Sermon
Longview Presbyterian Church
April 27, 2008
Acts 17:22-31, John 14:15-21
Acts Among Us
Grace, mercy and peace be unto from God our Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer. AMEN
I think I am getting older. There are some things in life I am not taking quite so seriously. There are other things about which I have an entirely different perspective. Maybe I’m getting wise; maybe I’m just getting older.
When I read over the texts assigned for this Sixth Sunday of Easter – not after but a Sunday of – I just felt different. It was as if I were reading these words as a friendly note from a friend, rather than as a mystical message wrapped up in Biblical exegesis or seen from an historical context. For most of my hermeneutical training – that’s learning how to give sermons – I was instructed to examine a few choice sentences or paragraphs based on the linguistics – the language used; on the Biblical exegesis – who wrote, why they wrote, what hidden nuance the writer was trying to convey; or read it in the context of the historical event. After doing all this then one was to be inspired and write a sermon.
I’m a bit more pragmatic and practical, always have been. I personally like the stories; I read a lot of stories. There is something that twangs the heart strings; resonant with my soul. Sometimes stories make me laugh and cry – such as The Friday Night Knitting Club; others leave me a bit disturbed and fussing like John Grisham’s Playing for Pizza. Still other stories, like Ken Follett’s Pillars of Earth, stay with me for years, put a smile on my face when I think of the time period, the intricacies of the church, society, religion and faith played out during 12th Century England and the building of a cathedral.
I suppose I am not alone when it comes to enjoying a good story. We tend to tell a lot of stories in church; historically that is how the faith has been passed along through generations, beginning with writing of Exodus and the tale of Moses and the development of the Jewish faith and tradition. We begin educating our young with tales of whales, arks, and Garden of paradise here in the Christian church. We repeat the stories and the impact of these stories year after year and Sunday after Sunday until these stories become entwined with our life and it is as if we were there – because we know the stories. We know the endings. We know the people, the places and circumstances as if they were part of us and our immediate family. Only a few of us in this room ever went to seminary to learn how to exegete – that is such a pompous word – dissect and reconstruct the stories enough to extrapolate nuances to preach about.
Most of us just read the stories and hope to glean a little sense of hope, faith, love or understanding from the words. That’s what startled me when I read Luke’s report of Paul in Athens – first of all he is in Greece – not even the Holy Land were much of the Good News takes place. When I read, “Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenian, 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.’”
I could see Paul standing on an alabaster square surrounded by ordinary people – townspeople, women with children out shopping, maybe a few business types – who were just there. Maybe they were curious. Maybe they had heard of him; maybe some knew him, but they all listened. They listened to simple words – words which could have been written by any author, journalist or even letter reporting a scene from a daily event.
That’s when it struck me. I looked beyond the verses and chapter and read again the Acts of the Apostles. Acts – deeds, work, and daily activity these every day men carried out after Jesus’ death. These were stories of men sharing and living out their new found faith. These were men relating stories to connect to every day people’s lives in effort to share what to them was the good news – Jesus crucified, but alive for them.
Luke tells us Paul didn’t brow beat the people. He didn’t brow beat them with Scripture – in point of fact it would have been fruitless in this case as the Athenians weren’t Jews and knew nothing about the prophecies or what we call the Old Testament. Instead Paul spoke to them in stories or poems which the people could relate to and in so doing share his message.
Paul continued, “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 need anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.”
Paul relates the creation story of Adam and Eve – talking about ancestors – a worship style the Athenians could hearken to, “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 him – though indeed he is not far from each one of us.” Then he blends the two cultures quoting from the Old Testament and a Greek poet, “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.’
If I hadn’t picked up the Bible and knew where these words came from, I could just as well have picked Catherine Marshall or Karen Kingsley and been reading about a guy named Paul from another place and time. And that’s what makes these words read here today so exciting, because they could have been written today about someone in our midst. It could have been Acts Among Us.
There are Pauls, Peters, Marys, Lindas, Johns and whomever who still today by spoken and written word share what, who and how God is active in their lives. Preachers and laity try to relate as best we can with the world our audience lives in, just like Paul two centuries ago. We stretch our imaginations and sometimes the analogy to get the simple point across that God loves each of us – I know from personal experience as a young person in the church I could bank on a football analogy ending up in every Sunday sermon!
God wants us to acknowledge His existence – not as Paul spoke, “in gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals.” But rather acknowledge on a more primal and certainly faith based level that God is – God is as Luther wrote to the common people, “in, with, through and under” everything.
And we do that with stories. Chicken Soup for Soul, was not titled not just to sell books, but to relate stories – most of which I can’t read more than a few pages before the tears block out my vision. Not a week goes by I don’t get at least one story about God’s intervention or action in a person’s life via email.
Often my reaction is the same – tears, laughter, joy, humility. I relate to the Acts Among Us. It may be the Acts of God, the Acts of Others – regardless the Spirit is alive and dwelling among us. That’s essentially what Paul was telling the Athenians; it is the same sentiment which Jesus encouraged his disciples as read from John earlier.
The Friday Night Knitting Club may be a work of fiction; it isn’t even a religious book, but it still relates the overpowering impact the ACTS we do to, with and for others has a powerful impact on demonstrating God’s presence AMONG US.
God is active today just as much as he was in Paul’s time, only today it doesn’t take so long to hear about it, share it, relate to it or acknowledge it.
I’m sure all of you who are connected via the internet read .. My friend Louise sent this story to me – which quickly and quietly demonstrates ACTS AMONG US. The subject heading was titled “God's 26 Guards”
The prelude to the forwarded message read:
Here's a message that will bring you chills.
Have you ever felt the urge to pray for someone and then just put it on a list and said, ‘I’ll pray for them later?' Or has anyone ever called you and said, 'I need you to pray for me, I have this need?'
The following story that was sent to me and a missionary on furlough told this true story while visiting his home church in Michigan.
'While serving at a small field hospital in Africa, every two weeks I traveled by bicycle through the jungle to a nearby city for supplies. This was a journey of two days and required camping overnight at the halfway point.
On one of these journeys, I arrived in the city where I planned to collect money from a bank, purchase medicine, and supplies, and then begin my two-day journey back to the field hospital.
Upon arrival in the city, I observed two men fighting, one of whom had been seriously injured. I treated him for his injuries and at the same time talked to him about the Lord.
I then traveled two days, camping overnight, and arrived home without incident....
Two weeks later I repeated my journey. Upon arriving in the city, I was approached by the young man I had treated. He told me that he had known I carried money and medicines. He said, 'Some friends and I followed you in to the jungle, knowing you would camp overnight. We planned to kill you and take your money and drugs. But just as we were about to move into your camp, we saw that you were surrounded by 26 armed guards.
At this, I laughed and said that I was certainly all alone in that jungle campsite.
The young man pressed the point, however, and said, 'No, sir, I was not the only person to see the guards, my friends also saw them, and we all counted them.
It was because of those guards that we were afraid and left you alone.'
At this point in the sermon, one of the men in the congregation jumped to his feet and interrupted the missionary and asked if he could tell him the exact day this happened. The missionary told the congregation the date and the man who interrupted told him this story:
'On the night of your incident in Africa, it was morning here and I was preparing to go play golf. I was about to putt when I felt the urge to pray for you. In fact, the urging of the Lord was so strong; I called men in this church to meet with me here
in the sanctuary to pray for you. Would all of those men who met with me on that day stand up?'
The men who had met together to pray that day stood up. The missionary wasn't concerned with who they were, He was too busy counting how many men he saw.
There were 26.
ACTS AMONG US may not be quite as dramatic as this one, but what we do, how we act and live out our lives exemplifies God’s actions here on earth. Don’t discount the words you share with someone – they could be just what they needed – your own brand of Chicken Soup for another’s Soul.
Don’t discount your act of kindness; it could be and probably is like a pebble dropped in a pond. There is a ripple effect – much like Pay It Forward.
Don’t discount your thoughts and perceptions and silent concerns for another – you silent compassion may the ACT which changes another’s life.
Don’t discount the everyday things you do. Paul was simply standing in front of a building sharing his insights and perceptions of his every day life. His perceptions changed the face of the Church for ever. What you say and do in your every day life could change the face of this Church’s future.
Don’t be disheartened. Listen to your stories. God is alive and active in this place. Truly there are ACTS AMONG US.
