"A View From the Areopagus" by Steve Eason
Myers Park Presbyterian Church
June 5, 2011
Rev. Dr. Steven P. Eason
A View From the Areopagus
Acts 17:16-28a
Download Sermon Audio
16While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and also in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18Also 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.) 19So they took him and brought him to the Areopagus and asked him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20It sounds rather strange to us, so we would like to know what it means.” 21Now all the Athenians and the foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new.
22Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. 23For 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. 24The 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, 25nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. 26From 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, 27so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. 28For ‘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.’
* * *
In 2008, while we were on sabbatical, we went to Athens and stood there on the place where Paul delivered this speech. It’s a large rock formation where they held their high court of appeals, called the “Areopagus.”
The Romans called it “Mars Hill,” named after Mars – the Roman god of war.
The Areopagus is on the acropolis of Athens, which is the highest point of the city, giving it a place of prominence and security from enemy attacks. This is the part I didn’t know until I went there. When Paul says these words, he is looking directly at the Parthenon, the majestic temple of the virgin goddess Athena. The Parthenon is the pride of all of Greece.
So, Paul has entered the most sophisticated, philosophical, educated, culture of his world – the birthplace of democracy, and pitches Christianity. While looking at the Parthenon he says,
‘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. (Acts 17:24-25)
In other words, he marches right into the thick of it and in essence says,
‘You’ve got it wrong. You have all these statues to all these gods and you even have one for ‘the unknown god,’ just in case you missed one – but you still don’t have it right.’
Paul was a courageous man!
They called him a “babbler” (17-18) and there’s no evidence that Paul was successful in establishing the church in Athens. He left and never wrote a letter back to them. We hear nothing more about it, and yet, later in the 5th century, the statue of Athena would be pulled from the Parthenon and it would become a Roman Catholic Church for the next 250 years. This “babbler,” who was standing there against all the odds, was proclaiming a truth that would prove to be more powerful than all the philosophers of Athens and their gods to boot.
At the end of this month we will be taking a group from our church, Union Seminary and St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Charleston on a trip to Turkey and Greece. We will visit the sites of the seven churches of the Book of Revelation. We will also visit Athens and stand on Mars Hill where Paul courageously proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ in the midst of a secular culture that appeared to overpower it.
But is there a word in here for all of us today? We haven’t built the Parthenon across the street but this may be a good day to remind ourselves…
‘…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.
(17:24b-25)
Building the means does not accomplish the end.
What we have built is but a means to an end, a tool for ministry to be used in the service of Christ for decades to come. How God will use that building is not fully clear to us. What is clear is that it is not the building that does ministry, but the people who are in it. It’s not the building that does the ministry but the Spirit of God among us who empowers us to live as a people of the Kingdom of God.
We have crossed the street to build on property that was purchased years ago without any idea of how it would be used. We are crossing a boundary and we’re calling it The Outreach Center with the vision that this building will provide the space and the opportunity for more boundaries to be crossed; for new relationships to be formed. We don’t know how Christians fifty years from now will use that building, but we know God has called us to be stewards of what we have, to make our commitment, to put our stake in the ground – not as though we are doing something for God, but that God is doing something for us and for all who will come after us.
The Athenian mindset is never far from us, that somehow the gods work for us. The danger of being such a blessed and gifted people is that we can be lulled into believing that we are somehow in control. And yet, Paul stands on the Areopagus, not only in that day, but for our time, looking directly at the Parthenon, a symbol of human strength and power, and proclaims,
‘…(God) does not live in shines made by human hands, nor is (God) served by human hands, as though (God) needed anything.’ (17:24b-25a)
It is a privilege for us to build this building. It is a blessing to be able to expand our ministry beyond our current boundaries. Perhaps we need to see this not as something that we have done for God but as God’s gift to us in the midst of our Athens, in Charlotte, North Carolina. There is a different view from the Areopagus – that the Church of Jesus Christ will prevail against all the odds, proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ for generations to come.
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, all glory be to God.
Congregation: Amen
Download 2011 06-05 Celebrate Bulletin
Comments