The Tower, the Wind, and Murphy
June 4, 2006

Genesis 11/Acts 2

Once upon a time there were three little pigs. 
... We'll ignore the first two pigs, because 
their houses weren't up to code, anyway.

But the third little pig ... Ah, the third little 
pig was an engineer. So he built a huge home 
using computer-aided design, and lots of 
reinforced concrete. There were many plate glass 
windows, but they were triple-glazed, and 
especially hardened. There fibre optics in all 
the walls and high speed Internet available in 
every room, and all the lights ... could be 
turned on and off ... by clapping.... [*/*] He 
built his big house overlooking Lake Roosevelt. 
He made it earthquake-proof and installed an 
alarm system and retained the services of a 
professional security company; and he bought 
insurance.--insurance against every possible 
disaster. And he said to his soul, "Soul, you 
have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, 
eat, drink, and be merry. I'm in control!"

Now the wolf was no slouch, either. He also was 
an engineer. He built a wind machine and blew up 
a thousand-mile-per-hour wind, strong enough to 
blow the whole world ... right off the face of 
the earth. (I admit I got this line from a Mickey 
Mouse comic book.) Naturally it destroyed the 
pig's reinforced concrete house, and the little 
pig was unfortunately killed by a flying cell 
phone. The wolf felt sad, but he ate the pig 
anyway.

Of course that's not the way we usually tell the 
story. We want the little pig to be in control of 
his own destiny, outwitting the wolf by his 
cleverness. We never want to believe the wolf 
might be in control. If the little pig stands for 
us, it means we're  in control. And that reminds 
me of a story from the Bible:

Once upon a time the whole earth had one language 
and the same words. And the people said, "Come, 
let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with a 
top no one can see, and let us make a name for 
ourselves." ... They wanted to be in control, of 
course. They wanted to have security. They wanted 
to control their own futures. And to do this they 
trusted in technology, science, architecture, 
engineering, building. And they called what they 
were doing "progress."

But God came down and threw a monkey wrench into 
their construction project. Before long the 
masons had developed a jargon that was different 
from the lingo of the carpenters, and the 
plumbers couldn't talk to the electricians. The 
ones who could read blueprints couldn't 
understand flow charts, and the ones who 
understood flowcharts couldn't do spreadsheets. 
It was as if the wind of God had blown them into 
the four corners of the world, where they cowered 
in little tribes and learned to chip flints and 
make grass huts. And none of them had the 
illusion of being in control. [And that reminds 
me of a story:

Once upon a time the whole nation had one 
language and the same words. And the people said, 
"Come, let us build ourselves an iron curtain the 
whole length of the Rio Grande River, and keep 
out the riffraff who don't talk like us." They 
wanted to be in control, of course. They wanted 
to trust technology, engineering, architecture, 
weapons. And they called what they were doing 
"security." Listen! ... Do you hear the sound of 
a giant wind machine revving up? ...] And that 
reminds me of a story:

Once upon a time people had the same law and only 
a few interpreters. And they said, "Come, let us 
build ourselves an organization, and a 
bureaucracy no one can figure out, and let us 
make a name for ourselves." ... They wanted to be 
in control, of course. They wanted to have 
security. They wanted to control their own 
futures. To do this they invented legalism and 
old-boy networks. They wanted to trust priests 
and Levites and scribes and Pharisees. And they 
called what they were doing "religion."

But God came down like a fresh breeze, 
overturning their tables and challenging their 
interpretations. They killed God, of course. God 
was interfering with their control. But somehow 
God came back, with the sound of a mighty wind, 
and tongues that looked like fire, and a miracle 
of languages, and called together all the tribes 
of the earth, bringing them into one house not 
made with hands, baptizing them into one name and 
one family. And God was, surprise, surprise, in 
control.

Here at the beginning of the twenty-first 
century, we are more concerned with control, more 
hung up on security than any people before us. We 
have central heating and air-conditioning. We 
have life insurance, health insurance, car 
insurance, credit card insurance. We have 
pensions and social security and Medicare. Well, 
sort of. We have burglar alarms and smoke 
detectors and machines to X-ray jetliner wings.We 
have Star Wars guided missiles and daisy-cutter 
bombs. We have vaccinations and blood banks and 
child-proof medicine bottle caps. We can replace 
coronary arteries, and make artificial knees. We 
have a constitution and political parties and a 
Bill of Rights. We have the press to watch the 
government, and watchdog organizations watching 
the press, and online bloggers watching the 
watchdogs. And we resent it, with lawsuits, if 
anything happens to make it seem that we really 
don't have complete control.

But we don't. We don't really have control. And 
deep down inside we know we don't.

We can't control the sub-atomic particles that 
make up everything there is. There seems to be an 
underlying principle at work that says these 
things are beyond our control.

We can't control the weather. There seems to be 
an underlying principle at work that says the 
weather is beyond our control.

We can't control the younger generation. Would 
you have believed thirty years ago that someone 
like [Bart Simpson?] could be a role model? There 
seems to be an underlying principle at work.... 
[OR - We can't control our own military. Would 
you have believed five years ago that America 
would torture prisoners, lock people up for years 
without a trial, defy international prisoner of 
war treaties?]

[We can't stop illegal drugs; we can't stop 
illegal aliens; we can't stop terrorism; we can't 
even stop Iraq from spiraling out of control.]

We are uncomfortably aware that we aren't really 
in control. There's even an expression to 
describe this. We call it ... Murphy's Law. 
Anything that can  happen will  happen. Anything 
that can  go wrong will  go wrong. Grandma called 
it "The Butter-Side Down Rule." Cheops discovered 
this law while he was building the world's 
largest pyramid 4500 years ago. Cheops' Law says 
every project Š takes four times as long and 
costs twice as much. But we'll just call it 
Murphy's Law. Anything that can  go wrong will  
go wrong.

We refer to our lack of control as Murphy's Law. 
But I think Murphy actually represents God! 
Murphy may be God's middle name. In fact, one of 
my Internet friends says that there is an Irish 
curse word, "Jesus Murphy!" Murphy may be God's 
middle name.

I'm the kind of person who likes to be in 
control. I get very nervous about drinking 
alcohol, because I might not be in control. I get 
very nervous when I drive fast because I feel I 
might not be in control. I get very nervous 
around other people who act out of control. I try 
to keep my watch accurate to less than a minute. 
I try to keep every event written on my calendar. 
I try to get the sermon ready by Thursday. I'm 
thinking about getting suspenders to wear with my 
belt. I like to be in control.
But Murphy says, I mean, God says, "Surprise, 
you're not in control!" And the wind of change 
begins to blow. It has a very hollow, frightening 
sound. Whoooo-o-o!

I say, Trust in technology.             God says, Open yourself to art.
I believe in progress.                  God offers newness.
I believe in pride, school spirit. 
        God offers humility, the Holy Spirit.
I want answers.                         God offers questions.
I want power.                           God's 
power is made perfect in weakness.
I want control.                         God offers self-control.
I want security.                                God offers adventure.
I want to be organized.                 God works through chaos.
I want to buy insurance.                        God offers faith.
I listen to the claims of science. 
        God offers the warnings of Murphy.

A new science has arisen in the last 20 or 30 
years. It's called Chaos Theory. It's kind of an 
attempt to understand that which is unknowable. 
Sounds a lot like theology!

One of the new discoveries of Chaos Theory is 
something called the "Butterfly Effect." Certain 
chaos systems (weather is one) have different 
choice points where a tiny influence becomes 
magnified over time. For instance, a butterfly 
could flap its wings in Hong Kong. Six months 
later there could result a hurricane in New 
Orleans. Or a terrible flood in [North Dakota.] 
The butterfly effect.

And that's how God works, with power made perfect 
by weakness. A condemned criminal is hung on a 
cross, executed by the government, and buried in 
a borrowed tomb. Seven weeks later the wind of 
Pentecost begins to blow. And 2000 years later 
the church of Jesus Christ surrounds the earth, 
one billion strong, flexing muscles to change the 
world.

The Spirit of God. The People of God. Sometimes 
we seem no more powerful than a butterfly's wing. 
A one-millionth-of-a mile-per-hour wind. But no 
tower can stand against us. The gates of Hades 
cannot stand against us. The Spirit of God blows 
apart the powerful and blows together the weak. 
The government is not in control. Satan is not in 
control. We are not in control....

God ... is in control!