Acts 17: 22-28

People of Athens! I see that you are extremely religious in every way.

I have a question: are you religious?

When someone asks me if I am religious, I am often compelled to say no. I have reservations about being called a religious person, I would rather be called: a person of faith. I’ve seen religions go to war. I’ve seen religions discredit or derogate each other. I’ve seen religions dehumanize certain groups and individuals. I’ve seen religions preach hatred and fear. I’ve seen and experienced religions put women down. And it makes me think, I totally understand those who do not want to associate with religion, including many of my friends.

Religion bears a bad rap to many. I shared with you in my newsletter article that I intend to start a form of yoga ministry sometime in the near future (I am still in the envisioning phase by the way so it’s not going to happen too soon), a good friend of mine advised saying: “if you call it ‘Christian Yoga,’ numerous people would be discouraged to even come in and see what it’s about.. ‘Christian spirituality based yoga’ sounds better” he suggested, because then you are referring to the Christian spirituality which is much more compelling than Christianity! He is right! Sad but true.

People of Athens! I see that you are extremely religious in every way.

I see that you are religious. The Greek verb translated as “see” is “theōréō” which is the root of the English term “theatre.” So Paul is watching this play, this theatrical show of religiosity and it isn’t likely that he will ask for an encore! He is not impressed with that scene. So here’s the scene:

It is the first century in the pagan city of Athens, a city full of idols. The Greeks were famous for their philosophers, the intellectual elite who looked down their nose at all those temples and shrines. They kind of dismissed religion because they have transcended religion with philosophy.

And Athens had two dominant philosophical schools: the Epicureans and the Stoics. The former believe that reality is made of matter. Everything even gods are made of matter. They believed that the gods are distant, they don’t care about humans. And the purpose of life is to pursue pleasure by avoiding pain and pursuing the things you love. So the Epicureans were famous for enjoying life: eating well, drinking well, and they held that when you die you die, that’s it.

This sounds similar to the way of life of many in the modern world.

The second school of thought was Stoicism. These believed that all of the universe is God, the universe is God’s body, and the ability to reason is God’s mind. God is not above the universe, God is the universe (I kind of like this one). God is in everything and everything is God. But history goes in cycles; it goes in rounds. People live, people die, and life is not going anywhere but it spins in endless cycles. Pain exists, and you cannot avoid it, but you transcend it. The point of life then is to be in harmony with the universe, to understand yourself and the universe better in order to live better.

I see equivalents to both of these schools of thought in the modern world. Now Paul is brought into that debate, he is invited to the Areopagus, which is a place for the philosophers to meet and exchange theories and ideas, and there he brings to them news about God.

Many commentators and interpreters command Paul’s wisdom in building a bridge between what the Athenians already believed and the gospel of Christ. He starts from what they had, and finds a common ground they could relate to. And I think that is good.

But I want to add that the gospel of Christ is inherently multifaceted. It comes in many different forms and shapes. God comes to us in different packages and meets us each in our own context. Because that’s how big God is; bigger than our differences and conflicts. That’s what Paul tries to expound as he is put in between two giants, each claiming the truth to themselves.

But his agenda is different. In history’s shortest sermon, in ten verses, Paul tells the Athenians that their philosophies are great but unless they experience God, theirs are dead religions. Theirs are unknown, unrelatable deities.

Paul’s proclamation was not going to sell in the intellectual market, because his isn’t a debate of the reason but a proclamation of a lived experience. He tells them about a man whom God had raised from the dead and whom he has seen and heard. He speaks to them about their unknown deity whom they themselves don’t understand. And tells them about the God that is to be experienced rather than understood; the one true God who is beyond understanding; the God who is beyond organized religion and beyond intellectual musings.

Friends the Athens of old is here and now. And the word of God is alive here and now.

So, people of Athens! I see that you are extremely religious in every way, but let me tell you about God.

Let us praise your religiosity for what it is, but we cannot stay there, because if we do, we are going to miss on the experience of God.

Let us put religion aside so we can focus on God.

Let us put the building aside so we can be a church. So we can build and be the body of Christ.

Let us forget the budget for a while, and see how we can build a community of caring relationships.

Let us not worry about how many people show up or don’t, and focus instead on forming disciples out of the ones who do show up.

Let us stop occupying ourselves with survival and turn our focus outward to serve our neighbors.

Let us forget the rules and bureaucracies for a little while so we have time to care for the human.

Let us stop being so religious, so we can be a church!

People of Athens, I see that you are extremely religious in every way! But your God is too small.  The Athenians have trapped themselves in their thoughts, and God in their religion. And Paul warns them and us with them today against sizing God, and trapping God and colonizing God in our organized religion, in our rules and idols.

Friends, we are all being given a new chance to redefine our mission, to re-identify who we want to be, to remove the veil that blinds us from seeing Christ as he walks around in our neighborhood. There is a lot of work to be done! Jesus said, “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” In fact, the laborers are not few; they are plenty. But the laborers who are willing to put aside the religion that they worship, their many idols, so they can harvest, these are few.

Post-January 2020 is a different era and today more than ever we need to know this:

At this time of pandemic, many people are turning back to the church and knocking its doors. And, many others still look at religion and smirk. But to both of these categories, we are the ones writing our story about God. Is our story going to sell? Is it going to impress anyone? Is it going to hold on between the giants of society?

Friends what the church does today matters and how we do it matters greatly. May the Spirit lead us to be the church of these times, 2020, secularized, broken, mercy-needing, pandemic driven world. Amen.