May 21, 2017 - 6th Sunday of Easter

The Unknown God Does Not Forget

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            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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