A sermon preached on the Sixth Sunday of Easter, May 5, 2002

Concord Covenant Church, Concord, NH

Texts: Acts 17:22-31; 1 Peter 3:13-22

The Rev. Beth Ernest

Sometimes I think we are not prepared for the world we live in. Nor can we become prepared. The world is simply too fast moving, and is becoming too small. In some ways our time is similar to the days when immigrants flooded New York City, back in the mid-1800’s. There they stood at the docks (and later, at Ellis Island), people transported from their home villages and towns, where life was known and familiar, to a huge place crowded with people of different languages, dress, belief, and behavior. They must find their way in a world they do not know amidst people they do not understand.

We, too, live in the juxtaposition of times and ideas and life-styles. It is incomprehensible to me that right now, today, this very minute, some people are preparing or participating in space travel, Oxford dons are reading books and drinking tea, gang members in L.A. and middle class, bored adolescents are trying out the latest drug, Palestinians and Israeli’s continue their mutual, all-consuming aggressions, Japanese animators are churning out the latest cartoon sensation, American kids are playing Little League, untold thousands are buying who-knows-what on E-bay, millions are bowing toward Mecca, the French are demonstrating against radical right conservatism, and on yet another part of the globe, Pastor Fohle’s Pygmies are living in huts made of leaves from trees while millions in Africa and other areas decline from an insidious disease known as AIDS.

How do people with these incredibly varied experiences talk to each other? Understand each other’s issues and situations? It used to be we didn’t even know about each other’s existence, but now, through technology and travel, many more from the ever-increasing groups encounter each other. The particular issues of our daily lives and situations are made known. Our world is shrinking and we are being forced into conversation.

The apostle Paul came from the Jewish community, was raised up as a Jewish rabbi, and lived in that context. But now he finds himself, through his incredible encounter with Jesus Christ, speaking to all manner of Gentiles, non-believers, pagans, animists, pantheists. He is in Athens, the historic home of Western philosophy. In Greek cities, people met in the market-place, the Agora, to exchange figs, grapes, grain, and the latest in ideas, philosophy and religions. The Agora in Athens was called the Areopagus, the Hill of Mars, the Greek name for the god, "Ares," for whom the hill was named.

Today, the Agora extends beyond the downtown of our city, beyond even Steeplegate mall, or the Home Show in Manchester. The places we meet and exchange our values and our money and our products and our ideas, our way of life, our prejudices, and our beliefs are myriad. And we are likewise impacted by all of that from people all over the world—often without leaving our living room.

How do we as Christians converse in this ever increasing Agora, this marketplace of ideas and beliefs? Do we have anything to add to the conversation? And, do we understand what the world-view of the other people—let us call them the unchurched, or "pre-Christian" really are?

I ask that question because many of us come from Christian backgrounds or we have been Christians so long that we have developed a certain way of looking at the world. We make certain assumptions about how life is best lived. We have values that correspond to biblical values. We are schooled in a way of talking that might be Greek to others, especially the rapidly increasing number of secular people who have no religion at all and see no point in having one.

Back at the Aereopagus, Paul eventually got tossed out on his ear when he started talking about the resurrection from the dead. That was just too much for the Athenians to take. Paul was talking to a religious group—they were pagans, granted—but they did make the assumption that one should examine basic questions in life, and proclaim loyalty to some god or goddess. Paul starts his conversation with them saying, "I see how extremely religious you are in every way" (Acts 17:22). He sees this by the statues and shrines to the wide variety of gods they worship. Most of his hearers would say that deities were powerful beings and we must establish some kind of relationship with them. But today, the people we meet in the Agora may not even say this. They are not religious in any way. We don’t have to get as far in the story as the resurrection for them to think we’re weird, or deluded, or simply quaint holdovers from another era.

Yet another group of people we meet in the Agora is the ever-increasing number of vaguely spiritual people and cultural Christians. Some experiment in a variety of spiritual groups or ideas. Some had minimal Christian teaching as children or have come to an identification with Christianity by default—("Well, I’m not Muslim, I’m not Buddhist, I’m not an atheist, so I must be a Christian.") Communicating with people who are already convinced that they are Christians, despite the fact that they may not know the slightest thing about Jesus Christ (much less have a relationship with him) can be quite tricky, too.

So how do we actually participate in conversations? Two sources will help us today—first, Paul himself. And second, the Presbyterians! First, Paul. Paul’s example in his Mars Hill sermon is very good—to explain Jesus Christ to this varied, intellectual crowd, he acknowledges their efforts and then he quotes two of their own poets. He does not immediately discredit them. Paul has taken the time to learn what is important to these Gentiles and to study what they believe. He can answer back in the frame of reference they understand, reframing it to explain the story of Jesus Christ. He does not begin the conversation with words from his own frame of reference.

So, is this a challenge to us to learn more about other world religions? It most certainly is. Recently, our nation has learned the danger of ignoring and dismissing people of other faiths. Does Paul’s method help us with other pseudo-Christian sects? Yes, that, too. If we do not know what Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses and others alleged "churches," believe and teach, we cannot combat their influence in our society. Does Paul’s method challenge us to learn about secular people? Yes. I know people who never come in contact with non-Christians. All their lives they have traveled only in Christian circles, often only in the circle of their own congregation. This can lead to a very myopic, if not boring, existence. Such a limited life also prevents us from fulfilling the Great Commission. If we don’t socialize with any non-Christians, how can we spread the gospel?

The other side of Paul’s example of learning what other religions teach and what other people believe is TO KNOW WHAT CHRISTIANITY TEACHES. One of my classmates from college went to medical school in Utah. When I saw him at break I asked him how things were going. He said he had not only learned a lot of medicine, but he had learned a lot about his faith. When I seemed surprised he said, "I had to. There are so many Mormons there and they are so aggressive that I had to really start reading my Bible to see what I believe!" If we are going to converse in the Agora, we must know basic Christian teachings.

I mentioned that the Presbyterians also have some help for us. A couple of years ago, the Presbyterian Church, USA, completed the long and arduous process of writing a new catechism, that is, a series of questions and answers that teach the Christian faith. You may ask, why not use the Covenant Catechism? For two reasons--one, the Covenant catechism doesn’t have much to say on other faiths, and second, I know Dr. George Hunsinger, the scholar who spearheaded the writing of the Presbyterian Catechism. I have heard how sacredly the committee held that task and can see how carefully and beautifully they have written their answers, which always give lots of food for thought. Listen to the first two questions and answers as someone approaching Christianity for the first time.

Here is the first question:

And now comes an important question as we meet people in the Agora:

If any congregation is to succeed, it must go beyond the comfort zone. It must go beyond being a place of refuge and friendship for its own people. If a congregation is to succeed in following Jesus’ example and commandments, it must find its voice in the Agora, the common meeting place of all peoples. It must find what it believes, it must research what others believe, and it must reach out in friendship and concern to the unchurched.

I’d like to challenge you today in 3 ways. First, let the next book you read or the next tape you hear be about some other religion or religious group. Second, during the coming week, write a list of the basic tenets of the Christian faith as you understand them. See what you come up with. If this is hard, come and see me, and we’ll work on putting a course together that will teach what is a bit fuzzy. The third challenge is a bit harder. Do some research. Ask a secular person you know what it is like to not have faith and why they have made that decision. Respect their answer. And see if it gives you any insight into what it is about Jesus Christ that might appeal to a person of no faith.

Let me end with a story. While I was in seminary years ago at Boston University (this was probably around 1986), three scholars came together for a panel discussion. Juergen Moltmann, a German theologian, Harvey Cox, from Harvard who has done a lot in liberation theology, and Peter Berger, who specializes in the sociology of religion were asked to address questions about the role of the church and faith in the world. They did some mutual sparring, as theologians will do, especially Dr. Cox and Dr. Berger. The final question from the moderator was, "What does the Church have to offer the world today?" Harvey Cox’s reply was, "Nothing." The audience groaned. Peter Berger’s answer, as I remember it, was very scholarly and solicited some, "Hmm…’s" Dr. Moltmann’s answer was, "The Church offers the world HOPE!" (He had recently written a book called, The Theology of Hope.)

Isn’t this what we believe? If we have the hope of new life in Jesus Christ and don’t share it, how will we answer our God?

End Notes: