03-16-23

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
​March 16, 2023
Based on some reading I have been doing lately, I have found the story of The Tower of Babel more and more informative. Despite the persistent and consistent teaching by Jesus of the equality of all humanity, there has been a persistent and consistent attempt for some to rise above others. When humanity was nothing more than a tribe, there were battles for supremacy between the members of the tribe. One member of the tribe believed him/herself superior. In time, the desire for hierarchy found new ways of expressing itself. When one tribe encountered another tribe, the ‘other’ tribe was less important, either being devalued, enslaved, or killed. As time went on, this hierarchy moved to a gender hierarchy, with men being superior to women. We could also look at race, class, economic status, etc. Sadly, religion has often been the tool by which hierarchy is justified and given credibility. Why is it that we believe God’s ultimate hope for creation is a properly structured hierarchy? What in the life of Jesus would make us think such a thing? When Jesus taught that the first would be last and the last would be first, I don’t think he was simply flipping the hierarchy. If you take the teaching to its absurd conclusion, it becomes an eternal flipping because those who were first but became last will need to become first because they were last. It is a dissolution of hierarchy in pursuit of a model for community where love, compassion, justice, and kindness are the framework for how people live together. In the story we call the Tower of Babel, one group with one language sought to rise high above everything else, but at the end of the day, there would have been only one who could have stood at the pinnacle of the tower and declared dominance. And so God’s response was to bring the tower down and create even greater diversity. Sadly, humans did not take the hint or appreciate what God created.

God of All Creation, help me to appreciate all that is, even when there are things I do not understand. When there is a difference, let me never assume it to be less valuable than what I have always known. It is not easy, as our go-to response is always to build a hierarchy, yet you seem to be inviting us to think more creatively. May we do so! Amen.