Sermon: Diversity is a Divine Value

Sermon: Diversity is a Divine Value
Text: Genesis 11:1-9; Acts 2:1-21
Lectionary: Year C, Pentecost Sunday

皆さん、お早うございます。今日は又この教会でお説教をすることが出来て大変ありがたいと思っています。それでは、今日の聖書朗読の創世記の11章から始めます。

I’m sensing and seeing confusion and bewilderment in your faces. What just happened? Was I speaking another language, speaking in tongues, or just spouting gibberish? Perhaps a few of you might have recognized some of what I said. I’m guessing though that for most of you it made no sense at all. So hold on for the next several minutes to those thoughts and what you felt as we go through today’s sermon.

What did I say to you? It was in Japanese and I said, “Good morning everyone. I am feeling very grateful for being invited again to offer this morning’s sermon. Let’s begin with what we read from Genesis chapter 11.”

The story of the Tower of Babel is a Hebrew origin story of how multiple languages and cultures came to exist all over the earth. It attempts to offer reasons why there are multiple languages rather than a single common one.

Just as well as this story is familiar, it has been a source of many interpretations, some better than others. It’s been used as a polemic against technology. It’s been used to denounce human pride. It’s been described as a curse against humans, which the Day of Pentecost reversed.

The text begins, “Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.” We observe that at the onset in this story, it is a single people with a common language and culture. They all moved together into a plain in Shinar and built a community there.

It should be noted that this story is an origin story about one aspect of what one ancient people group believed about how different cultures came about. It does not mean that there was only one culture and language across the entire, literal earth. The previous chapter in Genesis, chapter 10, already describes the spreading out of people and nations. What we are seeing is two different stories addressing different aspects of origins.

The text continues, “And they said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.’ And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar.” The people discovered that the area had good resources for constructing permanent dwellings.

The text continues on, “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…’” The people decide that a city is what they need and a grand, central edifice.

At this point we notice the phrase in English, “and let us make a name for ourselves.” This has often and traditionally been interpreted as the hubris of the people at Babel. And certainly argument for this interpretation can be made, including the observation that this Genesis text’s final form was most likely put into place during the Babylonian exile of the Jews. There they would have seen the grand city of Babylon and her many high Ziggurats, so the editors of this Genesis text certainly would have had motivation to include a polemic against urban pride.

But more recent biblical scholars have noted that “make a name for ourselves” is not a phrase that is associated with self-pride in the rest of the Old Testament. It is rather a phrase more commonly associated with identity and legacy. It is a phrase that seeks to answer the questions, “Who am I? And what will happen in the future?”

The Genesis text continues to offer us the reason why the people wanted to build a city and a tower: “‘… Otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.’” Commentaries note that what this story describes is a people in fear — fear of the unknown, fear of being scattered away from their familiar surroundings and culture, fear of the future, fear of losing what they have built for themselves, fear of change. The city and the tower, they see as building a source of civic identity, solidifying their culture, and codifying for future generations what it means to be them.

It’s in response to this that God comes down to see what the humans are doing. It should be noted how ironic it is that the supposed tower to the top of the heavens (meaning where gods reside and where the people intended the tower to reach) is so far below that God has to come down to see it. Another point to note is that this tower, even if it was successful, would not have been intended for people to go up to where God is. The IVP Bible Background Commentary explains,

The central feature of these early cities in southern Mesopotamia was the temple complex. Often, the temple complex was the city. The temple complex in this period would have been comprised of the temple itself, where the patron deity was worshiped, and, most prominently, by the ziggurat. Ziggurats were structures designed to provide stairways from the heavens (the gate of the gods) to earth so that the gods could come down into their temple and into the town and bring blessing. It was a convenience provided for the deity and his messengers… There were no rooms, chambers or passageways of any sort inside. The structure itself was simply made to hold up the stairway. At the top was a small room for the deity, equipped with a bed and a table supplied regularly with food. In this way the deity could refresh himself during his descent. None of the festivals or ritual acts suggest that people used the ziggurat for any purpose. It was for the gods. The priests certainly would have to go up to provide fresh supplies, but it was holy ground. The ziggurat served as the architectural representation of the pagan religious developments of this period, when deity was transformed into the image of man. (Note on Genesis 11:4, IVP Bible Background Commentary, Old Testament.)

Putting together these various parts of this story, what seems to be happening is that the people who are afraid of very many things that are beyond their control, seek to build a place where God would be obliged to come to them and give them blessings, including security. By having a deity that would reside with them, they would procure an identity and the deity would communicate whatever it is that they wanted through their messengers.

The Genesis text uses the personal name of the Hebrew God, Yahweh. Other deities of Mesopotamia might have been fine with the proposal and plan of the people, but Yahweh is not. Yahweh is not restricted to a people or a geography. He is the God of all peoples, and any attempt to control or use him is thwarted. Yahweh foresees the dangers of uniformity. When people become fixated on uniformity of culture, things do not end well. For this reason Yahweh confuses the language of the people.

Dr. Christena Cleveland, social psychologist and associate professor of the practice of organizational studies at Duke Divinity School, in her book Disunity in Christ, writes about the dangers of homogenous, monoculture:

These days, Christians can easily go their entire lives without spending time with those who are different from them. Unfortunately, the more we spend time with people who are essentially identical to us, the more we become convinced that our way of relating to both Jesus and the world is the correct way. Over time, our convictions grow stronger and our attitudes toward different ideas and cultural expressions of worship become more negative. 

Social psychologists call this phenomenon group polarization. In the absence of diverse influences, homogenous group members tend to adopt more extreme and narrow-minded thinking as time passes… 

What begins as seemingly harmless homogeneity often snowballs into distrust, inaccurate perceptions of other groups, prejudice and hostility… 

When we adopt a unique group identity and surround ourselves with similar ingroup members, we essentially create our own alternate universe in which we believe that the standards, ideals and goals of our ingroup should become the new “normal”—not only for our specific subgroup but for the entire larger group, including the outgroup.

Conversely,

Research shows that diverse groups are better groups—diverse groups come up with more creative and more effective ideas than groups composed of similar people…
Diverse groups that fully live out the biblical mandate to unite under one household of God will reap the benefits of increased learning, increased creativity and more effective problem solving… 

The more we interact with those who are different, the more we can respond to the needs of those who are different.

In other words, diversity is necessary to a healthy society and a healthy church. A healthy spiritual community must value diversity — not only in words but also in practice. Why? Because our God values it. God values diversity so much that a pursuit of homogeneity was deliberately thwarted by God.

Now we jump forward a few millennia to the Day of Pentecost and Acts chapter 2. Let’s read the first few verses again,

1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Going back to the start of this sermon, all of a sudden I started speaking in Japanese. What were some of the thoughts going through your mind as you experienced this? Think about that as I read again the next few verses.

5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” 12 All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

If you’ve ever traveled some place where English is not the primary language and where you don’t understand the language that is used, you recall that most of what you hear is just noise. But if you hear someone speaking English, your ears suddenly perk up and start scanning for the source.
In my case, the same is true of Japanese. I can be in a crowded airport, such as Sea-Tac, where the majority are speaking English. I understand but because the conversation is not relevant to me, I ignore it. But if I overhear a conversation in Japanese, all of a sudden my hearing is attuned to it.

I suspect that is what the crowd in Jerusalem experienced. They were hearing Greek and Aramaic all around, but when those from outside the regular Greek and Jewish areas suddenly heard their native language, their attention was riveted to the source. At the same time others were confused, especially those who knew the disciples. In one sense, this was a little bit like what happened at Babel: all of a sudden the disciples were speaking in languages they had never known before, and hearers were hearing languages being spoken by them, who until just a moment ago had never been known to speak those languages.

But contrary to what some interpretations have explained Acts 2 as a “reversal of Babel,” they did not suddenly collapse into a single, united language. Diversity is maintained, but each hears the same good news of Jesus in the context of their language and culture.

The value of diversity and its importance is continued in Peter’s address to the Jews,

17 ‘In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.

The proclamation of the gospel won’t be limited to just a narrow group of people but will be to everyone and for everyone. The new community of Jesus Christ will include every person, regardless of gender, age, or socio-economic status. A few chapters later in this same book of Acts, the boundaries will be expanded further to include all nationalities and cultures.

Diversity is a foundational value and a necessary principle of God’s community. It was included in the “pre-history” section of Genesis and it is reaffirmed in the founding of the Christian community.
Human nature runs contrary to diversity. We don’t like differences and ambiguity. We want sameness and certainty. But through the gift of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ to his people, we can overcome our sin-influenced natures and become open and inclusive.

Quoting from Dr. Cleveland once again,

The blueprint of the household of God looks nothing like the blueprints of our own cultural and social cliques. If we want to know how to embody the household of God, we need look no further than to Jesus. While on earth, Jesus modeled this new reality by connecting with every type of person around—conservative theologians, liberal theologians, prostitutes, divorcees, children, politicians, people who party hard, military servicemen, women, lepers, ethnic minorities, celebrities and so forth—and inviting them to be part of his group and to work together to bring wholeness to their cracked and crumbling world. After Jesus ascended into heaven, this continued to be his modus operandi for doing miraculous things in the world. It seems as though the early leaders of the church would agree…

To respond to God’s call fully, we need to express our interdependent diversity in individual churches, denominations and organizations as well as in the worldwide body of Christ. We must be connected to those who are different within our respective churches and we must be connected to those who are different in the larger body of Christ… 

The homogenous, culturally isolated church, denomination or organization is not truly participating in the body of Christ… 

The metaphor of the body of Christ explicitly articulates the need to value different perspectives—to be ideologically interdependent. When we enter crosscultural situations with the belief that our cultural group is holding one piece to the puzzle, we can confidently make our contribution while also looking for and valuing the contributions that other groups make, and as a result, the barriers between us and them begin to fall down.

Pentecost Sunday is an annual commemoration of the beautiful diversity that we have within our community. Pentecost Sunday is also an annual reminder that Christ is who brings unity while bringing forth the blessings that come from our diversity. We are each different, beautiful, valuable, and necessary; yet we remain united and one in Christ. May Jesus’ prayer of John 17:20-23 be fulfilled in us:

20 “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.