Let's Make a Name for Ourselves
You and I are blessed to be part of the church where God makes his saving name known and blessed to speak the universal language of God's saving gospel language. But it takes our lips to speak that language, our hands to make it happen, and our offerings to further its cause – not to say, "Let's Make a Name for Ourselves", but as we learn in Genesis 11:1-9, it is to make the name of our saving God known. May 27, 2007.
Names for positions have become much more impressive. The guys who pick up my trash on Tuesdays are not garbage men but Sanitation Engineers. The janitor at school is preferably called the Director of Custodial Services. Many secretaries haven’t changed job descriptions but now hold the title Administrative Assistants. And those friendly people at Wal-Mart are not workers or employees but Associates. The few generations of people born on the earth following the global flood liked impressive names. They wanted the whole world to know how great they were and remember their legacy for a long time. “Let’s Make a Name for Ourselves,” they boasted. But the Lord wanted his name to be known, not theirs. Today we look way up to see their sinful pride and way down to find their selfish rebellion against God – and we realize how fearfully familiar it is. In the end, however, we witness the Lord’s determined zeal to make his saving name known to all nations. Even to us.
Man’s glory language
After the waters of the global flood began to recede, the Lord God maneuvered Noah’s ark to land safely on Mt. Ararat, in what is now Turkey. His twofold purpose in choosing this location was to provide Noah a dry place on high ground and to promote the dispersion of both animals and people throughout the earth since this mountainous region couldn’t support them all as they increased in numbers. This population boom wasn’t just a cycle of nature, either, but a command that he issued to Noah, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth” (Genesis 9:1). It was God’s will that from east to west and north to south the world would soon be filled with people who would live for his glory so that his name as Savior would be spread abroad. But when the generations of Noah’s extended family spread eastward “they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.” Their migration ended as did their obedience to God’s command. This rich and fertile area made them think, “Why move on? It doesn’t get any better than this! And certainly God wants us to be happy!”
Because of this newfound luxury, their purpose for their living became the exact opposite of God’s purpose for their living. God wanted his name spread over all the earth through them, but they cared more about themselves. So, “Let’s Make a Name for Ourselves” became their motto for a new building program. The excellence of the project would make them feel safe and secure. Instead of sun-dried, brittle clay or stone they chose fire-hardened brick for the project, and tar for mortar instead of crumbly mud – all to give this new city and its central tower the best of permanence and protection. The extravagance of their accomplishment would boost them to the height of fame and superiority never to be rivaled, since their tower would stretch to the sky and perhaps to heaven itself. Their accomplishment would prove that they were so skilled and so strong they wouldn’t need to rely on anyone else to get to heaven – not even God himself.
Professor John Jeske, in his People's Bible Commentary on Genesis, makes this point: “’Glory to man in the highest!’ That’s turning God’s plan for us topsy-turvy. That’s rejecting his goal for life and substituting a goal of our own. Sustenance, security and status – these were the life goals the descendants of Noah had adopted. Satan doesn’t have to persuade us to kneel down in front of an idol, if he can only get us to look at life in terms of ourselves” (pp. 108,109). We live in a world that defines success by how much money a person makes, so we have determined that others aren’t as good as we are because they live off government funded programs or sleep in cardboard boxes. We live in a world that bows down to the idols of materialism and convenience so we have bought into the lie that life is all about me being happy and if I’m not happy I can buy things until I am. We live in a world that sees humanity as invincible so we have convinced ourselves that our skill and strength is, at times, greater than God’s. “God opposes the proud” (1 Peter 5:5), the Bible warns. If God would allow our Babel-like priorities and plans to succeed then rebellious then we would become so self-sufficient, so proud of our own ability, that we wouldn’t want God for anything, especially forgiveness, answered prayer, holy guidance, and a peaceful afterlife in heaven. If we really want glory for ourselves we can get it. But it comes at a terrible price. The price of losing God and his gifts.
God’s gospel language
Two Texans wanted to impress each other with the size of their ranches. “What’s the name of your ranch?” one asked. The other boasted, “I own the Rocking R, Bar U, Flying W, Circle C, Box D, Rolling M, Staple Four, Rainbow’s End, Silver Spur Ranch.” Impressed, the first rancher responded, “Woooweee! With a name like that, how many cattle do you run?” The other confessed, “Not many, actually. Very few survive the branding.” Making a Babel-like name for ourselves does more harm than good. God puts it this way, “Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight” (Jeremiah 9:23-24). What that Texas rancher needed was someone to make an appeal to the local cattleman’s association to revoke the name of his ranch to save more cattle. Something similar happened at Babel. “The Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building … ‘Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.’” Do you just want to laugh when the Bible says that the God who sees everything has to “come down” to see their building project and tower because it’s so puny from his viewpoint? Secondly, by using the name “Lord” the Bible is reminding us that he is the God with zeal to save, the God who keeps his promises, the God whose love for people cannot be bullied around by bigger evil forces. God’s gospel language refocuses our self-centered hearts on the saving mercy of God.
We who are too much like the people of Babel can then see our sky high self-glory and humbly ask the Lord to save us from ourselves. And he does. The Lord God topples our towers of pride only to raise us up on a cross with Jesus where our sins and guilt are killed and dead forever. The Lord God crushes our self-built walls of false security only to burst us through the stone walls of the tomb on Easter for Jesus’ and our resurrection to a new life. The Lord God resists our hard-nosed rebellion only to shepherd us gently and safely in the loving care of our good shepherd, Jesus. The reputation of God’s name today, therefore, hasn’t changed from Babel to Peter’s Pentecost sermon centuries ago, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). Man’s glory language crumbles in self-sufficient ruin. God’s gospel language builds up Spirit-worked faith. “He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts … but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty” (Luke 1:51-53).
At Babel the Holy Spirit said to the Father and the Son, “Let’s Make a Name for Ourselves,” and God did, confusing the common language of mankind and crushing the sinful rebellion of self-glory. The incomplete tower and city would sit there for years and years as a reminder of man’s feeble efforts, and of God’s gospel good news plan for the world to know his saving name. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit said to the Father and the Son, “Let’s Make a Name for Ourselves,” and God did, canceling the confusion of language and creating a spiritual rebirth. Today the Holy Spirit says to the Father and the Son, “Let’s Make a Name for Ourselves,” and God does, building the church as he makes his saving name known. You and I are blessed to be part of it by speaking the universal language of God’s saving gospel language. It speaks to children wanting to be loved without condition. It speaks to friends looking for the meaning of life. It speaks to a society frightful of what the future might bring. It speaks to all nations, all classes of people, and all kinds of sinners. But it takes our lips to speak that language, our hands to make it happen, and our offerings to further its cause – not to make a name for ourselves, but to make the name of our saving God known.
Today the world speaks over 5,000 different languages and dialects. Professor Jeske says that this great variety has been called a monument to the cleverness of the human mind, but that Babel and Pentecost tell the real story. It’s more of a monument to the rebelliousness of the human heart, and the determined zeal of our Lord God to save. Through the Holy Spirit God is still speaking that one, universal language that everyone understands: that God loves all people. Amen.
Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (http://www.gracedowntown.org/) on May 27, 2007
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