Finding God among the Idols

Scripture Lessons: Daniel 2: 24-30, 46-48 and Acts 17: 16-23 Sermon Title: Finding God among the Idols Preached on July 17, 2022 Last week, our family took the most wonderful vacation. We flew into Pittsburgh, rented bikes, and peddled down a 150-mile trail built on an old railroad bed to Cumberland, Maryland. As you can imagine, you must be crazy to try something like that. It is a little crazy, and the other thing you have to be to make this trip is a person who knows how to change a bike tire. Our daughter Cece had four flat tires, so many that I called for help, thinking there was something wrong with the wheel. We stopped at a bike shop in a small town where we were having lunch, and while it was closed, there was a phone number on the door. A man named Ed answered. He said he would love to help but was three hours away. Deciding that was too long to wait, he said, “Why don’t you just ask someone on the trail? Bike people are about the most wonderful people on earth.” Now why would that be? Why would “bike” people be the most wonderful people? Or why would it be that in our world today, that up in Pennsylvania, far from home, I could just ask someone on a bike, as we were, for help? I think I have the answer, and I wonder if you’ll agree that when you start with what you have in common, you stand the chance of building up a friendship. A friend of mine who is in recovery once said that he has met some of his closest friends through Alcoholics Anonymous, for when a relationship starts with one saying, “I have that problem, too; we have that in common” you’re off to a good start. So on the bike trail, we could ask other people for help because we had bikes in common. As Paul tried to bring the Gospel to the people of Athens, where would he start? Something that I love about the book of Acts are the details it contains. “While Paul was waiting in Athens, he was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he argued in the synagogue and also in the marketplace.” How did that go for him? Well, some said, “What does this pretentious babbler want to say?” That’s an interesting way for the Bible to describe one of the most important people in the history of Christianity; yet, that’s how some people in the world see us. There are many who think of the Church that way, for some know more about our infighting and our judgementalism than the grace of God we claim to celebrate. For example, on the cover of our local paper has been the church conflict between Mt. Bethel and the United Methodist Church. On the national news have been Christians demonstrating. Many Christians would say that such demonstrations are necessary, for just as Paul was deeply distressed with the state of the city of Athens, so the Church is distressed with the state of our nation. Maybe you feel that way sometimes. I do. Today, about 50% of the citizens of Cobb County have no religious affiliation. That’s not counting the Christmas/Easter-only crowd. That 50% has no religious affiliation at all. That hasn’t always been true. Some here might remember a time when it felt like everyone went to church, yet today the number of those who have no religious affiliation is high, and year after year, it’s growing. You might ask yourself: Are we now the city of Athens? If Paul were here, what would he think? I imagine he might feel as many of us do: deeply distressed. Do you ever feel that way? In this fallen world of war, hunger, division, and greed, where celebrities garner more attention than saints, do you ever want to just shout out? Hold up a poster? Or argue with someone? Some people do just that. Churches even argue among themselves to the extent that I once had the occasion to speak before a crowd back in Columbia, Tennessee on the subject of, “What would it take for all the churches in our community to work together?” A pastor from another denomination and I were asked to address this topic, and we had an easier time identifying those issues that divided us than those we agreed upon. That’s a shame, but it’s true. It’s also frustrating, discouraging, and distressing. We want to do something about it, but what? Sometimes, when I face the nature of our culture outside these doors, I feel resignation. I just want to give up. Other times, I’m ready to argue. That’s how Paul started out in Athens. Paul argued with the Jews and devout persons in the synagogue. That obviously got him nowhere, for some just said, “What does this pretentious babbler want to say?” Then, they took him to the Areopagus and said, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?” What will he do next? This is what he said: “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.” That’s a different way to respond to distress, and it’s an important change from how he approached this city full of idols to begin with. While he started out arguing in the synagogues and in the marketplace, when he went to the Areopagus, he pointed to the common ground, saying, “I see how extremely religious you are in every way, for you even have an alter dedicated to ‘an unknown god.’ Let me tell you about Him.” Starting there, on the common ground, changes things. We find that when he started there, some people started to listen. Likewise, on that bike trail when we needed help, we found it among those with whom we had something in common. Out in the world, I believe it can work the same way because yesterday, a close friend of mine who’s among those who don’t go to church shared our worship service with two or three of her friends because she liked what I said about caring for people who are nearing the end of their lives. “You see, even the atheists are helping you spread the Gospel,” she said to me. How does that happen? It started with a relationship built over what all we have in common, and what we have in common is a desire to feed hungry people, a need to make a difference, and a heart to serve the world. Isn’t starting there with what we have in common a nice place to start? If Paul could use an idol in Athens, what could you find out in the world that might help to bridge some of the divides of our society? Do this for me: Write down the name of a person you’ve been arguing with. Write her name down. If she’s sitting next to you, write it down so she can’t see it. Then write three things you have in common. If Paul could find something in Athens, an alter dedicated to an unknown god, you can find something in him or her that you resonate with. Write it down. What do you have in common? How can you use what you have in common to build a bridge? Do you argue with your mother-in-law? Fine. Write her name down. Do you love her blackberry jelly? Then ask her to teach you how to make it and see how your relationship changes. What about your neighbor? Does his dog bark all the time? Fine. Write his name down. Do you love his flowers? Write him a note and tell him about it. Don’t mention the dog. Does your husband love the Braves? Could you watch a game with him? Do you feel like your kids don’t like any of the same stuff that you do? Find out what they like and go do that with them. So often, we pay so much attention to what divides us that we forget to look for what we have in common. Worse is the story the news tells us. My friend Ralph Farrar told me the other day that sometimes the news gets him down. There’s so much crime and violence in the world, so much division, that sometimes it makes him discouraged. When that happens, he remembers that there are more Christians in the world than there are criminals. That’s true. There are also more people in this world who are looking for faith, hope, and love than any of us could ever realize. In our first Scripture lesson, Daniel went to the pagan king of a pagan nation. There, he didn’t picket, argue, or lecture. Instead, he interpreted his dreams. Whom do you argue with? Ask her about her dreams. Help her see the love of God by starting a relationship, not based on what you disagree on, but by looking into her world and finding what you have in common. In Athens, there were all those idols but just one dedicated to an unknown god. Paul started there. From that glimmer of hope, over the years, Greece went from a city of idols to the center of the Greek Orthodox Church. Later he’ll go to Rome, the center of an empire built on emperor worship, idolatry, and gladiators battling to the death. Piece by piece, the empire was transformed to become the Holy Roman Empire, and Rome is still the center of the Roman Catholic Church. Don’t think for a minute that things can’t change. They can. They have. They will. It’s just a question of where to start. Start on the common ground. Amen.