Sunday, April 27, 2008

Easter 6A

Acts 17:22-31

John 14:15-21

 

GOD’S OFFSPRING

 

One day an unbeliever began to argue with a religious teacher about God.  “You believe many things that cannot be proved,” the skeptic said with disdain.  “For example, who created the world?”  “God,” was the teacher’s simple reply.  “Can you prove it?” the man asked.

 

“Certainly, but first I have a question for you. What are you wearing?”  “What a foolish question!” the skeptic said. “It is a suit!”  “Who made it?”  “The tailor.”  “Can you prove it?” the teacher asked.  “You are even more foolish than I thought,” the man exploded, “if you do not know that a tailor makes clothes we wear.”

 

“And you, my friend,” the teacher countered, “are equally foolish if you do not see the hand of God in creation.  Just as the house attests to the hand of the builder and the garment to the tailor, so the earth and the order of creation testifies to a higher being.”[1]  “The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.”[2]

 

When Paul began preaching in Athens, he had only limited success in evangelizing.  Deeply distressed by the rampant idolatry in Athens, he argued passionately in the synagogue.  However, his proclamation of the good news of Jesus and the resurrection was received with skepticism.  He experience similar skepticism in the marketplace, where he debated with some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers.  The Epicureans believed that philosophical discussion led to happiness.  The Stoics stressed the importance of virtue, a product of knowledge, self-sufficiency, reason, and devotion to duty.  Some of these philosophers referred to him as the babbler.  Others accused him of being a proclaimer of foreign gods.  His teaching of the resurrection of Jesus was too much for many of them to swallow.

 

Paul was a tenacious evangelist— one who did not easily give up in his mission to bring people to faith.

Rather than back off, Paul heads for the Areopagus.  The Areopagus was a select court of about 30 of the most learned men in Athens.  They were responsible for homicide cases and for public morals.  Paul is intent on making the case for faith in Jesus Christ.  In his missionary travels a straightforward proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ had been fruitful.  But he was dealing with a tougher crowd in Athens. Paul’s challenge was to find common ground with these leading thinkers, who tended to trust their knowledge.

 

As Paul moved through Athens, he had noticed that city was full of objects of worship— that is, idols.  Though deeply distressed by their idolatry, he also recognized these objects of worship as signs of a strong religious impulse.  One object in particular caught his eye— it was an altar with the inscription “To an unknown god.”  This inscription gave him the point of contact he needed.  He tells the Areopagus: “What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.”  Paul goes to describe God as Creator, Sustainer, Sovereign, Benefactor, and Judge.  God the Creator, the Lord of heaven and earth, made the world and everything in it.  God the Sustainer gives life and breath to mortals and all creatures.  God the Sovereign made all nations to inhabit the earth.  God the Benefactor is the one in whom “we live and move and have our being.”  God the Judge has appointed a man [i.e. Jesus] to judge the world in righteousness and assured us by raising him from the dead.[3]

 

Paul stresses two key points about the nature of the God he proclaims.  First of all, this God does not live in shrines made by human hands.

 

The second point is that we are God’s offspring, created in the image of God.  Given that God’s offspring reflect God’s image, “then we ought not to think,” says Paul, “that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals.”  For Paul our status as God’s offspring— that is, children of God— is revealed most fully in Jesus.  It is no accident that the living God would be revealed most fully in a living human being.  The resurrection is the living God’s exclamation point on the life of Jesus.  The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the assurance that the living God’s final word for us will be a word of life.

 

When the Areopagus heard of the resurrection of the dead, we are told that some scoffed, but others said, “We will hear you again about this.”  Some believed and decided to join Paul.

 

Paul’s evangelizing efforts with the Athenians are instructive for our own efforts to share the gospel  in our own time and place.  We live in one of the most unchurched states.  Many people in the Pacific Northwest describe themselves as spiritual but want nothing to do with organized religion.  Our idols may take different forms than those of the Athenians, but our culture is still full of them.  The First Commandment is: “You shall have no other gods before me.”  In Martin Luther’s explanation of the First Commandment, he said our god is whatever our heart clings to.  When that to which our hearts cling is someone or something other than the Lord God, then that to which we cling becomes an idol.  In our culture power, fortune, and fame can easily become idols.  We are prone to worship at the altar of materialism or individualism or nationalism or some other “ism”.  What then can we learn from Paul that will help us evangelize in our own context?

 

The first key insight is the need to seek common ground with those who do not share our beliefs.  Those who are spiritual believe in something.  Perhaps the place to start with them is by asking them what they believe in.  Then as the opportunity presents itself, we can share what we believe in.

 

Last Sunday we celebrated Earth Sunday.  In the Pacific Northwest many believers and non-believers alike share a concern for the environment.  That common concern can bring us together to work on projects to care for the environment.  In the course of working closely together, we will in all likelihood have opportunities to share what grounds and motivates our concern for the environment.  That will give us an opportunity to share our belief in God the Creator.  We can speak of our calling as stewards of God’s creation to care for the earth.

 

A second insight we can gain from Paul’s encounter with the Athenians is to not expect great success in our evangelizing efforts.  Paul is often thought of as the first and greatest missionary in the life of the church.  Even he had limited success.  In the end we have to trust the results of our evangelizing efforts to God.  As we read in Acts 2:47, it is the Lord who added daily to the number of those who were being saved.

 

A third thing we can learn from Paul is evangelical tenacity.  Paul’s successes in Athens may have been modest.  But he did not give up easily.  When his initials efforts in the synagogue and in the marketplace did not bear much fruit, he took his case for faith to the Areopagus— the toughest crowd in Athens.  He was fearless in making his case. At times it may seem that we are not making much headway in our efforts of bringing people to faith.  Paul teaches us not to give up easily.  With some people it may take years or even decades to come to faith.  We are to be tenacious in our efforts to share the faith with others.  But people will come to faith in God’s time.

 

I remember a retired man I met at the swimming pool in McMinnville.  He heard me talking to a member from our church and figured out that I was a pastor.  He started joining us in the hot tub after we would swim.  It was obvious that he had serious reservations about organized religion.  He pressed me on a number of issues.

 

One Sunday he decided to come to church to hear me preach, but he did not come up for communion.  He kept coming back on a regular basis.  He would then want to discuss the sermon in the hot tub at the pool.  It was a variation on St. Andrew’s Tuesday men’s breakfast at Elmer’s.  While I was at Trinity in McMinnville, he never took communion and never joined the congregation.  After I left, I believe he kept going to Trinity.  I wonder if he ever joined or started taking communion.

 

A final insight I want to lift up from Paul is our status as God’s offspring.  As children of God, created in the image of God, our thoughts, words, and deeds reflect who we are and whose we are.  We do not bear witness to our faith simply when we are talking about God or about Jesus.  We bear witness with our whole lives to the one in whom we live and move and have our being.  We may not be bold apostles like Paul, but as God’s offspring we have a witness to bear.

 

Paul did not have an opportunity to develop this image of God’s offspring in detail in his sermon in the Areopagus.  Our gospel reading develops it more.  As children of God we reveal who we are and whose we are most fully in loving God and one another.  Our love for God and for others is grounded in God’s love and Jesus’ love for us.  In his farewell address to his disciples, Jesus assures them: “I will not leave you orphaned.”  The children of God live with confidence knowing that the living God, the God who created all things, the God who raised Jesus from the dead will never abandon them.  The good news of this living God needs to be made known.

 

In Jesus’ name, AMEN.