29 May 2011

“Love will keep us together”
Acts 17:16-34 / John 14:15-21
Easter 6A
29 May 2011


“Anything on which your heart relies and depends, I say, that is really your God.”
Fifteen hundred years before Martin Luther wrote those words in his Large Catechism, Paul was surely thinking them as he roamed the streets of Athens, waiting for his friend Silas and Timothy to arrive.
Athens wasn’t the center of the world – that honor now belonged to Rome – but it was the “second city” and the gateway to the Roman Empire’s eastern possessions. It also was the home of the great philosophical movements of the time … different ideas about how to live in the world. And then there was all that history, bearing testimony to the time two hundred years earlier when Greece was the great military and political power.
And so it was into this scene that Paul entered, the apostle to the Gentiles in one of the biggest cities of the Gentile world at the time … and he was fumin’ mad.
Because, besides all that history and philosophy and politics, there was a lot of religion going on in Athens. But none of it was the kind Paul was proclaiming and living.
There were temples and shrines to the great Greek gods, the ones you can still read about in books like “The Odyssey” and “The Adventures of Hercules.” There were temples and shrines to the Roman gods, like Jupiter and Venus. And there were temples and shrines to the gods of the other nations of the Roman Empire … Artemis of the Ephesians; Ra of the Egyptians … as well as synagogues for the city’s many Jews.
But there was nothing … no shrine, no temple, not even a statue erected to the one God Paul knew personally … Jesus Christ, the One who had appeared to Paul and changed his life forever – who told Paul that his mission was to go to places like Athens and speak his name to the people there.
Paul knew he had his work cut out for him there in Athens. There was lots of religion around …temples and statues and shrines on every street corner … but none of these proclaimed God’s truth as Paul knew it to be. There was no church in Athens. Paul was probably the only Christian for miles.
So what did he do?
Did he carry things out in the way much of the evangelism in the world happens today … the three “C”s … confront, convict, and convert? That’s what many Christians believe they need to do in a world, a place and time, a part of the country that looks a lot like Paul’s Athens – not very Christian.
First, confront people and tell them how wrong they are.
Then, convict them by quoting Bible passage after Bible passage, telling them how much they’ve sinned, and that if they don’t accept Jesus as their savior, they’ll burn in hell for eternity.
And then, finally, convert them – bring them to Christ, by force, if necessary.
That’s evangelism for many, many people … many, many churches, in the past right up to today. And lots of people still think that way; some, maybe even our friends and neighbors.
But it’s not the way Paul chose to work in Athens.
So what did he do there? And how might it be helpful to us as we search for ways to share the story of Jesus with others?
Well, first of all, notice where Paul went. Yes, he did go to the synagogue … his own people, the Jews … but he also went to the marketplace, the civic center of Athens, the place where people came and bought and sold and visited with one another, telling stories and sharing the latest news.
Paul didn’t restrict himself to life with like-minded people. He deliberately went out and engaged others who were different from him.
So the first helpful note for us is … if you want to tell people about Jesus, don’t just hang around other Christians. Go to the places where you’ll meet and be with people who are different than you. Understand what’s happening in the popular culture. Be able to speak the language of people today. Christianity was never meant to be a separatist society, breaking off like a cult to be removed from the rest of the world. Christians are called to be engaged in conversation and life with other people, whether they are Christian or not.
Now for our second point, we’ll have to correct the English translation of a couple of words. Paul is said to be “arguing” with the Jews in the synagogue and with the people in the marketplace, and “debating” with the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers – more about those names in a minute.
But in the original Greek language of Acts, what Paul was doing here is simply engaging in dialog … conversing, conferring, presenting his case. He’s not attacking these people for their unbelief, confronting them for what he sees as wrong religion. He’s not ridiculing them for what they believe or don’t believe.
The practice of the time among learned people was to engage in what was called “Socratic discourse,” named after Socrates, the famous Greek philosopher. We might think of a round table or panel discussion on an issue – not a debate or an argument, but a calm dialogue about issues.
And that is what Paul was doing in Athens … engaging them, where they were, approaching them in a friendly manner or being approached himself and asked to discuss what he believed in … his religion, his philosophy of life.
And there were many different, competing philosophies in that Athens marketplace. Among them, Epicureanism … always searching for happiness and ease of life, and avoiding pain and suffering at all costs. And Stoicism … kind of the opposite of Epicureanism; being indifferent to pain and suffering; “taking it like a man” but also not being moved by the suffering of others; being passionless and emotionally solid, like a rock.
These two competing philosophies were so far from what Paul believed, and what Jesus taught and lived, it would have been quite easy for Paul to just lash out at the Athenians, to curse or make fun of them. But he didn’t. He respected their differences as he discussed what he believed.
And that brings us to another point. Paul didn’t assume that the Athenians were not spiritual or religious just because they believed differently than he did. Far from it! Hear how he starts his speech: “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way.” Just because those Athenians weren’t Christians, didn’t mean they weren’t interested in religion or spirituality.
And this applies particularly to us here in the Pacific Northwest. Yes, on any given weekend, only about 7% of us are engaged in a worship experience. But the majority of us … our friends and neighbors, our family members who don’t worship, who aren’t part of a faith community … still consider themselves to be religious, to be spiritual.
If you don’t believe this, well, what do you think that the primary topic of interest were at the local Starbucks … the bar … the gym, over the past month? May 21 … the Rapture … the end of the world.
So for us, we need to take a cue here from Paul as well. We can’t assume that our neighbor, our friend, our family member who doesn’t worship has no interest or knowledge in things spiritual. Because we would most likely be wrong.
People are in a tender space these days. Unemployment, high prices, economic uncertainty, political uncertainty … people are raw and hurting. They are looking for truth. And you may be the only person they meet who has had an encounter with a loving, accepting, forgiving, renewing faith community in the past week – you may be the only one who can bring them Jesus.
So will you? Will we? In words, in actions, thoughts and feelings that are real and authentic, reflecting, bearing the love of the One who brings us and keeps us together, a love that they can get, they can connect with, that they can take into their very selves?

This is what Paul did with those Athenians, after all. But maybe we’re looking for more help here, with what to say. After all, we’re Lutherans … speaking publicly about our faith is something new and perhaps … no, probably … uncomfortable for us.
So what did Paul actually say to these Athenians … what was his main point, what he was trying to convince them of, what he was “selling” them?
Was it … tradition? Systematic theology? Doctrine and dogma? Worship forms and styles? Hymnals and albs?
Nope.
It was the one thing, the one point that is the heart of the Word about Jesus.
The Resurrection.
The one, unique aspect of being a believer in Jesus Christ is not the tradition, the hymns, the buildings, the institution of the church … none of that … BUT THAT GOD BECAME A MAN, HE LIVED OUR LIFE, HE DIED OUR DEATH, AND HE ROSE AGAIN … DEATH NO LONGER HAS POWER OVER US.
Ouch. That one hurts.
Because, what do we usually say when conversation with another rolls around to matters of faith?
WE TELL THEM ABOUT EVERYTHING ELSE OTHER THAN JESUS.
We talk about our beautiful buildings … our lovely worship services … our nice pastor.
These all may be good topics for conversation.
But none of these are central to our faith.
Only the Resurrection can claim that spot.
And Paul’s speech to the Athenians does exactly that. He uses quotes from their poets and philosophers. He points out their altar to what they called in Greek “Agnosto Theo” – the unknown god – it was something the Athenians had put up just to cover their bases, to make sure that they honored all the gods, even the ones they didn’t know about yet.
But the main point of his speech is right there in his final words – “Of this he has given assurance to all by raising him” – Jesus – “from the dead.”
The Athenians didn’t know about Jesus – they were AGNOSTICS because they only guessed about Agnosto Theo – the unknown God.
But Paul did know Jesus.
And you know Jesus.
As he says in the Gospel reading, you know him.
Like Paul, you and I have been given the Spirit of truth, in our baptism, in this meal we’ll soon share, in these times of worship together.
We know Jesus. We know him in the very fibre of our being … how he came to earth as one of us, lived our lives as one of us, suffered our lot in life, died our death, but rose again to put death to death forever.
We know Jesus. Here we have seen, and touched him. Felt his splash of grace on our foreheads. Held him close in the welcoming embrace of another. Tasted the goodness of his love in his meal of welcome, forgiveness, new life, and strengthening for service.
And so, like Paul, you and I have no choice but to search out those Athenians and speak about him. Maybe not on the hill of the Areopagus in Athens, Greece … but certainly on this hill and others … Fairwood and Renton and Kent. In Seattle and Tacoma and Tukwila and Bellevue. Anywhere where we encounter those who don’t know Jesus.
Yes, some will scoff and walk away. Others will want to hear more. And still others will join us and become believers.
Everywhere we go, there are empty places …empty hearts … waiting for someone to tell them who is the Unknown God.
You know him.
He abides with you.
He will be in you and with you always.
And the One who has been with you and in you will continue to be with you as you go into the world of the Athenians, to meet them on common ground, and tell them about this One who rose from the dead. For you and me, and them.
For us. Amen.