IN
PURSUIT OF RELIGION
ACTS
17.16-31
APRIL
27, 2008
WESLEY
UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
Douglas
Norris
From
the earliest of times, human beings have been in pursuit of religion.
As we were all created by one Creator, there is in the hearts of all
humankind a longing, a searching, a hungering for God. Many attempts
have been made in the pursuit of religion, beginning with
hieroglyphics on the walls of caves.
When
the apostle Paul arrived in Athens, Greece, he took a walking tour
and quickly got a sense of the community values. Athens was a city
of the great philosophers-- Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Athens
was a city of history, architecture and statues of gods. It was said
that there were more statues of gods in Athens than in all the rest
of Greece put together, and that in Athens it was easier to bump into
a god than a person. Paul was deeply distressed to see that the city
was full of idols, a futile attempt in his thinking, to find
religion. He first went to synagogues for dialog with Jews. Acts
17.17 states that he argued with them. Then he went to the market
place and began talking about religion. There were Epicurean
philosophers there with their motto, “Eat, drink and be merry for
tomorrow we die.” Stoic philosophers were there with their motto,
“No pain, no gain!” They began to debate with Paul.
Some
said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said, “He
seems to be a proclaimer of foreign divinities.” So they invited
him to speak in front of the Areopagus. Areopagus, or Mars Hill, was
the special hill where the select court of Athens was held to give
oversight to public morals, to hear testimony, and sometimes to
adjudicate truth. It was quite an honor to be asked to speak there,
and Paul did so with his usual forcefulness, courtesy and clarity.
There,
in front of the highest judicial council, a select group of about 30
of Athens’ brightest and best, Paul said, “Athenians, I see how
extremely religious you are.” Paul honored their religious quest,
their recognition that there is someone or something out there larger
than themselves. Can you see the council sitting up a bit straighter
at Paul’s verbal pat on the back, saying to themselves, “Why you
are quite right, no one does religion quite as well as we do.”
Paul
continued, “As I checked out your monuments I found one inscribed
‘To an Unknown God.’” Peter Gomes wrote that this was “a
temple in case they missed a god they didn’t know, just in case
that unknown god had done something good for them for which they
should be thankful, or could do something bad to them of which they
should be afraid.” In other words, in the land of a thousand gods,
this was a “just in case god”. You could never be too careful
when it came to keeping the gods happy. They’d covered every base
imaginable—just in case.
Paul
did not criticize them for idol worship or mock them for the
silliness of a “just in case” god; but proceeded to give them the
good news. “The god you worship as unknown I am now going to
proclaim to you.”
The
Russian philosopher, Nicholas Berdyaev, has said, “Man is incurably
religious.” There is something in all of us that compels us to
pursue religion. Humans are in pursuit of religion, but we must
admit not all religions are helpful, satisfying or effective.
There
is the Just in Case religion, flourishing not only in ancient Athens,
but alive today. Followers are not too sure which god to believe in,
but they don’t want to take a chance in offending, so just in case,
they believe there is a god. They don’t really care enough to
explore who and what is the god they believe in. They believe just
in case… These followers join a church, not because they are
committing their lives or taking the vows seriously, but they join
just in case… These are the folks who join a church so there will
be a place for their funeral and a place for their daughters to be
married. Just in case… These are the folks who believe that
cancer, etc. are punishments so they try to be good just in case…
There
is the religion of idol worship. Oh, we don’t make little golden
bulls for the dashboard or erect statues of gods in Japantown. Our
idols are more subtle. Idol worship is the worship of what has been
created in place of the one who created it. Modern idols come in all
shapes, flavors and sizes—material possessions, money, security,
entertainment, recreation, appetites, patriotism. None of these are
all bad. But when we give them too much of our heart, when we value
things more than the Creator; when they become the focal point and
the top priority of our lives, we are practicing idolatry. And idols
cannot satisfy the fundamental longing for religion.
There
is the religion of fads. The ancient Athenians delighted in finding
the latest psychological and religious fads. They loved to flit from
one thing to another. Acts 17.21, “Now all the Athenians and the
foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing but telling
or hearing something new.” Lots of talk, but no action is the
practice of a religion with no depth, a religion of shallowness, a
religion of flitting from flower to flower, a religion that is not
deep enough to satisfy the fundamental longing for God.
There
is the religion of legalism. Especially in this day of moral
permissiveness, there are those who make morality black and white,
become judgmental, and miss both the compassion and the deeper
ethical judgment through which true morality comes. How often Jesus
spoke against legalism, and denounced those who followed the letter
and the outward form of the law, but did not have the spirit of the
law in their hearts. Over and over again, legalists try to fit
others into their rigid and authoritarian world, and practice
spiritual tyranny. Followers of the legalism religion often are
vindictive and punitive. In insecure times, some folks try to find
religion in laws, especially laws they can apply to others.
Speaking
of legalism, what happens when there is a conflict between a religion
and the laws of the land? My heart aches for the 400+ children who
have been torn from their mothers, uprooted from their homes and
forcibly placed into foster homes. Yes, it is morally wrong to force
child brides into marriage. Yes, abuse of children takes priority
over religion but where is the line? There must be a better way than
what Texas is doing.
Paul
gave a message of good news to the Athenians who were actively in
pursuit of religion. His message of good news is still relevant
today to those who stumble around trying to find a religion that
satisfies. Is your religion satisfying? Test your religion by using
Paul’s message.
We
don’t make God, God makes us. God is the maker of the world and
everything that is in it.
God
is not in idols. When we make what is not God god, our possessions
own us, our drive for power damages our relationships, our appetites
create addictions, our work consumes, the latest craze and fad only
leaves our spirits empty and wondering if there is something more.
God is not in idols.
Humans
were made with the capacity to be in relationship with God, not with
things.
In
the final analysis, we will be held accountable for our religion.
We’ve been given the good news, the ball is in your court. It is
your decision, a decision with eternal consequences.
Let’s
listen again to Paul’s sermon. Listen with fresh ears. I will
read from The Message, Acts 17.24-31:
“The
God who made the world and everything in it, this Master of sky and
land, doesn’t live in custom-made shrines or need the human race to
run errands for him, as if he couldn’t take care of himself. God
makes the creatures; the creatures don’t make God. Starting from
scratch, God made the entire human race, and made the earth
hospitable, with plenty of time and space for living so we could seek
after God, and not just grope around in the dark but actually find
him. God doesn’t play hide-and-seek with us. God’s not remote;
God is near. We live and move in him, can’t get away from him!
One of your poets said it well: ‘We’re the God-created.’ Well,
if we are the God-created, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to think
we could hire a sculptor to chisel a god out of stone for us, does
it? God overlooks it as long as you don’t know any better—but
that time is past. The unknown is now known, and God is calling for
a radical life-change. God has set a day when the entire human race
will be judged and everything set right. And God has already
appointed the judge, confirming him before everyone by raising him
from the dead.”
We
know the judge is Jesus, who loves us deeply, died for us, and leads
us to a religion that satisfies and glorifies God.
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