Sharing our faith and witnessing Jesus’
life, death and resurrection with those who may be searching
Christ is risen!
We live in a religious but not a faithful or committed
society. Most people (about 90 percent) say they believe in God, but less than
40 percent participate in religious services or practices. There is religious
longing or desire, but it is largely unfocused. People today are more likely to
look away from the church than to it for spiritual direction because they do
not see how it connects them to God.
A few years ago, one of the running gurus of my generation,
Joe Henderson, wrote an article for “Runner’s World” magazine where he said
that when people asked him his religion, he answered “running.” He was being
truthful, but it was a sad answer because it is something on which he will not
be able to depend for the future, because it is a religion of his own making
and disconnected from a god beyond himself.
In the first lesson today we read about Paul in Athens. He
went there after he was booted out of Thessalonica and then Beroea. Athens was
an interesting city – large and open-minded. Paul, though, was revolted by the
many idols he saw. It was as if the Athenians could not commit themselves to
any god, so they wanted to cover all the bases. Paul went to the synagogue and
marketplace every day and argued about belief in the God who raised Jesus with
anyone he could engage. He talked to Epicurean and Stoic philosophers, some of
whom thought him a preacher of foreign divinities because he “preached Jesus
and the resurrection.”
Finally they dragged him to the place for public debate –
the Areopagus. The Athenians always were looking for the latest ideas. In the
verses preceding today’s first lesson they asked Paul: “May we know what this
new teaching is that you present? It sounds rather strange to us, so we would
like to know what it means.” Then the writer of Acts says: “Now all the
Athenians and the foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing but
telling or hearing something new.”
Paul looks for the connection point between his faith and theirs
in order to announce God’s grace. He finds that connection in their concept of
“an unknown god.” He begins by complimenting their interest in religion, and
then declares that this unknown God is the one he is proclaiming. This god is
quite different from what they have believed about gods:
a. he is not an idol (“not made with
human hands”)
b. he does not live in shrines
c. he needs nothing (like sacrifices,
for example) from humans.
Instead this god is the creator and sustainer of all of life
– Paul says he “gives to all human beings life and breath.” God created us to
seek him – this is what the Athenians have been doing with their religion – but
“God is not far from each of us” – we do not have to go looking for him as the
Athenians do. Paul even lifts two lines from Greek poets: “in him we live and
move and have our being” and “For we are indeed the offspring of God.”
Paul was inviting the Athenians into the Christian faith
with a clear proclamation of the good news of God’s love in Christ. He does not
confront them with God’s law and the need for repentance (that comes later). He
does not risk offense by asking them if they are saved. Instead he says what he
understands of their religion and interprets that in light of the gospel. It is
the most effective means of evangelism with non-Christians, and something born
evangelists do naturally.
Today 39 young people are affirming their baptismal faith in
Christ. This will bring to a close the process of evangelizing them that began
with their baptism. The point of that process was helping them to know and
believe the good news of God in Christ. It was to help them to identify with
the mission of the Church, which is embodying and spreading that good news.
Now they are ready to be part of the community of faith in
Christ that offers his life and hope to the world. We do that collectively
through participation in the life of congregations like First English, but also
individually in situations where we are called to say what we believe and where
we find hope.
Paul observed and listened to the culture around him, then
spoke the word of God to the point of intersection that he could find there. This
is what witnessing to nonbelievers requires. We are to do what the writer of 1
Peter urges: “Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands an
accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and
reverence.” (1 Peter 3: 15 & 16)
Robert’s wife and children joined their local Lutheran
congregation but Robert did not. He attended with them regularly, but when
asked about membership said that he was an atheist. Another young parent in the
congregation, Jack, had occasion to talk to Robert at coffee hour during Sunday
school and at congregational events. Once when Robert offered his atheism as
the reason he didn’t join and participate more actively in the congregation,
Jack asked what this god in whom Robert did not believe was like.
The story that came out was of growing up with an image of
God as angry and aloof (like Robert’s father) – a god who caused death and
punished wrongdoing. Jack said, “I don’t believe in that god either – that’s
not the God who sent Jesus to live and die for us, to show us God’s forgiveness
and love.” Robert seemed shocked. It never occurred to him that his picture of
God was distorted. Soon after he began attending a Bible study to learn more
about this God that Jack revealed to him.
Like Jack and Paul we have opportunities to say what we
believe – to witness to our faith in the God who sent Jesus. It might be in
times of crisis, or grief, or of great happiness. We can look for those points
of intersection between the searching of our friends and acquaintances and our
journey of faith and the story of God’s action in Jesus.
Our baptism into the story of Jesus’ life, death and
resurrection – the story that we enact every Sunday in our liturgy and into
which is baptized today – connects us to the creator and redeemer of all, the
One for whom many are searching (even by running) but in whom most are afraid
to trust. We can be witnesses by our words and actions to the God who raised
Jesus and promises to raise us with him. This is the hope that we have to share
and for which people are searching.
Christ is risen!