Erik preached on the tower of Babel this Sunday, where scripture establishes that humans will not be able to save themselves, repairing the relationships with God and one another that were broken in the fall. But that doesn’t mean that we should give up helping to alleviate the consequences of sin:

Is all our work in medicine, technology, education, art, and politics just self-defeating pride? No, not at all! God isn’t opposed to achievements. He’s not even opposed to giant construction projects. Remember, right before Babylon’s tower is Noah’s ark, and building a floating zoo was as much of an achievement as any city skyscraper. But the difference in instructive. The ark was built out of humility, not pride: Noah didn’t want to make a great name for himself, instead he was ridiculed by everyone for building a boat on dry land. And Noah acted in obedience to God, not disobedience: he followed God’s commands, even when they made no sense. And Noah became a servant, not a tyrant: we imagine Baylon’s rulers carrying whips, but Noah spent all those days on the water caring for the animals. The tower was built of pride, domination, and disobedience. The ark was built of humility, service, and obedience.