The Tower of Babel

(I preached today in our home church in Mexico City (Asamblea Cristiana). I will share my sermon with you here and in the next few blogs)

I grew up in a town called Hamden in southern Connecticut and I lived in a neighborhood which consisted mainly of Italians. Our town and the surrounding area enjoyed the best pizza places and Italian bakeries, owned and operated by many Italian immigrants and their families. It seemed that everyone had names like Proscino, Velardi, Fiondella, and Cappucci - and that was just my mother's side of the family. In fact, as a youngster, I thought everyone in the whole world was Italian, because that was the world in which I lived.

Of course, as I grew older I realized that in fact, the world was much more diverse than I originally thought. My school boasted Italians, Irish, Asians, Puerto Ricans and many others from a variety of cultures. Although I loved my Italian family and their unique culture, I also learned to love diversity and the unique cultures of each of my friends.

In chapter 11 of Genesis, we find one of the most interesting stories of the Old Testament, the story of the Tower of Babel. During our missionary training, I heard one of the best sermons in my life on this text by former missionary Dr Joe Castleberry (now president of Northwest University). So I have to give credit to him for inspiring some of the thoughts I will share with you in the blogs to come.

The Tower of Babel is a story about unity and diversity. It's a story about languages and cultures. But most important, it's a story about the will of God in our lives and in his world, and what God will do to fulfill his purpose. 

Next time: My Tower is Bigger than Your Tower

Genesis 11:1-9

1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

3 They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."

5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. 6 The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."

8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel—because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.