The Daily: Tuesday May 21, 2024

Daily Lectionary Reading: Psalm 104:24-34, 35b (NRSV, The Message); Genesis 11:1-9 (NRSV, The Message); 1 Corinthainas 12:12-27 (NRSV, The Message)

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. 
Genesis 11:6 (NRSV)

The story of The Tower of Babel has always bothered me. Why would God care about what we as humans, God's creation (as understood in this story), seek to accomplish? Was the writer afraid that a tower would reach heaven (I remember that as an implication when I was taught this story as a child in Sunday school)? Why would God seek to thwart humanity's unified vision?

I don't yet have an answer, but I intend to sit with this story and listen to what it has to say to me. Maybe it's a warning on an overreliance on technology. Babel, what are you revealing?