In the 18th century, there was a Spanish philosopher named Miguel de Unamuno who came up with one of the best questions to illustrate the human condition. This was the question: If you had to choose between creating amazing works of art that would last forever and would make the world a better place, but you would remain anonymous; or you could become a famous, world renown artist and painter but your works would be totally forgotten. Which would you choose?
Insignificant fame or Anonymous blessing?
So this is a series on a small theme in the book of Genesis. Namely, that Genesis cares a lot about names. Apparently the Bible cares a lot about the language we use to describe the world and each other.
Last week I talked about how after the fall in Genesis, Adam and Eve try to find their own names, independent of God. But what happens when that stops just being a problem for a couple of people and starts to be the way the whole world operates?
Just eight chapters later, Genesis tells us about how the how the whole world was speaking the same language. And they all got together because they wanted to build a tower. Which actually sounds like a pretty good idea. I mean we build towers all the time. But Genesis is telling us something here. They are trying to exceed the limitations of being human. They are trying to be gods.
The real reason they wanted to build a tower was because they wanted to “make a name for themselves.” (The actual Hebrew here is Donald Trump).
Now think about this for a second. They aren’t actually concerned about the project they are building. Their real goal is to be important. Their real goal isn’t the tower, but to justify their existence.
And God doesn’t like that goal at all.
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This weekend, for the first time since an assasination attempt occurred on Ronald Reagan, an elected official was fired at. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was out at a local Safeway doing a kind of meet and greet with her constituents, when a man armed with a Semi-automatic approached her shooting point-blanke at her head…and then fired off 19 extra shots for good measure.
I’ve written on this blog before about Robert Putnam’s work in his book “Bowling Alone.” He makes the observation that has been cited by hundreds of different authors and speakers that while bowling as a whole is on the rise, bowling league participation is drastically reduced. That is more people are bowling, but they are bowling alone.
I took this picture on our trip to Ephesus a few years ago. Since then it has made the regular rotation for my desktop image, I’ve even talked about on this blog before. I’ve found myself somewhat haunted by it. And here’s why.
