The
Athenians were deeply spiritual people. They were “religious in
every way.” Type A religious folk. Some people work hard to leave
no stone un-turned, these people worked hard to leave no god
un-worshiped. Athens was full of temples, shrines, alters and
markers, places to worship gods. They were an eclectic people who
worshiped an eclectic assortment of gods.
When
Paul first arrived in Athens he was distressed by the amount of idols
he saw. So he went into the synagogues and the marketplace and
“argued” with anyone who would speak to him. This sounds hostile
and unfriendly but what he was doing was the practice of the people
in Athens. It was a sort of verbal dance, point, counter point;
verbal fencing thrust, parry; a congenial back and forth that allowed
intellectual life to thrive in Athens. Paul was speaking, but he was
also listening, hearing, paying attention to what was going on around
him. He was learning about the city and the people who lived in the
city. It just so happened that this arguing debate he was doing was
the very best way to understand the people there.
Understanding
our audience is something they taught us, when we were in seminary.
Whenever a preacher gets up to preach, she should work hard to
understand her audience. This is easier when the audience to which
you are speaking is a congregation you have pastored, and walked
alongside for nine years. It is a little harder when you are asked to
preach to someone else's congregation or to be a special speaker at
an event. There is a lot more guess work and extrapolation, but
none-the-less one must work to know the people to whom you speak as
best you can. And at times you shift and change your sermon as you
are speaking to adapt to the people who are in front of you, so that
the truth you have to share will be best understood.
As
Paul is doing this, he is cut short, he is taken to the Areopagus a
large rocky hill northwest of the Acropolis. Now why Paul was brought
there is greatly debated. Some, siting that the Epicureans and Stoics
found him to be a babbler at best and a purveyor of foreign deities
at worst, say he was taken there hostilely, much as Socrates was, to
be tried and convicted for the ideas he was presented in the
marketplace. Others believe the purpose was one of genuine interest,
wanting to know and understand what exactly it is that Paul is
teaching, sighting the words of inquiry used, “this sounds strange
to us, we would like to know what it means.”
Either
way, Paul gains the ears of all the most important citizens, best
thinkers and possibly their ruling court on all matters concerning
public life, philosophy, religion and morality. Given this
opportunity, Paul seizes the day. While he was debating, he was
listening, while he was listening he was paying attention. He has
worked to know and understand these people as best he can during the
time he was been there and he is ready. He has seen their idols, he
has heard the desire to know and learn new things. He sees they are a
people full of religious fervor. And he knows how to speak so that
they can hear, how to share the gospel with words so that they can
understand him.
Standing
on the street corner yelling, “The end is near!” Or shouting,
“You are all vile sinners repent and be saved!” is easy, but it
is more than that it is lazy and it does a disservice to the Gospel.
I think most of us agree that this is really no way to win people to
Christ. We instinctively know that although perhaps at some point in
our history this kind of preaching would have started a discussion
with a passerby, that if that time existed, that time is not now.
Today, doing this would arouse disdain in passersby, at best they
would simply continue to pass by, and at worst hurl insults and
other things in our direction. We know enough about our culture, our
society, the people in our city and our country, to know that this
tactic simply would not work.
Sharing
the gospel is hard work. If it was as easy as marching into Central
square standing up on a bench across from the Starbucks and preaching
the gospel, I would say, lets, pack up Church right now and go do it.
And you had better bet that we would not be the only people who were
vying for space to do it.
Paul
begins with prayer. This is not specifically mentioned in his
passage, but Paul makes his dedication to prayer, abundantly clear
throughout his writings. He speaks frequently of praying. He prays
for the Church; he prays for the people who minister alongside of
him; he prays for the work and ministry God has set him to do. He
tells us that he prays continually about all things. And he asks all
his churches to do so as well. There is nothing Paul does which is
not immersed in prayer from start to finish. So we know that not only
his journey to Athens but everything he does and says there is bathed
in prayer.
Paul
by going into the marketplace to debate and argue with the Stoics and
the Epicureans, was meeting them in place they understood. He was
using tools they understood and speaking the language of philosophy
which resonated most with them. Paul began by connecting with the
people of Athens. He works within their system. He goes into the
marketplace and debates with them, works to understand their way of
thinking and where they are coming from. He works to connect with
them at every point. He wants to understand them; wants them to feel
comfortable with him. He works to see who they are and where they are
coming from. By debating in the marketplace, he is also coming to
understand how they think, how they reason, the words and language
that will speak to them. The ways they understand their world, the
place religion and worship play in there lives. And because he does
this they are ready to hear him when he begins his sermon on the
Areopagus.
He
begins his sermon by finding common ground. Paul is a devoutly
Christian man, and although the amount of idols in Athens distresses
him, Paul can see they are a deeply religious people, so he begins
there. They are people who want to make sure every god is at least
acknowledge, if to not properly worshiped. Every god is included, not
even one is left out. Paul begins there. He makes their religiosity
the foundation from which he builds. So they are all starting in a
place that deeply matters to them.
It
is only because he does these things that he is able to declare to
them that the unknown god whom they have so carefully included in the
pantheon of gods they worship, is in fact the the God of the heavens
and the earth through whom all things find their existence. Paul is
able to find a point that will make sense to them. He is able to find
a way to help God make sense to them.
Christians
down through the ages have worked and done a similar things. We bring
trees into our houses at Christmas because when Christianity came to
the Germanic lands we connected the evergreens they brought into
their house for their mid-winter celebrations to the undying nature
of the Christ child. We paint eggs and do egg hunts at Easter for a
very similar reason. Saint Patrick is said to have used the
ubiquitous shamrock to help the people of Ireland understand the
Trinity. Finding common ground, understanding and using the language,
the symbols and the tools of a society to share the Gospel is
actually the best way to help them come to understand who Jesus is.
Once
Paul has connected with the people of Athens, participating in their
lively debates and arguing with them in their traditional manner, and
thus finding a place of commonality, it is only then that Paul begins
to tell them about Jesus Christ. Sharing with them the truth of the
gospel clearly and articulately, continuing to use means and language
that makes sense to them, so that they can hear and understand him.
Paul
throughout his life is literally fulfilling the final command of
Jesus for us all to go into the world making disciples, being a
witness not only in Jerusalem, Judea and the surrounding countryside,
but literally to the ends of his known world. This is the call of
Christ on us all. Perhaps not so much each of us going to the ends of
the earth, but we are at the very least called to be witnesses in all
the parts of the world in which we inhabit. Our neighborhoods, our
schools, the places we work, shop and play, our offices, our grocery
stores and coffee shops.
Whatever
we are doing our lives, like Paul's should be bathed in prayer. We
too should be praying continually, and among the many things we pray
for should be our fulfillment of Jesus' call on our lives to make
disciples and to be witnesses of the gospel in our world. We should
continually be praying that we are able to bring the truth of Jesus
to those around us, praying that we will do and say the right things
when the time comes.
But
we can not just sit around and wait for someone to approach us and
ask us about our God, seeking to learn and understand more about
Jesus Christ. Although there are stories about this sort of thing
happening, it has never happened to me, and my guess it has never
happened to you. No matter how much I wish that someone else would
walk up to me and start that kind of conversation, in my experience
it is yet to happen. So we begin by connecting with people around us.
We
put ourselves in places where people are. We talk to our neighbors,
we engage our co-workers. If we always have the same checkout person
at the grocery store we seek to get to know them. In short we make
friends with people around us. We get to know them, come to
understand them. We invite them into our homes, we participate in
leisure activities together.
The
second thing we do is find common ground. We find out what matters to
the people in our lives. We find out how they think, what is
important to them. We seek to understand their symbols, what they
believe, what they think about the world and the things that are
going on around us.
And
then once we have bathed everything in prayer, once you know and
understand them, and they trust you. Once you are a part of their
lives, are in relationship with them. When in the course of your
friendship, over dinner, or a share cup of coffee, or through the
course of a conversation you can find away to share the truth of
Jesus Christ with them.
And
lets be honest, working to understand how people around us think,
what they care about, and what matter to them is easy. Being in
relationship with other people is fulfilling. We like making
connections, we like having friends. It is not difficult, over the
course of time, coming to know and understand someone, to truly care
about what they care about. To be friends.
The
hard part is to find the right time the right words and boldly
sharing about Jesus Christ. This is why we pray, this is why we
prepare, so that when the opportunity comes, we do not miss it; when
the conversation turns a certain direction we are able to sense it
and know what needs to be said; or even be able to seamlessly guide a
discussion toward spiritual matters, so that we are able to share
about our faith in Jesus, our belief in how he can transform our
lives, to invite someone to come to Church or other religious
activity or even know when someone is ready to hear and accept Jesus
as savior.
Pray,
connect, find common ground and then share the gospel this is the
pattern we see in Paul and is a good pattern to follow throughout our
lives.
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