Ohhhh! shinny things!!!

Sunday May 23rd, Genesis 11: 1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. 3 They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 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 and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." Give a kid a new toy and they play with it, give an adult a new toy and they try to take over the world. This story is a repeat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Humanity once again tries to take over the god spot. No longer content with using the building materials God had given them, now they are making their own bricks and using tar to stick them together. I will refrain from making snide comments on how our god complex is still providing a sticky mess in the gulf. Making something new from the tools God has given you is not a bad thing, it has given us many wonderful gifts and tools and wonders. It is why our young men and women are driven to go to school, learn, graduate and hopefully make the world a better place, but we all know that all too often our toys have outstripped our ethics. Here is where the church should step in and bring humanity into the conversation about how our toys should help us work for the kingdom, not against it. All we have to do is remember Wall Street, “K” Street, Greece, and spill, baby, spill and note how silent the church has been. It is sad really, men and women of good will, and the children of God in the pews have largely been silenced by the call for personal greed over public need. Keep your eye on the king….. Oh look at that shinny new thing… dom.