Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
First Presbyterian Church of Ocean City
Sermon Acts
17:16-34 Engage, The New Normal[1]
June 14, 2015
Today we
begin our look at evangelism. As we grow
as disciples of Jesus Christ we find that the Holy Spirit plants in our hearts
a gift and a desire to share our faith with others. This results in other people coming to faith,
and Kingdom of God grows. The church is
the bearer of good news. It gathers
people for worship and then sends them into the world to work arm and arm with
God. We follow God into areas of great
need. And we return to worship
proclaiming that our mighty God meets the deepest needs of people. This is called evangelism. We will get to this, but first let's pray.
May the
words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight
O Lord, our rock and redeemer.
I am a
child of the 1950s and 60s. I remember
church back then. We lived in the new
suburbs around Washington DC and attend a new church. The original building, built in the 1950's
was already too small by 1961. We didn't
have enough classroom space for all of us kids.
The fellowship hall was too small for our monthly pot luck dinners. The sanctuary was too small and the adults
complained about sitting on metal foldup chairs. Over 600 people were attending each
week. So the church embarked on a
building campaign, funds were raised for a new sanctuary.
Those were
the days of the 1950s and 60s when this church experienced the same thing. You bought land at the edge of town and
erected this building to serve your growing congregation.
From the
beginning of the Age of Enlightenment in the 17th century through
the mid 20th century the church had a privileged position in the
culture of Western Europe and North America.
We had the answers for life's most pressing questions. We had the solution for life's most pressing
problems. Government closed businesses
so everyone could come to church on Sunday.
And most people got up on Sundays mornings and made their way to church.
In this
environment all we had to do was put up a nice building with a sign out front
and people knew who we were and came Sunday morning knowing what to
expect. Evangelism consisted of
educating children in the faith so that they would be good church members when
they grew up. But all of this has
changed.
Today, the
church I grew up in, the one with over 600 members now has about 100 in
worship. And many of these are
older. They have combined their youth
group with a Korean church that rents space in the building. Like all churches they have seen their youth
grow up and leave. And they wonder where
the people will come from who will run the church's programs when they are no
longer able. What happened?
In the last
50 years our culture has changed. We
have entered a time we call Postmodern.
People our now skeptical about any claim of truth. When the church says that we have the
answers for our most pressing questions, the response we get is that you may
have your answers, but we have ours.
When the church says that we have the solutions to our most pressing
problems, the response we get is it that you may have your solution, but we
have ours. People see the church as
coercive. We are accused of trying to
make people believe what we believe. People
see us as intolerant. We are accused of
demanding that people follow our ethical laws.
Today, our culture values all beliefs and all behaviors and distrust any
institution that wants to force specific beliefs and behaviors on people.
And so we
live in a world today that distrusts the church. People wake up on Sunday mornings and read
the newspaper, or go to work, or sit on the beach, or play volleyball, anything
but come to church. The church is no
longer privileged. Our old ways of
evangelism no longer work. Something
must change or we die. Of course, God
will not die. And God will not let the
church die. But things must change. And whenever the church must reform our
starting point is always scripture. And
so we turn to the 17th chapter of the Book of Acts.
Acts
17 16 While Paul was
waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was
full of idols. 17 So
he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as
well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean
and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is
this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating
foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good
news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Then they took him and brought him to
a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this
new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to
our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” 21 (All the Athenians and the
foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and
listening to the latest ideas.)
Paul
arrived in Athens sometime in the middle of the first century. And what he saw there broke his heart. He knew that people were longing for
authentic spirituality. Their spirit
longed for their creator. But as he walked
around the city his heart broke because this deep spiritual need was going unfilled. People were trying everything they could
think of. If their traditional “god”
didn't work they would try one from one of the provinces. But nothing seemed to work and their deep
spiritual needs went unmet.
So
too today. People in our community have
a deep hunger for true spirituality. To
satisfy this hunger they mix a cocktail of spiritual practices and
beliefs. They might combine a little
Buddhism, add some Force from Star Wars,
throw in the nice part of Jesus, and finish it off with ideas from the
latest vampire movie. They mix all this
together to form their own personal god.
But then they find that this god has no satisfying answers to there
deepest questions, and no satisfying solutions to their deepest problems. And so they keep searching and adjusting the
recipe for their unsatisfying spiritual soup.
So
if our situation is the same as what Paul found in Athens what should we
do? Well, what Paul did is he talked
about his faith, and what Jesus did for him.
Let's listen to what he had to say.
Acts 17 22 Paul
then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens!
I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For
as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even
found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are
ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim
to you.
24 “The
God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and
earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands,
as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and
everything else. 26 From one man he made
all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out
their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek
him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any
one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have
our being.’[b] As some of your own poets have said,
‘We are his offspring.’[c]
29 “Therefore
since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like
gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such
ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will
judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has
given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
32 When
they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but
others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” 33 At that, Paul left the Council. 34 Some of the people became followers of
Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the
Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.
So what are we to
do? In the situation we find ourselves
today we cannot just sit here in church hoping that more people will join
us. We can't start a new program or call
a new pastor and expect everything will return to the way it was. What God wants us to do is get out of the
church and talk with others about our faith.
If we really believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and eternal
life, then we will have a strong desire to share this good news with others. We can't compel anyone to accept our
belief. But if we have developed a level
of trust with someone else then we will be able to share our story of what
Jesus has done in our lives. This is
God's mission in world. When we talk
about our faith with others, we are loving God and loving our neighbors.
You may be thinking that
this is too hard. It's just too
difficult to talk about faith with others.
And you are right. It scares me
to death. But if we are going to do what
God wants us to do we have to start somewhere.
Don't we?
That is why we have
created a safe place when you can begin to talk about faith. Right after church in our Fellowship Hall
during lunch I would like for you to talk about the changes you have seen in
our culture and how this affects the church.
Talk about what church was like 30, 50 even 70 years ago. And talk about what has changed in the
community and in the church. The
people you will be talking with are your friends right here. And these are conversations you already have
all the time. I hear them every
week. So I hope you will enjoy this
opportunity to get together over lunch for a conversation about church. I am certainly looking forward to it. Let's pray.
Father in Heaven, we thank you for this day
when we can come into your presence and worship you. Help us to see the spiritual needs in the
community around us. Help us to talk about
you with people we meet. This we pray in
your son glorious name. Amen.
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