The Tower of Babel

In the book of Genesis 1 there is a story about how the people’s of the earth decided to get together and build a large tower to reach to the heavens. God knew their pride and folly and decided to confound them. Now He could have simply reached down and swatted them like flies, but He chose a more subtle approach…He made them unable to communicate with each other by giving them multiple languages to speak. As they grew frustrated they eventually wandered off in language groups to found their own nations and the Tower of Babel was forgotten.

In a Sunday sermon a few weeks ago I told the church that ‘we have lost it’. What is ‘it’ and who are ‘we’? ‘We’ are the church and “it’ is the ability to speak to the outside world. We have become so insulated in our own little cocoon that we have forgotten how to speak to the people around us. When we get together we have a special ‘church language’ we speak and everyone knows what we mean. Even more, when we present our (very valid) concerns to the people outside the walls of the church, we present them in the same way we might discuss things with someone inside the church, and the person doesn’t understand. A month or so ago in Vermont we urged our people to contact their representatives concerning the issue of same-sex or genderless marriage. When I called my representatives one of them asked me why I felt the way I did. I gave her three relevant and valid concerns she could evaluate and weigh, and in language she could understand. What I did NOT do was quote scripture to her and tell her I did not believe in genderless marriage because the Bible says it is wrong. That would have been correct, but she would not have cared for nor understood the arguments. She would simply have put me down as a religious crackpot.

I have related on this blog discussions with my doctor concerning my diet in relation to my colitis. I understand where he is coming from, what arguments he can accept and those he cannot accept. If I speak outside of those terms he will dismiss me out-of-hand. When I present an argument to him in favor of the SCD diet in terms he can relate to, citing formal studies supporting it, he is more understanding and receptive.

The whole point is this…no matter what the issue, we need to understand that speaking to an unbeliever as though they were a believer is pointless. Like Paul before the Areopagus in Acts 2, we present the argument in terms that our listener can understand. That means we must not only know the Scripture, but we must know the meaning behind it and be able to relate it to everyday life in the 21st Century in our cultural setting.

Yes, we’ve lost it. But we CAN find it again…indeed we MUST find our collective voices again, or face being marginalized.

1 Genesis 11:1-9
2 Acts 17:16-34

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