This sermon was offered as part of Within Us, Among Us: A Preaching Workshop for Disciples Preachers held in January 2023. Rev. Dr. Katie Hays focuses on Genesis 11:1-9, one of the focus texts for the 2024 General Assembly.

Genesis 11:1-9 — the Tower of Babel — is a text about human ambition, fragmentation, and the scattered multiplicity of languages and peoples. For Disciples preachers, it raises questions about what happens when communities reach for a unity they must secure for themselves, and what might become possible when communities are called to live across their differences. It is a text with particular resonance for a tradition that spans diverse cultures, languages, and congregational contexts.

Rev. Hays preaches this text as a model sermon for the Within Us, Among Us workshop, a gathering designed to help Disciples ministers see the General Assembly focus texts approached across a range of voices and preaching styles. Watching this sermon alongside the other sermons from the workshop offers preachers a range of interpretive and homiletical approaches to the same scriptural questions the church was wrestling with together.

Rev. Dr. Katie Hays is the pastor and Lead Evangelist at Galileo Church, which exists to seek and shelter spiritual refugees.

You might also find helpful:

• Within Us Among Us — The full six-week preaching series connected to the 2023 General Assembly in Louisville, with worship suggestions and Disciples ministry connections.
• Sermon: Rev. Xosé Escamilla — Another sermon from the Within Us, Among Us workshop, preaching on 2 Peter 1:3.
• Sermon: Rev. Eddie Anderson — A sermon from the same workshop, preaching on Luke 17:20-21.
• Preaching in the Age of Chatbots — A resource for Disciples preachers navigating the challenge of technology and ministry in the digital age.