Sermon Notes-May 25 Acts 17

May 25-Acts 17 John 14:15-21, I Peter 3:13-22

The Greeks were on the lookout for the next new thing. Most of us have grown up with the idea that new is better. When I was young new and improved was a constant advertising slogan.

they were not receptive to the resurrection of the body as it sounded like a zombie to them, so they were much more comfortable with a soul moving through the spheres.How do we speak to people with a whole different set of mental furniture?

At first, Paul is appalled by the idols, but when he speaks to the Greeks he switches gears and calls them religious then he seizes on the statue, to an unknown god and says he knows of God, perhaps that very unknown god? Paul does not rattle off dogma to folks who have no hint of his background.this may well be our increasing task as we deal with people with little religious background.

God is giver of life.spirit.breath, and all. Yes the Creator but the stress is on the gift of life itself.

Work with in whom we live and move and have our being. This is a picture of God’s spirit as a sort of environment, a medium for life, a force field of the  pervasiveness of God.Paul uses an ancient quotation  to also get them and us past seeing God as a great grandfather in the sky, at least solely.

Part of the work of Christina communication seems to me to be translation of its thought world to our time and place. For instance Paul Tillich thought that  fate was the force to deal with early in history, guilt at the time of the Protestant Reformation, and now it could well be finding meaning and purpose in life.Paul tries to find common ground with his listeners. he does not deride them or castigate them, even if he feels it personally. He finds correlative beliefs with his pagan hearers and may even quote them.Paul’s sermon gets three reactions: derision, a willingness to hear more, and belief.Not one message or style appeals to everyone.In part, i am still interested in Paul’s task fo trying to take orthodox religious faith but speal of it in more accessible ways for contemporary ears. No I do not mean wholesale attempts to sound as if I am conversant with current argot  but how do we make things clear in our time but do not sacrifice the depth of the concepts or language.

In my experience, no form of activity helps us come to grips with putting the faith into our own words and experience better than Christian education. Nothing enhances reading the Scripture more than hearing different people’s reaction and response to its material. I have actually heard people say that it is not good to think about the faith, and it is better to keep the stance of a six year old. How does that love god with the mind and strength? The goal ot me is to be able to discuss the faith with people of different backgrounds, ages, and education. Instead of seeing all religious viewpoints as somehow equal, are we sufficiently clear on our beliefs that we can sift through other faiths to find points of contact and practices for our own?

In the end, our reading from John gives us a way into the faith through the simplest, yet deepest angle of all: love. Yet love is mediated in culture, preference, and actions.In owrhsip we cannot empahsize enought love of each other but that is no substiutee for the love of God in Jesus Christ.