The Reading
Acts 17:16-31
While Paul was
waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed to see that the city was
full of idols. 17 So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout
persons, and also in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be
there. 18 Also some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers debated with him. Some
said, "What does this babbler want to say?" Others said, "He
seems to be a proclaimer of foreign divinities." (This was because he was
telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.) 19 So they took him
and brought him to the Areopagus and asked him, "May we know what this new
teaching is that you are presenting? 20 It sounds rather strange to us, so we
would like to know what it means." 21 Now all the Athenians and the
foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing but telling or
hearing something new. 22 Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said,
"Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. 23 For as
I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I
found among them an altar with the inscription, "To an unknown god.' What
therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made
the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not
live in shrines made by human hands, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as
though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and
breath and all things. 26 From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the
whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of
the places where they would live, 27 so that they would search for God and
perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of
us. 28 For "In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of
your own poets have said, "For we too are his offspring.' 29 Since we are
God's offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver,
or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. 30 While God
has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people
everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will have the
world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he
has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead."I am deeply
distressed with what I see and hear
This week, I
had 3 sermons to prepare. One was for a
funeral service for the husband of someone at St James and St Matthews where I
have been working as coverage pastor. One is for the English worship service
with the Church of Grace to the Fujianese (which I will be running to right
after communion) and one is for right now, here at St Jacobus. Each one is different.
I did not
know Ricardo, the man who passed away, well. I had meet him and his family a
few times in the hospital during the last weeks of his life. I learned that he was a kind, generous,
helpful, dedicated and caring man. I also learned that while most of his wife’s
family were Christian and members of several churches in Queens, most of his
family were Hindu. (This is rather common in Guyana, where they were from). Ricardo seemed to be someplace in the middle
of these 2 faiths. It made preparing for
this service with care challenging, everything I would normally say at a
funeral had to be reconsidered.
The English
worship for the church of Grace to the Fujianase meets in Rainbow Classroom C
and has about 30 or 40 young people ranging from 4th grade to
college. Here, sermons are expected to be
45 minutes to an hour (a time mark their pastor consistently reminds me I have
not yet met). , I fill in the rest of
the sermon time with small group discussions based on some guiding questions. I lead this service a few times a year,
probably once every 6 or 7 weeks. There
is no real rhyme or reason to my scheduling. There are 2 other pastors who alternate
leading this service and I cover when neither of them can. I really do not know
what readings or topics they talk about.
Finally, I
get to my most comfortable sermon, here at St Jacobus. I have been standing at
this pulpit (or near it) for almost 9 years, sharing sermons that are 12 – 15
minutes. I know most of you well. We
have meet for bible study, coffee hours and conversation, I have visited you
when you were sick, we have prayed together, I
helped you to celebrate the life of loved ones who have gone before us,
been part of life passages like graduations, baptisms, first communions,
weddings, confirmations and funerals. I
know what is relevant in the community, what the readings are each week, I know
where we are on the narrative lectionary, the list of reading we follow. I know
where in the scriptures we have been and where we are going.
For each of
these sermons, the preparations, needs and expectations are different. For the
funeral and English worship, I have to select the readings, here I am following
a list. For the funeral and English worship, I do not really know who would be
there. Here I have a good sense of who will be at church for worship.
I talk about
all this because in today’s reading, we see how St. Paul writes sermons. In all
of his messages, Paul points to God as creator and redeemer, reminding the
hearer and reader that God is present in the world. We see how Paul prepares, what the most
important things are and how he adjusts based on the type of community he is
in, their beliefs and culture. The
message of Jesus Christ, crucified, dead and resurrected for the forgiveness of
our sins is unchanging, how it is told shifts drastically. Paul starts with
prayer and with knowing that this is God’s word. The same Spirit and voice that
struck him weak and blind and restores him, the same Spirit he receives in
Baptism is with him, it is this Spirit at work. Paul goes on to knowing where
he is, walking the city, observing the idols and carefully learning,
understanding the beliefs of the community. He knows or gets to know the
dominant philosophies. The epicureans taught materialism, a belief in what you
see is it. They had no room for faith and rejected divine intervention. For
them pleasure here and now is the greatest good. They were not hedonists
though, The absence of pain and fear, expressed in living a simple life was the
greatest of all pleasure. The Stoics
accepted things as they are and thought all knowledge could be obtained in
studying the natural world. For them reasonable virtue is the only good. They
have some space for God, as they understand the passive (unknown) and active
(experienced) power of something outside us.
Once Paul
sees this, he starts to preach. To the Epicureans, the absence of pain and fear
comes from knowing you are loved by God. To the stoics, God, who is revealed
through Christ, is the unknown becoming known.
To the jewish community Paul talks prophets, scriptures and
promises.. For idol worshippers, Paul
gets that they are worshipping God, just unclearly, in a unnecessary and
confusing way, he tells them God does not live in places or objects made with
human hands.
Paul was a 3rd
or 4th generation Pharisee, well known in Jewish communities, well
studied in the scriptures, law and greek styles of argument. He was born a
Roman Citizen (a status that he uses to escape harm and keep on preaching).
Paul is a tentmaker and works at this where ever he goes (despite arguing that
those who spread the word of God should be compensated, he chooses to support
himself though his trade) He uses all
things to proclaim the Gospel.
I started
out talking about having 3 sermons to write this week but really, everyday,
each of us writes sermons, communicative acts, rooted in God’s word and Holy
Spirit meant to share our faith and care for our neighbors. We face a
completely different technology, culture and society. No one sits around all
day in the square and listens to new ideas like they did in ancient Athens. At the
same time a lot of people sit around all day checking and rechecking social
media feeds. The philosophies have not
changed too much either. The epicurean
philosophy that left no room for God is subtly replaced by the same idea just
adding a scientific covering and dumping a lot of that talk about virtue, pleasure
and common good (finding profit to be a much higher good). We face
the loss of faith, connection, community and common space. We have many people
who unknowingly or downright openly worship the idols of wealth and fame. There
is war, violence, unfairness and inequality. Of course churches are not outside all this, There are nasty, brutal and
anxiety or fear driven things done by churches and pastors all the time. We
have the answers for all that.
Paul’s
background work has all been done, If you do a quick search online, lots of
Christian groups or churches have lists of how to talk with Muslims, atheists,
Mormons, Hindus, Buddhists, pagans, etc about Jesus. They detail the same
observations that Paul observed in the greek and Jewish traditions, Approaches
to understand what they believe and invite them to see things differently. Sometimes, I write this off as memorizing a
script but the truth is, we are not trying anything different and we are fading
away.
I am not
suggesting that following Paul’s approach to sharing the Gospel is perfect and
always successful. It was not even for him.
We do not get to the end of this story about Paul preaching in the
public square of Athens. After days and
days, he converts a handful but ultimately Paul gets laughed out of the
city.
The point is
that we need to share the joy that is in us.
Overcome shyness and be authentic, tell people that Jesus loves them
because we want to, because we care about their salvation and about making a
better world for all.
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