Identity and Community

The people who strove to build the Tower of Babel sinned.  But what was their sin?  Was it ambition?  Cooperation?  I found that story confusing for years because it seemed like they were doing something good.  Something teachers and parents and leaders wanted people to do -- be unified and cooperate toward common goals.  So...what was God's problem with it?

I propose that their sin was thinking too small.  God never intended the world to gather in one place, under one language, around one of their own accomplishments.  And if their sin wasn't thinking too small, then it was the opposite: hubris.  Their destructive over-confidence was captured in this simple phrase: "to make a name for ourselves."

When we build our own identity on any basis other than Jesus Christ, the result will be division and destruction.  Any doubts?  Read history.  Any identity, including the culturally normative, comfortable and acceptable ones, that we place ahead of our identity in Christ can only lead to the confusion and destruction of Babylon.  

For reflection:
1) What "identities" do people place ahead of their identity in Christ?  (For ideas, see the image below)
2) Why do people, including Christians, resist identifying in Christ?
3) What would it look like to "lose your life for Jesus' sake"?  How does that idea make you feel?
4) How do you react to the exclusivity of Jesus' claim to be "the way, the truth, and the life"?