When you come into our building for the next several months, you will be seeing a work in process as our worn hallway carpeting is going to be replaced. Thanks to Ken Anderson and other volunteers for tackling this project. Can you imagine if this project were undertaken with no advanced planning? Right now, the mess we will have is a “planned mess.” When there’s no planning involved, the mess can become frustrating and overwhelming because there is no goal in sight.

Do you have any goals in sight? In our first reading this weekend, we’ll hear the account of the tower of Babel. You will recall that the people decided to work together to build a huge tower. There was a definite goal there. The problem was, their goal for themselves did not coincide with God’s goal for them. The result was God scrambling their language so they could no longer communicate. The project came to a screeching halt.

But God has goals for His world, the chief being restoring a right relationship not only between fallen sinners and Him, but also restored relationships between fallen sinners. This weekend’s worship’s main focus will be the Day of Pentecost on which the Holy Spirit enabled the Apostles to speak the one unifying message of the Gospel in many different languages. In Jesus, we might have different languages of choice and ethnic and cultural dissimilarities, but in Jesus all the differences melt away as His people focus on accomplishing the Lord’s goal of living in His love and making disciples of all nations. Martin Luther makes this observation when commenting on the account of the tower of Babel: “I myself do not understand an Italian, nor does an Italian understand me; and so there exists a natural opportunity for anger and enmity between us. But if we both understand Christ, we mutually embrace and heartily kiss each other as fellow members. But where Christ is not present, there the punishment of Babylon still prevails, the division of languages, which brings on a sure division of hearts and gives rise to confusion, not only in the administration of the home and government but also in religion and the church.”

What a great prayer the hymnist offers: “O Holy Spirit, enter in, And in our hearts Your work begin, Your dwelling place now make us. Sun of the soul, O Light divine, Around and in us brightly shine, To joy and gladness wake us That we may be truly living, To You giving prayer unceasing And in love be still increasing.” Lutheran Service Book #913, v. 1