Bible Stories - Sept 29 2023

 

Bible Stories

Sept 29 2023

The Tower of Babel,

where God cursed its builders

with a confusion of tongues.

Of course it crumbled,

with so much distrust

and misunderstanding.

But if things had been different

how high would it have climbed?

As high as heaven?

High enough

to see the naked emperor

for what He really was?

The omnipotent divine,

too insecure

to let humankind come close.

Or would they have run out of air

and realized

that no one's there,

the ineffable Creator

a figment of questioning minds

keen to explain?

So if not the Tower

and an insecure God,

why the failure to communicate?

Why divide

into clans and tribes

and petty rivalries,

empires

and shaky alliances,

nation states

drawing lines in the sand?

Not by decree

of some deity

from His high and mighty throne,

but by ourselves.

Because we tend to “other”

stereotype

dehumanize.

Because we’re more comfortable

with “our own” kind,

people like us.

Because small differences

seem to matter

far too much.

The tower abandoned

and its bricks scattered

or converted to weapons of war.

Not a lingua franca,

but a call-to-arms

and battle cries.

Not a monument to greatness

but genocide.

Smoking rubble

salted fields

and dying breaths,

scorched earth

reeking of death.