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Pentecost Sunday; June 8; 2025; Year C; Gen. 11
Our Old Testament reading for today comes from Genesis 11:1-9, the story of the Towel
of Babel. Listen for the Word of the Lord:
Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2  And as they migrated from
the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3  And they said to
one another, ;Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.; And they had brick
for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4  Then they said,; 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.; 5  The Lord came down to
see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. 6  And the Lord said, "Look, they are
one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they
will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7  Come, let us
go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another;s
speech.; 8  So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and
they left off building the city. 9  Therefore it was called Babel, because there the Lord
confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad
over the face of all the earth. Friends, this is the Word of the Lord; thanks be to God.
Now, listen for the word of the Lord from Acts 2:1-21:
1  When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2  And
suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the
entire house where they were sitting. 3  Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them,
and a tongue rested on each of them. 4  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and
began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. 5  Now there were
devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6  And at this sound the
crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native
language of each. 7  Amazed and astonished, they asked, ;Are not all these who are
speaking Galileans? 8  And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?
9  Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia,
Pontus and Asia, 10  Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to
Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11  Cretans and Arabs—in our
own languages we hear them speaking about Gods deeds of power.; 12  All were amazed
and perplexed, saying to one another, ;What does this mean?; 13  But others sneered and
said, They are filled with new wine.; 14  But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his
voice and addressed them, ;Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known
to you, and listen to what I say. 15  Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is
only nine o&;clock in the morning. 16  No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

17 &;In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and
your old men shall dream dreams. 18  Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those
days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. 19  And I will show portents in the
heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. 20  The sun
shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord's great
and glorious day. 21  Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.;;
Friends, this is the Word of the Lord; thanks be to God.
In an announcement that may seem off topic, I sadly report to you today that Dr. Walter
Brueggemann has passed away. He was 92 years old. For those of you, probably most of
you, who don’t know Walter Brueggemann, he was one of the premier Old Testament
scholars of our time. He talked a lot about the prophetic imagination—the poetry of the
Old Testament and the value of these stories as we interpret our lives. And he was my
professor at Columbia Theological Seminary.
I chanced a lot when I went to seminary. As a single mother with no savings, quitting a
tenured teaching position to study full time, with a quickly growing 10-year-old boy who
always seemed to have jeans that were an inch and a half too short. Thankfully they offer
Board of Pensions health insurance to seminary students at a reduced rate. But we still
had to pay for rent in Atlanta, secure a trumpet for 6 th grade band, without any family
help. You get the picture.
The first summer was intensive Greek school, 5 days a week. And it was intensive. But
that fall semester, with Greek school behind us, and all the 2 nd and 3 rd year students came
back from summer internships, it felt like school. That semester our cohort took Old
Testament Survey—which is basically beginner’s Bible. But it was definitely an
aggressive reading schedule. Imagine trying to get through the entire Old Testament in
one semester.
As it happened, the other Old Testament professors were both on Sabbatical that fall.
That meant that Walter Brueggemann, who had not taught the Survey class in a long
time, was our professor. The seminary knew this was an event to capture, so every class
meeting, Dr. Brueggemann was miked and there were two cameras recording to get good
video. He moved around a lot. Very enthusiastic professor. You didn’t want to get to
class late because you’d have to sit on the front two rows, and you could count on getting
spit on due to that enthusiasm.
But as we started that fall semester—most of us had dropped a lot to be able to be there.
Careers, families back home. I was sued for custody because I took my son out of state. I

knew that would happen, and it did. But I still drove him home every other weekend for
three years. Never missed.
But sitting in that class. Old Testament survey. What a gift. There were people who
couldn’t get in the class because it was full, so they sat on the floor in the back door of
the classroom just to get to hear what Brueggemann had to say.
So naturally, this week I’ve thought a lot about what Brueggemann would say about these
texts. In the Babel text, the language of the world is suddenly confused. All in a minute.
And in the Pentecost text, the people understand the language that before had been
indecipherable. God accomplishes both the confusion and the clarification. But the
question we have is “Why?”
At Babel humanity gathered together and pitched itself against God, like a rival. They
wanted to make a name for themselves. They wanted a tower that would reach into the
heavens. They wanted to reach into the very dwelling place of God. And what does God
do? God sets limits.
And we hear echoes of God’s answer to Job when Job dares to question God. God
answers Job out of the whirlwind: “Who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out
from the womb—when I ….prescribed bounds for it and set bars and doors and said,
“This far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stopped’?” 1
God’s answer to Job is this: I am. I am God. And Brueggemann would have said it this
way: I am God. And I do what I want to do. You want to know why? Because I’m the
Big Guy.” And if later I decide that I want to unscramble it all at Pentecost, then that’s
what I’ll do. Because I’m in charge.
Columbia Seminary this week put out on Facebook a very short, edited section of one of
those first classes in September of 2002. What a wonderful trip down memory lane. And
there’s a link to the full unedited class. And if you hit the link and watch the class you
can see the back of my 32-year-old head. I was Ms. Anderson back then, and you can see
my 32-year-old hand go up when he calls the roll.
And I’ve thought a lot about what made Brueggemann such a powerhouse. And what it
really boils down to was that he loved the text. He loved the text. “Stand on the text” he
would say. Because the Text is the source of unending and powerful imagination. The
kind of power that topples Emperors and Pharaohs. Regimes and Empires. The kind of
power that does the un-doable. The text is the bearer of a prophetic imagination that is the
only hope of the oppressed in the world. And our job is to carry that power, untamed, into
the world. Not to just stand back and see what it will do, but to get in there and do with it.

1 Job 38:11

To be the hands that cause the Exodus for our oppressed neighbors by the power of the
Almighty. And the rest, Brueggemann would say, is working that out. So today and
every day, let’s be about that. Let’s be about working that out in the world.
And now to him who by the power at work within us is able to do far more than we could
ask or imagine, to God be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, now and forevermore. 

AMEN

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