Our first two glorious readings today, the magnificent narratives from Genesis and the Acts of the Apostles, draw us into the broad sweep of the purposes of God and our relationship with God. The first, the Tower of Babel and the subsequent confusion and multiplication of human languages, is reversed, rectified and redeemed in the second, the account of the coming of the Holy Spirit in Acts.
As our reading from John clearly describes, “This is the Spirit of truth” - this is the other Advocate, the Holy Spirit, only now able to come to the apostles because Christ himself has incarnated, died, resurrected and returned to the divine world, having redeemed the entire world.
And so, this reversal, and redemption of the disaster at the Tower of Babel is only redeemed because of Christ.
Our sacred story from Genesis is set way back when … it is post the primeval flood, where once again, like in the Garden of Eden, God has made a covenant, a relational, loving and ongoing embrace with humanity to guide us so we may help redeem the entire world, the entire earth.
Once more, post flood, humanity is shown clearly our ordered place for communal and personal fulfillment by relationship with God and each other, and once more, like Eden, humanity has been directed to take that human-divine relationship to all the earth, to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth”.
And then we hear our story today. Rather than going forward, being made in the image of God, bringing the blessings of God through that image to the whole earth, humanity has gathered itself into once place.
Why? Because in that one place, understanding each other with one language, they work to build a tower whose top will reach into heaven, or the heavens in the original Hebrew.
Humans, creatures of God, are trying by their own efforts to reach the divine realm – by their own efforts and not by the grace and love of God.
Why do they wish to do this? Our text is clear: “let’s make a name for ourselves”.
What is referred to here, making a name for themselves, is a far cry from, though still related to, the modern understanding of making a name for ourselves, like pop stars, our billionaires or sport stars may do. The concept and theological significance of the Name in ancient cultures was very different.
A Name glorified and brought power to the person who had access to, who possessed the name. It was the Name of someone, of a people, or a King, that lived on after they had physically died, and so the Name was seen as an almost separate identity, force and power. A Name that lived on, in some measure, conferred immortality.
We see this clearly when, in the following chapter, God blesses the very beginning of the people of Israel by calling Abram, who will become Abraham, saying, “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your NAME great, so that you will be a blessing” – the blessing here, as throughout the Old Testament refers to descendants who will carry on the Name of Abram and so keep his name, his presence, alive.
But this is through God’s personal call to Abram and through God’s blessing. It is unlike the Tower of Babel conspirators who wish to make a name for themselves, by their own actions, usurping the place of God, seeking in fact to become like Gods.
And so, they are dispersed, scattered across the earth, given a chance once more to fulfill their purpose of bringing their image of God, in which they are made, to all the earth. But this time speaking different languages, being confused between each other, unable to collectively attempt to storm heaven again by human effort, waiting, as all the world waited for heaven to come to earth – as it does in the person and life of Christ.
And so, it is only after Christ has incarnated, lived, died, resurrected and ascended that the bridge between earth and heaven, between humanity and divinity, between the Many and the One, can correctly and safely be established by God.
Christ as fully human and fully divine has forever established this bridge, and so people, the whole earth can come together as one once more, and through HIM as bridge move towards heaven and unity with God.
And so, it is only after Christ has ascended that the Holy Spirit can come, as Christ throughout John makes clear. And then, we here of the remarkable coming together in Acts:
They, the people from many lands and nations, “from every people under heaven “, were all together in one place, as the whole earth were at Babel, – but not this time to storm heaven by their own means, not to become Gods.
The ‘they’ here refers to the very first Jesus followers in Jerusalem. They are the very first people to trust and accept that Jesus IS the bridge between earth and heaven. And so, they gather to worship and be part of the new covenant that opens heaven to earth and earth to heaven.
And because of this the Holy Spirit comes. And it is through her that unity also comes. Once more people from different lands can understand each other, reversing the Bable effect of confusion.
Once more people can, despite differences of backgrounds and ways of understanding, gather in the spirit to worship God and Christ – exactly as we do today, right now here at St Cuthbert’s.
And it is the spirit of Truth who like Christ, is our Advocate, comforter, consoler, literally in the Greek, ‘the one who stands with us’, it is through the Spirit that our relationship with God and with each other is completed and perfected.
We hear, experience and see this each week in our liturgy. After we have prayed the words that remember, and so make real the bread and the wine as the body and blood of Christ, we invoke the Holy Spirit – praying to the Father:
Accept, we pray, our cries of praise and thanksgiving,
and send your Holy Spirit upon us and our celebration
that all who eat and drink at this table
may be strengthened by Christ's body and blood …
This is known as the epiclesis, literally when we pray upon or over the bread and wine.
There is the Father whom we pray to, the Son, Christ in Body and Blood, and the Spirit – and it is only by the presence of all three, the entire undivided Trinity that the bread and wine are for us the Body and Blood.
Why is the Trinity needed and invoked? Because it is the trinity, as we will explore next week, that is the perfection of and model of true and loving community. Each of the persons of the Trinity give and receive from each other in perfect love and union: father to son, son to father and spirit, the eternal dance of self-giving forming a community for us today to emulate and embody and live and share to the world.
And this is why our Thanksgiving prayer continues:
… to serve you in the world.
As one body and one holy - one whole and united, self giving people,
may we proclaim – share, give out, live, embody the everlasting gospel to the world
This is gift of Pentecost we share today, and every day …
In Christ’s name, Amen