Knowing the Unknown God

 

I've had a really busy week, cramming in as many massage clients as my own body could stand.  I'll be off from preaching for a couple of weeks, so won't have much new to post until Trinity Sunday. That is, unless the Spirit moves me as it did when I finally sat down to write the previous entry about my part in the saga that is the Episcopal election in Florida. The diocese of Texas has split their vote. Bishop Andy Doyle backs the election of the Rev. Charlie Holt (who last served at a church in Houston). The Standing Committee of Texas did not consent. Both issued statements. And so the drama continues to unfold. 

None of that has anything to do with my sermon for the Sixth Sunday of Easter Year A! Instead...I was interested in St. Paul and his speech in Acts 17 to the Athenians at the Areopagus. 

Here we go!

Text: Acts 17:22-31

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I was recently sitting at the table at a wedding reception in Tallahassee with some people who I’ve known casually for about ten or fifteen years.

I hadn’t seen them in quite awhile so there was some catching up to do.

And… as you might expect… in the course of the conversation… I told them that I am an Episcopal priest.

This information usually illicits a range of responses.

Often, it’s a polite nod of the head with a raised eyebrow or two.

Maybe even a “Hmmm” or a “huh.”

They might inquire if I am serving at a church in Tallahassee, and I tell them, “No, I’m at St. Barnabas in Valdosta,” which then gives me a chance to give a plug for how easy it would be for them to get to our 11 o’clock service…

Normally, that’s about as much as anyone ever wants to hear a priest talk about the church.

But at this wedding, which was a same-sex couple married by a United Methodist pastor, the person sitting next to me asked me a theological question…one that I imagine is on the minds of a lot of people.

“How do you talk about God with all that is going on today?”

“All” meaning the polarized political environment. Anger. War. Hate speech. Shootings. Y’know… everything that we’re all seeing every day.

“How do you talk about God.”

I thought for a moment. It’s a question I’ve been wrestling with for years.

“Well….I don’t ignore what’s happening. And it’s not like bad stuff hasn’t happened throughout world history. But ultimately…what I am reminded of is that the path and the teachings in the Scripture call on all of us to not go in the direction of violence, but in the direction of love... which is the direction of God. To see what’s happening and answer it with compassion and love. We have to chose that path toward love. That’s how I talk about God.”

The woman took a moment to take in what I’d said.

 I think it might have been the first time she had heard someone talk about God in that way.

It was like the time that I had been on a panel with what was called “The God Squad” in Tallahassee: Baptist pastor, Rabbi, Episcopal priest, Methodist minister who would hold monthly Friday lunchtime forums on a topic.

I was asked to come in and join the team to debate and discuss the merits of same-sex marriage which was still illegal at the time.

A woman who told me she was “spiritual but not religious” wanted to meet with me for coffee and conversation after that talk.

So we met and I listened to her reasons… all valid, good reasons for her for why she rejected the church and all of its patriarchy, especially St. Paul.

“Y’know…I might be the only lesbian in the world who doesn’t hate Paul.”

Her eyes got wider and I told her why I didn’t hate him.

“His conversion story is powerful. He was an enemy of the church…had stood by watching them kill Stephen. He was on his way to round up followers of Jesus and—Bam—Jesus shows up on the way to Damascus…blinds him so he has to depend on others for help…and then the person who heals him is one of Jesus’ followers.

And Paul…became a believer at that point…and knew how to talk to different people and reach them with the message of Jesus.”

I really do like Paul.

I realize there are words attributed to him that have caused injury to women, and blacks and gays.

But that’s because people… not Paul… have taken his words out of context…and in some cases… the words were not even Paul’s but some rogue disciple of his who decided to say things that contradicted the truth of a man who had Phoebe as one of his helpers.

This woman looked stunned.

Again… she had probably never heard this before… and certainly not from someone like me.

We finished our coffee and conversation.

I hadn’t converted her to being “religious.” But that wasn’t why we’d met.

She wanted to know why I believed in God… and having heard me… she had a new understanding of the God I know and love.

I’m sharing these stories because our apostle Paul is also called upon to talk about God to people who are curious… maybe a bit skeptical… about his message.

As a little background to this reading we heard from the Acts of the Apostles…

Paul and Silas have been traveling through different parts of Macedonia…which today is largely Northern Greece and Bulgaria. Paul’s first stop is to the synagogue in Thessolonica.

Some Jews and Greeks including women received his message about Jesus but there were others who saw him as disruptive…and it caused an uproar in the city.

So, Paul and Silas move on to another city where they have a better reception.

 But the mob from Thessolonica came into that town and riled up the crowds against them there.

So finally Paul makes it to Athens.

Now Athens was an intellectual hotbed.

There were Stoic and Epicurean philosophers engaging in debates about virtues and ethics.

When Paul came into the city with a message about the resurrected Jesus… they wanted to hear more.

“What’s this new thing?”

“Sounds sort of strange, but we’re interested.”

And so they brought Paul to the Areopagus.

And… after his run in with the mob before… Paul takes a very careful approach to his presentation.

He compliments them.

He lets them know that he has seen and taken in their culture and admired their religious devotion with their gold and silver objects.

And then he talks about this particular altar he came across… an altar to “an unknown god.”

This is his opening… a place to share his religious experience.

He talks about a God who creates.

A God who has been moving and being in the world around them from the very beginning.

A God who for the love of humanity came into the world and joined with us in the flesh… to the end that we might finally learn that love is the way.

A God who suffered and died… but ultimately overcame death through the resurrection as a lasting symbol to all of us that no matter what trouble comes our way… we will not only survive but thrive.

Now some found this last part a little too much for them.

But others wanted more and eventually would come to follow Paul on this way with Jesus.

The unknown God had become known.

I think this thirst for discovering the unknown God is still with us.  

In some ways… I think that’s what lies at the heart of consumerism and polarization in our culture.

We buy lots and lots of stuff to meet a deeper desire: a need to be loved… and to belong to something.

We seek happiness in groups… and we gain some satisfaction in being with like-minded people.

But how do those things…those possessions and tribes … meet our inmost longings?

That feeling that we are part of something greater than ourselves?

I think this is what was at the heart of the conversation I was having both with the friend at the wedding and the woman at the coffee shop.

I think both of them were wanting to hear…who is this God that I speak of? How does this God meet us in this world we live in?

And this is the place where faith and trust in God can serve as a powerful light to others who are looking for that deep connection that their life is worthy of love.

Like Paul… we can meet that longing by first listening to people.

Get to know their story.

Connect it to our story as people who believe in a known God…a God who has promised to be with us to the end of the age.

Now…some may walk away. But in that walk…they will have been touched.

There are so many who are yearning to meet a God of love and not of judgment.

A God of hope and not of despair.

A God who knows we aren’t perfect and wants to be with us in our imperfection and help take some of that weight off us.

This is the God we are invited to share with the people around us.

May we be that light for one another.

In the name of God…F/S/HS.