Good morning, folks.
You know, I thank you, Paula, for that wonderful presentation.
I feel like I just should say amen and sit down. Amen? But since they paid me to preach,
so thank
you, thank you. So before we go into that, let me just offer a word of prayer. Would you pray with
me?
Holy God, blessed God, we thank you for your presence in our midst, Lord. We thank you,
Lord, for this wonderful opportunity, Lord, to come to be in your presence. We thank you, Lord,
indeed, for the gifts you bring to each and every one of us in this church. And we thank you, God,
indeed, for the gifts you bring through me, Lord. I pray, O God, that your Holy Spirit speak to us
this morning. We pray, Lord, indeed, that you open our hearts, our minds, and our understanding to
hear what you have to say to us, Lord, for we are in need of your word. I am in need of your word,
O holy God. Speak to your church here, God, our Lord, and speak to me. Let us hear,
O God, what you have to say to us this morning. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray.
Amen and amen.
The text we read this morning, that you heard this morning read, is a wonderful passage,
as, of course, the whole Bible happens to be. One of the things that I find is that,
as you know, of course, You know, this is part of a book, right? This is part of a text called the
Book of Acts. And as such, there is a story always in every passage we find in Scripture.
And in this case, of course, we come to this point in this journey, Paul's journey in this region.
Paul has been steering up just a lot of places.
As he's been teaching, as he's been preaching, he's been stirring up people, and sometimes they
welcome what he says, and a lot of times they're not. And when they're not happy about what he's
talking about, they actually want to kick him out, literally. They want to get him and flog him or
put him in jail or do something with him because they're not always happy with what Paul has to say
about, This message that he's preaching. Now it seems to me from what we read as simply as,
you know, Paul is just simply telling people that, you know, that God loves them, right? And that
they should be in a relationship with God. And basically telling them,
you know, believe in Jesus, be baptized, and you'll be good, right? It sort of seems that this is
such a simple thing. Why will this be an issue for the people of his time?
I mean, it's an issue for some people today, but why would that be an issue for people in his time?
Something as simple as what he has been preaching to folks. We are told as we come to this chapter
that Paul is in Athens because he has been basically escaping some persecution,
right? Some people who didn't like him because of the things he was saying and the way that he has
been preaching.
The brothers and sisters from the different communities he has been preaching at basically have
been moving him from one town to the next, hoping that he will be protected, right?
So he comes then to Athens, and in Athens he finds something that is of curiosity for him,
right? And something that Paula mentioned earlier, which is that when we come to Athens,
he finds that this is a very religious community. This is a very deeply devout community.
And part of this is so that we understand, of course, this is in the Roman Empire,
right? And in the Roman Empire, you have that the Romans understood that it will be important for
people to worship whatever god they felt it was important to worship. And so we ended up,
of course, with this wonderful text where we are told that there was an altar for a god that was
unknown. Right? And so, since Paul has stood here in the middle,
I'm going to stand here in the middle. Is that okay? Thank you. Thank you. I know you'll like that.
So, what we find, of course, is when we come to this place where Paul is now in Athens,
he finds himself in a very interesting location. Right? He knows that these people are very
religious. They have an altar even to the unknown God. And of course, it's not just that we're just
thinking about the God of the Hebrews, right? It's just for these folks,
this is any God we're missing, right? We just want to be sure that we're covering all our bases.
And it's important to understand that because you see, in this moment in the history of the world,
The idea of worshiping gods was an important one. Because you see,
if there was a god that you were supposed to be worshiping and you did not,
that god may do something that is not good for the community. So it was an important thing to
worship the gods. So that's why at one point in the first century,
you will find that the Christians were being accused of being atheists. Interesting,
right? That the Christians were accused of being atheists because they did not worship any other
god but the god of the Hebrew people. And you hear me clearly,
right? This is the god of the Hebrew people. Not the God of the Christians, because at that point,
we're talking about a religion that comes out of Judaism, right? And so it's a religion of the
Jewish people for... that context. And so this is a group of people who don't worship any other
god. And as a matter of fact, they were adamant about the idea that there is no other god. So this
is where the whole business of monotheism comes into play. This is where we start to see the
importance of that idea, that concept that there is only one god. And therefore for For this
community, it's a challenging thing, right? For Paul, as he's coming to preach about the God that
they're missing in their pantheon, they're missing this God. And Paul says, and I'm coming to
preach to you about him, to teach you about him. And so as he is doing that,
it's important for us to keep in mind, right? This is a very religious people. They're worshiping a
plethora of gods because, again, you need to... the gods, right? The gods need to be appeased,
right? They need to be consoled. They need to be worshipped in different ways. You need to bring
offerings and gifts and so on. And Paul comes into this context and as he's teaching about the God
that he is declaring to them, the God that he's declaring to them, of course, is the God that is
revealed through Jesus, the Messiah. So Jesus now comes to play a very important role because,
of course, after all, this... teaching, right? This is a Christian movement,
a movement composed of Jews and Gentiles now that are in this community of faith called
Christianity, the Christian church.
So when Paul then comes into this place and he starts to talk about who this God is,
he starts to describe who this God happens to be for them. For The difference between our God,
according to Paul, and the other gods is that, you know,
Paul stated clearly, right? We are the children of God. We are all children of God.
You hear that he makes no distinction, right? He tells even your poets say it,
right? And it sounds like, you know, a poet saying something. Well, it's a poet, right?
The only difference is that in the first century, a poet was somebody who was inspired,
right? Somebody who was inspired by the muses, right? And so to say that a poet made a statement,
it's not a matter of simplicity of saying, well, you know, a poet just said something beautiful.
No, in this context, when you said a poet said something, you are declaring actually that he or
she, in this case mostly men, has received a message from the gods,
has received inspiration from the gods, and therefore has spoken to the world about the
significance that we are all God's children.
Now this is extremely important for us to grasp in this message, because as we come to this place
in Paul's time, we are having that Paul is taking this information that he gathered from some poet
in Athens, and he is using that to bring people in.
He is telling them, You and I, we are part of the same family.
We belong to God. And the God that I'm coming to teach you about is the true God,
is the great God. And this God, of course, wants for you the best.
And different from the other gods that need to be appeased, different from the other gods that need
for you to be bringing gifts and ways to appease them,
right? Paul declares, this God is not expecting any of that from you.
This God actually has done everything for you. Now that is a very challenging thing.
Right? Because he's sort of telling people, worshipping the gods,
worshipping the gods that you've been worshipping, is not what is going to bring solution,
it's not what is going to bring wellness to the community. Worshipping those gods that are asking
you to do things, to appease them, to make them happy, is not what is going to make a difference.
But the God... that he is preaching about, the God that he's teaching about,
this God actually wants to do everything for you. What a distinction,
right? What a difference. This God wants to do something for you. As a matter of fact,
this God has already done something for you, and you didn't even know it.
And so when he talks about then, Jesus being the one who brings this message of salvation to the
world, and talking about the fact that this Jesus has been resurrected, right? It's not that they
didn't know what resurrection was. It's not that they didn't understand what resurrection meant.
It's not that they were upset because he used the expression resurrection, because as a matter of
fact, when you read the beginning of the chapter, the first thing that... the Epicureans and the
Stoics to call him to talk in the Europagus is precisely that he was talking about something
different, something that they didn't understand, haven't heard before. And so they were interested
in hearing what he has to say about this Jesus and this resurrection.
And so Paul is doing that. So when we come to the end of the section we were reading,
we find then Paul bringing this back up. To simply say, the God that I am serving,
the God that I worship, is a God that cares for you.
Now, we may think, of course, but of course, you know,
the gods are supposed to care for me, right? For all of us. And in general,
you can say that. The big exception here, the big difference is that when Paul is presenting this
to the community in Athens, the community in Athens, as a Gentile community that worships all these
gods, is that these gods actually need something from you and I,
right? These gods are in search of you giving them something.
But the God that Paul is preaching is not asking them for,
Anything. That is a big difference. Amen? That's a big difference.
The God that Paul is preaching is not asking them for anything. They don't have to give him gifts.
They don't have to give him anything because, you know, in this tradition, in the Jewish tradition,
right, that Paul is a part of, the earth is the Lord's. Right?
So everything belongs to God. Everything is God's. So you don't have anything that God needs.
Amen? But God has everything you need. And so this God that Paul is then conveying to the community
in Athens is a God that is actually here to provide for them. It's a God that is actually here to
bring them what they need. touch them in a special way.
Now by teaching them about Jesus, Paul is actually bringing into this community in Athens a message
of, if you come to this God, if you come to this God through Jesus Christ,
you will experience the joy of salvation. You will experience what it means to live before a God
that actually cares for you, who's concerned about you. Now,
for many of us, this might not be an issue today, especially for those of us who live in the 21st
century, in a mostly middle class to upper middle class community.
But in the 1st century, that was not the case, right? In the 1st century,
when we talk today about the have and have-nots, well, that's... very strong reality that's in the
first century, especially because in the first century, the people who had nothing or very little
were not only the majority, but the overwhelming majority of the people in the world.
Even in Athens. So when Paul is declaring to the community in Athens,
this God cares for you. This God is concerned for your needs.
This God is concerned for the situation in which you live. He's not concerned that you bring him an
offering. He's concerned for you.
What an incredible relief.
So when the people in the Aeropagus... heard this message,
my senses, it's not what Acts says, right? It's not what the author of the book of Acts says.
But when I was reading this text, it's just understanding that history and the context in which
this text comes to live, my thought was,
well, I gather that that's why they were concerned. They were concerned.
Because you're asking us to drop our gods for your God.
To drop the pantheon of gods of which we depend on to accept this one God that you say cares for
us. But the other gods, I depend on the other God,
we depend on the other gods to protect us. And that's why we... bring stuff to them and we worship
them so they will protect us. And Paul is saying, the God that I bring to you,
the God that I'm presenting to you, this God doesn't need anything from you.
As a matter of fact, this God wants you to be in a relationship with him.
This God wants you to be in a relationship. And this God is not asking you to give him anything
except to accept the gift. That's what we call grace,
right? That's what we call grace. God has this wonderful gift that he's offering to the people of
Athens in this story that we're reading here from Paul. And I think that as we come to the story,
we can see the dynamic in the community as they were scared of what they were hearing.
They were concerned with what they were hearing. That's why I mentioned earlier that in the first
century, we have that one of the accusations against the Christian church is that the Christian
church were atheists, right? And therefore, you know, they were... persecuted because part of the
reason of persecution is because they were atheists. They did not believe in the gods. And so if
you were in a community in which you were, you know, worshiping a god and some calamity befall the
community, then who do you blame? Right?
Who do you blame? You blame the people who are not worshiping that god, right? Because everybody
was supposed to be worshiping the gods. Whether you believe in them or not,
you just did it because, you know, well, we're covering all the bases, right? We're covering all
the bases of worshiping so that every god is going to be pleased and we are just safe,
right? But then you have the Christian community that is not worshiping all the gods and therefore
easy target. Easy target for the community to say they're the problem.
These people are not worshiping the true God.
Now we come to the 21st century. In the 21st century, how many times do we see some similar things
to that? How many times we hear people talking about the fact that if you don't worship my God,
meaning my Jesus,
not your Jesus, but their Jesus, there is a problem with your God,
and that's why God is punishing us. That's why God is doing all these bad things that are happening
to America. It's happening because you're not worshiping the true Jesus.
It's interesting that 2,000 years of history and we're still coming to this place of blaming
somebody for the things that happen among us.
If the economy is not working the way we want the economy to work to benefit us, Somebody is not
doing their worshiping, right? Somebody is not going to church. Somebody is doing something wrong
and their Jesus is not the right Jesus. They need to have the right Jesus.
And Paul here just simply brings to our attention that the God that he proclaims is a God of grace,
is a God of peace. is a God of mercy,
is a God of compassion, is a God of love,
which then trumps everything else. Amen? It trumps everything else.
Because when you love somebody, truly love someone, then you don't seek to do that person harm.
Amen? When you truly love someone, when you truly are convinced that God is a God of compassion and
love and mercy, then you seek to do the best for that person that is next to you,
for the people that are around you. You don't seek to do bad,
right? Because it's just a contradiction. It will be a contradiction from the teachings of Jesus.
We seek then to do what is bad. for that individual. We look for what is the best for that
individual. For we want that that individual may experience the grace of God as I have experienced
the grace of God. I want that individual or those people around me to experience the love of God as
I have experienced the love of God. It is something about giving that is at the core of this
teaching. about giving the way that God has given God's self to us,
in
the same fashion that God has given God's self to us, as we see in the experience of Jesus,
the Messiah, then we are called to also show that same love,
that same compassion, that same mercy for the people who are around us.
This message of grace, is embedded in the Christian teaching from the beginning.
It was what Jesus taught his disciples. It is what the disciples taught the people around them.
And it is indeed what we have been teaching for the last two millennia.
This is the message that Paul conveys to the people in Athens.
This wonderful message of this God wants to be in a relationship with you. With each and every one
of us, no exclusions. No one is out.
You hear that, right? No one is out. God wants to be in a relationship with all of us.
Not only the people who are sitting here in the pews or the people who are sitting in the next
church, you know, down the street. No, God wants to be in relationship with all human beings,
whether they are Christians or not. And so we who are Christians,
who happen to be Christians, we have this wonderful message to share with the world that the God we
serve, the God we believe in, indeed is a God who wants to be in a special relationship with all of
us and who wants us to share this love, this mercy,
this compassion with the rest of the world. Praise be to God for God's mercy.
Amen. Paul in this context is simply giving us a story about how God was working through Paul.
And interestingly enough, you need to hear that, right? Because I think it's important you hear
this. Paul was not exactly very successful, right?
He preached, he taught, even he was brought before the Areopagus. And at the Areopagus,
he delivered his message. And only a handful of people actually,
you know, moved with him, right? We hear about two people at the end of the chapter that we were
told, and they believe in what Paul was talking about. And that was the Aeropagus,
and that it was also Daenerys, right? Those two, and some others.
And some others. So this is not like, you know, Paul went and preached and taught in this space,
which is a huge space in Athens. No, he went and preached and teach.
He did that, and then, of course, only a handful of people believed.
And I say that so that you understand that we all have the responsibility of teaching and preaching
about this good news. That God indeed loves us all and wants the best for each and every one of us
and wants the best for the whole world. That you and I have that responsibility.
And in the same fashion that Paul was not exactly the most successful evangelist at that moment,
I need you to hear, you might not be either. But you and I,
we are called to share the story. We are called to share this God with the world.
We are called to let the world know that indeed God is present and God wants to be in a
relationship with each and every one of us in this community.
That is our task. Just following the example of Paul,
we are called, of course, to then go into the world. And teach. And teach.
If you really have believed this Jesus and what he stands for,
then go and tell folks around. Or as the hymn says,
right? Go tell it on the mountain. Amen? Go tell it on the mountain.
But, you know, they're big mountains and little mountains. So go and tell it on the mountain. Pick
a mountain to... But proclaim this good news. Proclaim this message of salvation that comes to the
world through Jesus Christ so that the world may come to believe and we may be actually the people
of God that God intended from the beginning. The people of God that God had intended to be his
people from the beginning.
Let's go out into the world to proclaim the good news of God.
to proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God that has come to be among us.
And that this God that Paul preaches about is indeed the God who wants everyone to come in and
experience the joy of their salvation.
Amen.