CTBB Pentecost Service
Service Date:
23 May, 2010
Genesis 11:1-9
The people who built the Tower of Babel lost their way because they got so much into their building, they forgot to ask where God was in all their work. As a result, they stopped being able to understand each other - because it's God's Spirit who is the love between us, and unless we have enough love for each other to give each other the careful attention we deserve as people made by God, we will misunderstand each other too, and whatever we're doing will fall to pieces, however well we think we've built it.
I like doing jigsaw puzzles, so I've put a table out here so we can do one together this morning. The frame's still here, as you see. It looks as if some helpful soul has gone off with the pieces and hidden them. But they've left a few clues, and I'm hoping together we'll be able to puzzle them out and find out what the picture is. I'd like three helpers please, to take a look round this church and see if you can find them. But because I want to make sure we don't do a Tower of Babel and misunderstand each other, let's all agree where to look first, before you start. So here goes with the first clue.
1a. Ho logo parangeletai
Well, I'm not even sure if I've pronounced that right, and it's all Greek to me.
1b. Homiletics
Hm. That's English, at least. Can I have a show of hands as to what it's about? No? We're onto the last clue, then, and hoping this goes better.
1c. Six feet above contradiction. Where might that be, in this church?
[piece from pulpit] It's got a shape both sides. [get church logo understanding] Let's put it into the frame, and see what the picture may be. No? We need more pieces, evidently. Let's try the clues for piece 2.
2a. Hoc est enim corpus meus
Sounds vaguely familiar, but I never went above Latin O level. Second clue:
2b. Consubstantiation. I don't think we're going to get anywhere with this.
2c. The church's meal. Where in this congregation is there a meal set out?
[do second logo, put piece in]
OK, now we're getting somewhere. Let's see if the clue writer's done any better this time.
3a. gabh òran - [gaav ohræn] - oh no, that looks to me like the Gaelic, the language some people speak in Scotland. Now I'm really lost.
3b. Kist o'whistles - I've heard that before, but what do you think?
3c. Black and white played together - where in this church do you see that?
[third logo, put piece in]
Oh no - there's a piece missing! I hate that in a jigsaw. Without that piece, none of the rest of it will make sense. Oh, the last clue's tucked into my Bible. Always worth looking in there. Let's see.
4a. Ruach b ha-am. Still a problem - some people in churches just don't get it when nobody can understand what they're saying.
4b. The body of Christ. [jigsaw piece from back to front in cong].
Of course - as we remember today, God's Spirit of wind and fire made us the church, and it's God's spirit who holds us together now, who stops our work at CTBB falling apart.
The people who built the Tower of Babel lost their way because they got so much into their building, they forgot to ask where God was in all their work. As a result, they stopped being able to understand each other - because it's God's Spirit who is the love between us, and unless we have enough love for each other to give each other the careful attention we deserve as people made by God, we will misunderstand each other too, and whatever we're doing will fall to pieces, however well we think we've built it.
I like doing jigsaw puzzles, so I've put a table out here so we can do one together this morning. The frame's still here, as you see. It looks as if some helpful soul has gone off with the pieces and hidden them. But they've left a few clues, and I'm hoping together we'll be able to puzzle them out and find out what the picture is. I'd like three helpers please, to take a look round this church and see if you can find them. But because I want to make sure we don't do a Tower of Babel and misunderstand each other, let's all agree where to look first, before you start. So here goes with the first clue.
1a. Ho logo parangeletai
Well, I'm not even sure if I've pronounced that right, and it's all Greek to me.
1b. Homiletics
Hm. That's English, at least. Can I have a show of hands as to what it's about? No? We're onto the last clue, then, and hoping this goes better.
1c. Six feet above contradiction. Where might that be, in this church?
[piece from pulpit] It's got a shape both sides. [get church logo understanding] Let's put it into the frame, and see what the picture may be. No? We need more pieces, evidently. Let's try the clues for piece 2.
2a. Hoc est enim corpus meus
Sounds vaguely familiar, but I never went above Latin O level. Second clue:
2b. Consubstantiation. I don't think we're going to get anywhere with this.
2c. The church's meal. Where in this congregation is there a meal set out?
[do second logo, put piece in]
OK, now we're getting somewhere. Let's see if the clue writer's done any better this time.
3a. gabh òran - [gaav ohræn] - oh no, that looks to me like the Gaelic, the language some people speak in Scotland. Now I'm really lost.
3b. Kist o'whistles - I've heard that before, but what do you think?
3c. Black and white played together - where in this church do you see that?
[third logo, put piece in]
Oh no - there's a piece missing! I hate that in a jigsaw. Without that piece, none of the rest of it will make sense. Oh, the last clue's tucked into my Bible. Always worth looking in there. Let's see.
4a. Ruach b ha-am. Still a problem - some people in churches just don't get it when nobody can understand what they're saying.
4b. The body of Christ. [jigsaw piece from back to front in cong].
Of course - as we remember today, God's Spirit of wind and fire made us the church, and it's God's spirit who holds us together now, who stops our work at CTBB falling apart.
Hymns:
R&S 294 is a translation from a 14th-century Italian hymn by a lay member of a monastic order. The tune Down Ampney, by Ralph Vaughan Williams, is named after the Gloucestershire village of his birth.R&S 286 is a round of unknown musical origin, probably American, complementing the words of Philippians 4:4.
R&S 447 is by Brian Wren, a URC minister working in the US. The tune St Botolph was written by Gordon Slater and named after St Botolph's parish church in Boston, Lincolnshire where the composer was organist.
R&S 463 is another contemporary hymn written by Fred Kaan,
a Congregationalist minister and hymnodist who died in 2009.
The 18th-century tune Warrington refers to Warrington Academy, Lancs,
the school where the composer Ralph Harrison was educated.
Sermon:
Rev Dr Ian Wallis of St Mark's Church preached our sermon.
