Reflections on "A God for Any Time" Acts 17: 16-34

It felt like a good start to our Lenten series and introduction to our small groups. During our Sanctuary service we were able to put the chart mentioned in Move 1 and the image of the river in Honduras mentioned in Move 3 on the screens.  That added to the accessibility of the sermon.  

The sermon was longer than I usually preach, but there was a lot of groundwork to be laid for the small groups that will be meeting.  

The illustration about the Observatory of Reunification in S. Korea reminded me of the sanctuary of First Presbyterian Church, El Paso, which my father helped design.  The line of view for those gathered in the sanctuary goes through baptismal font, then pulpit, then out the glass windows that give a view of a neighborhood in El Paso and the mountains in the background.  It was designed with the reminder that we are sent by baptism and the God's Word into the world.  I had shared this example a few years ago when I returned from my Clergy Renewal time (it included a Sunday in worship at FPC, El Paso), so I did not take the time to reference it again.

As I mentioned, we had a glorious day for music with brass and the combined choirs from our church and the Presbyterian Church in Eaton, OH.  It felt a bit more like Easter than the beginning of Lent, but the congregation greatly enjoyed the music.  I suppose next week we'll be a little more Lenten in our musical offerings.

“A God for Any Time” FPC, Troy, OH; February 22, 2015; Acts 17: 16-34

Introduction: Lenten journey – engage: God's story; your story; the stories of others in the world.

We begin by looking at the context in which we live out our calling as disciples of Christ individually and as the body of Christ collectively.

As we begin the Lenten season this year and its reflective, pensive tone and hymns, we are decidedly un-Lenten in our music as we welcome the choir from the Presbyterian Church in Eaton and the brass.

It is making me feel particularly open to change and new possibilities as we start our Lenten journey.

Move 1: The culture in which we live has changed.

a. I don't have to tell you that.

1. each of us knows the world has shifted in recent years.

2. And if we have not noticed on our own, pick up any magazine or newspaper and read about how the world has changed.

3. We can point to falling attendance at church; surveys that show people are less interested in organized religion; note that sports and other groups have taken over Sundays leaving no room for the church, no room for learning Bible stories, or the discipline of prayer, or the Bible songs people used to learn.
4. The relationship between the church and the world seems to have changed drastically.

b. Charles Taylor characterizes the change in this way: it used to be that we ordered our lives based upon plan or being, but now we order our lives based upon that which is natural and observable in our world. (Charles Taylor – A Secular Age: “move from a transcendent frame to an immanent frame” – that is, ordering our lives dependent upon a supernatural plan or bring to ordering our lives based on that which is natural and observable in the world (Journal of Preachers, Lent, 2015, Vol XXXiii, Number 2, “Challenge and Invitation: Preaching Lent Today, Kimberly Wagner, 18)

1. In other words, it used to be that we understood our lives as part of a plan, for Christians that would be God's plan, that was unfolding in the world around us.
2. Now, we understand our lives based on what we experience in life and what we can prove.

2. Is that good or bad? Perhaps both.

1. Not all bad. Scientific advancement, shifting of power to the grassroots;

2. but it also has the tendency to led to disillusionment and disenchantment; for example, what if you encounter something you cannot prove or is outside your realm of life experience?

3. Can be marked by this sense that something is missing

c. As the church works in the world, this shift leads to different approaches. This week in the small groups you will discuss this Chart:

single encounter = Relationship building

Monologue leads to dialogue/discussion

Gospel presentation shifts to story (personal/biblical)

Presentation (apologetics) shifts to Demonstration (embodied apologetics)

Individualistic gives way to community-centered

Being the expert gives way to being a fellow journeyer

Argumentation leads to consideration

Ticket sales leads to guided tours

eternal benefits leads to earthly impact and mission

isolation/binary (us vs. them) leads to community integration (we)

d. would you trade living in this time?

1. Turn in your cell phones, your Internet access, your ability to travel to any part of the world in a matter of hours?
2. Probably not – and even if you were, you cannot.

The questions: How are we going to live out our calling as disciples of Christ and as the body of Christ in this changing world?

Move 2: The Apostle Paul found himself facing a similar situation in Athens.

a. he is facing a group of people who have a very different approach to the world than he has.

1. Athenians were known for having an insatiable appetite for “new things” (well known in antiquity: Demosthenes, Oration4:10; Aristophanes, Eq. 1260-63), Paul demonstrates that the true identity of the “unknown God” is anything but new. Mikeal C. Parsons, Professor and Kidd L. and Buna Hitchcock Macon Chair of Religion Baylor University,Waco, Texas

2. In fact, we are in this passage told a bit earlier in the chapter that : “Now all the Athenians and the foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new. http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2068

3. the Athenians sought the latest fad and wanted to be part of the changing world, the cutting edge of thought.

b. How does Paul approach them?

1. does he spend his time and effort complaining about how the world has changed and how everyone just needs to go back to the way things were?

Sort of like when we sit around moaning about how the only problem is that people need to revert back to how they used to be.

No, Paul clearly chooses to engage the Athenians, rather than just complaining.

2. at first, Paul finds himself arguing with them and trying to convince them that what they believe is wrong.

We know that temptation to try and convince others that the changing culture is wrong and we just need to go back to the good old days of being the church.

c. But when that does not work, he shifts gears and embraces the perspective of the Athenians.

1. In fact, Paul commends the Athenians: I see that your are a religious people. ….

2. then Paul shows how their beliefs connect with the God he knows: the god whom you call unknown I now declare to you.

3. He puts himself in their world, and then invites them to know the God of resurrection in their very own context.

500. does Paul's approach work?

1. Some ignore him and move on.

2. but others hear about God, recognize their need for God, and become believers.

3., God does matter in the world they know.

Move 3: Paul's experience gives us a clue about the role of the church in our time.

a. One of the images we are asked to consider this week in our small groups is of a bridge in Honduras.

1. It looks sort of add at first glance. In fact, you may not even notice that it is a bridge.

2. But there it sits, a bridge that spans nothing next to a river that needs a a bridge.

4. who in their right mind would build a bridge next to a river?

5. Wouldn't it make more sense to actually have the bridge cross the river?

6. Of course. In fact, when the bridge was originally built it did span across the river allowing people to get from one side of the river to the other.

8. But the river changed its course. Its course shifted so far that the bridge no longer crossed it.

9. The bridge is still there, but it serve no purpose, unless you like a bridge that goes nowhere and crosses nothing.

b. That, of course, is the question we face as a church as the world around us changes.

1. do we prefer to cling to the church we know and love, even if the world changes course so much that the church no longer has a viable purpose?

2. Or do we work to figure out how to make the church relevant in our changing world.

3. One of the church consultants (Tom Ehrich) I read periodically keeps hammering this point – any church that only sees Sunday as the primary day of operation will soon be irrelevant. The patterns of the world around us no longer recognize Sunday as the day for church.

4. I read that, I nod my head in agreement, but then I wonder how the church, how we in this congregation, how we have built its foundation on Sunday being the day for church, how do we live into this new reality?

5. It would probably be easier to be a traditional church that does not change, even if it means we become irrelevant.

b. But Christ did not call the church into being, Christ did not send his disciples into the world, so that we could be irrelevant.

1. where do we find our relevance?

2. Let me share another image with you.

then Journal for Preachers, Lent 2015, Volume XXXIII, p. 10, “Preaching during Lent in 2015” Liz Goodman shares an image used by Charles L. Campbell and Johan H. Cilliars in their book Preaching Fools: the Gospel as a Rhetoric of Folly): South Korea has the Observatory of Reunification, which sits as far north as you can be in S. Korea, looking over the river at North Korea; one can see the military presence in with training camps, uniforms, machine guns visible; there are also statues of Buddha with his arms open in blessing and Mary, her hands folded in prayer. Both face north toward North Korea. Up the hill is a chapel, with the whole front of the chapel is glass, looking out over into North Korea, the beauty of the land, but also the barbed wire and fences of the DMZ; the pulpit is right in front of the window. When the sermon is preached, the one preaching the congregation sees the one preaching God's word standing in S. Korea, but the rest of their view is North Korea – the enemy, but also the brothers and sisters of those in South Korea;

3. all that stands between the two is God's Word; which points to the division and offers hope. HTTP://kidsfuninseoul.wordpress.com/2013/02/14/odusan-unification-observatory/

4.  that is the space the church, this community of faith in which you and I gather and participate, where we are called to stand.

4. to live out our calling as the body of Christ in the space between the our humanity and our brokenness offering God's Word and God's love.

5.  we cannot be bound by patterns of living or traditions that leave us on the sideline watching as the world goes by us.

8. God sends us to be the hope for the world as we live out our calling in this changing world around us.

Conclusion: I confess that I watch on Thursday night every week the TV show Grey's Anatomy. Actually, given our world of busy schedules and a DVR, I may not watch the show on Thursday night, but I do watch it as some point each week.

In a recent episode, one of the married couples (two doctors) were dealing with a pregnancy gone bad where the baby would be born and die in just a short time.

The pregnant wife is an evangelical Christian who is trying to understand her crisis through her faith and is wondering where God is. Her husband, who is a non-believer, is struggling with how to help her and also help himself.

As the crisis nears its climax, the husband finds himself in the chapel at the hospital talking to the God in whom he does not believe.

He says “God if you are out there, please show up. Just show up for my wife. She needs you.”

And as the scene unfolds, God does indeed show up in the midst of their crisis.

That is our calling – to stand up in our changing world and invite people to know the God who shows up. Amen.