Genesis 11: 1–9 / Psalm 104: 24–34, 35b / Acts 2: 1–21 / John 14: 8–27
The
is the homily given at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) in McKnightstown,
Pennsylvania on Sunday, June 8, 2025 by Fr. Gene Tucker, Interim Pastor.
“GOD’S ‘CORRECT’ BUTTON”
(Homily texts: Genesis 11: 1–9 & Acts 2: 1–21)
Whenever I have to address an envelope,
or to write something that others will need to be able to read, I use a
typewriter. No, not an old, mechanical one like an old Underwood, but an
electric one. The reason I use one of these things is because my handwriting
isn’t at all good. In fact, it’s terrible, and worst of all, it’s getting worse
as time goes along.
I can’t use a typewriter without having
correcting ribbon in the machine. The reason for that is that my typing skills
aren’t all that good, either. (In fact, I am self-taught…I can manage, but
sometimes typing is a real challenge.)
As I think about the history of God’s
dealing with human beings, I think that God must need to have a whole lot of
correcting ribbon in the typewriter of His plans and desires for humankind.
Consider, for example, the two accounts
of people speaking the same language, or speaking different languages that are
before us this morning.
Our Old Testament reading relates to us
the tale of the building of the Tower of Babel, while our reading from Acts
informs us about the Holy Spirit’s gift of being able to speak in different
languages.
In the Genesis account, we read that
the whole human race spoke the same language. And so, those ancient peoples
decided to make a name for themselves by erecting a tower that would reach to
the heavens. When God sees this activity, and – more importantly – the
motivation for it, He decides to confound their speech, making them speak
different languages so they couldn’t understand one another, and – in the
process – couldn’t manage to do anything they set their minds to.
In the Acts reading, recounting to us
the coming of the Holy Spirit with discernable and powerful signs of His
presence, people who spoke the same language were suddenly able to speak
languages they had not previously known. The purpose of the Spirit’s gifting is
obvious: It provides a tool to spread the Good News of what God had done in the
sending of Jesus Christ.
Notice the correction to the human
condition and to human behavior: In the Genesis account, those tower-builders
were out to make a name for themselves, to promote their own glory. In the
Pentecost event, God is glorified by the spreading of the Good News.
God does, indeed, have a “correct”
button, and plenty of correcting ribbon as He deals with us human types.
The pages of Holy Scripture are filled
with accounts of people who interacted with God, but who needed “fixing” in
some way or another.
This last point brings us back to the
Pentecost event.
We read Peter’s sermon, delivered on
Pentecost, in our reading from Acts this morning. Gone from Peter’s character
and behavior are his bumbling ways, and his inability to understand what God
was doing in the person and work of Jesus Christ. God has corrected the text of
Peter’s life, and now his speech is clear, and it is powerful.
We should ask, “What does all this have
to do with me, and how does it inform my walk with God?”
That’s always a question that ought to
be in our minds and hearts, and on our lips. After all, one of the purposes of
Holy Scripture is to inform us about God’s nature and God’s ways, and to relate
to us the ways that God has dealt with those He has chosen to be His emissaries
to the world in ages past. In those sacred pages, we read of the successes, the
mistakes, and the outright failures of those chosen ones. But we also read
about God’s determined efforts to correct and fix what was less-than-useful for
His divine purposes in those He had chosen to be His servants and witnesses.
So, too, will this same dynamic work
its way out in our own lives: God will patiently correct, form, mold and shape
us so that we can fulfill that divine plan that God has in mind. To be sure,
the Holy Spirit has a major role to play in this process, as the Spirit did on
Pentecost. The Spirit’s power to inform, to convict, to correct, to empower, and
to enlighten is the same yesterday and today, and it will be the same until the
end of time.
Thanks be to God for His patience, for
His forbearance, and for His insistence on correction and amendment of life, so
as to fit us out and make us into instruments of His divine will and purpose.
AMEN.
