Agnostos Theos

June 30^th, 2019         “Agnōstos Theos”         Rev. Heather Jepsen

Summer Sermon Series: The Amazing Adventures of Paul

Acts 17

         This morning we continue our summer sermon series, “The Amazing Adventures of Paul.”  All this month we have been working our way through the story of Paul as told in the book of Acts.  From converting just a few households to forming new worshipping communities, Paul has been on the move spreading the gospel far and wide.  Paul frequently runs into conflict with religious and civil authorities and is often the victim of mob violence.  Today’s reading continues the saga as Paul preaches to the people of Athens.

        (Read Acts 17:1-15)

         Our trio of Paul, Silas, and Timothy finds themselves in Thessalonica when we begin today’s reading.  Unlike last week’s events in Philippi, there are enough Jews in this region to form a synagogue so that is where Paul goes to preach his gospel.  For three weeks he preaches and many Jews as well as Greeks find him compelling.  But the leaders of the church are jealous of this new upstart and once again we find Paul inspiring a riot.

         This time the religious elite hire a band of ruffians to help swell the crowd size as they seek after Paul and his gang.  I assume these are the paid protestors we hear so much about today!  The mob goes in search of Paul and his friends and being unable to find him, they take their anger out on Jason whom we assume was hosting Paul in his home.

         The crowd brings Jason before the authorities to account for his hospitality but in this city at least, the ruling elite can see that this is nothing more than a petty religious squabble and not a real civil issue.  The authorities force Jason to pay a fine and the mob is left unsatisfied.

         Paul and friends flee to Beroea and they receive a better reception in that community.  But once again, Paul is followed by the angry crowd as the Jews from Thessalonica show up and try to incite another mob against Paul and his friends.  As the situation grows increasingly dangerous Paul, the center of all the conflict, is sent far away to Athens alone.  The plan is for him to minister on a smaller scale there, while things simmer down a bit.  But of course in the “Amazing Adventures of Paul” nothing happens on a small scale.

         (Read Acts 17:16-21)

         Like how I imagine I might react to Times Square or the Las Vegas Strip, Paul is immediately overwhelmed by the idolatry of Athens.  He can’t help but preach against the mistaken path that so many people are following in this big city.  Paul is busy arguing in the synagogue and also in the public square and that is where he gets into trouble again. 

Athens is a learned city and it doesn’t take long for folks to notice that Paul is bringing a new teaching to them.  Both the Epicureans and the Stoics are interested in what Paul has to say.  And while some accuse him of simply babbling nonsense, others are genuinely interested in this new god he speaks of.  At this point, Paul is forcibly taken to the heart of the intellectual debate in Athens, the Areopagus or “Mars Hill”. 

This is the center of learned thought and argument and it is here that Paul is challenged, “May we know what this new teaching is?  Because it sure sounds strange to us!”  I can just imagine the mocking tone that the educated leaders might use, which is matched only by the mocking tone the writer of Acts uses to describe them.  What follows now is Paul’s most famous sermon in the Book of Acts.

         (Read Acts 17:22-34)

         Paul begins his famous sermon by pointing out that the Athenians have been so eager to seek after and worship any god that they even have an altar “To an unknown god”, in Greek agnōstos theos.  Following a pattern he has used before, Paul points out that we know and see this God in the world and everything God has created.  This God does not live in shrines or rely on us for anything, rather this is a God who reaches out to us in love.  When we search for God, this God is near reaching back to us and as Paul quotes from a teaching rooted in the thought of Plato it is “in him we live and move and have our being.”

Paul urges the Athenians to consider this God he is teaching them about, for at some time this God will judge us and we don’t want to be found lacking.  Finally Paul appeals to the teaching that has carried him so far on his journey, that this is the God of resurrection. 

         As usual the results are mixed and some out rightly dismiss Paul while others are curious to learn more.  In the end some join the movement and Paul’s time on Mars Hill is seen as a success.

         This week I was really struck by how similar the people of ancient Athens are to the people of today.  Today people are still searching and seeking after something that they can’t define, the agnōstos theos or unknown god.  In a recent New York Times commentary, columnist David Brooks chronicles a religious revival that may surprise or even shock.  At this time in America, more people believe in Astrology than attend mainline Protestant churches.  Instead of looking for answers in church we are looking for answers in the stars.  And the fastest growing religion in America?  Would you guess it is Wicca?  Other rising spiritual movements in our country right now are mindfulness and wokeness.  Sort of a meditative politically correct mashup.  Like the Athenians, we have a temple for everything, a regular smorgasbord of gods to choose from.

         Brooks points out that we have entertained a long running dialogue about living in a more secular age, and while many people have rejected the confines of traditional religion, a truly secular age has never come and probably never will.  Humans by their very nature are spiritual beings.  And deep within each of us resides a hunger for the spiritual.  We long to connect with something bigger than ourselves, and so we spend our lives seeking after that which will fulfill our needs.  Some people find it here at church, some people find it in meditative mindfulness, and apparently some people find it in witchcraft.

         Paul would argue that the god we are seeking after, the agnōstos theos is the very God that we know and worship here in church.  This is the God who created the heavens and the earth, the God who formed humanity and desires to be in relationship with us, and the God who made Godself most fully known in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Paul would say, and I would second the motion, that the very God that will quench our thirst for spirituality and meaning is the one true creator of all there is.  The one who is the be all, end all, of our existence.  The Alpha and Omega.  The “one in whom we live and move and have our being”.

         What Paul could not imagine is that the church of the future would do such a poor job showing this God to the world, that we would in essence be the ones who cause people to seek after false gods instead.  In so many ways we have made the church itself an idol, and we have inadvertently pushed people to worship all the false idols of culture instead. 

         In his commentary, David Brooks lists six needs that people are filling with their alternative religious movements and I believe that the church has largely failed people on all of these fronts.  The first is spirituality and people’s great yearning to tap into a transcendent spiritual experience.  In many megachurch worshipping communities we have written spirituality right out of the equation as church has become a concert or talk show that you come to observe and not something you as an individual are asked to participate in. 

         The second need people have is to slow down the pace of human life.  It is hard to stop life for a few hours each Sunday to attend church, but that is about you and your priorities.  Here at church though we don’t help this if we are constantly asking you to do more instead of offering more opportunities for you to do less.

         The third need addressed by these alternative religions is alienation.  I’m sure I don’t need to remind you of all the ways the church has shut its doors and said “no” to varying members of our modern society.  Organized religion has in many ways become wedded to the power structures of American society and that does the God we worship no good at all.  

         The fourth need people have is to identify as something or to have identity markers in your life.  As traditional sources of identity are challenged or erased, people are looking for new markers of meaning.  Identifying as a Christian can be problematic and is often misconstrued in today’s culture.  This connects with the fifth need which is to live in a community but to be an individual.  Folks want to pick and choose their religion from a variety of options, blazing their own religious path, rather than identifying with one specific sect, like PC(USA). 

         The final thing modern folks are looking for with religion is that it is alternative.  People want to be unique but not too far outside the mainstream.  Just like the idea of doing your own thing but being part of a group, folks want to see themselves as alternative but not too far away from everyone else.  Some Christianity fits this and some of it doesn’t.

         Just like the people of Athens, the people of modern America are hungry for God.  They are searching for value and meaning in the midst of a culture that tells us the only thing that really matters is money.  The famous ethicist H. Richard Niebuhr argued that everyone has something as their center of value.  There is a core to your life around which everything else rotates or evolves.  If it is not God then it is something else, because it has to be something.

         I think that just like the people of Athens, modern Americans can feel that the idolatry of our culture is not enough.  We are hungry for more and we are hungry for God.  As a pastor I strive to create a church where we meet those needs, offering spiritual depth, meaningful interactions, genuine welcome, and a place where folks can identify as part of a group.  While not an alternative religion, I feel that this form of genuine Christianity is an alternative to other Christianities available in this town and in our country. 

I believe that people will remain hungry and unsatisfied, searching for the agnōstos theos or unknown god until they encounter the one true God.  This is the God I worship and serve, this is the God I preach, and this is the very same God that Paul preached of that day in Athens on Mars Hill.  We can see and know this God in the world around us and in our relationships with each other.  And we can worship and learn about this God here together, in the community that is this particular church.  I believe that we have an answer to people’s deep hunger, right here, each and every day.  We know who the agnōstos theos is.

And so once again we leave Paul.  Today he has preached an amazing sermon to the spiritually hungry people of Athens.  Next week he travels to Corinth and then on to Ephesus.  Join me next Sunday as we continue to follow his journey in “The Amazing Adventures of Paul”.  Amen.