Easter 6                            4/27/08                                                                      Preached at ULC

Text: Acts 17                    Title: Proclaiming the Unknown God

My preaching text is the First Lesson, where Paul is speaking to the crowds in the city of Athens. He’s talking about Jesus, which he normally does, but normally he’s in a place that’s mostly Jewish listeners and today, he’s in a place where there are dozens of different religions, many different beliefs, and the only universal is that the other guy’s religion is as tolerated as yours. Sounds a lot like modern America, doesn’t it?

How do you talk about Jesus in a setting like that? It’s a question I get asked all the time, not just as a chaplain but here at United Lutheran. How do you talk about Jesus to people of other religions, or people of no religion, when the only thing we all believe is that we all have the right to our own belief? That’s our topic for today.

Let’s start with the obvious.  It isn’t easy to witness to Jesus when you’re surrounded by different beliefs. First of all, we don’t want to offend non-Christians. That should be obvious, but we’ve seen people who are religious bigots and cultural chauvinists and we should want no part of it. Sometimes, that makes us shy away from saying anything about our religion at all.

That’d be no problem except our Lord said to go out and make disciples of all nations. He commanded his people to share the truth about him with everyone. ALL his people have to do this, not just a few superheroes of the faith. It’s everybody’s job, including you. It’d be easy not offend other religions if we could just keep Jesus to ourselves. But he won’t let us. Jesus knows just as well as we do that it’s hard to witness when you’re surrounded by different faiths. He tells us to go out and do it anyway.

Some religions aren’t like that, you know. Some religions are just fine saying, “I’m OK, you’re OK; my God is OK, your God is OK”. But Jesus had to go and say something like we heard last week, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me.” He not only said that he is the Good Shepherd but also that he is the only gate for the sheep, the narrow way that leads to heaven. Even our favorite Bible verse, John 3:16, talks about anyone who believes in Him being saved, and then one verse later says that those who do not believe in him are condemned. Look it up in John 3:18.

And you want to say, “Come on, Jesus! How are we supposed to get along with other religions when you say things like that?”

But you can’t change the fact that he said it. And he meant it when he said it. If he was wrong about this part of his message, why would you trust him about any of his message?  If all you believe in is the idea of Jesus, then you can ignore this whole sermon. But if you want the real Jesus as your savior and Lord, you have to listen to the words that he said.

So the nature of our faith starts us right between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, we can’t keep Jesus to ourselves. Being a Christian means being a witness. On the other hand, none of us wants to be a chauvinist for Jesus. None of us wants to force that non-Christian neighbor to believe.

This is why I love this story of Paul in the city of Athens. You should read Acts 17 on your own to really see the genius of this man as he carries the message of Jesus into the public square.  He’s already on a preaching mission that’s taking him all around the Mediterranean Sea. He’s mostly going to the Jewish part of town in every city he visits, but now he’s in the city of Athens, waiting to meet up his partners, Silas and Timothy.

And he’s troubled because as he walks around, he sees it is a city filled with false gods and idols. That’s something you should see as you look around our world, folks. There are a lot of things out there in which people place their trust that have nothing to do with the Triune God. So Paul is concerned and because he believes in the real Jesus as his Savior and Lord, he begins to speak.

The lesson is at the Areopagus, which is where the Athenian council met for their debates. It’s a lot like Capitol Hill. And among the people milling around this hill, he begins to speak and he says, “People of Athens, I see how extremely religious you are in every way.” I don’t think he’s being a smart alec, here, folks. I think he sees something he genuinely respects in these people, that they may be chasing after idols, but at least they’re chasing after something spiritually.

I think about the Muslims I know, and I’m going to tell you something folks. I have tremendous respect for the way they practice their faith. How many of us drop what we’re doing five times a day and fall to our knees to pray? How many of us spend a month every year fasting during daylight for the sake of our faith?

I have tremendous respect for the history and community I’ve seen among Jews. I have tremendous respect for the tranquility and the search for wholeness I’ve seen among Buddhists. I don’t just pretend to respect these other religions in order to make a sale. It’s the real deal, folks. Paul sees something he respects, even among all the idolatry of Athens. That’s where we should start, too.

But he doesn’t stop there. That might be where some of us want to stop, isn’t it. Good for you, now go be a good Buddhist and let’s not talk about religion, OK? But if you care about the words of Jesus, you can’t stop there, and God bless him, Paul keeps going.

“People of Athens, I see you are religious and that is really cool. I saw an altar with the inscription where it was written ‘To an unknown god’.” And this is genius, isn’t it? It’s absolutely a move inspired by the Holy Spirit. He says, “I don’t want you to have to keep praying, ‘To Whom it May Concern’. You’re sending form letters to heaven when you could be sending a personal correspondence. I know who the unknown God is! And let me tell you how and why I believe in Him.”

Isn’t that brilliant? He doesn’t attack the people for believing something else, but he doesn’t clam up about Jesus either. He meets them on common ground, and then he shares with them the way to the ground that is higher.

Now does everyone believe it? No. Some people scoff, some people walk away. So I guess he failed with those people, right?  No way. It’s a human thing to only judge success by numbers. God judges success by your faithfulness and trust. Did Paul trust God enough to witness, even when some people didn’t believe? You bet he did. That’s what made Paul equally victorious with both the people who believed and the people who walked away, because Paul did his part with all of them.

And you know, some people did believe. We even have the names of two of them, a man named Dionysius and a woman named Damaris. Imagine the scene when Dionysius and Damaris get to heaven and they see Paul walking around and they say, “Paul, we might not be here if it weren’t for you. How can we ever thank you?” Now. imagine someone in heaven saying those words to you.

I know, I know, the reason we’re all in heaven is because of the salvation of Jesus. I know that, you know that, Paul and Dionysius and Damaris all knew that, too. But Jesus has a way of sharing the credit. Why do you think he tells us to be his evangelists in the first place? It’s not because he couldn’t do it himself. It’s because he wants us to be a part of the things he is doing. He wants us to worship God alone, but he also wants us to have a part of the joy every time one lost sheep is found.

So now we’re going sing a song or two and maybe sit down for some coffee and then you are headed back out to the Areopagus. You’re going to the same world of pluralism and cultural tolerance that Paul saw in Athens.

And you’d better not want to force your belief on anyone. I hope you have a genuine respect for other people and their religion, or even their lack thereof. People have reasons for believing what they believe, and I hope you can honor that.

I hope you also respect the things you believe, that you know what you believe and why you believe it and that you respect your mandate as a Christian to share what you know about Jesus. If you think just telling someone about Jesus is the same forcing them, well, you’re pretty much saying they can’t think for themselves, aren’t you. It is not respecting someone to act like they can’t think for themselves!

I respect people of other religions. I respect them enough to tell them the things I believe, and why, and to trust they are capable enough to make their own decision. And I’m grateful to Paul for showing me this way out from the rock and the hard place in his story at the Areopagus. Amen.