The Downtown Presbyterian Church

Sermons

Building Community

Genesis 11:1-9; Acts 2:1-21

Rev. Kenneth M. Locke

May 30, 2004 – Feast of Pentecost

Do you ever feel a longing to belong? Do you ever feel the need to be part of a group, part of something bigger than you are? At the same time do you feel like being a rugged individualist, making your mark all on your own? Do you have a strong need to be yourself, never compromising your beliefs and goals? “I did it my way!”

We all need to belong, whether it be to a sports team, a church, a bunch of friends from school days or the Lions Club - whatever it is we all have a need for belonging.

After all, community is one of God’s great gifts to us. Supporting us when we’re down, caring for us when we’re sick, nurturing us when we’re emotionally empty: good communities can give a sense of wholeness, completeness, even a sense of meaning to our lives.

So why then was God so upset with the people of Babylon? Why did God scatter them, mixing up their language, destroying their plans to build a tower with it’s top in the heavens? Shouldn’t God be encouraging good communities? Why is God tearing this one down?

Well first of all, looking at the text closely, we find part of their objective is to stay put. These are homesteaders, eager to build a model city and never step beyond its walls.

But what was God’s command to Adam and Eve? What did God tell Noah and his family? Be fruitful, multiply, dominate the earth. But building a city and staying there is not going to do that. So instead of destroying humanity for once again disobeying, God helps them fulfill God’s command by scattering them.

The people also want to make a name for themselves. They want to be special with an identity of their own choosing. They are not building a tower to honor God. They are not staying in one place to better serve God. They are thinking only of their own status, of their own power and might. The people are building a community for making themselves feel good, not for serving God.

Finally, observe the tone of this passage. There is something monolithic, something self-absorbed about these folks. Their community is clearly going to be inward looking. They are not going to be fixed on others. They are not going to be open to others. And they are certainly not going to allow any diversity.

Now notice the difference between the people of Babylon and the apostles. The Holy Spirit comes to them and immediately they start sounding like the United Nations. They are not keeping the good news of Jesus to themselves. They are sharing it with others. They are reaching out and bringing others to them by speaking to them in their own language.

And that’s important because language is a key part of who we are. Language shapes our thinking. One of the reasons Presbyterian Ministers study Greek and Hebrew is because understanding their grammar helps us understand what the Bible writers were thinking. Language gives us a history. My heritage is with people who speak English, not with people who speak French or Spanish. Language helps define our social class and can even determine the course of our lives. Try getting ahead in business without speaking standard English.

But this new community cuts through the divisions of language without making anyone give up their mother tongue. No one has to speak like a Galilean to understand the good news. They understand it in their own language, in their own way of thinking.

Clearly this new community is going to value unity in Jesus but it’s also going to value diversity. Clearly this new community is going to value unity in the presence of the Holy Spirit but it’s also going to value individuality.

Just like community, individuality is a gift from God. The fact that I am me and you are you is God’s gift to us. I may look like David Maddox – we’re both tall men with incredibly handsome beards – but we are not the same. I don’t have David’s skills and abilities and that’s OK. The differences between us add interest and enjoyment to our lives. As the French say, viva la differance!

Pentecost is about God creating the archetypal Christian community. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, this community is united in telling the good news of Jesus. At the same time, it is intent on reaching out to diverse people without destroying their individuality.

The rest of the book of Acts is the story of this community struggling with issues of unity and individuality. How united do we have to be? Do we all have to worship on the same day, do we all have to eat the same food? At the same time we see them struggling with how individual they can be. Can I be a Christian and still be a pagan? Can I follow the laws that are most important to me and ignore the laws I don’t think are important?

These are tricky questions and all through Acts and the rest of the New Testament we see them struggling again and again with these issues.

But throughout the message is consistent. First and foremost the church, the Body of Christ, is the community dedicated to proclaiming the good news of God’s love in Jesus Christ. First and foremost the church, the Body of Christ, is the community where individuality matters most, where no one has to give up their essential self to belong.

In the new Christian community of Pentecost we see God meeting two of our most basic needs. God is reaching out to us in our individuality and God is inviting us to be a part of an accepting community. It is this community, celebrating unity and individuality, that fulfills God’s mandate to multiply and spread throughout the earth.

Like the people of Babylon, like the early church, you and I struggle with this tension of being both true to ourselves and yet longing to fit in to a community. It begins when we are children and continues through our entire lives. Time and again we see people, old and young, doing drugs and having dangerous sex so they’ll fit in, even when they know that’s not who they are. We see people gossiping and backbiting at work so they’ll fit in, even when they don’t enjoy it. We see marriages and relationships where one partner has clearly engulfed the other, taking over their partner’s personality, and we know the other has died a bit inside. I’m always telling couples who are getting married to do the unity candle if they wish but never blow out your own candles. Being united in love does not mean giving up being the person God made you to be.

Friends, when you feel this tension in your life - longing to belong yet desperately needing to be yourself, doing it my way versus doing it the corporate way - remember God’s great blessing of Pentecost: in Jesus Christ, God is reaching out to us in our individuality and God is inviting us to be part of an accepting community.

This is how much God loves us. Thanks be to God. Amen.