Genesis 11:1-9; Acts 2:1-21

A young boy was wandering around an old downtown church one Sunday morning, and stopped and examined a large bronze plaque that was hanging on the wall. “What are all those names up there?” He asked one of the ushers. “Those are the names of people who died in the service.” The usher replied. Curious, the boy asked the usher – which service, the 9:00 Family Service or the 11:30 Communion service?”

I was reading through Genesis 11:1-9, and the story of the Tower of Babel reminded me of a story I read some time ago. This is story by Victor Hugo, a French writer.

One day a bee got trapped inside Victor Hugo’s study and in its attempts to escape from the room, was frantically beating and hitting itself against one of the windows.

Hugo remembers seeing on the floor other bees that had already got killed by doing exactly the same thing that this bee is doing. So out of pity he decided to rescue the small creature that was beating out its little brains on the window.

He tried to help, by first of all, opening the window, and using a handkerchief, tried to shoo the bee out of the window. However, the bee flew in the opposite direction, back into the depths of his study.

Hugo realized that the only way that he could save the bee was to catch it. And with this in mind, with his handkerchief he began the process of tracking the bee down.

When the bee saw Hugo coming, it flew away towards another closed window, and again beat itself against it. The time the bee was even more frantic than before. AS the bee hit the window time and time again the buzzing got louder. It seems as though the bee was telling Hugo, “Cruel executioner, you would not take away my liberty. Cruel executioner, why do you not leave me alone? Why do you keep on persecuting me?”

Poor bee, for Hugo decided not to pay any attention to the messages that the bee seems to be sending to him. He very gently pinned the bee between the window and the handkerchief and began to fold the bee inside the handkerchief.

Although caught, the bee did not give up its struggle against the fingers of Hugo and the handkerchief, and the bee even tried to sting him. With the bee caught, Hugo managed to take it to the open window, and put the bee outside. For a moment the bee seemed stunned, perhaps it was the shock of sudden freedom when everything seem lost. After a moment it flew off on its chosen destination.

Can you see something similar between this story of the bee and the story of the Tower of Babel?

The similarity of both stories is that we see the subjects of both stories were attempting to do something, and in both stories, they chose a method of doing what they were trying to do in a manner that was harmful to them.

The bee in the story was just like a bird that once flew into my living room some years ago, and then could not get out, tried to escape by attempting to fly through a closed window in its attempt to be free. The people of Shinar on the great plains of Babylonia were attempting to keep their unity intact by building a great city for themselves, and within that city they began to build a great big tower, a tower tall that it would reach into heaven.

In both stories the subjects were seeking freedom of one kind or another. They were seeking not only to get away from danger to themselves, but they were also trying to get to something that they thought were good. They were trying to build or to experience something that to them was glorious.

The Scriptures tells us that God looked upon the people of Shinar, and saw that they were seeking a name for themselves, and that their tower was beginning to ascend into heaven, and knew that if they continued in that course, they would succeed in everything that they proposed, and so God scattered them abroad upon the face of the earth and confused their language so that they would not be able to understand each other and so succeed in their purpose.

I would suggest to you that what God did was an act of mercy!

Yes, an act of mercy!

I would like to further suggest to you that both the story of the bee and the story of the Tower of Bebel are our own stories.

I think that we will all be in agreement if I say to you that each and everyone of us would want to escape from the chaos and the constant threat of being destroyed completely out there in the great wilderness of the world we are living in. We would love to be able to avoid the dangers of our daily life, whether it might be spiritual emptiness or physical hunger, and all of us would love to be able to create a glorious future for our children. A future where we will not have to worry about the possibility of losing our lives and everything that makes life seem so good to each and every one of us. We would all want to have a future when we no longer have to worry about what we shall have to eat, or what we shall have to wear, or what it is that we might have to do in order to make a living. We would all love to have a guaranteed for our future out there for us, and a guaranteed in being successful in everything we do as well as being able to do all the things that we would like to do.

Does such wants seems like evil goals to you? However, just like the bee and the people of Shinar, we often do get into trouble when we tried to work towards these goals. Do you know why? This is because the methods that we often used are the wrong ones.

Very often we push against the current of the river of life, instead of going with its flow. When we go with the flow of the river, we might calmly and easily, in the knowledge that the waters of life will hold us up, and eventually we will end up at our goal, or maybe to an even better destination than what we were hoping for.

Our own drive to security in life, for safety in life and for glorious ease, often leads us to build our own towers - Our own towers of protection. Towers that attempt to reach into heaven and gain for us the powers of God Himself.

Sometime ago world leaders, environmentalists and economists from all the major powers met in Japan. They were trying to deal with all the consequences of our tall building blocks.

As our buildings get higher and higher, countries competing with each other to have the tallest building in the world, millions and millions of different species of plants, animals and insects have perished. As mankind tried to protect ourselves and our future, millions and millions of people have suffered from droughts and starvation. Here we are trying to enjoy a standard of living that is beyond all reason, a standard of living which is actually based on limitless consumption of the world’s limited resources, the ozone layer has thinned. Cancer has increased, wars have multiplied and our own children, who are precious to us, have become bitter, unhappy, troubled and violent, as witness by the news that we read of so very often, children killing others with guns and with knives. Only a couple of weeks ago, we have a 10 year old child going after his own mother with a knife here in Hong Kong.

“Come – let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens and let us make a name for ourselves, otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”

Just like the bee in the story, we keep on hitting the window. And just like the bee, we have an author who is trying to save us, trying to get us to the very goal that we are seeking, trying to help us.

Whenever I watch the movie STAR WARS, I always get a groan from Carmel, “not again”. It is one of my favourite films. It is an old film, when Harrison Ford used to be just as good looking as I am. We have in the film a lot of technology. There is the Death Star commanded by the Evil Lord – Darth Vader, and there is the small little fighter ships piloted by the Rebel army.

The movie is a classic adventure story – a battle between Good and Evil. What makes the movie so very fascinating is not the technology or all the machinery, nor was the part of the rescue of a princess in distress, but what makes it such a great success what George Lucas calls the Force.

The hero in the movie is a person by the name of Luke Skywalker, a very young man, full of impulse and eager to make a difference to the world. At the very end, he did make a difference, for he turns into the force.

The force in the movie consists of life energy, the very soul of all living creatures. That force, once you tune into it, can be used to do good, or do evil, although the force is good by its very own nature.

The force is stronger than any technology or any machinery, in fact it was stronger than anything that was, or ever will be, and it is all around us, to be touched and felt and responded to, whenever one is ready for it.

In the first STAR WAR movie, Luke saves the rebels from destruction by remembering the force, by concentrating on the force, and allowing the force to guide his actions.

Luke is not perfect in doing it at all. He does not find it easy to open himself up to the force, however, at the very end, he did managed to tune himself in with the force, and the force did work through him, so in the end, there was a happy ending to the movie.

I mentioned the force to you today, because it is something very similar to the force at the heart of the Christian Faith –what we know comes from the Holy Spirit of God. That very spirit which is the power of God and the essence of God; that very spirit which is the power that upholds the entire universe itself. The very Spirit of God which was poured out upon the first believers of Christ on that day of Pentecost some 2000 years ago, and which has ever since that time come to dwell within each and every one of us who believes in Christ.

In the church’s prayers for new believers we pray for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and in all our thoughts about God. We understand that the Spirit of God is the one who leads us, teaches us, communicates to us the forgiveness of God, give us dreams and visions and helps us to understand them. It is the Spirit of God who comforts us, sustains, inspires, strengthens and renews us; and at the end it is the Spirit of God who will draws us closer to each other, and to Jesus Christ our brother, and to God the Father, who are one.

It is the Spirit of God that makes our faith comes alive, and it is the Spirit of God that does the work of salvation in our daily lives. The Spirit is all around us, and within us, and that is what the day of Pentecost means.

There is an author to all our personal stories, and author like Victor Hugo, chasing us around in his study, trying to let us go free, so we can fly in the larger world without fear or worry.

Our author, our God, works by his Spirit. God is Spirit, and we need to let his Spirit catches us, to rise up from its dwelling place inside everyone of us, and to blow upon us when we walk outside.

Think about your dreams, listen to what people surrounding you are really saying, stop and read the word that are held up before us, the Word that the Spirit uses in such wonderful ways at times to comfort us or to challenge us. Hear the visions that other people talk about, visions of change towards wholeness, of justice and of plenty for everyone, and is based on love, and mercy and devotion.

Expect to be surprised by God. Expect all good things to occur. Believe in the Spirit and the Power of God, trust in it, and wonderful things will happen.

Although the tower of Babel has fallen, and will forever fall, the unity and the understanding that we all needed so much has come to us and will remain with us all, as it did to the first disciples on the first Pentecost.

"A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago. They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night's dinner. In their rush, with tickets and briefcases, one of these salesmen accidentally kicked over a table which held a display of apples. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly missed boarding.

ALL BUT ONE !!!

He paused, took a deep breath, got in touch with his feelings, and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned.

He told his buddies to go on without him, waved good-bye, told one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a later flight. Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were all over the terminal floor.

He was glad he did.

The 16 year old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her, no one stopping and no one to care for her plight.

The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them back on the table and helped organize her display. As he did this, he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket.

When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl,"Here, please take this $40 for the damage we did. Are you okay!?"

She nodded through her tears.

He continued on with, "I hope we didn't spoil your day too badly."

As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, "Mister...." He paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes. She continued, "Are you Jesus?"

He stopped in mid-stride, and he wondered. Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with that question burning and bouncing about in his soul: "Are you Jesus?"

Do people mistake you for Jesus? That's our destiny, is it not? To be so much like Jesus that people cannot tell the difference as we live and interact with a world that is blind to His love, life and grace.

If we claim to know Him, we should live, walk and act as He would. Knowing Him is more than simply quoting Scripture and going to church.

It's actually living the Word as life unfolds day to day.

You are the apple of His eye even though we, too, have been bruised by a fall. He stopped what He was doing and picked you and me up on a hill called Calvary and paid in full for our damaged fruit."

Praise be to God, the Father, the Son, and The Spirit, One. AMEN