Sermon, Pentecost C, Genesis 11:1-11, Acts 2:1-21

God is messy. Or at least we think God is messy.

Think back to all those bible stories where God does the unexpected or goes contrary to popular thinking. He cares for Adam and Eve after banishing them from the Garden. He calls Moses, a stuttering, stage-frightened murderer to lead his people. He works through the prostitute Rahab to bring the Israelites into the Promised Land. He crowns David, the forgotten younger brother, to be king. Jesus eats with tax collectors and prostitutes, speaks with foreigners, and allows himself to be nailed to a cross and die.

Or think about our own lives. We've all had experiences where we feel like a black hole. You know that feeling -- some big event in your life is swirling all around you and all kinds of stuff comes hurtling at you from every direction. And it makes you want to cry out, "Where's God in all of this??"

If we were in charge things would be a lot less messy and run much more smoothly. Or maybe I should say, "If people with the appropriate OCD bent were in charge, things would run much more smoothly."

Take church for instance. We could certainly get it organized better. We could have a system where everybody had the same liturgy, so that when you visited a different church, you'd know what to expect. We could have a format so that only the correct people got ordained. We'd only have one bible translation to keep people from getting confused and we could ensure the correct interpretations. We would make sure that church was a place of uniformity so that we could be sure we were reaching out to God as one, uniform body.

And they said, "Come, let us build a city and a tower with its top in the heavens."

The problem with uniformity is that we are in charge. We think that if we all just fell into line, everything would be fine. We would be able to control things much better than they are now. We could discipline more effectively. We would all be marching in lock-step to the single overarching goal of the unit. And because we all thought the same, there would be nothing we couldn't do.

That, however, is not a church, it's a cult.

Contrast this uniform way of being as found in Genesis with the unified way of being as found in Acts. Here, rather than one language, there were many. The Apostles spoke in a variety of languages and all the people -- Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Phrygians, Pamphylians, Egyptians and others -- heard them in their own language.

And what did they hear? They heard the unified story of God. They didn't hear a uniform story, with one story line and one meaning. They heard a unified story in which the Apostles, by the power of the Holy Spirit, manifested the story of God in a variety of languages, and traditions. What you hear about God may not be what I hear about God, but the goal is the same -- to reveal God in such a way that he is made relevant to each of us.

I think this is the real lesson of these two stories -- unity over uniformity. The people of Shinar had uniformity and it caused them to turn inward. This is what we can do for ourselves. This is how we will make a name for ourselves. This is our building that will reach to the heavens. Uniformity is often inward looking. It's all about us.

Unity is a different matter. Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Democrats, Republicans and Independents. Residents of Mesopotamia, Pontus and Egypt, the East Coast, Montana and California. We all hear God speaking to us in languages and terms we can understand. It's all about how God reaches past us to include the others.

Our goal shouldn't be to build the biggest and best where only those who think alike are allowed in. Our goal should be to be a conduit for God so that we share our story of God with people on the outside in a language they understand. And the way to do that is to look outward, not inward.

That is not always easy. It might be easier if we had a uniform way of doing things, but God is messy that way.