Different Strokes

Genesis 10:1-9
1 Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words. 2 It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 They said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly." And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. 4 They said, "Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth." 5 The LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6 The LORD said, "Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. 7 "Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another's speech." 8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.

Thre church I belong to really is a church of missionaries. The pastors and the core families in the church are all missionaries, and the church maintains a solid relationship with several missionary organizations. This is a special pleasure for me, largely because I have never felt particularly called to involvement in a foreign mission; but, have always admired those who have been called.

This week, the church begins its time of focusing on missions and trying to challenge the congregation to be more supportive (both financially, and in active participation). Part of the introductory sermon on such was an explanation of the Tower of Babel.

Most have heard the Tower of Babel story before (it is presented at the top of this blog); but, it is often misunderstood. For much of my life, I thought the point was always that this city had had such a feeling of self-righteousness that they had built a huge tower to celebrate themselves. I thought that God, sensing their lack of humility, had scattered them as a rebuke against their arrogance.

In fact, the core of the problem is stated in the fourth verse:

"let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth."

This particular verse shows man's attempt to abandon an earlier commandment that God had given to both Adam and to Noah; which, essentially said the same thing:

GEN 1:28
God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it

GEN 9:7:
Be fertile, and increase in number. Spread over the earth, and increase

God's commandment to both was to scatter their families and fill the Earth with different families, clans, and nations. The people at Babel, though, decided that they wanted to gather together...they wanted to have one culture, one community, and one understanding...they wanted to have a name that would identify all of them.
God disagreed, of course, and scattered them; this time, with the barrier of language to keep them apart.

This thread of scattering into different nations continues throughout the Bible. It finally terminates in the Book of Revelations, within the passage describing the New Jerusalem:

REV: 21:23-27
23 And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 25 In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; 26 and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; 27 and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.

Thus, at the end of times, the nations will finally come back together and live in one city, the successful alternative to the failed attempt at the City of Babel. God will bring together what man could not.

The message has great meaning for world missions; but, the focus I want to take is how much meaning it should have for the Christian church. The Great Commission has charged us to go out "to the ends of the Earth," and make disciples of all people. It certainly seems within God's plan...in which he scattered us and gave us different languages... that the churches needed to fully accomplish that commission would have to be a bit different.

Different people, in different cultures and from different perspectives, reach Christ from different angles. This is incredibly frustrating for the Church (especially my beloved evangelical brand of churches). If we are different, many maintain, then one of us must be doing something wrong. How can we succeed if we are divided?

It is amazing how the similarities to Babel start to poke through this discussion. The fact that God has made many people Christian, yet, so different in many ways, is so incredibly frustrating...it isn't, frankly, what WE would have done. We would have made everyone the same, so that we could be sure that we were correct in what we say and do. . God, of course, has different plans....

When we struggle as a Church to deal with other Christian denominations and ministries, it might behoove us to think back to Babel before we try to fit everyone into the same neat package.