Sermon for April 27, 2008

MODERN MARVELS:  A GOD WE KNOW!

       Howard Hendricks, President of Dallas Theological Seminary said, “In the midst of a generation screaming for answers, Christians are stuttering.”
       Relationships usually begin with conversation.  Somehow, sometime, there is talk and there is listening.  Experts say the major reason Americans often don’t know their next door neighbors is because they do not talk with each other much any more!  In “Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down” the loss of the front year porch, fences, backyard patios, computers and cell phones—all of these modern marvels work against something that is foundational to all of civilization—conversation that brings relationships!
        In our first reading for today, there is are some relationships happening, and they are happening because of good old fashioned conversation—actually several of them.  Paul has some conversations with Jews and God-fearing Greeks in the synagogue in Athens, they talked with others, and pretty soon Paul was invited to have a “conversation” with the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers—or at least some of them—of Athens.  There definitely were some relationships in the offing, but the conversation with the philosophers would be antagonistic, as some are.
       We live in a part of the country once known as “the old west”.  For a brief period in American history the old west was the stuff of trappers, wagon trains, buffaloes, Indians, cattle drives, cavalry and cowboys.  A lot of people made new friends and even found someone to marry traveling and working in the old west.  On the trail drives, in the wagon trains, trapping, mining—there was a lot of talking and listening.  But there was a also a code of silence for some folks in the old west—they didn’t want to be known or to get to know anyone else.
        The story is told of two cowboys, partners in a remote and lonely winter line camp who heard bellowing noises in the night.
        One of them suggested, “Bull”?
        The other said, “Sounds like an old steer to me.”
        Not another word was spoken and both went to bed.  The next morning one of the cowboys began packing his horse.
        “Leaving”?, asked his companion.
        The other replied, “Yes, too much argument.”

        It’s impossible to build a relationship, to get to know each other, without conversation.  Still we always hear, in polite company, you never talk about politics or religion!  And thus, of course, we leave a great deal of one another undiscovered for politics and religion are powerful and emotional places people live.
       Paul and Silas have been in prison in Philippi; then they were stripped and beaten.  In Thessalonica, they stayed with Jason and barely escaped a mob that drug Jason and some other Christians to jail and they had to post bond in order to get out just because they helped Paul tell about Jesus.  In Berea things seemed good for a few days, then some of the folks from Thessalonica came and incited the Bereans and Paul had to flee to the Mediterranean coast and finally he ended up in Athens near the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula.  One might have suspected that he, like the cowboys would say little, and lay low.
       Athens!  Athens—the city of democracy and philosophy and medicine and incredible wealth!  Athens—the city of enlightenment, of education, of Socrates and Plato and Aristotle, of medicine and the science of the body.  Athens—the city of incredible FAITH! And Paul goes to the central marketplace in Athens, the Agora and begins to talk religion!
        Talk about religion!  Curiously for all of their beliefs, the Greeks of Paul’s day had no word for “religion”.  The nearest terms were eusebeia (“piety”) and threskeia (“cult”).  But they did believe, they did have a faith.  In fact they recognized some say 12, others 13 major gods including Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Apollo, Aphrodite, Ares, and Athena. In different locations these gods had such different histories with the local peoples as often to make them rather distinct gods or goddesses.
        But the idea of a god or the gods or any god, distinct and different from people who somehow exercised authority over all creation, or even a god who had made everything was not present in their belief system.  A God who was not subject to human temptations and passions and does not act as humans do was not believed in.
       What is very interesting to me is the Greeks spoke of their religious activity but this did not imply the existence of any authoritative set of "beliefs.  To them the existence of the gods was a given, and it would have made no sense to ask whether someone "believed" that the gods existed..  They didn’t ask, “which god do you believe in or even do you believe in a god?”—because the existence of gods was simply accepted as a fact. 
        There was no single true way to live in dealing with the gods. Each individual city was responsible for its own temples and sacrifices, and wealthy people sponsored the "leitourgeiai" (literally, "works for the people," from which the word "liturgy" comes) --the festivals, processions, choruses, dramas, and games held in honor of the gods. Fathers were responsible for sacrifices in their own households, and women often had private religious rites.
Finally, the lines between divinity and humanity were in some ways clearly defined, in other ways ambiguous. Of course gods had sired children with human women and goddesses had borne the children of human lovers, but also after death outstanding humans could receive cultic honors for their deeds during life--in other words, a hero cult. For instance, even during life, victors at the Olympics, for instance, were considered to have acquired extraordinary power, and they could be chosen as generals in time of war. Itinerant healers and famous priests or priestesses would sometimes be called into a city to deliver it from disasters as "saviors."
       To put it differently, “salvation” could come from divine or human hands and, in any event, the Greeks offered cultic honors to abstractions like Chance, Necessity, and Luck, divinities who stood in ambiguous relation to the personalized gods of the tradition. All in all, we might say from our perspective that the Greeks were very “religious” people with many gods.  Do we not experience today people who are very religious but whose gods are very different from the one who has revealed himself in creation, in Jesus Christ, and in the written Word of God?
       And here is Paul, formerly Saul, walking the streets of this incredibly famous and beautiful city—a legend, a wonder.  He is listening to these Greeks of Athens, asking questions, making conversation, forming relationships  And he is invited to come and speak with Athenian philosophers who have been told about his teaching in the synagogues and marketplace.  They will agree with him or disagree with him based upon their personal faiths.
And the place they invite him to speak with them is the Areopagus.  The Areopagus is the 'Hill of Ares', north-west of the Acropolis, which in classical times functioned as the chief homicide court of Athens. Halfway up one side of the Acropolis on which the Parthenon and other temples stood, was an area of level ground with a central mound for a speaker or speakers to use.
        By Paul’s time the Areopagus had changed from a court for murder trials and acquired a more general investigative function.  If there is anyone historically you and I know of that should not be in an investigative court of any type, it would be this man.  He has been in many courts and will be in more; he has been exiled, beaten, fined, and rebuked.  And now he accepts an invitation to speak to highly educated and very “religious” philosophers in the city of thinking, the city of Athens, in court….and he accepts!
       You must think that Pastor Cattau and I watch a lot of television.  First I preached on the theme “Deal? Or No Deal?”.  Last week Pastor’s sermon was “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”.  And I have chosen the title for today “Modern Marvels: The God We Know!”  But really connecting the divine and the dependable with what people experience regularly in the culture in which they live is exactly what Paul did and was doing in our epistle lesson for today.
       Because Paul used the opportunity these philosophers gave him to talk with them about Jesus Christ!  And the doorway he walked through was to point out that among all of the gods and goddesses recognized and worshipped in just that one incredible city, there was even an altar inscribed: “TO AN UNKNOWN GOD”. 
       In addition to the main gods and the innumerable lesser deities, ancient Greeks worshiped a deity they called Agnostos Theos, that is: the Unknown god. In Athens, there was a temple specifically dedicated to that god and very often Athenians would swear "in the name of the Unknown god" The Unknown god was not so much a specific deity, but a placeholder, for whatever god or gods actually existed but whose name and nature had not yet been revealed to men as had their others.
       The poet-philosopher Epimenides is credited with the idea of creating an altar to the unknown god six centuries prior. The Apostle Paul is familiar with Epimenides and several of the Greek poets.  Epiminides is the one who wrote “in him we live and move and have our being” and the poets Aratus and Cleanthes both used the phrase “we are his offspring”.  You heard both phrases read in our lesson a few minutes ago.  Paul is making use of the things they understand mutually. Now Paul was telling them that Epimenides was correct—there was an unknown god of which they did not know, the God explained in the Hebrew Bible and the God who was Jesus Christ and now they could believe and worship a known God!.
     “But now”, Paul says, “Now I will tell you who is the unknown god you have built an altar and taken oaths to.  He is a modern marvel, the Lord of heaven and earth and he does not live in temples or served as these gods here demand.  This ONE god made everything and has need of nothing!  But he is interested in a relationship with humans—not whimsical or cruel as so many of these gods are, but a God who gave this earth to man to manage and who asks that man repent of its mismanagement and his idolatry.  And the judge he has appointed has already paid the price and risen from the dead.”
     Now that was the topper!  The Greeks believed in the immortality of the soul to some extent, but not in the resurrection of the body.  So some wanted to hear no more, but others said, “Let’s go again tomorrow”.  In our text it says that one member of the Areopagus became a follower of Christ!
       Modern Marvels.  The television show investigates and explains things we now have and enjoy or inventions that are being employed by humans, or things that can now be understood in a way we never knew before.  I think you would enjoy the show on the History Channel.  And Paul is explaining what he thinks is a modern marvel to very modern Greeks.  That marvel is God—Jehovah, Triune, Jesus, the Spirit, the Father.  The only God and he is a God we know and he knows us.  He has always been, he will always be, and he came into our world, in the flesh, to save us from our corruption.
     Paul never quit trying, he never quit witnessing, and he never stopped searching for a way to build a relationship with a person by conversing with you.  He always wanted to find a way to talk about God!  Paul wanted you to meet Jesus Christ and experience the life change he means.   Isn’t that still an option—a calling—for us who are built up to be a spiritual priesthood and a holy nation to serve a God who is known?
       Is a Christian Church a place where Christian gather or is it a place where Christians prepare to introduce others to Jesus?  Though the answer to that question is certainly “yes” to both, we often end up mostly doing the former.  And it is great to get together, but what about the rest of it, the calling we have as followers of Jesus to introduce them to a god who loves them, knows them, and became one of them in order to take their judgment?
What makes people hesitate to share their faith? Here are some of the fears that have been mentioned to me: "I am afraid I might do more harm than good." "I don't know what to say." "I may not be able to give plausible answers to tricky questions." "I may seem bigoted." "I may invade someone's privacy." "I am afraid I might fail." "I am afraid I might be a hypocrite." Perhaps the most common fear, however, is that of being rejected.  A survey was given to those attending training sessions for a Billy Graham crusade in Detroit. One question asked, "What is your greatest hindrance in witnessing?" 9% said they were too busy to remember to do it. 28% felt the lack of real information to share. None said they didn't really care. 12% said their own lives were not speaking as they should.
       Billy Graham tells of a time, during the early years of his preaching ministry, when he was due to lead a crusade meeting in a town in South Carolina, and he needed to mail a letter. He asked a little boy in the main street how he could get to the post office. After the boy had given him directions, Billy said, "If you come to the central Baptist church tonight, I'll tell you how to get to heaven." The boy replied, "No thanks, you don't even know how to get to the post office!"
But by far the largest group were the 51% whose biggest problem was the fear of how the other person would react!
       A conversation, especially early in a relationship is risky.  Will the other person accept what I tell them about me and like or respect me?  Will they want to keep the relationship with me or even will they want it to deepen and grow?  Having a conversation about God is risky for sure but it is important to remember that all conversations are so.  One conversation I was told about.
"You know, dear," he said breaking the long silence.
"I've been thinking over our argument."
"Well," she snapped, without looking up from her reading.
"Yes, dear, I've decided to agree with you after all," he said meekly.
"That won't do you any good," she sniffed. "I've changed my mind."
All conversations are risky but the relationship will not grow without them.

When someone is facing a great challenge we might offer to pray with them—that is a conversation too.  We might ask a question or two like:

Talk . . . and listen.  We might even invite them to come and hear more about this marvelous God—at our church!

       A model from the world of real estate becomes instructive at this point. A firm in Salem, Oregon, assigns 500 families to each agent. Agents are expected to contact each assigned family once per month for a year. The contact may be personal, a telephone call, or a letter. Research indicates that it takes at least six contacts for people to remember who the agent is and the firm represented. During this time of "building relationships," agents are encouraged not to go in the house (good psychology, everyone else is trying to get their foot in the door). Furthermore, they are encouraged not to ask for a listing during this "get acquainted" time. Obviously, there would be exceptions to these restrictions, but they do illustrate an understanding of what it takes to create a favorable climate for selling real estate. After the initial year of regular contacts, the agent continues to communicate with the assigned families on a scheduled, systematic basis. Research reveals that if this pattern is followed consistently for one-year-and-a-half, the agent will secure 80% of the listings. 
What does the real estate firm know that we either do not know or overlook? First, people do not like to be confronted by strangers seeking entrance into their homes. In fact, in many communities this is socially unacceptable. The sales person or any other unknown professional who arrives at the door is automatically confronted with a high sales resistance. If the door is opened, it is done with a determination not to be "taken in" by sales talk. The salesperson professionally represents the product, and consequently the sales pitch is discounted at least 50 percent.  However, if a friend comes over and shares a glowing personal testimony concerning the value of the agent's product, the reaction is apt to be markedly different. A satisfied customer makes the most effective salesperson. Second, people are more inclined to do business with acquaintances than strangers.  Third, it takes time and effort to build a healthy decision-making climate. Fourth, there is no substitute for time. Often it is necessary to "make haste slowly."
 (Joe Aldrich, Friendship Evangelism, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.)
       As we heard in our Epistle lesson for today we must always be ready to talk about our faith in Jesus.  I pray that we will be people who share our faith in Castle Rock.  I pray that we will not hesitate to take a risk and be a friend, to have a conversation that shares the greatest of all modern marvels—God himself!