Jeremy L. Berg

In a recent conversation on The Russell Moore Show podcast, David Brooks was discussing the deep divisions and lack of trust in institutions in our country these days. He remarked, “A community is both a people with a common Story and a people with a common Project.” Then he mentioned Rabbi Jonathan Sacks who asks, “Why was the creation of the universe covered in like 9 verses in Genesis, whereas the building of the tabernacle is detailed in hundreds of verses over many chapters Exodus?”

The answer given is that Moses was trying to work with a fractious bunch of people divided into twelve different tribes, and one of the best ways to unite a people is by joining them together in a common project, the significance of which transcends all their smaller differences. This led me to a ponder another botched and blasphemous project detailed just before Moses’ time: the Tower of Babel.

The problem in this story as it is usually understood is that the people were united in a project that was undertook for human glory and in rebellion against God, rather than in service to God and His purposes. Genesis 11 picks up the story:

“Now the whole world had one language and a common speech… Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth. ⁵ But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. ⁶ The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. ⁷ Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other” (vv. 1, 4-7).

It’s interesting the narrative focuses more on scrambling their communication than on toppling their tower. Might the wellbeing of human society depend more on healthy communication than on the details of the projects we undertake? Are we experiencing such toxicity in our politics right now because Democrats and Republicans disagree on policy and agendas? No! We’ve always had sharp ideological differences. The reason for the growing violence and shrinking confidence in institutions is our inability to communicate in constructive ways. We don’t know how to disagree with opposing views while upholding the dignity of the other. We have forgotten how to listen. We refuse to seek compromising positions.

In other words, the problem is our speech more than our towers. So, what’s the first step toward a solution? If God, or God’s people, are to learn from Genesis 11 a possible path forward, might the answer include some reckoning with our collective speech problem? Maybe our problem is that we spend far too much time talking and watching talking heads, arguing on Twitter, doom scrolling for provocative memes on Facebook and Instagram, when what we need is to shut our mouths and stand up on our feet and rally together around a common project that can help us transcend our differences and begin to heal our divisions.

In Genesis 11, their effective speech was uniting them in an idolatrous project. In our day, our dysfunctional speech is dividing us and preventing us from building anything at all. If we want to “make American great again”, then we need leaders who can unite a fractured country through involving us in common causes for the common good, while turning a deaf ear to would-be leaders who spend most of their energy Tweeting and Truthing words that only deepen the divide.

What if God came down tomorrow and looked around at the teetering tower that is the American democratic experiment? If God took pity on us and refrained from squashing the entire thing, what merciful medicine might He administer to begin to heal our divisions and bring us together? Might He start by scrambling all of our unhealthy and toxic communication channels? Might He immediately shut down Twitter/X, Truth Social, Instagram, Facebook and Instagram? Would he send cable news pundits into the wilderness for a 40 year sabbatical? Would he take away our smart phones and send us to the kitchen table to play a board game together?

Perhaps the wisest words for this moment are the somewhat brash, “Shut up and start building up.”

In Genesis 11, God temporarily short-circuited the wayward people’s normal speech patterns in order to ultimately get them back on track, pursuing God’s project for human flourishing. I suspect our nation’s healing will begin when we come out of our media echo chambers, stop spending our evenings listening to cable news pundits and instead talking to our neighbor next-door over the fence. When we stop thinking that merely spouting our opinions on social media or casting a vote every couple years is activism, and instead join a church or another civic organization to begin working for change and doing something practical to help those we claim we care about with our vote.

In another Exodus scene, the entire nation of Israel (just a rabble of a few thousand at this point) gathered at the foot of Mount Sinai. The mountain shook, fire and smoke and lightening flashed, and everyone waited eagerly for the definitive Word — the Divine Tweet to End All Tweets — to be delivered through God’s chosen prophet-pundit from on high, Moses. God did speak. Enduring words were etched in stone tablets. We do well to order our lives around those words still today.

Yet, today too many are gathering at the foot of more feeble ideological mountains and giving too much weight to the words of pundits-for-hire whose words don’t come down from on high. We would do well to leave the smoke and hot air of such mole hill mountains behind. Instead, let’s gather together with a small group of people of good will and common faith, and follow the example of the Israelites in Exodus 25-31, and get busy building our own local tabernacles or “sacred spaces” where we might regularly step out from the cultural chaos and enter a grace-filled space where we might encounter the life and love and healing power of the Living God.

So, why again does Exodus spend so many chapters and go into such painstaking detail describing the building of the Tabernacle? Because that’s where our hearts long to dwell. That’s where our weary world will find healing and peace. Because the makeshift portable tabernacle in the wilderness was just a microcosm and symbol of the greater Tabernacle/Temple we were placed on earth to serve in as royal priests mediating the Presence of God to the wider world. The entire earth is God’s Temple and we are God’s image placed here to represent and put His love and glory and goodness on display.

Let the people of God stop fighting each other with words and arguing over ideas. Let us join hearts and hands, reaching across the great divide, and building up one another on love and constructing sanctuaries of shalom for the walking wounded. Remembering the words of Paul, “Knowledge puffs up while love builds up” (1 Cor 8‬:‭1‬).

Inside such sanctuaries people can find rest and be swept up into a bigger Story and given a vital role in a common Project.

The Sanctuary of Shalom, the suburban tabernacle, I am helping build is called MainStreet Covenant Church. We gather weekly to be caught up in the Story and arduous Project of becoming more fully human after the example of Jesus and through the power of the Holy Spirit. Join us in this project!

In your own life, how’s the balance between words and action? Which unhealthy messages do you need to turn off? What action might you need to take? Where’s the wilderness tabernacle you take refuge in? 

Listen to the podcast conversation with Russell Moore and David Brooks that sparked this reflection at https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/podcasts/russell-moore-show/losing-our-religion-david-