Today our lesson from Acts tells of Paul preaching in Athens, Greece, a place that is very similar to our 21st Century American culture. So I want to look closely at what Paul says: Acts ch17 p1010.
Paul has been preaching in Greece and stirring up controversy. So some of the believers decide to get him out of their town before he gets thrown out, and they literally drop him off all by himself in the big city of Athens. Then they send word to some of his other friends to meet him there and take him to their town. So that's where we pick up in ch17 v16: Paul is on a layover in Athens.
Just a couple of words about the place of Athens. In Paul's time, Athens was no longer a military or political center. But it was still a great cultural and intellectual center in the Roman Empire. The citizens of Athens were regarded as very hip and cutting edge. They were the trendsetters. They were always on the lookout for the newest thing to come down the pipe. Luke even describes it in Acts 17 v21: "Now all the Athenians and the foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new."
And one of the trendiest things in Athens was new teachings about religion. Athenians dabbled in every sort of worship that was present in the known world. Because of that they had the highest concentration of pagan idols of any city in the empire. One ancient writer said that there were more idols in Athens than in the rest of Greece combined. Another said that there were more gods than people in Athens. Religiously, Athens was a lot like our culture. It was a culture of cafeteria religion. A little bit of this. A little bit of that. Whatever floats your boat. Have a little nibble, a little sample of every god out there.
Luke tells us about Paul's reaction in v16: "He was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols."
And instead of letting things slide, Paul speaks up. He stands in the middle of the Areopagus, a place where Socrates and Plato had taught.
First, he begins by meeting the people right where they are. v22 He acknowledges that they are very religious. And v23, he says that while in Athens he observed an altar dedicated to an unknown god.
This was simply a way the Athenians made sure they had all the bases covered. A shrine for every god. Plus one extra just in case they missed honoring any gods. But Paul uses this as an entry to start talking about the one true God. End of v23: "What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you." You already have an altar to the real God in your midst, you just didn't realize it.
Second, he proclaims this God is the creator of everything. That sets this God apart from all the false gods worshipped in Athens. v24 "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." In other words, the real God doesn't need shrines and temples created by humans. After all, he created humans. He created everything!
And third, and most important, this creator God is not just knowable through his creation. He is more perfectly knowable in a person, Jesus Christ. God will send Jesus to judge the earth. v31 "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." In other words, the resurrection proves that Jesus' message is true.
Now, if you've noticed, Paul is doing something here that we're often very hesitant to do. He is in the midst of a pagan culture with lots of different religious options. Yet he makes a very specific claim. It's not very politically correct. But he does it anyway. He makes the claim that everything hinges on the person and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He just lays it out there. He starts where the people are. But he doesn't stop there. He ends very specifically with Jesus. Take it or leave it.
And the reaction is just that. v32 Some people scoff. Some people are open to hearing more. v34, "Some of them joined him and became believers."
Paul could have watered things down to make them more palatable. He could have compromised on the Gospel message that he had been given. He could have left out the stuff about resurrection and made his message more popular. But he doesn't do that.
Instead, he preaches Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. Take it or leave it. The fact that it may be offensive to some people doesn't stop Paul.
Now like Paul, we also live in a very pluralistic culture. And I'm afraid that we can be so hypersensitive that we fall short of proclaiming our faith. Plus we have other Christians who are rather insensitive about how they proclaim the Gospel. Those factors combine into a perfect storm that often makes us want to keep our faith privatized. If we keep our faith tightly under wraps, then we won't run the risk of offending anyone.
But that's not what Paul did. And, by the way, that's not what Jesus did either. They didn't keep their faith private. They lived out their faith in very public ways. Jesus was so public about his faith that he was killed for it by public execution. And Paul was so public about his faith in Jesus' death and resurrection, that he proclaimed it boldly in the marketplace of ideas.
We're often hesitant to be so bold. Part of our problem as 21st Century American Christians is we tend to confuse personal faith with private faith. There's been a strange idea in recent years that any religious faith needs to be held privately, that it's inappropriate to express our faith in the public square, in the public marketplace of ideas. The argument is made that religious people should keep quiet about their faith because of the "wall of separation between church and state."
And yet that wall was never meant to keep faith and morality out of the public discourse. The wall of separation was intended to be one way. In fact, when President Jefferson first coined the phrase in 1802, he was speaking very directly to a group of Baptists about the need to keep government from meddling in personal religious beliefs. But nowhere did he mention keeping religion out of the public square. The wall was one way, to keep the government out of personal beliefs.
In other words, religious beliefs are personal, but in a Democracy they should never be private. Religious conscience and religious beliefs always have a place in public debates.
After all, if Martin Luther King, Jr. had kept his religious convictions private, there would have been no civil rights movement. If the abolitionists had kept their beliefs private, we might have slavery still.
Thus, as Christians, we should have no fear about standing up in public and saying, "Because I'm a Christian, because of my personal relationship with Jesus Christ, I'm concerned about the poor, whom my Lord commanded me to care for. I'm concerned about taking care of the world that God has given us as his stewards, his mangers. I'm worried about trying to bring peace and justice to all of God's people.
Now, as Christians we might have legitimate disagreements about public policy. We can debate about whether this law or that law is a better way carrying out the Gospel.
For example, does it help the poor more to give them money or job training? Does the Gospel call us to give a hand out or a hand up or something else? Well, good Christians can disagree and debate about that.
Or, what's the best way to secure peace and justice? Does the Gospel call us to be strict pacifists, or can force be used? Can you use the military to secure peace? Again, good Christians can debate that.
That the Gospel calls us to care for the poor or work for peace are non-negotiable. How we best arrive at those goals in a democratic society is up for debate. And good Christians in our country might come to differing conclusions, good Christians end up voting as either Republicans or Democrats.
But as people of faith we're not given the luxury of hiding our faith, or keeping our light under the basket. Our faith is not meant to be a private affair between us and Jesus. Instead, Jesus calls us into a personal relationship with him so that we may minister to the world in his name. Our faith is meant to be very personal, but never private.
And having a public, personal faith, doesn't mean that we can't interact with people who have differing views.
I've attended worship services at the local Mosque as well as the Synagogue. I didn't hide the fact that I was a Christian, nor that I was a Christian minister. Also, I'm not planning to convert to Islam or Judaism. And I'm pretty sure that neither the Imam nor the Rabbi are planning to become Christians.
But in a pluralistic society, the solution is not for all of us to keep our faiths private so as not to offend each other. Our local Rabbi and Imam are very clear and vigorous in talking about their faiths. We need to be public about our faith.
Like Paul in the Areopagus, we have to put our faith right out there in the public marketplace of ideas. And, yes, we have to coexist with others who make different truth claims. We have to trust that in the clash of ideas in the public marketplace, God will make the true Truth known in his good time.
And in the meantime, we are called to minister as disciples of Jesus Christ to the people around us everyday in our neighborhoods, in our workplaces, in our schools.
May God give us the grace to proclaim our faith boldly. May God help us live out our personal convictions in the way we act in the public square.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Rev. James P. Haney V
Good Shepherd Episcopal Church
Wichita, Kansas
April 27, 2008
