If I were to give each of you a blank piece of paper and then ask you to draw the image of God, what would you draw? Then if I were to ask you to compare those pictures, how many of them would we discover look the same? Probably none because we are all going to see God differently through our experiences and understandings of who the Holy is. And then I would give each of you a mirror and ask you to look into the mirror . . . what would you see? Would you see the image of God?
In the Book of Genesis, chapter one, verse 27, we are told: “So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (New Living Translation) Knowing this did any of you do a self-portrait? Do a drawing of the person next to you?
So . . . how would you draw a picture of God?
Think about that as we consider our scripture readings for this morning.
On this day of Pentecost, we have two very different readings that at first glance do not seem to have a whole bunch in common. From the Book of Genesis, we have the story about the Tower of Babel. From the Book of Acts, we have the story of what we consider the birth of the “church” but which I like to call the birth of a “movement”. One seems to be a story about punishment, while the other seems to be about blessing. One is negative, the other positive. Yet here we have the two thrown together by biblical scholars and theologians for us to consider.
What’s the point?
Well, go back to that creation story . . . back to Genesis 1:27: “So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Throughout the story of creation, we need to note the creative spark of the Divine. God goes wild in creating everything . . . different animals, birds, and plants. Everything is different . . . even humans! God loves diversity.
Now keep that in mind as we come to the story of the Tower of Babel. It is after the great flood and the start of a new beginning. The people had been told to go forth across the great spanse of the earth. In the story of Babel the people came to a nice place to build a community. They were all of the same mindset . . . they spoke a common language . . . they do everything the same. There was a uniformity in who they were, how they looked, in how they did things . . . everything was the same. In God’s great love of diversity this was not what God was expecting or wanted.
God wanted the richness of diversity. The writer tells us: “So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 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.” In this way, God stirred the pot.
In contrast to the story of the Tower of Babel you have the Pentecost story in Acts. In the story of Pentecost, we have people from all over . . . different countries, cultures, and communities gathered in one place. They speak different languages. It is a virtual melting pot of humanity . . . diversity at its finest. They were all together in one place. Then the author tells us: “Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.”
And they could hear. They could hear the noise . . . the voices . . . speaking in their own languages. They were amazed because they could understand . . . not in a common language, but in their own language. They declared: “Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native tongue . . . we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”
God does not make all those gathered around the disciples speak the same language. Rather, each disciple is equipped to speak the gospel in a different language. Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”
From this we can conclude that God loves diversity! God created a stunning diversity of habitats, plant life, animals, birds, and fish. This diversity is intended to be mirrored in human society through the multiplicity of languages, foods, skin colors, cultures, and religions. Through this diversity we begin to build community . . . begin to build a picture of God. Through this diversity we are able to build resilience as a human community . . . as a family . . . the family of God.
God loves diversity. From the beginning God desired diversity . . . remember we are all created in the image of God and no two of us are alike. That was stated at the start of the Book of Genesis. It was stressed in the story of the Tower of Babel. It is confirmed in the Pentecost story. God loves what God has created . . . loves the uniqueness of it all, the colorfulness of it all, the beauty of it all.
And so should we.
But be forewarned . . . we’ve been fighting that battle since the Tower of Babel. As much as God affirms diversity, we fight diversity. We all know the saying, “Birds of a feather flock together.” We are homogeneous which means we group ourselves because we are the same or similar in kind or nature. Even though God did not create us to be that way, that is where we find our comfort zone. In our humanness we would love for everyone to be like us. And we would love for everyone to believe like us . . . believe in the same God.
Author Ann Lamott warns of what such thinking can lead to. She writes: “You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.” As followers of Jesus it should be the opposite. You can safely assume that you have been created in the image of God when we love all the same people that God loves.
And God loves them all.
With creation God created diversity. With the Tower of Babel, the end result was diversity. And, with Pentecost God affirms diversity. God did not convert everyone over to one common language so that everyone would be on the same page. Instead, God shared one message in many languages . . . affirming the diversity of all those gathered . . . of all those created.
God loves all of creation. God loves us all. Gathered there on that day in Jerusalem were people of different countries, different cultures, and different languages. There were rich people, poor people. Able bodied people and people with disabilities. There were the educated and the uneducated. There were people of all walks of life and ilk. And God loved them all . . . that was the message given to all. Through it all we are one . . . one family of God.
God desires a family of diversity. We, as a people of faith, should celebrate and encourage diversity because together we see the true picture of God. In our diversity we find unity . . . in our unity we find God’s love. And you just thought it was chaos. Amen.
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