Acts 17:22-31
Our first reading this morning sees St Paul in Athens. This was not where he had wanted to be and,
indeed, he was only there because of circumstances. St Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy had travelled
from Asia Minor on what is commonly known as St Paul’s second missionary
journey. As a result of God’s leading,
they had visited and established a Church in Philippi in Macedonia and then
another in Thessalonica.
They had, however, encountered severe opposition. In Thessalonica, this was mainly from the Jews,
and they had had to leave Thessalonica because of it. Unfortunately, moving did not solve the
problem and they found that those Jews who had opposed them in Thessalonica had
followed them to Beroea. It was St Paul
himself who was the focus of the opposition and in the end St Paul’s supporters
put him on a boat and shipped him off to Athens leaving Silvanus and Timothy
behind in Macedonia. They were to join
him later.
St Paul, then, was on his own in Athens and took the
opportunity to look round. He did not
like what he saw. Everywhere he went
there were temples, shrines, and the worship of pagan gods. This went against everything that St Paul
believed both as a Jew and a Christian.
The Ten Commandments, for example, specifically forbade the worship of
idols and here they were everywhere to be seen.
St Paul, however, didn’t simply disapprove or condemn, he
engaged, arguing with anyone who would listen.
This included Greek philosophers.
His arguments proved interesting to those who heard them and he was
invited to address the Areopagus, a formal gathering of the leading citizens of
Athens. It was so named because of the
hill on which the gathering took place.
Over-shadowing it was the Parthenon, the Temple of the goddess Athena.
St Paul in his speech was courteous and avoided unnecessary
rhetoric, but he was very much ‘on message’ and direct: ‘Athenians,’ he began,
‘I see how extremely religious you are in every way….’ They would not have disputed this. God, however, he told them does not live in
‘shrines made by human hands’.
Now some of the philosophers present may have had some
sympathy with this, but most would not.
The gods were everywhere in the first century, and it was axiomatic that
they should have temples dedicated to their worship.
The gods of the first century were not, however, exclusive
and just because you worshipped one that didn’t stop you from worshipping
another. I may have thought, for
example, that my god was better than your god, but that didn’t mean your god
didn’t exist. The Athenians, in
particular, revelled in the worship of many gods. Something that St Paul makes use of in his
argument. It was to be one of the
achievements of Christianity that it destroyed these gods and ended their
worship.
Christianity asserted what Jews had been asserting for
years:
‘You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the
form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or
that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship
them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God …’ (Exodus 20:4-5)
There are still different religions today, but the pagan
gods of St Paul’s day are just a historical memory, so much so that we find it
hard to imagine what it must have been like in St Paul’s day.
So what is the situation today?
1. Today many people in our world still continue find
themselves born into a religion. So, if
you live in one part of the world, you will be born a Muslim. In another, a Hindu, or a Buddhist. In some parts still, a Christian. With the movement of people and travel, your
religion may be determined by your family rather than the country you are
in. But it is birth still that determines
it.
2. It is, however, also true today that many people are born
into NO-religion. The process of
secularization in the West has resulted in the privatization of religion so
that religion has become about what consenting adults do in private. Religion has no or little place in the public
arena. Increasingly, it is not even done
in private. With the result that in the
West most people are born and brought up believing that either there is no god
or no god worth bothering with.
There may not be an outright denial of religious belief, but
religion is not the key to existence. It
doesn’t make much difference to what people believe, to how they live their
lives, and the decisions they make.
If you think this is extreme, try asking yourself when your
faith in God was the major factor in a decision or choice you made for you or
your family.
This is very different to how it was in the past. The secularist in the West is proud to have
thrown off their medieval past when people were born Christians in the way they
are still born into other religions in parts of our world today.
But note this: the modern liberal in westernized societies
is in much the same position as the medievalist. They have not made a choice about religion,
birth has made their choice for them.
They have inherited a non-faith which they have grown up believing to be
right in a way no different to the Christian medievalist or, for example,
Muslims in the Middle East today.
Now, obviously, some do think about the way they have been
brought up and either affirm or reject that upbringing. Others, especially those born into No-faith,
often seek a faith becoming dissatisfied with not having one and having been
denied one by birth. But many do
not. Like the citizens of Athens their
non-faith is no more than a superstition, something they just believe without
examining it or asking questions.
One of the things that really annoys me is the way many in
the west and in westernized societies criticize those of us who are
religious. One of their major criticisms
is that we indoctrinate our children.
They hate faith schools arguing that we teach intolerance and prejudice
because for them simply to be religious is to be superstitious, intolerant, and
prejudiced.
What they do not see, for they cannot see, is that they are
doing exactly what they accuse us of.
They are bringing their children up not to have faith and to be
intolerant of anyone who does have faith or, at least, of anyone who allows it
to make a difference to how they live.
They have a superstitious fear of religion which they, in turn, pass on
to their children.
Many schools have become places where faith is relativized,
put in its place, if not rejected altogether.
Instead, the values of materialism are celebrated. And you only have to go on social media to
see the success they are having.
Aphorisms such as ‘you only have one life’, ‘when you are dead, you’re
dead’, ‘life is not a dress rehearsal’ are taken as stating the obvious. Videos telling us to ‘pursue our dreams’,
that we can achieve ‘whatever we set our hearts on’ are prolific. Happiness is assumed to be found in career,
family, and friends.
In other words, the philosophers of our day are pursuing a
‘materialist’ philosophy. A philosophy
that just assumes that life is what happens here and now in the here and now:
that success is to be evaluated by the job we do or the cars we drive or by the
size of our bank balance or the number of brand labels we wear.
So what is to be done?
St Paul, we are told, argued in the ‘market-place’. He got out there. He debated with the philosophers of his day,
the Stoics and the Epicureans. At the
Areopagus, he found a way to proclaim the truth in a way they would
understand. So superstitious were the
Athenians that in case they missed a god, they built an altar to the god they
didn’t know about. It was an altar to
the ‘Unknown god’. St Paul told them
that the god they worshipped as unknown, he proclaimed to them. Despite all their religion, philosophy, and
learning the true God remained unknown to them and it is he who is revealed in
Jesus Christ.
All this presents a challenge to us who have chosen to believe
in God through Christ. We now live in a
society which is as pagan in its way as was Athens in its. The true God remains unknown. So what are we to do and how are we to rise
to this challenge? Sadly, we can only
touch on this this morning.
In the first place, we have a duty to our children to pass
on our faith and values.
This is not as easy as it seems, and, I have to say, it is
not enough simply to call some schools church schools and assume this is
happening if all those schools do is mimic what goes on in secular schools.
Do not misunderstand me, it is great that we have schools
that have a Church connection, that encourage the worship of God, and tell
Bible stories, but it is not enough if they also promote the same material
values and follow the same curriculum that transmits them as do secular
schools. We need faith schools not
simply church schools, that is, schools that are not only connected to the
Church and managed by it, but schools that actively promote the Christian faith
and Christian values not only in separate religious lessons, but throughout the
curriculum.
This is a view I have held for some time. In July, 1989 I wrote a letter to the
Christian magazine, Third Way, in response to the news that Christians were
setting up a Christian faith school in an English village.
This is the link to the letter, which, I discover, can still
be read online:
There is much more that can and should be said about this,
but let it be enough today to say simply that the upbringing of our children is
too important a task to be left to today’s pagans.
Finally, for today, we too must get out into the
market-place and like St Paul we must argue and debate. It is wonderful that we have a renewed place
of worship here at Christ Church. A
place that I hope people will want to come to and where they will be welcomed
and where they will feel at home.
But that is not enough.
We cannot wait for people to come to us.
Like St Paul, we must go to them.
St Paul, when he went, proclaimed to them the God they worshipped as unknown. Today we proclaim the God they refuse to
worship, but who still remains unknown.
There is, however, a sting in this tale. Our society may reject the Unknown God; it
may have turned its back on our faith and values; it may think that that life
is not a dress rehearsal and that when you are dead, you are dead; it is,
however, in for a big shock. St Paul
closes his presentation to the Areopagus with these words:
‘While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now
he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on
which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has
appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the
dead.’ (Acts 17:30-31)
The message we proclaim is not a polite invitation. It is not something to be accepted or
rejected as people see fit or as suits them.
It is a divine command. And how
each person responds to this divine command will one day have
consequences. For God exists whether we
believe in him or not, or follow him or not, and one day we will be judged on
the basis of whether we have believed in or followed him or not.
So let us make a renewed commitment as we return to this
renewed place of worship to proclaim the God we worship to those for whom he is
as yet unknown and may this be a place where he is not only known and
worshipped, but followed and obeyed.
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