find unity for the
wrong purpose, for the wrong center in our lives.
• How about this:
“Come, let us build for ourselves a bomb and make a name for ourselves by
splitting atoms.”
“Come, let us build for ourselves a nation of white, Aryan, Protestant
heterosexuals and make a name for ourselves by declaring the white race
supreme.”
“Come, let us build for ourselves cloned sheep and make a name for ourselves
by cloning humans also.”
• The story is about decisions we make as a body that strives for the
ultimate in life.
• The story is about security. The tower was sort of a cathedral and
archeologists have found several of such buildings in the deserts.
• The story is about protection and building walls around and to let others
do their thing. No more sacrificing, no more giving, no more seeking, . . .
the aim is to cover under the blanket of a false security.
• What about God in this story. You know I was amazed when I read that God
was afraid that there maybe nothing impossible for humans.
• Allow me to come back to our free will. We as humans as always have and
had a free will. In fact God can and will not interfere with the choices we
make.
• That is tremendous power. And God gives us that gift for us to cherish.
• But somehow I get the sense from the stories of our forefathers &
foremothers that God is afraid for us in our doing. Remember the story of
the Garden of Eden . . . God is afraid that we will eat fro the tree because
we should not have the knowledge of Good and Evil.
• There are certain things we should not touch in this life, because they do
not center around God.
• But we push forward into a direction God does not want us to go. And then
our unity changes to a center in our life that will not hold.
• This center does not measure up to the desires of God. We are not here on
earth to produce an atom bomb, we are not here to clone sheep or humans, we
are not here to kill our offspring . . . we are not here to . . .
• And what does God do? Here brigs a measurement that is highly unusual.
Here the people are speaking a different language.
• People thought they had built a powerful metropolis, for God it is a
pitiful little settlement with a tower. . . .but there is fear for us by God
. . . humans have capability . . .
• And I wonder what God does to us right now. Are we really able to bring
God on the brink of giving up on us? The O.T. certainly tells us the stories
how God has tried to work with us in so many ways . . . but we found a new
way to destroy our path
• “Stop Pastor, I am not building a tower!”
• Well, what do we gather around? We certainly gather around here, where we
know God is dwelling with us each Sunday. But what does this building
represent for us?
• What security does this building offer you? Do we use it as a cover for
our security? Do we build walls around our cities, because we are tired of
using our intended purpose in this world?
• What is our purpose? Our purpose is to share with others in harmony and to
find a protective shelter in God.
• God does not only dwell in this church, He dwells in the fields of China,
in the mountains of the Himalaya, in the desert of the Arabian desert.
• We as a church shall not build a building as a presentation of power to
proclaim ourselves, but to proclaim God.
• Much later we find the line of Shem in Jerusalem and Jerusalem is the
opposite of Babel. (Self Delivery vs. Self support) - Trust and Expectation
vs. Fear) - (Calling vs. Escape )
• Babel was the hip place to go into to, Jerusalem was the place to come
from and going out to.
• We also should “go out to.” We should open our walls, tear down our walls
and become unity not with the center of our knowledge and egoistical
reasons, but to become on with the center of Christ and God.
• Finally in the N.T. we read again abut unity. It was the day of Pentecost,
where all believers spoke the same language, because they centered around
the will of God and were willing to go out.
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