Monday, May 16, 2016

Babel


“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.” (Genesis 11:1-9)        
I want to tell you a little bit about my own experience with Babel, an experience when God confused my language and scattered me across the map.  I grew up in a suburb of Birmingham called Mountain Brook.  If you know anything about Mountain Brook, then you know that it is sometimes dubbed “The Tiny Kingdom.”
          The median household income in Mountain Brook is about $150,000.  The racial make-up is 99.5% white.  The only chain restaurant in the city is Starbucks.  The city has some of the best public schools in the state and even the country.  And just about everyone graduates from high school and goes on to college.
          As you might imagine, I spent much of my childhood and early youth living in a bubble.  While I am thankful for a good education and a safe place to live, I recognize that I was deprived of seeing how the other 99% lived.  In a way, Mountain Brook is like the city of Babel—everyone has one language and the same words and the city has the means and resources to do anything they want.
          Growing up I attended St. Luke’s Episcopal Church.  The church itself was representative of Mountain Brook.  However, the Episcopal Church provided ways for the youth to venture outside the safe confines of the Tiny Kingdom.  One such experience was a mission trip to North Carolina where we encountered people who lived in extreme poverty. 
Another experience was Sawyerville Day Camp where we met the poorest of the poor in the Black-belt of Alabama.  Even more, this was the first time in my life where I spent any time with members of the African-American community.  In addition to seeing poverty first hand, I learned a very different language and culture.  My cultural horizons were enriched by getting to know these families. 
          These experiences opened my eyes to the truth that the world was not as predictable and clean and pleasant as I thought.  This experience also opened my eyes to a rich culture that grew out of poverty and slavery—one that is marked by courage and resiliency and creativity.
In so many ways, these experiences uprooted me from my world, from the Tiny Kingdom.  Through the Episcopal Church God literally confused my language and scattered me across the many cultures and languages of Alabama and the South. 
While these experiences were often uncomfortable and continue to be uncomfortable, I have come to value these experiences as vital to my formation as a citizen of God’s heavenly kingdom, a kingdom that is populated by all races and nations and cultures. 
I am becoming more convinced that the greatest threat to our common life together is tribalism.  Tribalism is when people of one culture value their culture over all other cultures.  This is dangerous because the more and more we separate ourselves into groups that speak one cultural language the more we disconnect ourselves from the rest of the world.  This separation creates fear and misunderstanding and animosity and violence and even war.
Even more, tribalism is contrary to God’s dream as revealed through his Son who is drawing all languages and nations to himself.  God knows the dangers inherit in tribalism and that is why God scattered the people of Babel across the land and confused their language--God did them a favor.  Just as God’s creation is diverse with species of plants and animals so is God’s creation diverse with different languages and cultures that reflect the full image of God. 
Today’s scene from the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2:1-21) reflects how God completes the story of Babel.  Pentecost reconciles the many different people who have been separated into different tribes that speak different cultural languages.  And God does this by the power of the Holy Spirit. 
And notice was the Holy Spirit does.  The Holy Spirit makes the people understand each other in their native tongue.  In other words, the Holy Spirit breaks down the walls put up by cultures and customs and languages by helping the people hear one another.  Ultimately, the Holy Spirit makes this diverse group one people who speak the truth of God and the Church is a born, a Church that reflects the rich diversity of God’s people. 
One of the most valuable lessons I learned in conflict management class is the fact that most conflict is reduced or resolved when people understand each other.  It is truly amazing what happens when human beings really begin to understand each other—fear of the unknown begins to disappear, understanding grows, room for compassion is cultivated, and the first fruits of reconciliation are born. 
Resolving conflict is not about convincing someone else why you are right and they are wrong.  Instead, the foundation of reconciliation is discovered when people know the story of the other.  Reconciliation begins when the Spirit of truth helps people listen and understand where the other is coming from.  It is amazing what happens when the truth is spoken and heard. 
Perhaps the most powerful modern day witness to this truth happened in the years following apartheid in South Africa.  President Mandela and Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu created what became known as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.


(Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission)

The truth-seeking function set out to uncover the real story that was free from cultural-bias and historical revisionism.  The reconciliation function focused on restorative justice as opposed to retributive justice.  The goal was not to punish the offenders.  Instead, the goal was to reconcile a people who were broken by tribalism and power-structures that abused the vulnerable. 
If you have ever seen coverage of these movements, you have seen how incredibly painful they were.  Truth and reconciliation is not peace signs, daisies and roses.  Truth and reconciliation is hard.  Truth and reconciliation forces people to drop their pride and their obsession with the justification of self. 
In a very real way, truth and reconciliation feels like a violent wind and it feels like your head is on fire.  Using the words of St. Paul’s, this process of truth and reconciliation is the beginning of the birth pangs.  In the Word for the Week, I quoted Tim Keller who said, “People are messy; therefore, relationships are messy.  Expect messiness.” 
And as Christians who know the story of God, a story that includes a bunch of messy people, this messiness should inspire hope and not despair.  While the process of truth and reconciliation is painful and confused, we know that the way to salvation through Christ is painful and confused.  But the good news of Christ says that truth and reconciliation is saving us from the same old story of us vs. them.
          Even before I moved to Selma, I heard a refrain in my prayer life and through many of your voices and the voices in the community.  I kept hearing, “the Spirit is alive in Selma.”  And on this Pentecost, this refrain leads me to believe that God is using Selma to be a witness to how the Holy Spirit can break down the walls that divide.  Selma is poised to be a witness to how people of different cultures and languages can come together and work toward healing and unity, as people who reflect the kingdom of heaven on earth. 
          But if Selma wants to live into this witness, we must be prepared for the violent wind and the tongues of fire, we must be prepared to endure some pretty difficult conversations, we must be prepared to care more about listening to the story of the other than we do about telling our side of the story.
          In a very real way, this will be like hip surgery.  Before healing can begin there must be a willingness to dig deep and open the wounds and scars that are just under the surface.  But as Christians, we are given reason to trust that this pain is the path to healing and wholeness.  We of all people know that the way of the cross is the way that will prevail and show abundant life. 
          I haven’t quite figured out what this looks like in practical terms.  But I do trust that the Holy Spirit is moving in this parish and in the community to help us figure that out.  I do trust that the Holy Spirit is and will continue to put people with good-will together in the same room like the Spirit did when 120 gathered in the same room on Pentecost. 


          So on this Pentecost, I invite you to pay attention to how the Holy Spirit might be calling you and St. Paul’s and members of the community into the same room to work toward healing.  And I know many of you are engaged in this work.  I know many of you have been ready to give up.  But the truth is, you are planting seeds in order for the power of the Holy Spirit to work in this community.
And believe me there is not some magic formula.  Instead, the call is to be faithful to the Spirit of truth.  The call is to be faithful to the truth that God’s love will endure, God’s love will beat down the walls that divide one brick, one person at a time.  God’s love will create community that surpasses our wildest dreams—I saw it happen in Hale County at Sawyerville Day Camp.  I keep seeing it happen here in Selma.
At first, all this truth and reconciliation talk might sound like a lot of babel.  It might look like Bonnie and Hugh trying to reason with their eight-month son Hugh who will be baptized in a few minutes.  But after a while, Bonnie and Hugh will pick up on baby Hugh’s baby babel.  After a while the difference between an “I’m hurt” grunt and an “I’m tired” grunt will be abundantly clear. 
Soon relationships will develop and expressions of good-will will be shared.  Collaboration will inspire creativity.  Soon God’s people will live more fully as the people God created us to be.  Like a choir who sings in four parts making one melody, the Spirit will show the world how the many cultural languages of this world speak to the one true love revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen. 

      

No comments:

Post a Comment