Not so Counter-Cultural Evangelism

Introduction

I would be remised were I not to point out where we are in the Liturgical calendar. Having opportunity to preach to this gathering only once a month, there are many traditions we observe as a faith universal, both binding us together as the Body of Christ, and edifying our walk. According to the Liturgical calendar, we are nearing the end of Christ’s 40-day presence with the disciples following his crucifixion, we celebrate his ascension on Thursday, and on our next meeting, June 4th, we will observe Pentecost, the outpouring of the Spirit amongst those gathered in the upper room.

Meditation

Before I begin with the message I have prepared, let us prepare our hearts and minds for worship. One quick thought on the time between now and when we last met. As a point of introduction, and perhaps even of relevance in regards to today’s message, I would like for us to recall the events of Easter as recorded in John. No not the celebration at the empty tomb many of us like to remember in place of the biblical account, but the fear, the shock, the lack of direction, and yes, the doubt. Not simply the doubt of Thomas, the disciple who earned the unfortunate attribution many like to join to his name, but the collective doubt of everyone gathered. Recall Ch 20, verses 19 & 20, “when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. It was then that it says “the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.” Even Mary, who wept in the tomb in verses 14 & 15, looked Jesus in the face, thinking she was addressing a groundskeeper and asked, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”

It says in verse 24 that Thomas was not with them when Jesus came, we don’t know where Thomas was, but we know he didn’t abandon the faith because a week later he’s with them when Jesus visits again, having already shown to the other 10 his wounds. Thomas famously replied to them as they proclaimed his appearance, “unless I put my finger in mark of the nails in his hands and put my hand in his side, I will not believe.” As we know, Jesus welcomed him to do so, to which Thomas exclaimed “my Lord and my God!” It may come as a surprise that this is the first time this is said about him. I propose, therefore, a more gracious memory of him, as Thomas, the confessor. Tradition holds that he was martyred in India some 4,000 miles away, roughly the distance between D.C. and North Pole, Alaska, traveled by foot, over mountain chains and desert. If you remember anything from this reflection, let it be that your doubt too, is forgiven, and that though we may doubt, that does not have to sum up our legacy. He who has suffered for the sake of all is the same ‘he’ who was named at his baptism as “my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.” If we add that to the narrative, doesn’t that say something about our favor before God?

I think that provides a good segue to today’s message, which comes from the lectionary text for today, .

Scripture

Turn with me now, and hear God’s word.

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[a] 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[b] 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.”

Sermon

So, a little background may be in order: there isn’t much distinction between Jew’s and Christian’s yet, so Paul, a Pharisee, has been traveling town to town preaching Jesus in synagogues, as stated above in verse 2, “as was his custom.” It doesn’t seem that this is as radical a move as it would be today, even described above in verse 11 that the Bereans “welcomed the message very eagerly and examined the scriptures every day to see whether these things were so.” Nevertheless, an uproar was incited, so intense that Paul was sent away by the believers to Athens.

To provide some orientation, Paul is in Turkey and Greece, territories free from the authority of the Jewish leaders. Nevertheless, it’s not the religion as a whole with which people are finding issue with, it's making their case, its teachings within it. In verses 6-7, the Jews claim they “have been turning the world upside down… They are all acting contrary to the decrees of the emperor, saying that there is another king named Jesus,” which is a crime, and how they frame their argument. These charges must have been serious, forcing Paul’s rather hasty departure, because we’re told in verses 14-16 that Paul was separated from his traveling companions Silas and Timothy.

That’s where this passage picks up, as Paul awaited the arrival of Silas and Timothy, “16bhe was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols.” So, what does he do? Does he accuse random people of Sin and preach repentance? No! He spread the Gospel, literally translated, Good News. As was his style, he found some Jews in the synagogue and also began teaching in the marketplace to those who happened to be there.

But wait, didn’t I just say he didn’t just start by preaching repentance to random people? Yes, I did, and there’s a difference between being hostile and loving, and I’ll come back to that in a minute, but this style of teaching in the market isn’t quite out of the ordinary for Greeks. Paul was a Roman Citizen, and well versed in philosophy. Ancient Greeks were preoccupied with the search for aesthetic beliefs, a system which fully and articulately rationalized and gave order to the things around them. They searched for truth. Teachers would teach in the open air of marketplaces, and this is something that was rather done for fun. These teachers were highly regarded, and if you have the means and privilege to have nowhere better to be, you were pretty high up on the totem pole.

There were also those who took things to the next level. Much like today’s comedians, traveling shows would draw from reason and rhetoric as a form of entertainment. They were called Sophists, and they took pride in arguing silly trivialities, mincing and twisting truths and rational thoughts to convince people that a black and blue dress is in fact, white and gold. You’ll know what I mean if you’ve ever seen the Princess Bride, although this is entertaining, their “truly dizzying intellect” leaves their audiences short of satisfied; while artistically utilizing the form of an argument, they regard truth rather loosely. You can see why, for a stoic, to be accused of sophistry is quite insulting. This is exactly what Paul is accused of in verse 18, which brings us to our text.

Standing before the court to explain his ‘peculiar teaching,’ Paul begins by addressing his listeners on their own grounds, using their own terms. An aesthetic argument appeals to 3 things, first the Ethos, from which the word ‘ethics’ is derived, the perceived credentials of the speaker. Paul is a Roman Citizen, well versed in philosophy, a teacher, and a Pharisee. Second, there is Pathos, which is the passion, values, and ethics one appeals to. Paul begins by complimenting them in verses 22–23 saying, “I see how extremely religious you are in every way.” Engaging their passions, Paul doesn’t structure his apology as an attack, rather, an appeal. He structures his argument both aesthetically, and logically, appealing to the last quality, the Logos, or logic.

In verses 24–27, Paul renders a Christian perspective, but is also careful not to repeat the mistake he made in Thessalonica, that is introducing a new God, rather, asserting that he knows the “unknown God” they already worship, defending his point in a culturally relevant way in verse 28. Quoting two secular writers, first the Cretan poet Epimenides, and secondly a Cilician poet, Aratus, his basic argument is that you cannot fashion for yourselves a God worthy of creating everything because you are then the creator. The creator of heaven and earth created you, so even a human conceptualization of God is not worthy. Philosopher and theologian Peter Rollins goes as far to say that “naming God is never really naming God but only naming our understanding of God. To take our ideas of the divine and hold them as if they correspond to the reality of God is thus to construct a conceptual idol built from the materials of our mind.”

Only after winning over his opponents does Paul say that God commands repentance, having overlooked the times in which they were ignorant.

So, what can we learn from this encounter? This is a classic example of biblical apologetics that outlines one way we can defend the faith, and it can be of particular value to all who are called upon to provide a reason for their faith. One of our responsibilities as Christians, Peter reminds the churches in his first epistle, chapter 3 verse 15, is to “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have,” going on to underline that this is to be done with gentleness and respect.

Point 1: Model for evangelism

If you’re waiting for back-up, your Silas and Timothy, you’re probably missing opportunities. Now there is the possibility that here a premium is being placed on evangelism. While I mean this by no means as a cop-out from our inherent responsibility as believers, seems to differentiate individuals by their particular gifting, some as apostles, some as prophets, others as evangelists, yet others as pastors or teachers. Let me affirm to everyone at the sound of my voice that I am no evangelist. In no way, however, does this negate my responsibility to share the love of Christ! Paul underlines this in his epistle to the Galatians, chapter 6, verse 10a, “as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people.” John confirms this in his 1st epistle, in fact, hanging our entire faith on it, stating “7let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love… 11if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another… 16whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him.”

Now we also have responsibility to the law of the land, rendering unto Cesar what is Cesar’s if you will. You’ll notice some repeating of history, a commonality between the charges against Paul, and Christian’s accused of bigotry today. Look, I’m not telling you to water down your faith or practice, but we have to first consider for ourselves where our motives are. You’re going to catch some flack eventually, but for the sake of our testimony, let’s make sure we’re spreading love, not hate. If in any way we can make room for the truth claims of others, let us be filled with grace.

This leads us directly into the second point,

Point 2: Philosophy is not the enemy of faith

There is something to be said about faith like an infant, in fact, there are a multitude of scriptures that commends such faith. Jesus himself, in praises the Father for having hidden things from the wise and learned, revealing, instead, the path to salvation, to the little ones at the height of foolishness to the eyes of the worldly-wise. Faith like an infant, however, does not permit the theology of a child. As we encounter the study of Scripture, we must regard God as a holy other to be saught, not a subject to be known. The moment we objectify God, we place him in the dissecting pan with the frog. The tragedy here, is that the patient never lives. Nor can we throw up our hands in surrender, regarding God with absolute mystery; if we don’t proclaim him, the rocks will! What then is our task? The Latin motto for the early Christian tradition was, Lex orandi, lex credendi, meaning literally, “the law of prayer is the law of faith.” This phrase means that how you regard God in prayer is how you perceive him, and how you believe. Quite literally, the one who prays is the theologian, and the theologian is the one who prays. The author of Hebrews writes to a church he spent some time with teaching and encouraging, and in chapter 5 rebukes them for their lack of growth. He says,

“13by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to reteach you the basic principles of God’s word. You need milk, not solid food! 13Everyone who lives on milk is still an infant, inexperienced in the message of righteousness. 14But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained their sensibilities to distinguish good from evil.

Wisdom is to be sought, in fact, if we accept that we are created in the likeness of our God, any faculty we possess, was endowed by him in kind. The very theme of the book of Proverbs is stated in 1:7 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

Therefore, our testimonies are aided by rational, logical, and otherwise, philosophic principles. I’m not telling you to engage in arguments with people about Christianity, more about that shortly, but if your beliefs can’t stand up to some basic challenge, I urge you to work that out. Often embedded, undeliberated beliefs can be as unhelpful, hurtful, and generally worse than unbelief. Isn’t that what Paul’s case was against the Jews? In fact, every prophet killed was done so because the unfaithful people had formulated an understanding of what God is and wants for themselves, and it generally agreed with their wants and needs.

So, as philosophy pertains to God, theology, or the study of God, we must have first understanding, then we can teach others.

Point 3: Favor ecumenism over sectarianism

Abraham’s commission, and thus the mission of Christianity is, and was to be a blessing to all nations.

We need to live with love, in harmony with the beliefs of those around us, how else do we minister to them the love of Christ or show the hope we have in him? John wrote in his first epistle that “20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” Paul doesn’t begin by condemning their idolatry, and I hope if you leave with nothing else, it’s that. A crusty professor always said, “people may not come to the Kingdom of God as a result of your ministry, but let’s not make them come to it in spite of your ministry.” I don’t know that anyone has ever been convinced of the love of Christ by an angry person yelling repent.

If it is true that people don’t care what you know until they know that you care, the mission of the Church, and therefore the Christian is to proclaim reconciliation.

Only by affirming love and respect to all individuals as equal, “image bearers,” is one able to love others and accept others as they are rather than a project to be undertaken. We must realize that, not only through this approach are we truly able to reach cohesion within a context of religious diversity, but that it is in this context alone are we truly able to minister in a way worthy of Christ’s death. There is an old saying that if someone cannot say no, their ‘yes’ is worth nothing.

This is not to say that all paths lead to heaven, that is pluralism, which is a type of assimilation, simply adding our God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to a list of Gods to be worshiped, rather than worshiping God alone.

To be pluralistic, and to be clear, this is what all chaplains must not only espouse, but genuinely hold in high regard and defend in the name of religious freedom. Being pluralistic is to regard one another with a mutual respect, in that each group that makes up our society, no matter how small they are, dose not have to forsake their identity and traditions, rather, they are able to express their views freely and participate in the larger society free of prejudice. This is called cooperation without compromise.

It is through separating, through the building walls that leads to ignorance. This does not reflect the neighborly love that we are called to, rather the indifference that drives misunderstandings, assumptions, fear, hate, and leads to violence.

Observing the lack of any mention of God, and commenting on the author’s conclusion that all is vanity, one theologian describes Ecclesiastes as “the most staggering messianic prophecy to appear in the Old Testament.” Just think about that for a moment. Accepting Christ doesn’t mean that suffering stops, but it gives it some meaning. Isn’t that something? How much pain exists in the world, and how much worse is it then when this life is really all there is? Some live extravagantly, others in extreme poverty. This is where you’re left without hope.

Our hope is in Jesus, in knowing, and proclaiming him. New Testament authors often described themselves in terms of their relationship to Christ, servants, in and in many cases, even as slaves. Servants are exalted in the often paradoxical nature of the Kingdom of Heaven. This is the hope that led Thomas to proclaim Jesus as “my Lord, and my God.” It is this hope that led him to India, and eventually to his death. In fact, hope led each biblical author to their death, but with assurance that death didn’t have the final say.

How utterly grievous is it for one to be devoid of their identity? Yes, we have corrupted our likeness, but what’s truly tragic is one who has forgotten their very nature. Jesus was a testament to our identity, a reminder, and a restoration. There's a commercial, I believe it's ancestry.com, where a man who believes he is, and is raised celebrating his German heritage, having taken up clogging and what not... but when he finds out his ancestry is actually Scottish, he trades in his lederhosen in for a kilt. That's not what I'm talking about. That is something about you, not who you are. There is something to be said about your personal history, having taken counseling classes with friends and colleagues who are descendants of slaves, I recognize a certain grief shared by those who cannot trace their family history back more than two or three generations. Furthermore, there is distress amongst those adopted individuals who seek the identity of their biological Family. Nevertheless, that is something about you, what you are, rather than who you are, it doesn’t speak to one’s nature or their telos, that innate purpose within creation. There is a worship song by Chris Tomlin, it praises God as a “good good father,” and frames the identity of his servants, simply as, "loved by you, it's who I am."

We must, then, affirm the nature of ‘chosenness,’ if I may make up a word, within each individual we encounter. The Christ who died for us, died for our reconciliation to God, to buy our inheritance, not that of sin which is death, but that of ‘sonship.’ In the words of the late, great theologian Henri Nouwen, “we not only are children of God, but also have to become children of God; we not only are brothers and sisters, but also have to become brothers and sisters. we not only are the Beloved, but also have to become the Beloved.” If you have doubt, your doubt is rooted in your own disbelief that you are the beloved, which was displayed on a cross at Calvary.

Conclusion

Before we close, consider what has been said. We have framed Paul’s apology to the Athenians, examined some perspective applications, but before we depart, let us take a step back and appreciate the beauty of the Word of God. In his love, God has redeemed creation, revealing himself and stepping into history. As Pentecost approaches, it’s not necessarily as if history is repeating itself, but it rhymes. Consider verse 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.” Sounds a lot like Adam and Babel. From one tree, all were cursed; yet, from another, all were freed. Languages were confused and peoples spread after the building of a tower; yet, gathered in an upper room, the disciples received the gift of tongues. This, because we are his beloved. As we depart, remember the words of Paul, “he is not far from each one of us.”

Peace be with you, and do not doubt, but believe. Go in Peace.