The following sermon is based on thought by Rev. William
Willimon with thanks.
Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit. He got wound up and preached a dynamite
sermon. Scripture tells us, “ Now when they heard this, they were cut to
the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, “What should we
do?” Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized…So those who
welcomed his message were baptized and that day about 3,000 were added.”
Peter’s next sermon followed quickly thereafter, he heals
a lame man at the temple gate, draws a crowd, preaches to them and gets arrested.
We’re told “ But many of those who heard the word believed, and they
numbered about five thousand.” Peter got some amazing results.
I feel sorry then for Paul in our lesson today. Paul was a
smarter, clearly more articulate preacher. After his wonderful sermon to the
Athenians in our lesson this morning those who put together the texts for our
preaching cycle probably thought it wise to cut it off before we get the results
of his inspired message. Verse 32 continues from our lesson, “When they
heard of the resurrection, some scoffed; but others said” We will hear
you again about this.” At that point Paul left them. But some of them joined
him and became believers, including Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named
Damaris and others with them.”
Peter brings in his thousands, 8000 to be exact and here we
have Paul numbering his converts at Dionysius and Damaris and maybe a few more.
It does a struggling preachers heart good to watch Paul give it his all and
end up with a couple of converts and change.
But then maybe this lesson addresses more than just us struggling preachers.
Maybe this lesson sends a message for all of us who struggle to know how to
share the faith. Oh we’ve all been there, the tongue-tied; “where
do I start and what do I say when someone genuinely asks me about my faith”
feeling. Perhaps it’s the neighbor who marvels that you get your children
up and out to church on Sunday morning. “Why do you fight that battle”
she wonders? “ What do you get out of that church thing?” Or maybe
you’ve had an experience like One of Holy Spirit’s college students
who called me earlier in the year. Her philosophy professor was an avowed atheist.
He wanted to know why she was a Christian. Or maybe it’s the relatives;
brothers, sisters our own children who we think we’ve been witnessing to
with our actions all our lives, but they haven’t picked up on that and
now they are asking that we say it in words.
Paul’s sermon is a masterful example of speaking to those
to whom our faith makes no sense and his sermon may be some help for us in our
struggles to talk about our faith. Paul goes to Athens, to the pinnacle of Greek
culture, and there he tells people about Jesus. We watch here a skillful Christian
communicator talk about the Christian faith with those who are not Christian.
Let’s take that sermon apart a bit.
First, Paul tells these Greeks that he perceives that they
are “extremely religious.”
Does he mean this as a compliment or as a criticism? Throughout Acts, Gentiles
are shown to be incurably religious. That is, a Gentile will worship anything—gold
silver, sex, wood, the military, money—if given half a chance to worship
something.
Good Jew that he is, Paul knows that our chief human problem is not atheism
but idolatry. We are all “extremely religious”. Idolatry comes to
us quite naturally.
Or perhaps Paul is praising the Athenians. Their groping after
the unknown God is at least a sign that they are searching.
Secondly, he appeals to the Athenians knowledge of creation and to our common
humanity, Paul asserts that his great God made the world and everything in it.”
This God cannot be captured in “shrines made by human hands” but exists
over the face of the whole earth that we all might find our true purpose in
his service alone. Until now pagan ignorance was overlooked, but now is the
time to turn toward the one true God who has not only created the inhabitants
of the world, but also shall judge them.
This is termed “natural theology” and paul uses it to get to these
Greeks. He contends that observation of the natural world and its wonders is
a forerunner of faith.
How can people look up at the stars, or ponder the mysteries
of life in the world without imagining a real though still unknown divine force
behind it all? Then Paul sites lines from two of their own poets to affirm this
view of the world. Beautiful lines to talk about this unknown God, “In
him we live and move and have our being,” and “For we too are his
offspring.” Paul hopes to move these Greeks toward faith by way of the
natural world. Start where people are, with their own experience, then nudge
them to the gospel
Yet Paul cannot convert his audience solely through an appeal
to their observation of the natural world. Too many people look at growing grass
and see only cells dividing, or into the sky and see bits of matter and swirling
balls of gas. Natural theology is no more than preliminary instruction. Something
else is needed and here’s where paul takes his scariest step Paul asserts
the resurrection—a fact completely contrary to our observation of how the
world works. In nature things die decay, decline, Death is death. What is done
is done, over and finished, ended. Yet Paul concludes his speech with the assertion
that, for Christians, the resurrection of Jesus is our assurance. Not grass
growing in spring, the return of the robin the opening of the cocoon or any
other naturalistic drivel, the resurrection, something beyond the natural is
the final assurance that this one is “Lord of heaven and Earth.
In mentioning the judgement and the resurrection, Paul risks
rejection by his audience. They may agree to a created world and to our common
humanity, but there is no possible “natural theology” evidence for
the assertion of the resurrection. There is no evidence that our actions shall
be judged by an authority higher than our own opinion. Appeals to reason and
to observations of the natural world are risky in the gospel. Eventually what
we get to is faith. When all is said and done we have to step beyond what the
reason of this world tells us and trust. Trust that we have a loving God who
holds us in love and challenges us to love others.
So the response to Paul’s address is that some mocked and a few believed.
Now what do we learn from this episode where someone attempts
to share the gospel with those who do not yet know the gospel? What is there
here for you as you attempt to share your faith at the office, or in a school
gymnasium or over the kitchen table?
First don’t be discouraged. Christian proclamation is not to be judged
merely by its success in winning an approving response. Where the word is faithfully
preached, some believe and some mock. Even Paul’s superb oratorical skill
cannot remove the offense of the gospel—in fact it accentuates it. So the
better we express ourselves the clearer the contrast between worldly wisdom
and the life of faith.
Second, your best opportunities for sharing your faith will
not be in fancy speeches like Paul’s, but rather in your daily ordinary
contact with people. Honest, heartfelt statements even if perhaps fumbling may
mean more than volumes of spiritual exercises. While many of us would like to
believe that our actions, our style of life bear our testimony to the world
of our faith still we can not hide only in those activities. Our Christian actions
give validity to our words but our words give meaning to our actions.
Third, keep at it. There are good reasons the world fails to
understand what Christians are talking about when we witness to our faith. Faith
doesn’t “make sense” in the standard sense of the word. That’s
why “a leap of faith” has become the standard metaphor for our commitment
to Christ. We don’t compel people to believe. The Bible talks about planting
seeds that may some day take root. I like the comparison of putting sand in
an oyster, maybe it’s my nastier bent to see someone irritated into creating
something precious of great beauty. We don’t compel people to believe.
Faith is a gift of God, not an automatic result of skillful communication. And
so, as in so many areas of our lives, we live by grace, the pressure is off.
We don’t need to make our quota of 3,000 converts or 5,000 converts. A
Dionysius here or a Damaris there and perhaps a few others will be quite enough.
Let us pray: O gracious God, whose word is the source of all speech, touch the tongues and open the lips of those who would speak your name. Where your people are ambivalent to you and plagued with doubt, give single minded faith: where they are inarticulate and unable to form the words, fill them with spontaneous expression; where ridicule and persecution have made them afraid, increase their courage; where the structures of unbelief around them have isolated your people from one another open their eyes to the great could of witnesses in all times and places.
Amen.