The Day of Pentecost
Text: Genesis 11:1-9, Acts. 2:1-21
Pastor Jean M. Hansen
Here’s a question for all of you who have heard many sermons over the years – how many of those sermons were on the Tower of Babel? I’m going to guess it is a low number because my files reveal that in nearly 40 years of preaching, I have never given a sermon focused only on Genesis 11:1-9. (As it turns out I will not be doing so today, either, although it’s the primary focus). The Babel account is one of those illusive Biblical texts with few details and a “seems-clear-but-is it?” message. However, putting it in context makes it easier to grasp.
This story is what Biblical scholars call “pre-history”, which means that it cannot be dated. Like the stories of creation, Adam and Eve, Noah and the Ark, the focus is on the message being conveyed rather than on this being a historical event. The context includes the fact the story’s location in the Biblical time-line, which implies that the people who survived the flood on Noah’s ark are the ancestors of, or perhaps are themselves, those who settled on the plain of Shinar and built and city and a tower. So…why is that significant? Well, think about it, all they knew was lost in the flood, after which God told them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth,” just as had occurred at the Garden of Eden. (Genesis 9:1)
Fill the earth? That’s a lot of territory to cover and a fair amount of risk. After all they’ve been through, do they really want to spread out and fill the earth? Staying put is a better option in terms of security, as is creating a group of people who are the same. Commentator Meg Jenista describes their response to God’s command in this way, “No thanks. We’ll just stay here where we are safe and together and, for the love of everything holy, DRY. And, since we don’t want that to ever happen to us, let’s build something solid, something dependable, something that can withstand any flood that might come our way again (because even though God promised to never send a flood again, well, just hedge our bets. So, they built a tower.” (1)
It’s interesting to note the building materials: sun baked mud bricks held together with tar or pitch which, by the way, is waterproof. Given the memory of the flood, they wanted a waterproof tower.
Now, remember, this is a story with a message and the message is the focus, not whether or not this is a historical event. Usually, it’s said that this is a story about people’s arrogance, pride, search for power, and it is. However, how often is it true that the emotions on which arrogance is built are fear or uncertainty? Instead, think of this as a story about humanity, about feeling afraid or uncertain in an unpredictable world, a world where God’s involvement is often unclear and people’s own abilities are questionable.
The solution to all this, the story writer tells us, is to build a tower of certainty. “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves….” Instead of trusting God, they built a human tower of achievement, which might have looked good, but was actually destructive.
Writer and pastor Barbara Brown Taylor writes that she enjoys seeking out Jewish midrash in which Jews, both ancient and modern, create new stories as an interpretive tool based on close readings of the Bible. One that she found about Babel was about bricks. In this old story, the tower of Babel grew and grew until it took a full year for people to pass the bricks from hand to hand all the way to the top. Bricks became so precious to the project that when a brick slipped and fell, the people wept, but when a human being fell and died, no one paid any attention. (2) The human heart shrunk in the quest for security and power; empathy disappeared.
This story has at least two main emphases. One is that it is a story about pride, the search for power and rebellion against God. The second focus is the people’s desire for the security found in staying in one place and for sameness, since when people are alike there is less conflict and it’s easier to control what occurs. At Babel, God’s response to this attempt to gain power and create security is to scatter the people.
In the context of this story the scattering of the people and confusion of the languages is usually seen as a punishment, but how else would God’s command to be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” be fulfilled? At Babel God created diversity. The scattering is “God course-correcting the world to be in alignment with what has always been the divine intention and purpose.” (3)
The story of the Tower of Babel reminds us that God is the one who is our source of certainty and security; that God created diversity so that humanity would flourish, and God is the one who makes a name for us, and desires that we live out that name. We do that by the power of the Holy Spirit.
On Pentecost, the focus on diversity continued. The Spirit empowered Jesus’ followers to speak not in a single language, but many, so that those present heard the gospel in their own native language. Then, Jesus’ followers and the Good News were sent into the world; they did not stay put and play it safe.
Pastor Brown Taylor describes the day in this way: “Before the day was over, the church had grown from 120 to more than 3000. Shy people had become bold, scared people had become gutsy, and lost people had found a sense of direction. Disciples who had not believed themselves capable of tying their own sandals without Jesus discovered abilities … they never knew they had. When they opened their mouths to speak, they sounded like Jesus…and there was no explanation for it, except that they had dared to inhale on the day of Pentecost. They had sucked in God’s own breath and they had been transformed by it. (4)
They did not need a Tower of Babel to create security, nor did they seek uniformity, but invited all to receive and celebrate the unconditional love of Jesus.
This is a story about humanity, and in many ways, humanity has not changed. We live in a world where fearful, uncertain people build towers of certainty, or so they believe, and monuments of achievement, attempting to make a name for themselves. They gather around them those who are like them, seeking control and approval, and ignore God’s desire for a diverse world. Their attempts will, as was true at the Tower of Babel, be scattered. And the Holy Spirit will rebuild and renew, according to God’s will for us and the world. That’s the promise of Pentecost. AMEN
(1) “Acts 2:1-21, Genesis 11:1-9 Commentary” by Meg Jenista, June 8, 2025, www.cepraching.org
(2) Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others by Barbara Brown Taylor
(3) “Commentary on Genesis 11:1-9” by John E. Anderson, www.workingpreacher.org
(4) “Home By Another Way” by Barbara Brown Taylor, 1999, Cowley:Boston, pg. 14