The Unknown God Does Not Forget
When I was
in college one of the things that we would do when we were bored was to go to
Meijer at night. Meijer Thrifty Acres – for those who are unfamiliar – is a big
store chain that sells everything! You can get groceries, toys, tires, pet
fish, and clothes all under one roof. Meijer stores are usually open 24 hours,
and we’d go late at night and walk around looking at the people there. We might
not buy anything, we were just people watching. And since we were in Ann Arbor
– the home of the University of Michigan – there were all kinds of interesting
people to watch! Ann Arbor is an artsy town, so there were people with strange
hair, and interesting clothes. There were often foreigners there, some of which
tried to dress in American fashions but didn’t get it quite right. There were
goths and punks in black clothes and too much dark make-up. It really was an
amazing mix of humanity. And, thinking back, we were probably the most out of
place people in the store!
Maybe
you’ve sat and done some people watching, too. And if you haven’t you should!
People can be fascinating, weird, beautiful, and sometimes very entertaining.
I have to
confess, though, that never once that I can recall was my spirit provoked at
the possible spiritual state of those people that I was seeing. And maybe you
can relate to that, too.
In our
first reading from the Book of Acts we read about Paul in Athens and it says
that the city was so full of idols that that his spirit was provoked within him.
He was provoked because he knew these people were worshiping false gods which
could not give them hope, forgiveness, or salvation! There were places to
worship Zeus, Apollo, and many other gods – Greek and otherwise. The whole
place was named after the goddess of wisdom, Athena. And the place in the city
Paul was speaking was the Areopagus, also known as Mars Hill, named after the
god of war – Ares, or Mars if you prefer Latin.
It’s not
that people today don’t have idols to provoke our spirits, is it? We might not
be like the Athenians with all kinds of statues and altars but our day and age
has plenty of false gods nonetheless!
We could mention mammon – our
material wealth and comfort. While we might not bow down to it, people will do
all kinds of things to get it, won’t they? And we’re not immune to mammon’s
call. I was reading recently about church attendance. When I started in the
ministry about 19 years ago the definition of a regular church attender was a
person who was in worship 4 weeks a month – probably 50 weeks a year. These days
the definition for regular church attendance is more like twice a month. So the
author asked what has changed. And he argues the affluence is a big part of why
people attend worship less than they used to. Affluence affords options –
comfortable, fun options.
A good argument could be made that
sexuality has an idolatrous status in our generation. These days abstinence and
chastity are ridiculed. Most of the couples that I perform marriage ceremonies
for are already living together and sexually active. Yet as we worship Jesus we
worship the God/man who died a virgin because he lived according to God’s will.
He sought God’s pleasure and God’s will over his own.
And ultimately, couldn’t we point
to self as a major idol of our age?
Paul found himself in the midst of
idolatry in Athens, and God used him to speak to them about an unknown god. He
was preaching about Jesus and the resurrection, and he took advantage of an
altar that was dedicated to an unknown god to introduce them to Jesus.
It seems strange to say, but the
God we worship is once again an unknown God to far too many of our neighbors.
For most of our lives Christianity has been a dominant influence on our
culture. Not anymore! There are lots of people who have heard of Jesus, they
sometimes have a rough idea of what Christianity is, but all too often they
really don’t know. They believe a stereotype. And even in the Church we
sometimes form God in our own image and import ideas of our age into Jesus’
teaching. And here we are gathered around the God’s Word and Promises, living
in a world similarly to Paul. And we have become witnesses to make the unknown
God known today.
You see, we know something that the
world does not know; something they need to know! There is this impression out
there that being a Christian is about being good, as though God were are
celestial referee and we’re just trying to stay out of his eternal penalty box.
But in reality being a Christian is about being a sinner who is forgiven in
Jesus’ death and resurrection. And this is what the world doesn’t know about
God: they don’t know how offensive and hurtful our sin is to him, and they
don’t know how incredible it is that God was willing to give Jesus to suffer
and dies to reconcile us to himself.
Peter summarizes our hope in Jesus
this way: “Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous,
that he might bring us to God….”
We have a natural understanding of
justice. When a person does wrong they should get punished for it. Sometimes
that’s called karma. We say, “You get what you deserve,” and, “What comes
around goes around.” But with Jesus the righteous one suffers for the
unrighteous ones. He gets what we deserved. He suffered for our sins, so that,
as it says in Romans, he could be both just and justifier. That he could bring
real justice to the wrong that we’ve done, while making us right with God.
Why did he do that? He did it to
bring us to God. He did it so we could know God. So he speaks God’s Word to us,
and has arranged for his Word to be delivered to us down through the
generations. He did it so we could know God’s love – his agape, selfless love.
He did so we could live with him – perfect, sinless, and forever.
And knowing God in Jesus impacts
our lives, it changes our priorities and our actions, it changes us! Jesus
says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” When we love Jesus we
listen to him as we hear him through the Word, we follow him, and we believe
him. And as we live in this relationship with him he changes us. Sometimes we
can even see of feel the changes he is making in us because he brought us to
God. In Acts, Paul comments that God, “commands all people everywhere to
repent.” Repentance is changing our thinking and our action to align them with
God’s will.
And here is something that is truly
amazing. It is God’s mercy – not his wrath – it is his mercy that moves us to
repent. It is his love that urges us to change so that we become more and more
like Jesus.
Perhaps there is a sense that this
God is unknown to you … or maybe you sort of know him but you could know him
better. You believe Jesus died and rose to forgive you – and that’s great! –
but there’s more about Jesus that we could know. Read a gospel – Matthew, Mark,
Luke or John. Meet Jesus is the pages of Scripture. Know Jesus through the
Word. Really this is the only way we can know Jesus – by reading what his
apostles taught about him. In fact, that’s what he appointed the apostles to do
– to teach us about him. And as you get to know Jesus, you will come to know
God. As Jesus said, “I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I in you.” We
are connected to God and to one another in Christ!
Or perhaps you are sitting here
thinking, “It’s all well and good for Paul to witness in Athens, but I can’t
witness about Jesus in America. I’ll be ridiculed and labeled as intolerant!”
Remember, that our relationship with God is not rooted in our performance.
Jesus suffered, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. This
pretty much means that you are forgiven sinner. And, yes indeed, the church is
full of hypocrites, and there is always room for one more. Witnessing isn’t
about our perfection either. It’s about Jesus. And Jesus has given us a helper
in this work. The Holy Spirit works with you and in you. You are not alone.
When you go out into your homes, your work, and all the things you do you are
not forgotten or abandoned. God is with you.
The unknown God does not forget the
people who have forgotten him. He has left us here to see them, so our hearts
will be provoked, so we will tell of the righteous one who suffered, died, and
rose again for the unrighteous ones. We’re here to make the unknown God known
as we tell people about our Lord Jesus. Amen.
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