Sermon 29 May 2011, 10am

Paul arrived in Athens, one of the oldest cities in the world – already 5,000 years old – when Paul waltzed in,[1] singing the song he thought everyone else should sing.  It was such a catchy tune – if it wasn’t already on the charts, it should be very soon

“Jesus is the saviour whom I love to know..

heaven is the haven that I’m going to ..

Jesus is the captain who now leads my life ..

unworthy as I am, I know he came to save

a sinner such as me, a sinner such as you,

he came to save, from the grave.” 

It was a song that had gone down well in some of the towns he’d already been in – the people of Lystra and Antioch loved it - and even in that ‘prison ministry’ thing he’d stumbled into at Philippi.  It was a sure thing.  He had his song – and he was going to sing it.  After all, we all know how converts can be a little fanatical – and this one certainly was:  the greatest persecutor of the church became its greatest propagator, travelling some 10,000 miles to spread the good news of Jesus.   But, as he waltzed into Athens, his confidence wavered as he began to have second thoughts.  Would his song play well here?   If he’d been on the reality music show, American Idol, entering Athens might have been like getting through the auditions and going to Hollywood.  A major hurdle had been overcome; but here, in Athens, would his music be as popular?   The first signs were not very encouraging.

While Paul was waiting in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.[2]

But these were not American Idols – no sign of Scotty and Lauren[3]  fighting it out for the title.  These were idols of a quite different type – statues of gods.  As a highly respected, well educated Jew, Paul knew the commandments well – the first two was bouncing around in his head: “You shall have no other Gods before me – you shall not make for yourself an idol”.  Oops, this is real alien territory;  this visit to Athens was not going to be as easy as he had thought. 

So, deciding to start with an audience that was at least a little familiar with his tune, he headed off to the synagogue, where he could have a sing along with his own kind – Jews, who at least knew some of the notes.

He reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.

Singing with the Jews – and those devout Greeks, known as ‘God-fearers’ – gave him confidence to head to the market place – where everyone hung out[4] - singing to anyone who turned up, as they went about their business.  And that’s where he ran into a crowd who knew an entirely different set of songs.

A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him.  Some of them asked, ‘What is this babbler trying to say?’ Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.’ (This was because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.)

The stoics were playing some sophisticated stuff – a bit of classical and a bit of jazz.  But the Epicureans – all they wanted to do was dance!  Soul, funk, hip-hop – there was always some sort of party going on.  And that wasn’t all – Athens was buzzing with every other musical style.  Heavy metal, blues, punk, rock.   It was all there.  I guess it depends on your taste, but really some of it was very ‘out there’ – you’d have to stretch your imagination to call it music.[5]

So they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, ‘May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?  It sounds rather strange to us, so we would like to know what it means.’  Now all the Athenians and the foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new.

And there, in the Athenian equivalent of “The Beehive”, the High Court and the University Council, all rolled into one,[6] Paul really wanted to sing his song.  But it occurred to him that it might be helpful for his audience to know that he understood and appreciated their stuff, too.  So he took a chance and launched into a tune that had echoes of gospel, but a bit of what turned them on, as well.

‘People of Athens!’ he said.  ‘I see that in every way you are very religious.  For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: To an unknown God.

They liked the song.  They really did.  The Athenians were tapping their toes and nodding their heads.  Some of them were even mouthing the words. So, Paul decided to shift gears and work a little of his own tune into the mix.

What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.
The God who made the world and everything in it, the one who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is God served by human hands, as though God needed anything, since God’s very self gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.
From one ancestor God made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search, and perhaps reach out for God and find God--though indeed God is not far from each one of us.

Most of the crowd was still swaying, still moving to Paul’s tune.  But some on the fringes were losing interest – chatting with their friends, checking their phones for messages and updates on Idol.  So, Paul decided to switch gears again.  He took a chance – a big chance for a rich boy from the posh end of Tarsus – he broke into a rap.   He was clever was our Paul.  He lifted his lyrics from some of Athens’ best – Dirty Ol’ Epimenedes the Cretan and DJ Dizzy Aratus[7].

“For in him

We live – and move and have our being.”

As some of your poets have said

“We are – his offspring – his children, we are”

The crowd was with him again, so Paul decided to segue back into his original tune.  He took a deep breath and gave it everything he had.  He was back in American Idol territory.  He was Haley doing an amazing rendition of Lady Gaga’s latest; he was James bringing respectability to his particular rocking style – not to mention Tourettes and Aspergers syndromes[8].  He was Lauren and Scotty, rolled into one – stirring with his magnificent country music.

Since we are God's offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals.  While God has, in the past, overlooked the times of human ignorance, now God commands all people everywhere to repent.

“Jesus is the saviour whom I love to know..

heaven is the haven that I’m going to .. “

But all of a sudden, the crowd turned on him.  Some sneered – some booed and most of them just walked away from the show.  But there were a few, just a few, who came up to him after the show was over, their autograph books in their hands.

We want to hear you again on this subject’, they said.

And there were others, who even started singing Paul’s song.

A few men became followers of Paul and believed.  Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris and a number of others.

So Paul waltzed out of Athens, still humming his tune – but perhaps with a little broader understanding that God was more – more than he imagined – certainly more than one style – a little of rap, a little more jazz, a little more classical…..And Paul heard the words of Jesus as told by John “they who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me.”  Hmmm – perhaps it’s more simple – and more complex – than I realised, Paul mused.

Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church:        Thanks be to God.

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[1] Most of this sermon is taken (with some adaptations) from “Paul Waltzed into Athens” from Telling the Bible 2 Bob Hartman, 2005, p.142-146.  Background to Paul and Athens comes from Paul at Athens: "A Few People Believed" Daniel B. Clendenin journeywithjesus.net for Sunday May 29, 2011. Information about television show “American Idol” results comes from “How Scotty McCreery won 'American Idol'” http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110526/ap_en_ot/us_tv_american_idol

[2] Acts 17:16-32

[3] Scotty McCreery, a 17-year-old high school student from Garner, N.C., won the "American Idol" title last Wednesday night over 16-year-old fellow country singer Lauren Alaina of Rossville, Ga.

[4] “Five hundred years before Paul, the Athenian agora was the center of civic life. In addition to residences, it contained religious temples, law courts, government magistrates, the city council, and economic commerce. In Paul's day it would have included small shop-keepers.” Clendinin.

[5] In the agora Paul engaged a group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers who ridiculed him as a spermologos or seed-picker. Translators struggle to make sense of this slang word: "A word originally used of birds picking up grain, then of scrap collectors searching for junk, then extended to those who snapped up ideas of others and peddled them as their own without understanding them, and finally to any ne'er-do-well" (EBC). The slur seems to have derided Paul as a bum, a plagiarist, or a poser. Whatever the meaning, Paul's audience was unimpressed when he "preached about Jesus and resurrection" Clendinin.

[6] The Areopagus was both a place and a group. It's a small rocky hill northwest of the Acropolis in Athens. More importantly, the Areopagus was the most prestigious council of elders in the history of Athens, so-named because it met on that site. Dating back to the 5th-6th centuries BCE, the Areopagus consisted of nine archons or chief magistrates who guided the city-state away from rule by a king to rule by an oligarchy, which in turn laid the foundations for Greece's eventual democracy. Across the centuries the Areopagus changed, so that by Paul's day it was a place where matters of the criminal courts, law, philosophy and politics were adjudicated. Clendinin.

[7] Paul met them on their own ground, quoting two poets: the Cretan Epimenides (600 BCE), that "in him we live and move and have our being," and then the opening lines of the Phaenomena by Aratus (315-240 BCE), a Greek poet and Stoic of Cilicia, that "we are his children." Daniel B. Clendenin.

[8] American Idol final four: 20-year-old vocalist Haley Reinhart of Wheeling Ill and 22-year-old rocker James Durbin of Santa Cruz, CA along with Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina.