We read in Acts
today that Paul has gone to Athens, the center of intellectual and religious
life in Greece, and, for that matter, in the whole Roman world. And he has gone
to a place called the Areopagus. The Areopagus is not Big Bird’s imaginary
friend. It was the place where Greeks both worshipped their pantheon…their
line-up of gods. Both the Romans and the Greeks had a deity for every
purpose…rain, war, fertility, you name it. To hedge their bets, they set up a
temple to the god they had not yet discovered, the one that covered some
reality that had not yet occurred to them. So, this temple was dedicated to the
unknown god.
But even
though Mars Hill was a kind of open-air religious market, Paul may as well have
come from another planet! Paul was a
Jew—a Hellenized, cosmopolitan Jew, trained in both Greek philosophy and Hebrew
tradition, so all in all he was a pretty sophisticated guy, but he was still a
Jew. Which made Paul pretty weird because he followed one and only one God. Not
his favorite god. The One God. And like all Jews he and did not pray to any of
the others, calling them idols. They also avoided meat sacrificed to those
idols.
The average
Greek or Roman would have considered Paul at best strange and at worst a crazed
zealot who has come in from the hinterlands. For them, believing in only one
God was both foolhardy and sacrilegious. To make matters worse, Paul, like all
Jewish males, was circumcised which was considered both gross and barbaric. He
only ate certain foods which also revealed a strange narrow-mindedness.
On top of
that, Paul was one of those people called Christians who believed that God not
only became human but that he died and rose again. He believed that everyone
would experience resurrection someday. When they accused Paul of practicing a
strange religion, they meant it!
Now Paul had
some choices about how he was going to react to this strange environment. He
could have gone into Idol Central and start trashing the place. Tearing down
false idols might have seemed like a good idea, it certainly would have
attracted attention! But he didn’t go
there.
He could have
just gone along to get along...taken up the ways and attitudes of the Greeks
and Romans. Some of the folks back home in Jerusalem accused him of doing just
that, especially because he did not require male Greek and Roman (ie Gentile)
converts to Christianity to be circumcised if they didn’t want to, and he had a
“to each his own” attitude towards whether Christians could eat meat that had
been sacrificed to idols before going to market.
Another
choice would have been to just hang out with people who agree with you, or
worship like you. Which happened a lot: in many cities right up to our own day,
people who think and worship alike often end up living in the same
neighborhoods, or hang around the same pubs, or only ‘friend’ each other on
social media.
Instead, Paul
chose to leave his bubble and respectfully engage folks who were different. He decided to
tell them about Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah who lived and died and rose
again. He talked about how God was at work through Christ and wanted a
relationship with everyone.
We can learn
something from Paul’s decision to leave his bubble.
First, all of
us—each and every one of us—communicates the Gospel. Like it or not, once
someone figures out that you are a Christian and that you take your religion
even a little bit seriously, then you are communicating the Gospel. You don’t
have to wear a white shirt and a black tie and ring doorbells. And you don’t
need to wear a clerical collar. Every day we all communicate the Gospel.
But that’s
okay, because as Paul noticed about the Athenians, everyone is on a search for
God. Know it or not, every one of us seeks meaning and purpose for their
living. And when we do that, we are also seeking to fill that God-shaped hole
in our hearts. And since that search is not always conscious, it affects our
choices and behavior. So, our quest for
intimacy is a quest to be known and loved. Our quest for more stuff is yearning
to have our hearts filled. Our quest for recognition reflects a longing to be
understood and valued. I could go on, but you get the idea. Just as Paul looked
around and saw in all the idols and temples a religious people, we can also
look around and see that there a lot of spiritually hungry people.
Today the
Areopagus isn’t just on Mars Hill, it’s everywhere. Surveys say that only 17%
of Americans go to church, yet 90+% of Americans think of themselves as
spiritual. 78% say they pray and three quarters of Americans say they believe
in God. So, just as we always communicate the Gospel, there are people all
around us who are searching to fill a god-shaped hole in their lives. But unlike
Paul, we have lots of tools to reach out to people: radio, tv, print media, the
internet, books, events, music and art…the list is long. Marketing is important
but what really tells the story, what fills the God-shaped hole is when a
person meets another person who is also on a journey of faith. That’s because
Jesus shows us that Godself is best shown in relationship.
So, if you
find yourself on Mars Hill—which basically happens every day-- remember what made
you Christian in the first place. Do you remember what first drew you into the
spiritual life? Can you recall what or who first piqued your interest or what
first set your heart towards God? Can you name what works and what doesn’t work
for you? What animates you? What gives you a sense of spark? What makes us know
that we are loved and want to share some of that love? Without a story, we live
in a bubble. And if we only huddle with each other in our own little bubbles,
we will never grow as a people of faith. And we can’t thrive as God’s people
until we learn to leave our bubble.
For Paul to
leave his bubble, he also had to listen and look. He started to appreciate what
he and the Greeks shared. Paul started from where they were—not from he where
he thought they should be-- because he listened. Paul saw that God was present
in the world outside his bubble.
It takes
courage to step out of the bubble. No one would have blamed Paul if he hung
back, or just hung out at the local synagogue. Everyone would have understood.
But he chose to engage the people God gave him… and he chose to seek out people
to engage.
When you step
outside your bubble you will get a variety of responses. Maybe it will be a
strange look or a hostile glare. But you might encounter a thank you from a
person you’ve cared for, or driven to the hospital, or brought a meal to. You
might find that you have helped fill a God-shaped hole because you listened to
a person when they were sad, or comforted them when they were alone. Maybe you
have communicated the Gospel as you have been present to a person in trouble or
as you have taught a child. Maybe they’ve asked you why you did that small act
of kindness, and maybe you told them in some small way about God who animates
and fills that space in all our hearts. I don’t know. But what I do know is
this: we all have the power to be messengers of good news to real people living
in God’s hurting world. Whether they ask you why you’re doing it or not, it
will help you be the Gospel and live the Gospel when you know the story of how
God is continually filling your own God-shaped hole.
And how does God
fill that space? God does that by taking you out of your bubble and going with
you into the world God loves.
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