Grace and peace to you in our Risen Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

On this Pentecost Sunday, I have prepared a reflection for you entitled, “Scattered by Pride, Gathered by Grace Through Humility.”

We’ll be considering the selected passages from the Revised Common Lectionary: Genesis 11:1-9, which is the story of the Tower of Babel, and Acts 2:1-21, which is the story of the Spirit descending on the Apostles at Pentecost.

I pray that you’re encouraged by the reading of God’s Holy Scriptures.

Here is Genesis 11:1-9:

Genesis 11:1-9

The whole earth had the same language and vocabulary. As people migrated from the east, they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, “Come, let’s make oven-fired bricks.” They used brick for stone and asphalt for mortar. And they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky. Let’s make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered throughout the earth.”

Then the Lord came down to look over the city and the tower that the humans were building. The Lord said, “If they have begun to do this as one people all having the same language, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let’s go down there and confuse their language so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” So from there the Lord scattered them throughout the earth, and they stopped building the city. Therefore it is called Babylon, for there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth, and from there the Lord scattered them throughout the earth.

And here is Acts 2:1-21:

Acts 2:1-21

When the day of Pentecost had arrived, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like that of a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were staying. They saw tongues like flames of fire that separated and rested on each one of them. Then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them.

Now there were Jews staying in Jerusalem, devout people from every nation under heaven. When this sound occurred, a crowd came together and was confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language. They were astounded and amazed, saying, “Look, aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? How is it that each of us can hear them in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites; those who live in Mesopotamia, in Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome — both Jews and converts; Cretans and Arabs — we hear them declaring the magnificent acts of God in our own tongues.” They were all astounded and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But some sneered and said, “They’re drunk on new wine.”

Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice, and proclaimed to them, “Fellow Jews and all you residents of Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and pay attention to my words. For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it’s only nine in the morning. On the contrary, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

And it will be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my Spirit on all people; then your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. I will even pour out my Spirit on my servants in those days, both men and women and they will prophesy. I will display wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below: blood and fire and a cloud of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Thanks and glory be to God for these sacred pages!

The Pride at Babel

Though it may not be immediately obvious, when we look to the story of the tower of Babel, we see a story that is not too different from our own. If we’re honest with ourselves, aren’t we all prone to be anxious? And aren’t we all prone to doubt that God will take care of us and that He has His best in mind for us? And doesn’t that lead us to be quick to abandon Him and seek to provide our own provision, relying on ourselves?

This is at the heart of one of our deepest struggles, which is idolatry—where we take things that are actually good things, but, in a sense, use them to build our own kingdoms, our own walls of protection, our own towers, for our own glory.

God commanded Adam and Eve to be fruitful, to multiply, to scatter, and to fill the earth. It was God’s good design and intention to fill the earth with His glory, and what grace that He would create man in His image. In this way, we could say that as His crowning creation, our multiplication and filling the earth was God’s plan to accomplish this.

But note the disobedience and rejection of God’s good intention as the text says, “Let’s build…lest we be scattered.”

They didn’t trust God’s plan. They resisted being scattered and instead sought to build their own kingdom, by their own strength, for their own security.

And we also see an explicit motive for building their own kingdom, as the text says, “Let’s make a name for ourselves.” The people were searching for self-exaltation, wanting to achieve greatness on their own terms, in their own way, seeking their own glory instead of glory for God.

In this story, we actually see a remarkable and profound picture of unity. All of these people working together toward a common goal, and they were even succeeding—so much so that they got God’s attention, and He noted that nothing would be impossible for them.

Is unity bad? Is stone bad? Is mortar bad? Are cities bad? Well, of course, the answer to all of these questions is ‘no.’ However, we see that the people turned all of these good things against God and used them to sow disobedience.

We take so many good things that God gives us and use them to turn away from God and to sow our own disobedience.

• We get bonus checks and build a nest egg instead of feeding the poor.
• We get time and energy, and instead of praying, serving, or spending time with loved ones, we binge-watch Netflix.
• We get friends, family, community, and instead of loving selflessly, we do things like hold grudges, gossip, or use people as stepping stones for our own advancement.

My dear friends, this is not God’s good intention for us, and these are not the ways of our Lord Jesus Christ. May God have mercy, and may He help us to deny ourselves and to follow Him on His narrow path.

And I pray this sincerely and with a certain amount of confidence, as in this passage, I believe that we see God acting mercifully.

God is merciful

You see, God comes down and confuses the languages and scatters the people. Many read this passage and believe that God is acting in vengeance and this is a punishment. I used to read it this way as well. But now, I clearly see that this is not a punitive measure, but instead, a beautiful act of grace.

Rather than merely judging, God is intervening in a fatherly and loving act of protection as He puts a stop to the relentless striving that ultimately would lead to ruin. Knowing that the so-called greatness the people were building would only actually lead them to isolation from Him, He puts an end to it and leaves the path open for redemption and for people to return to Him.

And we see that ultimately, the scattering of Babel sets the stage for the coming Messiah, Christ Jesus our Lord, who comes not to build earthly towers, but to be Himself the bridge between heaven and earth.

In Jesus, the dispersal of Babel meets its answer—not the scattering, but the gathering of every tribe, tongue, and nation, not at the top of a tower in a man-made city, but at the feet of the Savior, in the great heavenly kingdom that is not of this world.

Praise and thanks be to God.

The Humility at Pentecost

Now we’re going to turn our attention to the great Pentecost passage from Acts. This scene is , in many different ways, a polar opposite—or you could say a reversal—of the Genesis passage.

The Apostles had been called by Jesus, and they abandoned their lives and the kingdoms they had been building up to that point, and they followed Jesus. They not only heard Jesus’ teachings from His mouth, but they also witnessed His teachings by His example.

As Paul so helpfully points out to us in his great Philippians 2 passage, Christ was equal with the Father and yet did not consider this as something to be exploited, and would instead empty Himself and take on the form of a servant, taking up His cross. In this way, you could say that Christ’s greatest ministry and teachings were this profound humility.

The Apostles were steeped in these teachings on humility; and though they often missed the mark, after the triumphant resurrection and ascension of the Lord, they were finally starting to get it.

And so, unlike the prideful people in the Genesis passage who were eager to disobey and take things into their own hands, the Apostles were patiently and eagerly, and I would say humbly, awaiting the move of the Lord, the fulfillment of His promise, where they would receive the promised Comforter and Helper, the Holy Spirit. Jesus had promised that He would pour out the Spirit on all people. They were awaiting the fulfillment of that promise. They were found not taking things into their own hands, not grasping for greatness, but waiting together in humble, prayerful obedience—empty-handed, ready to receive.

And this becomes the backdrop for one of the most important miraculous moves of God. The Spirit came like a rushing wind from heaven, not in the midst of pride, arrogance, or disobedience, but through humble anticipation.

So, we see that in Christ’s great self-emptying and humility, He was exalted. And in the disciples’ humility and obedience, they were gifted the great privilege to cooperate with God in His divine plan to redeem the Babel scattering and bring all nations together.

And so it is for us today.

David teaches in Psalm 51 that God does not desire a burnt offering. The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. God will not despise a broken and humbled heart.

The prophet Isaiah teaches in his 66th chapter that God will look favorably on this kind of person: one who is humble, submissive in spirit, and trembles at His word.

Jesus teaches in Luke 14 that everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.

My dear friends, just as Christ models for us true and profound humility, we latch onto this by grace and have union with Him when we follow His example—when we walk His narrow path.

Would we walk His narrow path? Knowing that God has first loved us in this way, would we love people with a love that is self-giving, sacrificial, and steadfast? Would we consider others as greater than ourselves? Would we lay our lives down for one another?

In this way, we link with the Apostles and we carry on their work to bring Christ’s gospel to the nations. And in this way, we have union with God.

May God have mercy on us and help us. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen.