January 31, 2010
Acts 17:16-34
(Turn coat inside out)
Good morning.
Your pastor, John Bender, called me a few weeks ago and asked if I would dig out my old sermon that I preached in Athens 2000 years ago.
I tried to get out of it by telling him that some of my sermons were a little long and even put a few people to sleep.
I told him of the time a young man fell to sleep during one of my sermons while sitting in a window. He ended up falling three stories to the ground.
John said, “I shouldn’t worry about any of that because some of his sermons also put people to sleep and you can’t fall out of the windows here.”
I then reminded him that some of my sermons also got me into a lot of trouble. After some sermons I was beaten, imprisoned, and even run out of town.
Everywhere I went I was accused of “turning the world upside down.”
John said it would be okay, though, if I upset you a little and “turned your world upside down and inside out.”
So, here I am! I am the Apostle Paul and I have been known to turn the world inside out.
The last few days I had the wonderful opportunity to see your great city. When I came from the airport and drove through the tunnel – I was amazed at the view of the three rivers, the downtown area, and all of your stadiums.
You really do have a beautiful city!
And all of your interest in art, philosophy, and science reminded me so much of Athens.
Athens was a university town like yours and it was seen as the cultural capital of the Greeks. It was the great intellectual center of the world and people just loved all of the “new ideas” generated there.
As I drove around Pittsburgh, another thing that reminded me of Athens – was your deep spirituality.
Athens was the place where everyone’s god was given a space. Alexander the Great exported our Greek culture all around the world, but he also brought back to Athens the best of what he found in other places.
This meant Athens had a very pluralistic culture and foreign deities were not only tolerated – they were openly welcomed. In fact, there were more deities than people in Athens.
At first all of those idols distressed me, but then I became hopeful because I knew these folks were searching for something.
When I arrived in Pittsburgh I was surprised at your spirituality here. I had heard that secularism was on the rise, but everywhere I went the last few days people described themselves as “spiritual, but not religious”.
People are very serious here about finding meaning and purpose in life.
And everywhere I went I noticed your beautiful houses of worship.
- As I came into the city one of the newest houses of worship I noticed first was on the Ohio River. The name on the outside said “Rivers Casino.”
People by the hundreds and thousands were going into this beautiful new building. As people entered they would bow down to the god “mammon”.
I was told that if you give some money to this god “mammon” – this god might bless you with a whole lot of money in return. I was told this church collects millions of dollars every day.
Now, I asked some folks what denomination this church belonged to but they told me it was nondenominational. They said people go there from every religion and denomination with the hope of getting rich real quick. This is what keeps them coming back for more.
I was invited in, but I declined because I know how tempted I am by this “mammon god”. This prosperity gospel has such appeal because it taps into the universal self-interest of the human heart.
And to really be honest with you, I didn’t go in because I get no joy or entertainment value from loosing money to machines.
- Another house of worship I noticed as I was driving around the city was the one to the god of capitalism – the mall.
I decided to go into one of these houses of worship to see what people do in there. I asked one person – how often do you come here?
She said she usually comes at least twice a week. Then I asked her – why do you come so often?
She said – well, God had blessed her with a lot of money and the more stuff she bought the better she felt about herself.
She also told me that her “high priest president” had encouraged her to buy more and more stuff because that keeps the economy growing and her wealth flowing.
I must admit that I was deeply impressed by her commitment to capitalism. This wasn’t just some economic theory here – this was religion at its best.
- After leaving the mall – I decided to head over to this giant outdoor stadium that had these big ketchup bottles on a large screen. This house of worship was named “Heinz field”.
Someone gave me a tour of the building and they told me that on game day people literally come from all over the country. He called it “Steeler Nation”.
He showed me a video of a game and all of the people were having a great time. They were shouting and clapping and waving these yellow towels in the air and singing praise songs.
Wow, could they sing! They didn’t need hymn books or anything. It was all memorized.
They were singing:
Here we go steelers – here we go!
Here we go steelers – here we go!
Here we go steelers – here we go!
Do you know this song? Let’s sing it.
And then whenever their high priest – this guy with a number “7” on his back – throws a touchdown people just adore him. And when he gets knocked down or throws a ball to wrong the team people would groan and lament and boo him.
One time he didn’t get up and people started crying. And when he couldn’t come to the next game people went into depression and some even had to get counseling.
This guy seems to really have a lot of influence on people. People try to get his autograph. They wear his clothes all over the place. They worship this guy.
This number “7” guy is so important that they pay him millions and millions of dollars each year. It’s really quite amazing how much money he gets – given how many homeless people I saw around town.
All I know is that around here – sports is a real religion.
- After I left “Heinz Field” I was driving around and I noticed this Christian Bookstore.
I was told there were some books in there about me and I decided to check the place out.
What I found there just astounded me!
This Jesus who was crucified for being a threat to rulers has now become really big business.
It was like Jesus was a superstar or something. You could even buy a retired jersey with Jesus’ picture on it in 30 different colors.
And there were these beautiful gold crosses for your neck, or ears, or stomach, or even your toes.
I even found these neat little wrist bands with the letters “WWJD” on them. I asked a clerk what those letters mean and she told me they stand for – “what would Jesus do?”
I walked away thinking to myself – “Wow, I wonder what Jesus would do if he saw all of this religious junk in his name?”
As I was looking around the store – I overheard an older man explaining to a teenage boy why it is important to look your best for Jesus.
He said – “we need to dress up for God” and that big, beautiful church buildings help us worship God better.
I left the bookstore pondering to myself – “not only is there now room in the inn for Jesus, but there are penthouse suites with his name on them.”
I could tell that people really do admire Jesus around here. The only question I had is – do they know about this Jesus I wrote about in the bible and that Jesus wants to be followed in all of life – not just admired or adored?
- Well, as I continued driving around town, the next thing I noticed were your superb universities.
You really do have a lot of them in Pittsburgh.
I just love a university town! So, I decided to sit in on a class to hear what they are teaching these days.
I discovered things hadn’t changed much since I was in college.
They were still discussing all of the latest “new ideas”.
That day in class they were talking about Christianity. One person argued that Christianity is just too simplistic.
Another person said it was outdated because it was pre-scientific. Another person said it was just superstition.
I could understand some of their feelings and perspectives – I have had my own concerns. But what really amazed me was when they started telling stories of how comforted they were by astrology, transcendental meditation, parapsychology, and some be-happy humanism.
I left the classroom thinking about all these “new ideas” and wondering to myself – and they were calling Christians simplistic.
Now, don’t get me wrong – I love new ideas too. The problem is that so often coming up with “new ideas” is just a safe way to distance ourselves from acting on what we already know.
And the truth is – some of those so called “new ideas” were the same old ideas we talked about in Athens.
When I got to Athens everybody was interested in what “new ideas” I might have. Now, in Athens, there were two primary schools of thought that influenced how everyone seemed to live their lives.
The one group was called – Epicureans. These folks were the “practical atheists”. They believed there could be a God, but if God existed – they didn’t think God made any practical difference in one’s day to day life.
So, since God was distant and inactive – the best one could do in life was to seek after personal pleasure. The highest good in life for Epicureans was happiness.
The Stoics, on the other hand, believed you shouldn’t get too passionate about anything. They thought you should control your emotions and be logical. Stoics were hard core rationalists.
They thought one should not be affected by pleasure or by pain.
And for Stoics, they believed God determined everything for the best. They believed God is “fate” and “fate” ordained all things that were to come to pass.
Now, these Epicurean and Stoic philosophers wanted to debate me. They called me a “babbler”. By babbler they meant that “my ideas were not original with me.”
They thought I was a teacher who went around collecting scraps of information from others and passing them on.
Even though they were sure my ideas were irrelevant they still wanted to hear me. So, they invited me to come speak on Mars Hill.
Now Mars is the Roman God of war. So here I am surrounded by images of this “God of war” talking about Jesus Christ and his resurrection”.
And that is another idol that is always so tempting to put one’s trust in. The gods of war and militarism and nationalism are always seeking for our highest allegiance.
And because all of us have a deep need for security – we are easily seduced into believing that guns and bombs and nuclear weapons will protect us from evil.
Remember that Christian bookstore I visited – one author I found was quoting something I wrote in Romans 13 to say that – followers of Jesus should join the military to kill the bad guys. They said it was our duty as Christians.
Now, I don’t know how they got that from my writing because I said that “Christians are to overcome evil with good and we are to let vengeance up to God.” For me that means – followers of Jesus actually don’t kill people.
I started out thinking we should kill off the bad guys too – and I did my share of that – but Jesus changed my life. He showed me that in killing others I was killing him. Jesus taught me that we are to love our enemies and be willing to suffer instead of harm others.
So, when these philosophers took me to Mars Hill – in front of the Roman God of war – I wondered what they would think of this God I know who raised Jesus from the dead.
I started my sermon that day by telling them how impressed I was by their spirituality. I told them I had seen one of their altars “to an unknown god”.
I told them – anyone who can worship a god you don’t even know – must really, really be devoted and spiritual.
I went on, then, to explain how this “unknown god” they talk about – is really the Creator of the world.
I told them God created the whole world in love and human beings were created in the very image of this God so we could relate to God and care for this beautiful world.
However, we started abusing this world when we human beings rejected God’s offer of relationship and we refused to trust God for our security and life. We thought we knew more than God.
And now we find ourselves enslaved to those very things God created for our good. And because we don’t trust God – we get seduced by all of these other false gods of mammon, greed, sports, religion, violence, sex, and nationalism.
All of these gods appear to give us security and meaning and pleasure in life – and they may for a short time, but it doesn’t last.
I told these philosophers that God who created us never stopped loving us or seeking a relationship with us. God refuses to abandon us even when we abandon God.
In fact, God so much desires a relationship with us that God came to us in human form, in Jesus of Nazareth, to live among us. God came to live “with” us.
In Jesus, God revealed how we are to live our lives, and relate to each other and to our world.
In Jesus, God showed us what it truly means to be human.
But once again we human beings rejected God’s way of being human in the world by having Jesus killed.
And yet, even killing Jesus did not stop God from loving us or giving up on us. Instead, God raised Jesus from the dead and unmasked all of the false powers and gods of this world.
And just like that – as soon as I mentioned Jesus’ resurrection – many in the crowd started laughing and making fun of me.
I told those philosophers that I too once thought Jesus was a crackpot and that his resurrection was a hoax. In fact, I worked hard to have his followers killed so they would stop spreading those crazy resurrection ideas.
But then one day as I was trying to kill his followers – I met this resurrected Jesus face to face and my life was changed forever.
So, I am here today as a witness of this God – that the very same power that raised Jesus from the dead can live in each one of you – so that you too can live and become more like Jesus.
The same Spirit of God that raised Jesus from the dead can give you power
- to love your enemies,
- to forgive those who hurt you,
- to share your money with the poor,
- to wash the feet of those who will betray you,
- to care for the sick and those in prison,
- and to show mercy to the brokenhearted.
I am not telling you this morning that this life will be easy – it won’t. I know from personal experience that it isn’t.
I was beaten, robbed, went hungry, was homeless, and I often got weary. People laughed at me and called me foolish and a babbler.
But I knew in my heart that I serve a God who is totally sacrificial and loving and is never coercive or heavy handed with anyone.
And I knew that Jesus was much more than a good prophet or a great teacher.
Jesus was God in human form and he took on all of our suffering and sins so that we could be free to live and love just like Jesus.
On that day, 2000 years ago – some ridiculed me. Some wanted to hear more. And then a few were ready to follow Jesus and they experienced great freedom to live God’s way in the world.
I leave you today with the same question I left them with – who do you say Jesus is? And if Jesus is God in human form and God raised him from the dead – how will that change how you live your life from day to day?