Audio of the sermon is here:

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

            Everything is in a name. The people on the plain of Shinar knew that. I don’t know if you thought, like I did, that they are trying to build a tower to God, to get to heaven itself. But notice that they don’t say anything about God. They want to build a tower with its top in the heavens, but that doesn’t mean heaven. I couldn’t say for sure what they were thinking, but what they say is, “Let us make a name for ourselves, so that we won’t be dispersed over the face of the earth.” Which, ironically, is exactly what happens when they try to make a name for themselves.

            In trying to make a name for themselves and not talking about God at all, they sound pretty much like a lot of people today. Outside the building of this tower, this sounds like what people today would say. And we still build “sky-scrapers”! But today we know that there is no God. We know that if there is to be any saving of us, we’re the ones who are going to have to do it. We know that if the planet or the environment or the world is going to be saved, it’s up to us to do it. We have to make a name for ourselves, leave a legacy, a heritage, to those who come after us.

And we have the science and technology to do everything we need to, and want to, do. What do we need God for, after all? A couple years ago, some scientists built a brain-spine interface, which they then implanted, and a man paralyzed from the waist down began to walk again. All those miracle stories, they were just stories to explain things we didn’t understand. But now we can make people walk; we can give sight to the blind; we can give hearing to the deaf.

We can give ourselves a name; we can make and remake ourselves as often as we like. We are our own gods; we are our own makers. We give ourselves life and we sustain that life. We create ourselves as we wish ourselves to be. But even as we can do things that are godlike, we can never be God. That is too much for us. The burden and the weight of being our own creators will eventually drag us down, topple our towers, and we will fall. Because, just as Adam and Eve found out, trying to be like God—when they were already created in His image and likeness—they could not stop being creatures and start being the creator. All that brings is death. Those who try to keep their lives in this world will lose them. So God sends them from the Garden. And God scatters and tears down and separates and confuses those who try to make a name for themselves. It may not happen immediately, but the same thing will happen to us if we try to make a name for ourselves. That is not ours to make; we cannot take our own name. Even if we don’t like it, a name is given, not made or taken. And the people on the plain of Shinar found that out.

But God does not scatter in order for scattering to be the final reality. We do pretty well separating ourselves from each other, anyway. He scatters in order to gather. He tears down in order to build up. He destroys in order to remake. And He kills in order to make alive. That’s the only way it will happen among dying sinners. So immediately after the scattering of people trying to make their own name, we see God begin the gathering by giving a name. Literally. The next verse after Babel is “These are the generations of Shem.” It’s hard to tell in English, but “shem” is the Hebrew word for “name.” The people at Shinar wanted to make a shem for themselves. But God had a shem to give them. So He scattered them until He could do it, in the fulfillment of Shem’s line. Jesus appeared in the world and the Father had given Him a Name, which He made known to the disciples He gathered to Himself. And Jesus says to those disciples that His Father will send the Holy Spirit in His Name, and that Spirit will continually remind them of everything that Jesus had said, all of which He had been given by the Father.

If the Spirit had not been given, we would remain in our guilt, because we would remain in our own wisdom, by our own reason and strength, doing the same dying things we always do. It is only when the Spirit is poured out that we are exposed for the weak and sinful creatures we are. When the Spirit comes to us, the first thing we say is “I believe that I cannot believe.” I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or come to Him.” My reason and strength say that I can do it all myself—like a little child, who certainly cannot. My reason and strength say that I do not need a Lord; I will be my own lord. I do not need a God; I will be my own god. I do not need the Name the Lord gives; I will make a name for myself.

But still the Father gives the Son and sends the Spirit in the Name of the Son. And when the Spirit is poured out on Pentecost, then God begins the gathering in earnest. Pentecost is actually a sort of harvest festival, a festival of the firstfruits. And the people who are in Jerusalem for that festival, from every nation under heaven, are the firstfruits of the Spirit’s gathering. What shall we do? They ask Peter after his sermon, after they hear the mighty works of God in Jesus Christ proclaimed in the language in which they were born. The Spirit cuts them to the heart: Jesus was crucified by you, but God raised Him from the dead for you. What shall we do? Be baptized, every one of you in the Name of Jesus—the Name that the Father gave and that He declares and makes known by the Spirit—be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the Holy Spirit. This promise is for you and for your children. For those who are far off, the scattered ones, whom God is gathering together in the Name of Jesus. By no other Name, given under heaven, will anyone be saved. At this Name, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Everything is in the Name.

And you are in the Name. You, too, have been gathered together here by the gathering Spirit. The Spirit has been poured out on all flesh. The Spirit is not only for pastors—although God knows we need Him. The Spirit is for young and old, male and female, Jew and Gentile—all those who have been scattered by sin and death. The Spirit has been given to you in the Name of Jesus. And you bear witness according to your vocations, just as the apostles did according to theirs. You speak and live according to the confession you have heard, and the confession you have made, all by this Spirit. Your boldness comes from the Spirit. The testimony of Jesus comes from the Spirit. And the Church has been made and enlarged by the Spirit. Though you would never believe in Jesus as your Lord or come to Him, the Spirit has called you by the Gospel, and enlightened you with His gifts. He has made you holy and keeps you in Christ’s holy Church. And in this Church, He daily and richly forgives your sins and the sins of all believers. And the outcome of all that forgiveness and making holy is that on the last day He will raise you up and give you eternal life with all believers in Christ. What else could happen to those who are in the Name of Jesus, who was raised from the dead by this life-giving Spirit?

This is His work, with the Father and the Son, and He will keep doing it, until He has gathered all of God’s holy ones together, scattered from one end of the creation to the other. Finally, He will bring in the full and final harvest, gathering the scattered languages and nations into one. This is His work. This is His Name. This is His eternal life. And this is most certainly true.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7, ESV). Amen.

— Pr. Timothy Winterstein, 6/6/25