A. The Tower of Babel (Genesis 11)
1. Gen 1-12 include universal stories: we read them and see something of ourselves and the universal human predicament in these stories (For example: Creation and Fall through resentment leading to human violence and arrogance, revenge and murder.)
2. Notice that, despite the best efforts of humankind to “make a name for ourselves,” God still has to “come down” to see the great tower built into the heavens. The arrogance of humankind is on display, shown in a competition with God.
3. God confuses and scatters humankind to break up our attempt to be great and all-powerful. The greatness humankind aspires to without due reference to God leads to a uniformity we can recognise in the great mass movements of the twentieth century. In confusing our language (different languages) we are scattered to await the true unity that God will build within us. That is, in confusing and scattering us, God is saving us from ourselves.
B. The Holy Spirit Descends (Acts 2)
1. Jews from all over the region (speaking different languages) have come to Jerusalem to celebrate the great Festival of Pentecost. They are a microcosm of the great variety of humankind. Even their unity as the Chosen People/the People of God must wait for its final form in the preaching of the good news by the disciples of Jesus.
2. Notice that it is not the listeners who are enabled by the Spirit to understand the dialect of the disciples. The Spirit enables the disciples to speak the good news of what God has done in Christ into the variety of peoples and languages of the world, and in this variety bring a new, unforeseen unity. The unity is not to be found in a uniformity, but in the new humanity won for us in the death and resurrection of Jesus.
C. Love and Unity of the Father and Son in Us (John 14)
1. We have heard how the universal disunity of humankind (symbolically displayed in our differing languages) is brought into a surprising unity through the folly of the cross and resurrection of Jesus and the giving of the Spirit.
2. It is worth comparing the apparent foolishness of God’s wisdom displayed in the cross of Jesus with the ‘wisdom’ and arrogance of human attempts to bring unity.
3. Jesus and the Father are one. The unity we enjoy and must nurture comes to us through union with Jesus, and through him, union with the Father. That is, he and his Father make their home in us. This is the “much fruit” that comes from the seed that falls to the earth and dies. We are one because of Christ’s death.
4. Therefore, we must always remember that our unity is not made by our own effort, but is a gift of God, won for us at great cost. However, the unity we enjoy can be easily undermined by our own effort.
5. The Advocate/Spirit abides in us and teaches us from within. And what are we taught? The Advocate/Spirit will teach us how to love Jesus by obeying his great commandment: to love one another as he has loved us.
