Sermons for the Month
"Telling the Truth"
DATE: May 5, 2002
TEXT: Acts 17:22-31“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN
This past week I experienced my usual case of sermon writer's block. As you might imagine, that happens to every preacher from time to time, but it invariably happens to me when I'm aware that this is my last chance. I want to say everything I haven't already said over the past 8 months, everything that I think you might need to know and remember as a congregation in your future life and ministry together, and say it in 15 minutes or less. And so I experience brain-freeze. Fortunately for me, the appointed lesson for this day from the 17th chapter of Acts gives an account of what the apostle Paul did in a situation that was similar by virtue of its "one time only" nature. The situation was this: Paul was in the Greek city of Athens, which in his time was a renowned cultural center, home of the disciples of Plato, Aristotle, and a bunch of other guys that teachers still make us read. Paul was there primarily to make travel connections, waiting for his partners Silas and Timothy to join him so that they could set sail together for a new mission field, and to pass the time during those days of waiting, Paul did some sightseeing. Almost certainly, it was his first time in that famous city, filled with wonders of art and architecture some of which remain as tourist attractions 2000 years later. Perhaps Paul began by ooh-ing and aah-ing at the magnificence of the buildings, the elegance of the sculpture which adorned them, the exquisite works of art inside. But what rapidly grabbed his attention was that all of this wonderful human achievement, all of this energy and creativity and effort was being expended in the service of a lie, or at least of monumental ignorance. In our time, the Parthenon and the other great temples of Athens are piles of stones which we revere and try to preserve because of their antiquity and their artistic merit; but when Paul stood at the foot of the Acropolis, it was the center of the worship of the goddess Athena with her priests and attendants, crowded with worshippers making their offerings in an attempt to gain her favor. Not only was Athens filled with culture, as Luke says, it also was "filled with idols," and he goes on to tell us that it made Paul absolutely sick with that combination of anger and outrage and disbelief and disgust that we feel when we see someone doing something monumentally stupid and harmful, and we don't seem to be able to do anything about it. Except then Paul realized that there WAS something he could do about it. He could tell them the truth. And so he did. Luke tells us that in Athens, not only did Paul go into the local Jewish synagogues for Sabbath service, where by custom as a visitor he was offered the opportunity to preach. In Athens, he started hanging out the other 6 days of the week in "the agora," the marketplace, "the mall;" and wherever he could find a few people gathered together, he started telling them about Jesus and about the good news of His resurrection. Now, there were some who stopped to listen for a minute or two and then "surfed on" to the next street philosopher; but others listened and were curious about what this Jew had to say, if only because he was an odd and entertaining little fellow, and so they invited him to come up and speak to the gathering at the Areopagus, or "Mars Hill," as it is in English. This was like being invited to appear on Larry King, or Leno, or Oprah. It was Paul's chance to speak to an audience he might never have again, in this case, a group of the cultural elite, the philosophical movers-and-shakers of the Greek-speaking world; it was his big break, his chance to win them for Christ - do you suppose he experienced "brain freeze?" But when the moment came, Holy Spirit gave him the words, and just as importantly, gave Paul the attitude from which his words came, an attitude of respect and of love for his hearers. In spite of the fact that Paul, deeply religious, orthodox God-fearing Jewish Christian Paul, on the inside must have been screaming, "Oy! Are you people all nuts?? Are you crazy?? What's with all these dumb statues?"-- in spite of the fact that he may have been quaking inside, thinking, "This had better be good - I'd better get this right …" when he opened his mouth, what came out was just the truth - simply, confidently, caringly, he invited them to consider the truth of God, and of themselves, and of Christ. "People," Paul said to them, "it's not that hard. It's really not. There's no need for you to scurry around, building an altar to curry favor with this god, making an offering to appease that god, worrying that you've left someone out and 'he'll get you for that.' And it's also unnecessary, futile, and frankly a little silly, isn't it, to endlessly debate and ponder the existence or non-existence, the probable nature and possible activities of a divine being, as though we mortals actually could figure it out!" "Of course there is a god - and He's not hiding from you. If you're honest with yourselves, you know He's there; you know that He made you and everything that exists, you know when you look inside the heart God gave you that each one of us is accountable to Him for what we've made of ourselves and this life He has given us; that we answer to Him for the things we have done and the things which we have left undone." "God's not hiding - YOU are, because you're afraid - afraid of the consequences of admitting the truth about Him and about yourselves. But here's the good news - there's a way to be able to stand up and face Him; it's through a man named Jesus, and let me tell you about him…" And he did. And some of them yawned. And some of them snickered. And some of them frowned. But some of them turned a corner that day, headed in a new direction, and became tellers of the truth themselves, among them, Luke tells us, a man named Dionysius and a woman named Damaris, fellow members with us of the family of God. Now if you remember back to where I started, perhaps you're wondering what it is about this story that leads me to associate it with you and with our time together. Is it that I have the opportunity to preach to the cultural elite and the philosophical movers and shakers of greater Akron? Or is it that the past 8 months my brain has actually been screaming, "Oy! Are you people crazy?? What is with this…whatever?" Nope - it's just that Paul's once-in-a-lifetime sermon made me realize that the only thing I have to say to you --- the only thing we have to say to each other, and the only thing we have to show and tell to the world is the truth - the truth about God, the truth about ourselves, and the story of One who is the way, the truth, and the life for us and for all this lost and lonely world. That's the reason I've been here - it's the reason Pastor Jean is coming - it's why any of us BOTHER to come together, to work and to plan, to invest ourselves and to invite others to be a part of this enterprise we call Faith Lutheran Church. It's to hear the truth, to hear the story; then to tell the truth, to share and to LIVE the story of God in Jesus Christ in this world which is still groping for Him. Whatever else we might do together, whatever wonderful friendships, what deep satisfaction, what support and strength and guidance and whatever other abundance of blessings we enjoy along the way - and for me, they have been many - flow from that core purpose, that mission we have been given. We are the ones who know the truth; and we say that without pride or arrogance, knowing it is only by the grace of God that we do, confessing in fact that our own inclination so often still is to hide from God, to plug up our ears and squeeze shut our eyes and pretend that He's not even there. But knowing Jesus, we also confess, and we rely on, and we look for opportunities to share the truth of God's magnificent love, of His monumental grace, and of mercy more elegant and exquisite than any work of art. It has been my rare privilege over these past months to share with you the good news of God in Jesus Christ; to join with you in worship and in fellowship, in learning and growing and serving, in witnessing to the truth which someday will prevail against all ignorance, against every deception or delusion. And we aren't really going separate ways, are we? Different paths -- new partnerships, new journeys, but the same purpose, the same story to tell, the same Lord and God "in whom we live and move and have our being." Please pray for me, as I will pray for you, that the God who holds us together in Him would enable us to tell and to share and to live His truth, lovingly, courageously, confidently, joyfully, in every place, to every one, in all we say and do. AMEN