The Neighborhood Podcast
This is a podcast of Guilford Park Presbyterian Church in Greensboro, North Carolina featuring guests from both inside the church and the surrounding community. Hosted by Rev. Dr. Stephen M. Fearing, Head of Staff.
The Neighborhood Podcast
"From Babel to Blessing" (June 8, 2025 Sermon)
Preaching: Rev. Dr. Stephen M. Fearing
What if everything you thought you knew about the Tower of Babel was wrong? Far from a story about God feeling threatened by human ambition, this ancient narrative reveals something profoundly different about divine concerns—not the height of our towers, but the heart behind them.
The Tower of Babel wasn't condemned because people reached too high, but because they built with the wrong intention: "Let us make a name for ourselves." This self-glorifying motivation stands in stark contrast to the true towers that God blesses—those built for justice, community, and love of neighbor. When humanity united to create vaccines, explore space, advance civil rights, or address climate change, God rejoiced in these ambitious collaborations because they served the common good.
Pentecost offers the counterpoint to Babel's story. Where Babel moved from unity to division, Pentecost transforms division into understanding. The Holy Spirit didn't eliminate difference but created comprehension despite it, suggesting that God's ideal isn't homogeneity but harmony within diversity. As Walter Brueggemann, whose prophetic voice was recently lost to us at age 92, wisely noted: "Perhaps the miracle of Pentecost concerns a new gift of speech. But we should not miss the hint of the text. The newness concerns a fresh capacity to listen."
Today, in our fractured world where families and communities struggle to communicate across differences, we're invited to become Pentecost people—building towers that embrace diversity rather than fear it. The divine architect has provided the blueprint in Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit as our interpreter. What tower might you help build that unites neighbors, helps instead of harms, and bridges the chasms between us? Join us as we explore how God is calling us to construct a world where justice, kindness, mercy, and righteousness reach to the heavens.
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Holy wisdom, you are the pillar of fire that leads us into each new movement of our lives. By the power of your spirit, settle now into our hearts and illumine your will through Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen. So the scripture lesson today is going to be from Genesis, chapter 11, verses 1 through 9. Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as they migrated from 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 fire them thoroughly. And then they had bricks for stone and buttsmen for mortar. Then they said Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its tops in heaven, and let us make a name for ourselves, otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
Speaker 1:The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which mortals had built. And the Lord said Look, there are one people and they have all one language, and this is the only 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 the building, the city. Therefore it was called Babel, because the Lord confused the language of all the earth and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over all the face of the earth. Holy wisdom, holy word, thanks be to God.
Speaker 2:Friends, let us listen again for what God is saying to God's church in the words of Acts, chapter 2, verses 1 through 21. The words of Acts, chapter 2, verses 1 through 21. 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 people 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, 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 Fellow Jews 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's 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 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 smokiness. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day, and then then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Friends, holy wisdom, holy word. Thanks be to God. Let us pray, o Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts. Thanks be to God. Let us pray, o Lord. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable and pleasing in your sight, o Lord, our rock and our redeemer, amen. I'm glad y'all got the red memo this day. I forgot to remind you all of this, so Phyllis reminded me yesterday and we got the job done, phyllis, so well done.
Speaker 2:Today is Pentecost and I have often, like other pastors, have focused mostly on the story from the book of Acts, but today I'd like for us to explore the Genesis passage that Payne read for us today from the story of the Tower of Babel In year C of the lectionary which we're currently in. These two texts are often paired with one another for literary reasons. These two stories reflect one another in opposing ways. In the story of the Tower of Babel, the people start with a common language and then lose it by the end, whereas in the story of Pentecost, they begin with a lack of understanding and then, ultimately, at the end, communicate clearly with one another.
Speaker 2:Traditionally, the story of the Tower of Babel has been interpreted to suggest that God disrupted the people's ability to communicate effectively because God felt threatened threatened by their ambitious building project. This interpretation implies that God intervened to thwart their plans, fearing that they might rival God. I've never found that particular interpretation convincing. First of all because I think this is a mythological story that seeks to explain why we all speak different languages. But also, I find no indication elsewhere in scripture that God feels threatened by human endeavors. Angry perhaps, sometimes, but not threatened Instead. I believe that God's concern in this story lies not in the people's ambition, but rather in the intention behind it. If you read carefully, the story says that the people's goal was, to quote, make a name for themselves, a self-serving endeavor rather than one that honored community and unity.
Speaker 2:Now, to be sure, there is an incredible beauty in people uniting to achieve something that might seem impossible. Consider the triumph over polio, when we came together to make a vaccine that effectively eradicated that disease. I'm just old enough to remember the construction of the International Space Station to make a vaccine that effectively eradicated that disease. I'm just old enough to remember the construction of the International Space Station back in 1998, I believe it was. It was a collaborative effort among our country, russia, europe, japan, canada, and some of you may recall the remarkable moment when President Kennedy urged our nation to land, a person on the moon. Despite widespread doubt, that ambition sparked technological innovations that fundamentally transformed our world. The Civil Rights Movement of the 50s and 60s took a stand against racial segregation. The Paris Agre agreements in 2015 united countries all over the world to tackle climate change and safeguard the futures of our children and their children. Indeed, these were high-rise, skyscraper dreams that I think were blessed by god, as they represent collective efforts to benefit our neighbors and create a more just, equitable and safe world for everyone.
Speaker 2:I think God likes those towers, but other mass human initiatives can also lead to harmful repercussions. The technologies that unite us can also damage. Our reliance on fossil fuels can exacerbate climate change, and the unregulated spread of weapons has resulted in unimaginable tragedies in our schools and in our neighborhoods. Populist movements all over the globe have fueled policies and rhetoric that blame immigrants and those who are different from us on all of our problems. Nationalism fosters national unity in quotes, but simultaneously distorts the fundamental principles upon which this nation was founded. Yes, those towers I don't think are blessed by God, just as God doesn't bless anything that makes us unneighborly towards one another, that threatens the safety of our neighbor. So this Pentecost Sunday, as we don various hues of red and orange and yellow.
Speaker 2:I believe that God is calling us to build towers, but towers of a different kind. I believe God's calling us to build towers that embrace our diversity rather than fear it. What if we united to create a tower that ended poverty? What if we worked together to build a tower that protected our children and our marginalized communities from gun violence? What if we built a society that celebrates the diverse tapestry of God's creation rather than seeing it as some sort of existential threat? You know, I propose that God wouldn't have minded if the people of Babel had focused their energy on projects that fostered true community and connection rather than mere vanity.
Speaker 2:Today, we find ourselves in a divided nation where, even within our families and sometimes in our congregations, we can struggle to communicate effectively and compassionately with one another. These divisions we face are not divinely ordained. I think that most of them are of our own making. Yet I think that there's hope. When the Holy Spirit united Peter and the early followers of Christ, their diversity became a source of strength. Peter spoke about a dream echoing the prophet Joel, in which the spirit would pour upon all flesh, empowering everyone everyone regardless of their status, to prophesy and envision a better future, and you and I are part of that dream.
Speaker 2:In the past two and a half years, I've seen firsthand the capacity this church has for holy dreaming. Whether God's dream prompts us to open our doors to those who are homeless, or inspires the sacred music we sing that soothes the soul, towers of righteousness are being built in our midst. Wherever God's dream compels us to write letters to our elective representatives urging them to protect those who are hungry, or whether it leads to a sanctuary that was literally standing room only yesterday as we sang our beloved burl to heaven, towers of justice are being constructed among us. Whether God's dreams urge us to wear red this Pentecost Sunday to remind us that diversity and equity and inclusion are holy things, or or whether it calls us to Christian unity that inspires us to link arms across our differences to serve Christ, I believe towers of mercy are being raised in our midst, for God is the divine architect, and that's what got the people in Genesis into trouble.
Speaker 2:You see, they outsourced the work of the architect. They had a holy architect already available, with extensive experience in building well, everything. But the folks in Genesis chose a different architect, the architect of their own hubris, a building project that focused not on justice and kindness, mercy and righteousness, but simply on vanity and making a name for themselves. But hear me, church, the divine architect has given us the blueprint, and his name is Jesus Christ, and blueprints can sometimes be tricky things to decipher. So God gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost to help us interpret that blueprint together. And that's what Pentecost is all about. Pentecost serves as a reminder that we need the diversity of creation to see God in one another. It reminds us that when the people in Genesis became too myopic and self-centered, god blessed them with diversity, not as a punishment. Pentecost emphasizes that none of us on our own not you, not me can faithfully understand God by ourselves, or proclaim God by ourselves, or serve God by ourselves. We need each other, and that message is desperately needed in a forgetful culture in which we live Now.
Speaker 2:On a closing note, I would be remiss if I did not conclude this sermon without mentioning that the church lost one of its most prophetic voices a few days ago. Walter Brueggemann, one of the most influential biblical scholars of the 20th century, died on Friday at the age of 92. Biblical scholars of the 20th century died on Friday at the age of 92. It's really hard, y'all, to overstate the impact of his scholarship on Old Testament theology, on preaching and liturgy. The dude wrote over a hundred books. I don't know how he did it. I was privileged to meet him once, about 15 years ago in Atlanta, and he was always a prophetic and consistent voice calling us, the church, to provide a counter narrative to empire in its many forms. His prolific scholarship serves as a call to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in a ways that dismantle the powers of consumerism and violence and nationalism, because those are towers that are not of God's design, they're of our own making, they're of our own doing and, left unchecked, can threaten creation's undoing.
Speaker 2:But perhaps we might be guided by Walter Brueggemann and his thoughts on today's passages, both the Tower of Babel and Acts 2. Brueggemann once said Perhaps the miracle of Pentecost concerns a new gift of speech. But we should not miss the hint of the text. The newness concerns a fresh capacity to listen. A fresh capacity to listen because the word of God blows over the chaos one more time. Perhaps the promise of Pentecost is that when God blows God's wind over the emptiness and the void, what is freshly given is a new speech situation. In Pentecost, when the ideal speech situation emerges, we are granted both ears to hear and tongues to speak.
Speaker 2:The Pentecost text is, of course, placed at the beginning of Acts. The history of the church begins with a new language community where human speech is possible. On the one hand, the new community in Acts 2 regarded its differences as no threat or danger, in contrast to the fear of the story in the Tower of Babel, and, on the other hand, the early church sought no phony autonomous unity. It was content with the unity that was willed by God, without overcoming all the marks of scatteredness. And so a new eon begins. So, friends, to borrow Brueggemann's words, we have been given a fresh capacity to listen by the winds and the flames of Pentecost.
Speaker 2:The scatteredness of Babel doesn't have to have the final word. Instead, it may have served as a preliminary lesson for God's people, guiding them and us towards the diversity that was creation's intent from the get-go. The Tower of Babel may have been consigned to the rubble of millennia past, but you and I are blessed with the spirit of Pentecost to build new towers, ones that unite neighbors, to build pillars that please God for their ability to help instead of harm, to hold instead of hurt and to bridge the chasms that we have created between one another. Those building plans, my friends, bring joy to the architect that has brought you and I together this day. In the name of God, the creator, redeemer and sustainer, may all of us God's Pentecost people say Amen.