Paul’s trip to Athens
reported by Luke in Acts 17 is part of Paul’s second missionary journey. His journey had already met with mixed
responses but prior to coming to Athens he had been in a place called Beroea
and had predominantly shared his message with the Jewish community. The contrast between his proclamation and
encounter in Beroea an Athens could not have been more different.
At Beroea Paul met with a Jewish
community and as a Jew and as a teacher of the law by background he was in
familiar territory. Now whilst some of
the Jewish communities had not received Paul’s message well it appears in Beroea
the case was different. The people
listened and appeared to welcome his message.
In verses 11 and 12 of
chapter 17 we read:
“These Jews were more
receptive than those in Thessalonica, for they welcomed the message very
eagerly and examined the scriptures every day to see whether these things were
so. Many of them therefore believed, including not a few Greek women and men of
high standing.”
In Athens, however, Paul was encountering
a very different community in a city replete with Temples, shrines and statues
of gods. Whilst he did speak with the
Jewish community in Athens Paul also spoke to many gentiles as well. These were people who did not share the
monotheistic Jewish mindset and had little understanding of anything much of
what Paul had to say. His debates with
some of the philosophers led to him being taken to the Areopagus to address the
community and explain his ideas. It was
a foreign place.
At the last meeting of the
Queensland Synod Dr Aaron Ghiloni presented one of the Bible Studies and
despite my jetlag I was struck by his tagline “We’re not in Beroea anymore!”
and we are definitely not!
By suggesting we are not
Beroea anymore I believe Aaron was telling us as church that the situation we
find ourselves in now is more akin to the Athenian Areopagus than to the
Beroean synagogue. We are a in a strange
place. People do not speak about God in the
way they have in the past, despite the claim that our county is based on Christian
values we have no state religion, and for many the stories of the scriptures
and of our faith are simply unknown.
Yet in some ways the
situation we find ourselves in now is even more complex and difficult than the
place Paul found himself in Athens. At
least in Athens Paul was able to point at the city and say, “Athenians, I see
how extremely religious you are in every way.”
This is certainly not true of our Australian culture and even though
there is great interest in spirituality it is viewed as a completely private
matter and in general people who are searching don’t often think they will find
it in the church.
On the front cover of the
most recent issue of the magazine The NewScientist were the words “World Without God” and inside a most telling
article entitled “God not-botherers: Religious apathy reigns”. The article is focussed on the United Kingdom
and I would like to share a few words from the article:
Just under half of British adults
profess no religious affiliation; Christians of all denominations are in a
minority. That drift away from religion is an interesting phenomenon. The UK
isn't becoming a country of committed atheists. Most of the unaffiliated
neither accept nor reject religion: they simply don't care about it. In that
respect, the UK looks a lot like much of the developed world.
Let me just say again that
most people simply don’t care about it.
Whilst this is a study of the UK it is
entirely pertinent to our Australia context which is probably even more so a
place where people simply don’t care about god and religion as long as you keep
it yourself.
As Aaron said at the Synod we
are certainly not in Beroea anymore and I would suggest to you neither are we
in Athens.
It may be the case that Paul’s
identification of the Athenians as religious and devout is of little use to us
if we are to engage in witnessing to God’s love in this 21st century
Australian culture. And, even more troubling
for us as Christians, is that the things that we have trusted as central in the
expression of our faith may now be impediments for us as we think about
inviting others into a relationship with God.
As we look around this congregation
and other local congregations both the more traditional and the more
contemporary expressions we are a tiny segment of our community and based on census
figures the whole church is continuing to shrink in size. It is easy to forget how much the world has
changed around us when we primarily interact within this space with others who
are of a like mind. Yet, when we really
think about we know the world has moved on and that as followers of Jesus we
are now in a very strange place.
Listening to Paul address the
Athenians whilst we have no correlation in terms of the devout practices of
those ancient peoples there are two things which I believe can continue to give
us hope and be good news for us. The
first is that Areopagus as the place where the world of ideas meets is now far
broader and more far-reaching than a hill in the middle of the city: it is
called the internet and is a public space of sharing. This week 100s of people have visited the websites
associated with this congregation. All
of us can access the Areopagus of our time!
The second is that we still
have a message to share, the same message that Paul shared. The good news the Jesus came and lived and
died and rose again and that this gives us hope.
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