Thought for the Week

Sunday 11 May 2008

The Spirit of God

At the London Churches Mayoral Hustings in St Martin’s three weeks ago, each of the candidates was asked to speak for two minutes about what makes a good city. They gave interesting answers but politicians compete over their achievements and their promises of what they will do for us. The winners of elections promise so much that our hopes are rarely fulfilled. For the losers, elections can be ritual humiliations and an essential part of the democratic process teaching an enforced humility which is not natural territory for people who need to be seen as winners. Nor do politicians do talk easily about the power of love.

The story of the tower of Babel in the Book of Genesis chapter 11 suggests that the people building a city and a tower that reached into the heavens felt nothing was beyond them. They wanted to make a name for themselves and be like gods. The height of achievement can make people feel invincible, as though we can always succeed in our strength alone. The consequence was that God muddled their languages, they became confused and were dispersed over the earth.

Pentecost, which we celebrate today, is the opposite of Babel. The early Church got caught up in the life-giving breath of God. Diverse people found themselves communicating across the barriers of language and nationality. In the energetic Spirit of God, which felt like fire or a rushing wind, people were caught up into a deeper communion in which they found unity and overcame division. It was not without ambition but it was loving, not selfish, and rooted in God’s power rather than our own strength. What makes a good city is a good spirit.

Revd Nicholas Holtam