The sermon focused on differences - the different languages at the Tower of Babel and the different languages at Pentecost.

Differences is a reason for this trip, or at least one reason.  If it wasn't for differences, if everything was the same, there wouldn't be much reason to travel.  Everywhere we'd go would be the same.  What a bore!

Of course, not everything is the same.  We know that.  Every tree is different, every road is different, every view is unique, every building built by humans is different.  Well, there are some places that look a lot like the next one especially in the suburbs and the row houses.  Yet, even those vary in color and decor and individual personality created by the residents.

The biggest difference however are the people.  There are big differences, such as color, language, history, cultures; but there are individuals differences within the color, language, history and culture.  Each individual is different.  Whether it's big differences or individual differences, this is what we're out to discover and explore.  The more differences we find, the more options that open up to us, the more interesting life becomes.

Today, four days after Russia attacked Ukraine for no good reason that most of us can understand, the differences we experienced in Ukraine become very personal.  We were there only a week to help build a church and share ideas in classes; there were only eleven of us, yet today 18 years later, those we met there, those whose homes we slept, ate and bathed in, those with whom we shared s'mores on a farm in the hillsides, those who attended the classes we lead, are rising in our hearts and thoughts.  The twelve-year-old children in VBS are now young adults possibly with families and in line to defend their country even to the point of bodily harm or death.

In our nation where ideologies strongly differ, where mountains flow into prairies, and oceans abut skyscrapers, we covet the opportunity to experience and embrace these differences.  If there is a message we could and should carry with us, it's one of embracing our colorful montage of natural and human made points of activity on this finite global on which we are confined.

As God was present when diverse languages expanded the cultures after Babel and when the Holy Spirit allowed foreigners to understand their own languages at Pentecost, may we acknowledge God's presence as we travel as well as when we settle in our homes.  May our travels bring us back home and bring us back home richer with diversity.