“To the Unknown god”
The Appomattox Court House Presbyterian Church Pulpit
Rev. Cameron S. Smith
The Lord's Day, June 18, 2006
Acts 17:16-34
"Now while Paul was waiting for [Silas and Timothy] at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols….Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, 'To the unknown god." (Acts 17:16, 22-23)
An atheist and a believer were locked into a serious discussion about the existence of God, when the atheist, in a last ditch attempt to drive his point home, said, "If there is a God, may he prove himself by striking me dead right now." Nothing happened. "You see, there is no God." The believer, unfazed, responded, "You've only proved that He is a gracious God."
THE LATE GREAT ATHEISTS
To be quite frank with you this morning, I don't believe atheism is a workable outlook on reality. Many self-proclaimed atheists in history have usually recanted their life-long denials on or near their deathbeds.
For instance, "Near the end of his life, [the French philosopher, playwright, and novelist,] Jean-Paul Sartre told [a close friend]: 'I do not feel that I am the product of chance, a speck of dust in the universe, but someone who was expected, prepared, prefigured. In short, a being whom only a Creator could put here; and this idea of a creating hand refers to God.'"
"George Bernard Shaw…perhaps [the] most renowned…free thinker and liberal philosopher [of the early twentieth century]….In his last writings [said], 'The science to which I pinned my faith is bankrupt. Its counsels, which should have established the millennium, led, instead, directly to the suicide of Europe. I believed them once. In their name I helped to destroy the faith of millions of worshippers in the temples of a thousand creeds. And now they look at me and witness the great tragedy of an atheist who has lost his faith.'"
It seems to me that Francis Bacon was correct when he said "A little philosophy inclineth a man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion." And, I might add, it was the philosopher, Blaise Pascal who fleshed this out when he famously remarked that there is within every person a "God-shaped vacuum."
THE CHURCH'S DIRTY LITTLE SECRET
But the problem is that even though there is this theological vacuum that haunts every human conscience, not everyone responds alike to the call. Far too many people respond to this haunt in agnosticism -- a belief that the human mind cannot know whether there is a God, or anything beyond material phenomena.
Subsequently, many agree with Clarence Darrow, the lawyer of Scopes Trial infamy, when he said, "I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure - that is all that agnosticism means."
My contention this morning for you is that agnosticism is the "religion" of choice for the modern world. It pains me to say this, but is true; agnosticism seems to have become the de facto belief for the Church of Jesus Christ. The Church has become skittish in a world of competing religious ideas.
THE PROBLEM IN ATHENS
Turning to our text this morning, we get a taste of the Greek world that greeted the apostle Paul when he visited Athens on his second missionary journey. While the Greeks weren't technically agnostic, I want to suggest to you that this story foreshadows the current modern morass of agnosticism that the Church seems to be bogged down in.
Paul came into this great city and as he looked all around, he witnessed the sophisticated collection of gods and goddesses clogging the scenery: The temple of Mars, the god of war, was probably within his sight. The Parthenon of Minerva, the goddess of wisdom and skill was probably not more than a stone's throw from his feet. Still nearer, the sanctuary of the Eumenides was tucked in a dark cavern at the base of the imposing 370 foot rock that's known as the Areopagus. The beautiful temple of Theseus, the national hero, the slayer of the dreaded Minotaur, in all likelihood, failed to escape the notice of the apostle. To cap things off, there was this particular altar upon which was inscribed the incredibly inane words, "To the unknown god"!
At this sight, it says that Paul's "spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols." The sense here is that Paul was irritated and upset with the nonsense that he saw around him. "The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything!"
He immediately went into the local synagogue where he reasoned in this manner with the devout Jews there. It also says that he went out into the marketplace where he would speak to anyone who would give him a hearing. My friends, Paul had a burden to reach these people with the Gospel.
However, much that Paul may have earnestly desired to share life with these Athenians, the beliefs of the citizens of this illustrious city just refused to get out of the way! This Athenian "faith" was one of intellectual refine and sophistication. Their response to Paul was, "What does this babbler wish to say?" Interestingly, the Greek meaning for the word translated babbler here literally means "seed picker." It describes the actions of a bird looking for food. Metaphorically, it was the derisive description of those whose communication lacks sophistication - they are reduced to picking up scraps of information here and there just like a scavenger so that they can babble on to anyone who paid them attention. Paul's message wasn't initially received very well!
The text continues, "Others said, 'He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities'- [just] because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection." These cultured Athenians were perplexed and even amused by Paul's preaching. Luke identifies two schools of thought that were represented in the crowd that day: The Epicurean philosophers, who believed that man was mortal, and that when he died, that was it. The universe is result of an accident; no providential god. Therefore the only true criterion of the good life is pleasure and the avoidance of pain.
Then there were the Stoics, who regarded everything, living and non-living, as part of a universal natural system subject to deterministic laws. "Fate" was a reality, and the wisest way to live was to subject yourself to blind will of fate until you died and faded back into some cosmic, primordial mass.
To either the Epicurean or the Stoic, the concept of resurrection and a God who entered history in the person of a human man - knowable and touchable -- would be over-the-top silliness! In fact, after Paul preached to them at the Areopagus, they politely, but firmly rejected his message, with the sole exception of Dionysius, Damaris and a few others.
I believe Paul cut to the chase when he quoted their own Greek writers and poets when he said, "In him we live and move and have our being" and "For we are indeed his offspring." I think Paul was trying to say, you guys have a genuine God-shaped vacuum that you're trying to fill. That's good! But, you're trying to fill it with something inferior because you simply don't know any better. But "the times of ignorance" are over. Their need now is to repent of unbelief and embrace Jesus Christ. This is the heart of Paul's Gospel. This is the Gospel!
MODERN DAY "ATHENS"
I told you a little earlier that I thought this encounter in Athens seems to me a foreshadowing of the emergence of present day agnosticism, most especially in the Church. I must tell you that I can't read this story without thinking about the uphill battles that many good pastors must face in the ongoing battle for the hearts and minds of those to whom we preach and exercise pastoral care.
Let's face it. We are living in times of quick, efficient mass communication. We are literally a global village. We are no longer isolated here in the United States with a predominant Christian worldview. I would surmise that you have probably had contact with a number of people who belong to another world religion. There are many competing views for what constitutes the true and beautiful. There must be hundreds of views of who God is and what He or She or "it" is like. How do we Christians know that we're right?
I saw a cartoon a while back that seemed to illustrate the dilemma: There was a man beginning to write a letter to God. He started, "Dear God,…" And then he stopped. As images of Muslims, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists started dancing through his head, he scratched out his original opening and wrote instead, "To Whom It May Concern…."
When you think about it, it seems natural to get feelings of guilt over feeling that somehow, we've got it and everybody else doesn't! I think we've kind of become like the citizens of Athens: We each have our particular god, in our own particular "temples." Jesus is just alright for me, but maybe not for you. Remember that analogy that I used sometime ago to describe some of the self-styled "Progressive" Presbyterians: Jesus is just one of many colorful stained glass windows in the cathedral of World Religions?
Think about it, when the Church gets to this point, it is really telling the world that God is unknowable. He is beyond finite human understanding. And so, to say that we can know God; to have a relationship with Him; to know what He really wants; or even what He's like is extreme arrogance!
Please understand that when the Church gets skittish and turns to what amounts to what I'll call practical agnosticism, it's turned its back on the Lord who gave His life as a ransom for Her! When we claim that God is unknowable or that God is much bigger than the message represented in Jesus Christ, we may pat ourselves on the back for being broadminded, but the upshot is that we've done our best imitation of the Athenians that Paul encountered that day on the Areopagus. If we're going to be content with that point of view, we too may as well throw out our rude crosses and put up a plaque for all to see, with the words, "To the unknown God," or "To Whom It May Concern." Think of it, there's the wisdom of covering all of the theological bases, and looking wise in the eyes of the world to boot!
But, I tell you today, I am persuaded that the Church will not be swept away in the agnostic tide of the day. I think that we can claim the high ground and say with Paul, "[We are] not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." (Rom 1:16). This is a matter of wholeness. This is a matter of health. This is not a petty partisan struggle: My God can beat up your god. Heaven forbid that we should think in such infantile terms!
THE FINAL WORD
Listen to how Paul sums up his teaching in Athens: "The God who made the world and everything in it…gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us….The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man [Christ Jesus] whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead."
My friends, the Church can't afford the "unknown god." Jesus is real deal. Grace abounds when God's people walk and speak with humility and courage. Let's not err by being too passive about a serious problem, there's too much hanging in the balance! Amen
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