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Alleluia, Christ is Risen! (He is risen indeed, Alleluia!)
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Illustration: One man said, “My young son asked what was the highest number I had ever counted to. I didn’t know but asked about his highest number. It was ‘5,372.’ ‘Oh,’ I said. ‘Why did you stop there?’ He said,‘The sermon was over.’”
Have you ever noticed that church is often associated with preaching and that preaching is associated with jokes and indifference?
As we find ourselves in a post-modern, post-Christian, and very pluralistic culture, how do we communicate Christ? How does this congregation fulfill her mission in the midst of such a pluralism. This morning, let’s look at the First Reading and St. Paul and his proclamation of Christ at Mars Hill and consider Proclaiming the Preeminent Christ in a Pluralistic Society.
Paul’s visit to Athens occurred in his second missionary journey recorded by the divinely-inspired St. Luke from the end of the 15th through the 18th chapters of the Acts of the Apostles.
Athens was an intellectual center of its day. Here the philosophers, intellectuals, and students would gather to discuss the latest intellectual fads. Athens was also a pagan city. As many as 30,000 statues had been erected as idols to various gods in the city. These included all the gods we find in our own market places and sometimes in our churches: gods for the greedy, gods for prosperity, gods of immorality, gods of nationalism, gods of magic …
Where does the name Mars Hill come from? In the text it was “Areopagus” or VjAreios Pavgo~ in the Greek (V 22), referring to the Roman name for the Greek god of war Ares. Perhaps it is not so much the place that is to be emphasized as the council which met there and which had as one of its chief functions the supervision and control of religious education, particularly of visiting lecturers. It was here that St. Paul proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I see four qualities in St. Paul that made Paul an effective communicator of the gospel. First – the apostle Paul had a GENUINE conviction. Acts 17:16 says that Paul “his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.”
He was against sin! He was greatly distressed that Athens was full of idols. Paul was convinced that idol worship was wrong. He wanted people to learn to worship the Creator rather than creation.
Acts 17:18 “A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, ‘What is this babbler trying to say?’ Others remarked, ‘He seems to be advocating foreign gods.’ They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.”
St. Paul was sold on the Gospel. What are “you sold on”? Music, sports, entertainment? … I like Bob Wills, and some of you have heard me talk about it. That’s the way it is when we like something were not afraid to share it with others. And the same thing holds true with almost everything we do in life. If we’re sold on it, we’ll share it with others! That’s one of the reasons it is very hard to believe that people who will not worship regularly are really people of faith.
Second, Paul had a GENERAL knowledge which enabled him to speak to and even debate with all kinds of people, intellectuals, philosophers, etc. He quoted Cretan (Epimenides) and Cilician (Aratus) poets. Paul knew his stuff. He was well-educated and also knew his audience.
Third, there was a GRAND simplicity to Paul’s sermon. Paul also knew his audience and knew how to speak to them. He used a positive approach. He said, 22“Men of Athens! I perceive that in every way you are very religious.23For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you (Acts 17:22-23). He didn’t say, “What a bunch of ignorant heathens you are.” While true, St. Paul understood the point of contact. Since the Athenians acknowledged their ignorance of the true God, Paul simply announced that he would tell them.
His sermon was also logical and easy to follow. St. Paul presented six simple points in verses 24-31: 1-God is the creator; 2-He is the Lord of Heavan and earth; 3-He gives life and breath; 4-He is the Father of us all; 5-He is not an image or idol; 6-He will someday judge the world by one who was raised from the dead.
Fourth, St. Paul had a GROUNDED expectation (V 32). The people of Athens sneered at Paul and he wasn’t surprised. I think that’s realistic…it’s a grounded expectation to expect that kind of response, even as we heard in the Epistle of suffering for our zeal. … Part of Paul’s rounded expectation was to know that regardless of the response this Gospel is good news! It is the best news humankind has ever needed to hear!
St. Paul said that God “made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him (Vv 26-27).
The Greek verb (pselaphao) used here denotes attempting to touch or handle something. In Greek literature, it refers to a someone groping in the dark. Indeed, no matter what time period or culture a person is in, the chances of “getting in touch with God” by our own will and power are fruitless. We do not get in touch with and come close to God. Rather God gets in touch with us and gets close to us through Word and Sacrament. He delivers to us His gifts that Jesus won for us when He “got in touch” with our sins on Calvary.
The Athenians worship of man-made gods was futile. Futile also is the worship of those who seek to pacify God by their deeds and who would mold Him to their image. St. Paul’s approach was simple … He says that the whole world is God’s creation … The whole world is the object of God’s love, love incarnate in Jesus Christ. Every attempt by human beings to capture God in images, in a book, in a temple, in a people or culture, in a religious experience or in an institution” is a reminder that “The serpent’s vision still entices us: we want to be like God.
We and all people are directed instead to repent, and in faith to grasp the One who also by His resurrection is designated Judge of all who because their sin and sinful nature deserve temporal death and eternal punishment in hell. And this same God-given faith grasps the one who is, above all, our Savior.
The divinely-inspired St. Peter writes 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed (1 Peter 2:24). And as we heard in the Epistle: “18For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God…”
Christ carried all of your sin and the sin of all humankind in His body at the cross. He is your substitute … the innocent one for the guilty ones. There He suffered and died in your place to satisfy God’s wrath for your sins. And that, together with His resurrection from the dead not only insures victory over sin, Satan and death, but forgiveness, life and salvation are now available through faith in Him.
Jesus brings us into fellowship with Himself, the Father and the Spirit. In that fellowship we experience His forgiveness. Christ comes to us in His Word in all its forms. He comes to us in His Word in the Holy Scriptures – read, spoken, and expounded, here among us. He comes to us in His Word connected to water in Holy Baptism which brings us into the kingdom of God and creates faith. He comes to us in His Word of Holy Absolution which comforts us and releases us from despair. He comes to us in His Word which make the elements of bread and wine the sacrament of the Holy Supper which nourishes us with His true body given for us and His true blood shed for us.
Indeed, we live in a divided, pluralistic world where many lies are accepted as all being true. As the forgiven people of God, strengthened and sustained by Word and Sacraments, we rejoice in the freedom of the Spirit that unites us, that leads us beyond our fears and our barriers to the uttermost ends of the world, and that brings us back to the center, to the Living Word of God in the flesh … to whom all Holy Scripture points. This is the true God in whom we live and move and have our being and whose eternally redeemed family we are.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Alleluia, Christ is Risen! (He is risen indeed, Alleluia!)
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.