C, Pentecost - Acts 2:11b-12, Genesis 11:1-9, John 14:12-14 "What Works"
The salvation of humanity is about the works of God being
heard, accepted, believed and received by humanity. God has always worked to bring people into
common oneness with him. However, people
have not always received the works of God and have sought other ways forward, contrary
the work of God in his creation.
However, every person knows within their being, that everything
exists and is created for a purpose. We
don’t exist for no reason! But why we
exist is a mystery to many, as God who created the heavens and the earth, is not
real, but a myth. Therefore, the
transcendence of God Almighty is reduced to some kind of spiritual force
somewhere in the cosmos. Yet people
today are still looking for spiritual meaning.
It has been no different since the beginning of humanity.
At the first Pentecost after Jesus ascended into heaven,
many were gathered for the Jewish harvest festival fifty days after the
Passover. This is the Passover where
Jesus was crucified on the cross, buried, and raised from the dead on the third
day. Much had happened in these fifty
days since. We could imagine, if social
media was a thing back then, phone screens would have been burning bright with
speculation and social memes (short texts, images, or videos) as to what was
going on.
At this first Pentecost, after Jesus’ death, resurrection,
and ascension, many Jews were gathered in Jerusalem. Humanity being what it is, we know there
would have been the same surge of social intrigue, albeit, without electronic
devices! So, when the Holy Spirit was
poured out on the Apostles with the sound of a mighty rushing wind and the gathered
people saw the tongues of fire over their heads, this would have only fed the
feeding frenzy of gossip already around.
We know when feeding frenzies occur, the babble that occurs
can be confused, to say the least. It
was no different at Pentecost in Jerusalem, some were amazed and surprised,
some were perplexed and confused, and some were both. We hear the Jews from different nations
question, “What does this mean?” or
more widely, the crowd determined to know, “What is this? What’s going on? How and why is this
occurring?” Imagine if this happened
today, everyone would have their phone cameras rolling, and social media would
be abuzz!
Long before Abraham, Isaac, and Israel existed; about two
thousand years or so before Jesus’ death, resurrection, ascension, and this
confusion at Pentecost, humanity was one.
It was the days after the flood and the descendants of Noah were pondering
the dispersal from the location of the Ark. They were also drifting away from God, having
been saved from the flood.
We hear from Genesis eleven, “Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people
migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled
there.” (Genesis 11:1–2 ESV)
There was human oneness, many could only dream about
today! They had one will and
determination. Was their will good? They thought so!
As they moved from the mountains they settled on the plains
and said amongst themselves, “Come, let
us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and
bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a
tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest
we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” (Genesis 11:3–4 ESV)
No one is sure exactly where Noah’s Ark landed. Nevertheless, why leave a mountainous area,
venture onto a plain, and then build a tower?
Why not stay on a mountain and build a tower there? Even if they built a
tower as tall as the Twin Towers in New York, it would have been only as lofty
as the lowest mountains in the area.
Mountains were the place where people met with God. Yet, the population moved as one, to the
plain, away from God, and built a tower to make a name for themselves. Why they acted in this way could have been
for many reasons. Did they not trust
God, or did they not fear God? We will
never know for sure. What we do know is, it was a collective act against God’s work and creative call, to multiply and
fill all the earth.
It seems today we are still seeking to build these towers
to make a name for ourselves, to give us a place to which we can look upon what
a cooperative community can do. Our
society needs these towers of oneness, to calm the collective confusion and
fear, having turned from the eternal power and pleasure of the Creator, our
Father in heaven.
But God the Father is the Creator. As we look up to our best and biggest
efforts, he comes down to see what the children of men build. Where we praise ourselves for our oneness,
looking up to things other than God, he comes down to reveal his contempt for
our efforts.
So, having come down at Babel, God sees and does his work
amongst humanity. He sees the acts of
humanity, he sees their collective cooperation where they say, “Come, let us make
bricks! Come, let us build a tower!” In
reply, God says, “Come, let us go down
and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s
speech.” (Genesis 11:7 ESV)
Today, God still sees the acts of the human spirit, both
individually and communally, and actively withdraws, leaving the human spirit
in confusion and its worldly language in a babble like Babel.
At Pentecost God consolidates what he confused at Babel. He sends Jesus to bring humanity back
together having come down into its chaos to carry it on the cross. After Jesus’ ascension, God reinstates
oneness through the power of the Holy Spirit, who truly brings people together,
by connecting them to Jesus Christ. But,
in a chaotic confused world of Babylonian proportions, how does he do this?
Before Jesus died, he promised the Holy Spirit would come
and be humanity’s help. The Holy Spirit
helps God’s work to happen in those who don’t reject the Holy Spirit’s
help! Help to do what?
With the promise of the Holy Spirit Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes
in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he
do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will
do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my
name, I will do it.” (John 14:12–14
ESV)
When you believe, “why Jesus had to die for you, why he had
to send the Holy Spirit for you, and why he and the Holy Spirit still
continually work for you”, he promises, you will not only do the works he did,
but do greater works, now that he is with our Father!
These works you do, are the works of the Holy Spirit, working
within you! They are the acts of the
Holy Spirit, the same acts or works of the Apostles, that the Spirit was
working through them in the early church.
Without the Holy Spirit, without the work of God, our acts
are just that, an act! It matters not
how loving these deeds look! It matters
not how good the works appear! It
matters not how unified people believe they are in these acts! Without the Holy Spirit to call, gather,
enlighten, and sanctify, those who work without the Holy Spirit, and their
works, are just an act! Many who
continue to work their ways and build their Babels, build a Babylonian
confusion as high as heaven, to their detriment, and sin against the Holy
Spirit.
Hear what John heard the angel from heaven say, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has
become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit.” (Revelation
18:2a ESV)
Then John heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take
part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high
as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.” (Revelation 18:4–5 ESV)
But when the Holy Spirit acts within, you will know your
sin! Therefore, hear and act in his call
to repentance, receive forgiveness of sin, be gathered as one believing this forgiveness
through Jesus’ work. Jesus promises you who
allow the Holy Spirit to act within, will truly confess, and witness his
forgiveness, to the ends of the earth. This
is the working acts of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth. Amen.
O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. (Psalm 104:24 ESV) May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works, (Psalm 104:31 ESV) within his creation, within his creatures, within us. Amen.