Engage: The New Normal (First in Engage Series) April 14, 2013 Acts 17: 16-34 and 1 Peter

3: 13-16 Rev. Deborah Dail Denbigh Presbyterian Church Scripture: Acts 17: 16-34 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and also in the market-place every day with those who happened to be there. Also some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers debated with him. Some said, What does this babbler want to say? Others said, He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign divinities. (This was because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.) So they took him and brought him to the Areopagus and asked him, May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? It sounds rather strange to us, so we would like to know what it means. Now all the Athenians and the foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new. Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and 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. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find
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himthough indeed he is not far from each one of us. For In him we live and move and have our being; as even some of your own poets have said, For we too are his offspring. Since we are Gods offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed; but others said, We will hear you again about this. At that point Paul left them. But some of them joined him and became believers, including Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them. Scripture: 1 Peter 3: 13-16 Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an account of the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame.

Sermon: I have always loved Simon and Garfunkels song Bridge Over Troubled Waters. Some have heard in this song a message which they apply to their relationship with Christ, although this was not the songs original intent or meaning. However, I did read that Simon wanted the song to have a gospel music sound. The song goes: When you're weary . . . Feeling small. When tears are in your eyes I will dry them all. I'm on your side . . . When times get rough . . . And friends just can't be found . . . Like a bridge over troubled water . . . I will lay me down When you're down and out . . . When you're on the street When evening falls so hard . . . I will comfort you I'll take your part When darkness comes And pain is all around Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down I would hope that these words could be applied to the church and the ways in which we are called to be that bridge over the troubled waters of peoples lives . . . that bridge to a place of hope, comfort and healing. I believe churches today are continuing to strive to be all of this for the people in our churches and in some cases the people outside the church. However, we are learning more and more that many people who are outside the church (and even some within) do not view churches as bridges over troubled waters. Some people believe that the
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church is not a place they can come when they feel small, tearful, friendless, in pain, down and out or when theyre on the street.

There is a picture on the front of your bulletin (and on the screen at the front of the church and on this page!) which is of a bridge in Honduras. You will notice that there is something wrong with this picture. The bridge spans dry land, not the body of water. The photo is of the Choluteca Bridge in Honduras, and it was taken right after Hurricane Mitch devastated the Caribbean in 1998. 150 bridges were damaged or destroyed. The most modern of all the bridges, The Choluteca Bridge survived intact but suffered perhaps the greatest indignity, the river moved right out from under it leaving its builders wondering what to do next. Someone has commented that
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this bridge now goes from nothing to nowhere. (drboborr.blogspot.com/) Some have seen the bridge in Honduras as a metaphor for the church today. The river in Honduras has changed course and is flowing to the side of the bridge, making it irrelevant. The river of our culture and its pain and struggles has changed course and is flowing to the side of the church, making it irrelevant. In other words, the church is a bridge still, but some feel we are not bridging the troubled waters of our world effectively or in ways that people are drawn to the bridge to help face their struggles. Some see the church as irrelevant and out of touch with the issues, the questions and doubts facing people of today. Even worse, some outside the church view the church as the troubled waters, needing a bridge itself. In his book, unchristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity . . . and Why It Matters, author David Kinnaman interviews people outside the church, and he tells us honestly what a new generation really thinks about the church. The words and accompanying images that the unchurched use about the church are: judgmental; hypocritical; homophobic, too involved in politics; out of touch with reality; confusing; not accepting of other faiths; insensitive to others; old-fashioned; boring; and irrelevant. (Engage materials quoting book) Quite naturally, many of us bristle at this assessment of us. We immediately go on the defensive and begin our critique of the culture around us and of people on the outside of the church who have said these ugly things about us. We get angry. And thats only natural. However, when we do this and only this . . . when we only go on the defensive and do not take time to consider why some perceive the church in this way, we lose our ability to be builders of bridges that span the troubled waters, the deep questions and the raging doubts of

our culture. We become the bridge in the middle of dry land, with no relevance. As we look at our scripture passage from Acts, we find Paul in Athens, Greece. Paul was a Jew who became a Christian and then became an ardent missionary of the Christian church. While in Athens, Paul observes that the Greeks are polytheistic. They worship many gods and even have a shrine to an unknown god. As a believer in one God, Paul is troubled about a city full of idols. Paul begins talking to people in the synagogue in Athens the Jewish place of worship -- but doesnt stay there. Perhaps he sees the synagogue as the bridge from nothing to nowhere because neither the Jews nor the Jewish converts to Christianity who are still involved in the synagogue appear to be speaking to the issues of the culture all around them. They may be talking about the issues among themselves, they were most certainly among themselves criticizing the culture around them, but they probably were not trying to build many bridges with their culture. So, Paul moves on. He goes into the Athenian marketplace and engages with the people there on their turf and in their style. He engages in intellectual debate and dialogue with the intellectuals of Athens. He is then invited to the Aeropagus to speak about God. The Aeropagus was the high court in Athens. It was illegal to preach a foreign deity a foreign god in Athens, so Pauls sermon was in fact a combination of a guest lecture and a trial. (Wikipedia) Professor C. Clifton Black of Princeton Seminary says: Paul's address before the Areopagus -- both a hill and a city council on whose ridge it convened--could have been a serious arraignment with his life in the balance. Far more is here at stake than mere theological debate (cf. v. 21). As in 1 Peter (3:14-16), Paul, a Hellenistic Jew, has been
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required to offer a reasoned defense for his Christian hope before suspicious Gentile authorities. (C. Clifton Black, workingpreacher.org) You might be feeling like I have felt as I have wrestled with this passage of scripture. Im not Paul. Theres no way in the world Id ever talk to other people like Paul talked to the people in Athens. I dont like his style and I dont think people I know at work or school or anywhere else today would be very attracted to Christ if I approached things like Paul did. I dont think his ways would build many bridges where I live. As I have wrestled with this I believe what we can learn from this passage is perhaps not the specifics of how Paul shared the gospel, but the basic principles he followed in approaching the Athenians and other groups of people throughout his ministry. Paul tailored his approach to the people. Paul knew the intellectual climate in Athens. He knew the intellectuals liked to debate. They liked to argue. So Paul used their style. He quoted their poets. He presented the Gospel in a way his audience needed to hear it in that time and in that place. Pauls specific approach would probably be a turn-off in most settings today. I think many of us are tired of arguing and tired of hearing other people argue. Every news program seems to be people arguing, arguing, arguing. Most of us dont even come to church anymore to have faith explained to us as much as we come to experience the presence of God. Even those outside the church who come to visit churches tell us they want to learn about the faith, but they dont want to be lectured and argued with. They want respectful dialogue, an opportunity to ask questions and to offer some of their own answers. They are not looking so much for experts who can give them all the answers, but for people who will journey with them on a path of discovering who God is and what possible difference God could make in their lives. They are also looking very carefully at whether people who are Christians are
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authentically living in their faith most importantly whether they are demonstrating love. (Engage materials) Bono, the famous lead singer of the Irish band U2, has warned, Faith and social action must go hand in hand; if the church doesnt remember and reconnect with its roots, and its call to serve others, it will be dismissed as another irrelevant social club. (Engage) One writer has said: We dont just need to do church better. Instead, we need to understand and listen to those we want to reach, and rethink the ways in which we can authentically, personally and intentionally share the gospel of Jesus Christ in our words and actions. (Engage) As we consider the troubled waters of our culture and ponder who the church can be a bridge over those trouble waters we are faced with many questions and dilemmas. As we look at our culture, we often find ourselves immediately turning judgmental. We bemoan the state of our culture. We long for the good old days. But does this help us with bridge building? Raising teenagers is a very difficult thing. Building bridges with teenagers seems nearly impossible for me. I dont like my sons choices of music. I dont like the language in much of it. I dont like messages about women, I dont like the violence espoused in a lot of the music. However, if I only roll my eyes, criticize, turn the radio off in the car if Im driving and proclaim loudly the evils of the music, I close off future conversation about the music and most anything else. I lose my right to be heard. If, however, I approach things a little differently (which I have a very hard time doing), then I may have an in to dialogue about the music and its content or about other subjects. Our scripture for today tells us that Paul earned the right to be heard. In his context, he earned that right by being up to the

intellectual debate of the Athenians. He could hold his own. He knew his stuff and theirs. Paul assessed the troubled waters of Athens to be idolatry. As we look at the troubled waters of our times we need to figure out a way to make judgments about things without being judgmental. We also need to learn to look deeper than the surface things that trouble us about our culture. We need to look deeply at our common pain, the common ground of doubt, the common ground of wrestling with lifes most profound questions about human suffering and evil. I acknowledge that todays sermon is not really a feel-good sermon. It may not be one that you felt you came to church looking for today. I hope, however, that you and I will still wrestle with this scripture and others like and with how to engage people in our lives with the Good News of Jesus. I hope it will cause us to think about how we can build bridges with people at work and at school, in our own homes and neighborhoods, wherever we may be. I hope it will cause us to look at our unique contexts and to ask How can I earn the right to be heard? How can I build a bridge over the troubled waters in my kids lives, my co-workers lives, my classmates lives and others? I hope it will cause us to ask more questions of ourselves as a church about how we can be a bridge over the troubled waters of our community. It is my prayer that we will not end up being bridge that goes from nothing to nowhere.