This text is offered as an alternative First Reading for the Day of Pentecost, with the instructions that if it is chosen, then Acts 2:1-21 gets used as the Second Reading.
Certainly, there have been connections made between Genesis 11:1-9 and Acts 2:1-21, with people understanding God’s gift of speaking in tongues as a reversal of the confusion of tongues at Babel. Most of us know the Pentecost story and wait to hear the story.
Pentecost is the story of the festival when Christians celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is celebrated on the Sunday 50 days after Easter (the name comes from the Greek pentekoste, "fiftieth").
Pentecost is regarded as the birthday of the Christian church, and the start of the church's mission to the world.
The arrival of the Holy Spirit!
The Holy Spirit is the third per of the Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that is the way Christians understand God.
Celebrating Pentecost is a happy festival. Ministers in the church often wear robes or stoles with red in the design as a symbol of the flames in which the Holy Spirit came to earth.
Pentecost comes from a Jewish harvest festival called Shavuot.
The apostles were celebrating this festival when the Holy Spirit descended on them.
It likes a very strong wind, and it looked like tongues of fire.
The apostles then found themselves speaking in foreign languages, inspired by the Holy Spirit.
People passing by at first thought that they must be drunk, but the apostle Peter told the crowd that the apostles were full of the Holy Spirit.
Pentecost is also considered the birthday of the church. Maybe, or maybe that’s when the church learned to walk on its own. Maybe that’s when empowered by fire and wind, the church spoke on its own, but used words learned from the one who gave it life.
On Pentecost, we celebrate the coming of the Spirit to raise the church out of hiding and out of despair to give the church wind at the back and fire in the bones, and to encourage the church to proclaim; no—to live the good news of Jesus Christ outwardly and invitation-ally.
But I want to suggest today that as we see in life Joy and Pain have a tendency to hang together.
Have you ever noticed that one moment you feel like maybe you are making some progress?
• One moment you have your vision, your goal, and your plan.
• One moment everyone is on board and ready for your next steps.
• One moment you feel like maybe your thing will actually work—whatever this thing is.
• You feel as though you are on top of the world.
• But then the next moment comes, and it is all different.
• You’ve been there.
The plans fall apart; the hopes are crushed; it all seems like dead ends. The relationships crumble: those who were gung-ho and onboard are now abandoning ship as if they’ve hit an invisible iceberg and are going down fast.
And the worst part? You have absolutely no idea what happened. What seemed to be such a wonderful idea, what seemed to be just what everyone wanted, became a source of confusion and misunderstanding. You thought that you had it going on, but you forgot that it's you’re your story but God’s. You thought the vision and plans were yours but they were supposed to be God’s. Maybe your story was nothing but Babel.
You know the story of the tower of Babel. The babbling story; the tower and the languages and the scattering and the sin. Except, it is sometimes hard to see that their sin was self-talk. It seems as if God causes confusion because they had gotten stuck in themselves. I know, I’ve heard the explanations. They were thumbing their noses at God. Well, maybe. I tell you what they did wrong they were talking their talk and not God’s talk.
This text is a bookend to the first part of the Bible, which begins with creation and the command from God to fill the earth. But here we see people choosing not to fulfill that command.
They wanted to stay in one place. They built their city to not do what God wanted them to do. They said let’s make a building “otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”
The People in this text say We will instead of God's will. I want to focus on that, be careful when you tell God what you are gonna do, as a matter of fact, be careful when you get so full of yourself that you feel you have a right to say I’m gonna do this and I’m not gonna do that. You might want to realize that it is foolish to correct or reject God.
In this story God seems to want something else for his children. God seems to teach that we were created for more than settling. We were created to be obedient to God.
Now in the story, God comes down to inspect the construction project, man’s plan. Upon inspection, God determines that something must be done. “Nothing that they talk about will be possible for them,” is the diagnosis. God decides this Self-talk must be stopped.
So, the language is confusing, their self-talk is divided up, and boom, the construction project is brought to a screeching halt; and the migration out into the unknown begins—because the unknown came too close to home.
It all fell apart, and they weren’t sure why; I have no doubt. Except that the folks they thought they knew, all of a sudden, they realized, they didn’t know at all.
God confused the conversations they were having because their self-talk was not God-talk. I heard someone say this week that John Wesley never said we had to have Holy conferencing but that we had to have Christian conferencing.
I want to suggest that all our meetings, gatherings, worship, planning, and committee need to be Christian but even more, they need to be Holy. As a matter of Fact, Wesley when we go to other folks' meetings, like the democratic party or the city council, or the school board we should have so much God-talk in us that we change the nature of those meetings to Holy Meetings.
Powerful, positive, and beautiful words can heal and uplift. When spoken with truth, your words have the ability to change lives. Think about how you communicate.
Your words can encourage people to achieve greatness. Your words can support and even heal someone’s suffering.
Your words can nurture, nourish, and inspire your children.
But Your Words also need to be in line with the words of God. Your words need to be God-like words. Your words need to speak of God’s Kingdom and God’s purpose. Words that don’t represent God’s will and work are noting but babel. I want to suggest that when we work or speak or talk outside of the will of God no matter how wonderful we think it is it is Babel. Three points on speaking and not Babbling!
1. React or Respond to God’s will
If you react and then respond to God's purpose, your words will create and build. If you react and respond to a situation with destructive words, the implications can be overwhelming and soul-destroying for the recipient. It’s very easy to put a voice to our feelings and thoughts; however, it takes control, strength, and absolute integrity to express ourselves in a God-directed way no matter the situation. Stop and take a breath before you speak when you are stressed frustrated or confused. But still, hold on and listen to God. You see if you let God take hold of your speech you will speak in a divine way with Holy talk. Your words will be of a firm foundation and will not be easy to tear down or destroy.
2. Let God be responsible for your words
Really think about the fact that your words hold incredible power both positively and negatively.
Have you ever said something and as soon as it came out of your mouth you wanted to take it back?
Have you ever given someone some advice and you just shot from the hip because you didn’t know what to say?
My suggestion today is not to speak that way. If you let your words, be God's words then the only one responsible for what you say is God. Everything that is expressed verbally has the power to influence and change the lives of all you share your word with. It is your choice to use words from God that inspire or destroy them they are covered by the power of God. Once said, your words cannot be retracted. You need to let God speak through you and will be a force for good in the world. I want to speak life to the people around me, not confusion. I want to speak creation to the people I encounter not sadness.
3. Mind your Babel!
Choose to speak only words that are positive, loving, healing, inspiring, and uplifting. Positive words will transform your life and the lives of those around you. You can create an environment of positive energy right now. Pay attention to your language. Matthew 6:7 reminds us:
7And when you pray, do not babble on like pagans, for they think that by their many words they will be heard. 8Do is not like them,
In this day and time, we don’t have time for babbling. You need to say what you need to say.
Pay attention to how often your inner critic of the Holy Spirit is vocal. Listen to God's voice in your life. By taking note of any negative self-talk, by focusing on who you are speaking to, by focusing on what God needs the people to hear, by focusing on what God’s vision is calling for you can change the environment, you can change the world.
If you speak negatively and pay more attention to your meaning than God’s meaning, you will only be babbling.
Start asking yourself the following questions:
• What is God Doing?
• What is God saying?
• Why is God Speaking?
• Would God speak to my best friend like this?
• Would I speak to someone I loved like this?
• Can God’s words change the situation?
• Am I actively talking positively and making things better?
• What resulted from what I have said?
• Am I representing God?
Take notice of your self-talk. If your voice is loud and out of control, it’s time to silence that negative voice in your head.
Negative self-talk can influence your self-esteem, your outlook on life, your energy levels, your relationships, and even your health. Negative talk will tear down the towers God has called you to build.
I’ll end with this;
I had a period in my life when I was growing up when I had a bad habit of mumbling under my voice and my Dad will always say to me to speak up. I would mumble and keep mumbling. I mumbled because I was afraid to speak up. However, I recall one time we were getting ice cream we had stopped and my Dad asked me if I wanted Ice-cream and I mumble something like you know I want ice cream (being smart-mouthed). Well, My dad got everyone their Ice-cream and I noticed I didn’t have any when I asked he said I didn’t hear you ask for any well that broke me that day.
I realized that.
If I wanted what everyone else had,
If I wanted what God had for me,
If I wanted the Good and the Great in life,
If I wanted folks to recognize me and not walk all over me,
If I wanted my enemies to get out of my way,
If I wanted the oppression to take its knee off my neck,
If I wanted to anti-voter rights groups to honor my citizenship and not steal my vote,
If I wanted the Methodist church to be inclusive of race and gender,
If I wanted My God to hear my prayers, then instead of babbling and mumbling.
I’d better Speak out! Speak Out Church, Speak God
For as Peter said these men are not Drunk for This talk, they are speaking from the Lord and that’s what I want you to understand and How God wants you to speak from this Pentecost Sunday till the end of time.
