A Sermon Delivered at St. Matthew’s, St. Paul, April 27, 2008
Acts 17:22-31; 1st Peter 3:13-22; John 14:15-21
Blair Pogue
In the film “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” the main character’s father is a Greek emigrant to the United States who firmly believes that everything has a Greek origin. For him every word and expression, as well as every tradition worth passing on, originated in ancient Greece. In the ancient world, the same sentiment existed. Greece, and specifically Athens, was the place where every idea and trend worthy of emulation evolved.
In the biblical Book of Acts – the book recording the early history of the Christian movement after Jesus’ resurrection – the Apostle Paul finds himself in Athens after extensive travels in Asia. After spending time in an Athenian synagogue he moves to the marketplace where he engages in debates with Epicureans, Stoics, and anyone else who is interested. The Greeks or Gentiles with whom he speaks, confused by his words about Jesus and the resurrection, assume he is trying to introduce a foreign deity to the Greek pantheon, and take him to the Areopagus.
The Areopagus, an elevated, open-air site to the west of the Acropolis, was the place where the revered Socrates once taught. It was the place where Athens’ intellectuals analyzed and debated new ideas. While Paul may have also aired his ideas in front of a local council, the setting was more like that of a present-day university. “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?” the local leaders and intellectuals say to him, “It sounds rather strange to us, so we would like to know what it means.” Behind their words lay the questions, Who is your god and how does this god relate to Athens and our gods? What can your god do for us?
The story of God Paul shares with the Athenian intellectuals is pretty amazing. Imagine being asked to give a five to ten minute presentation about God in which you need to talk about creation and God’s relationship to humanity in language and images that make sense to the people to whom you speak. In a way, Paul’s task is quite similar to ours as 21st century Christians. We are called to share the faith that God has given us, the faith that has brought us new life and hope, with those who find it foreign. We are called to tell, in Brian McLaren’s words, “the story in which we find ourselves” in fresh ways that make the hearts of our listeners burn to learn more.
Paul’s approach is worthy of emulation. He studies the culture of the Athenians just as an anthropologist would do, paying attention to the words and symbols most important to them. He tells the story of God in an inviting, compelling way in which he is able to find much common ground with the Athenians. While initially offended by the Athenians’ idolatry – the proliferation of gods and shrines -- Paul is able to recognize that behind this pagan cornucopia lies not only superstition, the need for ritual, and an attempt to cover all spiritual bases, but also a deep spiritual longing. Standing in front of the Areopagus, Paul begins his presentation with the words, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way.” Paul can see that the proliferation of temples and even the altar to “an unknown god” reveals that the Athenians are on a pilgrimage in search of the Holy. God has made all people, including the Athenians, innately spiritual beings in search of their Creator.
From there Paul moves to tell his listeners about the unknown God they seek, the God he knows through revelation, experience, study and prayer. The God Paul knows is the one true God, not one more God among many. Paul’s God is a universal God, a God for everyone, not just the Athenians. This one God cares about the whole of creation, not just Athens. This Creator God made the entire world and everything in it and cannot be contained, limited or manipulated by shrines and offerings.
Paul continues his story by sharing that from one ancestor – Abraham -- God made and reached out to all nations. This God is closer to us than we know, desiring that his creatures seek and know him. Paul even goes so far as to quote an Athenian poet to show that he and the Athenians are standing on common, holy ground.
Up to this point Paul makes the case for one, all-powerful God by using what theologians call “Natural Theology.” This perspective, also appearing in the 1st chapter of Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome, says that God can be known – to a point – through the natural order. How can one look at the stars, human body, or the miracle of birth and not believe in God? And yet, learning about God through nature can only go so far. In nature things die, and there is violence between animals and from natural phenomena such as storms or earthquakes. While humans can intuit some things about God from the natural world, they can’t intuit everything they want and need to know.
Paul then makes an important turn toward revelation – what God has revealed in Jesus. This involves telling a story, not just appealing to what the Athenians already know. It is a new and fulfilling vision for human life in which all people are invited into God’s life-giving reign. It is a vision in which God’s people are called to purify their lives and world, a vision in which all people will be held accountable for how we’ve lived in relation to the rest of the world. It is a vision in which we are blessed not for ourselves, but to be a blessing to the world. We like Abraham and Sarah are blessed by God, not to hoard the blessing, but to share it – to speak and act boldly on God’s behalf, to, as the early Christians did, “turn the world upside down.”
What I like here is that while Paul does not water down his faith – what it means and what it demands – he shares it in an inviting way. As our reading from 1st Peter reminds us, “always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do so with gentleness and reverence.”
Before I went to seminary I lived for two years in Charlottesville, Virginia home of the University of Virginia. Almost every day I did research and wrote in a wonderful coffee shop on the corner of what is known as “the Corner.” The coffee shop was down the street from my Episcopal church, just across the street from the main university campus. In that coffee shop I met an amazing community of people, many of them graduate students representing every program in the humanities, and with them had wonderful discussions about God and the Christian faith. They approached me as I tried to do my work, wanting to talk about philosophical and theological questions near and dear to their hearts. As we developed friendships, they shared their curiosity with me, and I shared mine with them.
I don’t think it is an accident that God has put St. Matthew’s here just a short distance from several universities. I don’t think it is an accident God has put you in various spheres of influence in our society through your work, neighborhoods and civic involvements. We, like Paul, are to engage in conversations, in mutual dialogue, with those curious, seeking, hungry, searching. We have much to learn about God from them. But we also have a precious story to share—a story that has given us life and that bears the promise of life for the whole world. It is a story we are called to give away, with gentleness, reverence and hope. Amen.
