Oh, Look... A bird

Sunday May 19^th, 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 and play with their friends using this new toy.  Give most adults a new toy and they try to take over the world.  This story is a repeat of the garden story 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 to provide shelter and help for one another, they are now making their own bricks and using tar to stick them together to build an edifice to themselves.  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 and part of the creating process God has gifted us with.  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 love for our toys has outstripped our ethics on how to use them.  Here is where the church as a collection of the children of God is called to step in and bring humanity into the conversation.  This is where we are called to bring the message that the gifts from God, sometimes known as our toys should help us work for the good of the whole kingdom of God, not against it.  The 24/7 news cycle draws us into the latest tragedy and informs us to be afraid, be very afraid.  The defense industry, both personal and corporate, compels us to spend more to arm ourselves and retreat back into our personal lives in front of the TV news. 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.