Ryland
Epworth United Methodist Church
Ryland
Epworth United Methodist ChurchOctober 4, 1998
Instrumental Selections
Sermon Title: Beyond Babel
Scripture Lessons: Psalm 133; Genesis 11:1-9; St. Matthew 18:19-20
Sermon Notes: The builders
of the city and tower of Babel had dreamt big, as they set out to make
a name for themselves. But their lust for power and protection from
their "perceived peril of a threatening world" isolated them from the rest
of the world. So God confused their speech, and scattered them abroad
upon the face of the earth. The calamity they dreaded had come to
pass, but the judgment of God was merciful. Unity in folly could
bring total ruin. The Lord wanted them to see the futility
of isolation and of their foolish plan to supplant the divine sovereignty
with their own self-sufficiency. "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." (Genesis 11:4, New International Version)
Pentecost (Acts 2) is
the reversal of Babel's discourse, and the dress rehearsal of the new heaven
and the new earth (Revelation 21:1-4). The Church, born on the Day
of Pentecost, is the new gathering, but also the new scattering (St. Matthew
28:19-20) And in both gathering and scattering, the Church is the
sign and instrument of human unity. And yet, how often we see members of
churches united in folly, anxiously preserving their own future, and resisting
the lure of the Spirit to get beyond their own kind. How long?
Choral Selections