The Sermon Text — Genesis 11: 1-9; Acts 2:1-21

Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 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. 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."

The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. 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. Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech." So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 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.

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power." All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine."

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, "Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o"clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

This morning we focus on two stories...the story of the building of the tower of Babel, from the book of Genesis and the story of Pentecost from the book of Acts. The Genesis story is our old story. The Pentecost story is our new story. We begin with the old.

Genesis tells us that at one time the whole earth had a single language. As people migrated a group settled in the land of Shinar and developed a civilization, which they called Babylon, which means "Gateway to Heaven." Today we call that country Iraq. At first wonderful things happened in Babylon. They cultivated beauty, and education, and they had successful businesses. People were proud of their country, so proud that they didn’t want to travel. The Bible says: they didn’t want to scatter or mix with others. They built a wall around their city to keep others out. Then, in their arrogance they began to build a tower that would reach to heaven itself. God didn’t need to come down to them; they would go up to God, for they were the gateway to heaven.

Like many of our attempts to play God, this was dreadfully small minded. The tower was so small on the divine scale that God had to come down from heaven to even see what they were doing. Upon inspection, God was not amused and decided to change their name from Babylon, "Gateway to heaven," to Babel, which means "confusion."

The prophet Jonah also tried to avoid mixing. When given orders by God to go to a foreign country, to mix with a foreign people and to declare the word of God, Jonah fled and went in the opposite way. When our ancestors arrived in this country they attempted to erect imitations of their homelands, and at first held onto their language, culture and ways. They built churches designed for their own kind – Norwegians, Swedes, Germans, Italians or Poles. Norwegians didn’t want to mix with Swedes, Afro-Americans, Mexicans or Asians.

Is it fear or pride that makes us want to stay with our own people, our own kind? Fear of what is different? Pride that our way is best? Whatever the motives, it is clear that our unwillingness to mix is a violation of the purpose of God. Separation is the mark of Babel.

Some of our separations are by class. We build communities in such a manner that it makes it difficult if not impossible for others to get in. We do this by making the cost of the homes so expensive only our own class will come.

Do you remember the parting words of Jesus to his disciples? He told them to go to all nations, mix with others, tell the story of God, make disciples and baptize. Yet, when the day of Pentecost came they were all together in one place, all by themselves. Up to that point they had done no mixing, rather they spent their time with people just like themselves. But God’s will was done. To get them to mix he sent an ear-splitting sound like a tornado, and there was light, fire over each person’s head.

The noise was so loud that it attracted people, many different kinds of people from the surrounding neighborhoods. The people who came were Jews who were in town from other countries to celebrate Pentecost in Jerusalem. There were Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from present day Turkey, and as far away as Egypt, Libya and even Rome. As they listened they mixed. And here is what they discovered, though all the believers were speaking in their own language the visitors heard in their native tongue. Prior to Pentecost differences divided people. In the Holy Spirit, difference made life better. It seasoned life. God provided a mechanism for understanding, something like simultaneous translation. Though they were many, they were one. Mixing was no longer a problem; it was a joy. The kingdom of God brings separate and different people together in an experience of unity.

Do we see the diversity in our church as a gift? Do we understand that worshiping with people who differ with us politically is a gift? Years ago a pastor from a conservative church in Madison wondered out loud why Bethel was not of a single mind in regard to important social issues. I told him we were a Pentecost people. "We have a wide variety of opinions on social issues such as same-sex unions, abortion, and school vouchers, yet we are one church. Our unity is not in our opinions, but in Jesus Christ.

God does not tell us that we can be one. He tells us that we are one. The question is: do we act out our unity?

Here at Bethel we are a single congregation worshiping in two languages. Last week nearly half of our new member class was Latino. I have been thrilled at the willingness of our long-time English speaking members to welcome our newer Spanish speaking members. Yet we struggle over one major issue – how will we mix? With the Spanish service at 12:30 how do the two congregations come together? We have a few experiences – retreats, family nights, youth group – but for the most part, we don’t mix.

Do you know where people mix? Heaven. I hope our goal is for our church to look like heaven. When we arrive there will be people from every nation. In order to prepare we ought to make our church look and act like heaven. The greater the love, the greater the diversity. The more we are aware of God’s love for us as sinners the more we can tolerate others who are loved by God in their broken and imperfect state, even when they are broken in ways different from us.

Our nation always struggles with mixing. If we aren’t working on issues of civil rights, we are struggling with other issues of mixing. Our current struggle is over immigration. For some, the issue is that millions of people are in this country illegally. For others, the issue is that we have people willing to work, who provide a service that is needed.

Most everyone agrees that we need immigration reform. In my own family I have discovered that the first step is to deal with some myths. It is not true that these people are sucking up all of our welfare dollars and clogging our jails. The Los Angeles Tribune this past week indicated that its research has shown that the rate of incarceration for those who are called "illegal" is lower than that of native born. They also discovered that one in three people here illegally pays taxes, collectively pouring billions into Social Security that they have no hope of ever receiving. They concluded, "It is the nation’s duty to welcome immigrants, to treat them decently and give them the opportunity to assimilate." The New York Times recently wrote, "Maintaining the promise of America requires that we remain an open and welcoming society." That sounds like something the church should say.

Our president has backed an approach that appears to me to be reasonable and pragmatic. He would allow illegal aliens to remain if they pay a fine, taxes and learn English. He also favors tougher measures to control the border and enforce immigration laws.

You can get a powerful fight by saying, "We are a Christian nation," but there is little doubt in my mind that we are at our best as a country when we embody Christian principals. One principal is the open door and out-stretched hand. As a Christian and the grandson of immigrants, I believe that this great nation is strongest and most beautiful when it embodies the words of Emma Lazarus written on the Statue of Liberty. Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me..

Sin separates, love unites. Pentecost is a celebration of God’s uniting Spirit doing its work in this broken world, over coming our inclination to separate ourselves from others. When we are divided we live in Babel. When we are united we live in Pentecost. On that first Pentecost day God’s spirit blew through that gathering. Three thousand people were converted and the church was born. Today we celebrate the birthday of the church, a church that is enriched by its many colors, languages and people. Today we also celebrate the Lord’s meal, a meal that consists of one bread, one cup, and one Lord of all. We are a Pentecost people. Amen