The Sixth Sunday of Easter

Preached by Dean Robert Neske at Saint Mark’s Pro-Cathedral, Hastings, April 27, 2008

At the close of last week’s lesson from the Acts of the Apostles, following the riots created by Paul and Silas (well actually it was more Paul than Silas) in Thessalonica and Berea, the Christians of Berea had thought it best to get Paul to some place where he could maintain a lower profile; a place like Athens, a major city, the intellectual capital of the ancient world and a place where new ideas, doctrine and teaching would find either a more tolerant reception, or complete indifference, if nothing else.

So the Christians of Berea set sail for the city and rather unceremoniously dump Paul, on his own in the city-state of Athens. This was not an especially good idea, because Paul starts wandering about the city, and the more he sees, the more upset he becomes. Everywhere he looks he sees idols and altars of sacrifice to these idols and every fiber of his idol-hating Jewish psyche is just appalled.

Paul visits the local synagogue, debating with their rabbis and elders, to no avail; and then goes into the market place to preach and debate with philosophers representing the Stoic and Epicurean schools of philosophy. This is Paul’s idea of keeping a low profile. However it does gain him an invitation to present his message in the Areopagus, which was the philosophical equivalent of playing Carnegie Hall.

“Athenians, 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.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.”  Earlier translations have Paul use the words: “I perceive that in all things you are too superstitious” which while not as accurate certainly reflects Paul’s distress at what he sees all around him, because it is such an affront to the truth.

Paul however is quick to assert the truth as set forth in the Torah and in the understanding of the Church: “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 needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.”

Here is Paul the Rabbi setting forth the truth of the Torah about the nature of God, creation and our place within it. This is very much the Jewish understanding of the Cosmos, and the Christian understanding as well, and quite different from what the people of Athens perceived the truth to be, as their statues and altars attested.

Paul understands that the people listening to him have neither an understanding of nor an appreciation of the Jewish Law or the writing of the prophets; they are in fact completely ignorant of the revealed truth found in the Law and the Prophets which is God’s Truth, and yet even as he recognizes this, it still angers him.

Why? Because Paul has been called by God to proclaim the truth of God and the message of salvation which is the Gospel of Christ; so he goes on: “While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead."

Years ago a commander told his chaplain: “Chaplain, all religion is good religion.” Heaven only knows this reflects a good egalitarian, wholly American assumption, not unlike the often heard statement; “well, we all worship the same God.” These statements reveal how little people know about the different religious traditions in the world and how little people want to know.

At the risk of appearing to ride a hobby horse, Pope Benedict is absolutely right; there is in the broader church today a tyranny of relativism which currently threatens the Christian faith. Because all religion is not good; and we do not worship the same God at all. There is religion which reflects the truth of God and religion that does not. There is religion that reflects the love of God and the joy of God, and the peace of God and religion that does not, and it the difference matters.

The revelation that is God in Christ Jesus is Truth with a capital “T.” It is an objective Truth, so plain and clear that it demands our assent; this Truth is God - the Father, the Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth; and Jesus Christ, His Incarnate Son our Lord, and the Holy Spirit our Advocate and Guide.

There is what is true and what is not, and we dare to proclaim a unique truth, that Christ is risen from the dead, and this truth is not to be compromised or subjected to the relativism of the world around us. It is this truth that sets Christians apart; as does our desire that men and women should be set free from sin and death and have eternal life – in short that the world should be saved.

“Jesus said: ‘Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.”

To abide is such an important aspect of the mystery that is life in Christ Jesus; to abide, to rest in Christ. It is what empowered Paul to speak the truth to the Athenians and what empowers all who would share the truth in every generation. We will find the courage and the words to do so, if we will abide in Christ Jesus.

For while the word ‘abide’ means to rest, it also means to trust and so to go forward, knowing that wherever we go Christ goes with us providing us with the courage to become agents of righteousness, kindness, compassion, grace, mercy and love in Jesus’ name, which is our witness to the Truth we have been called to share.