Sermon 1 May 2005
6 Easter, Year A
Acts 17: (16 – 21), 22 – 31, (32 – 34)

Title: Telling the Great Story

Evangelism: this word strikes fear into the hearts of Christians and non-Christians alike. Both people inside and outside of the church cringe when the topic is brought up. Outside the church, many people perceive evangelism to be conversational “forced entry.�? Still others see Christian evangelism as condemnation or cultural insensitivity.

Inside the church, our views of evangelism can often be equally as reductionistic. Many see evangelism merely as getting more people to come to church or to Sunday School, or see it as handing someone a tract, booklet or some other piece of paper – probably initiating conversation with a total stranger in the process.

Evangelism is a highly-valued, but much misunderstood part of the Christian life. So misunderstood, in fact, that I hesitate to use the word with regularity, lest I conjure up images of placard-carrying, sandwich-board wearing, bullhorn-blaring street preachers who, despite their good intent, cause many to flee the message of Christ – not wanting the guilt by association. Perhaps, by using the word “evangelism�? I might also conjure up guilt – guilt that we haven’t invited someone to come to church with us, or guilt that we aren’t reaching people for Christ. “Evangelism�? is a word that carries serious weight – and a good portion of it is negative for many.

Nevertheless, evangelism is the word we have; it is not really a bad word, in the end. It means “proclamation of the good news.�? Let’s keep that “good news�? definition in our minds as we look at Paul’s example of evangelism from Acts. Evangelism is “good news�? from beginning to end – both for the disciple of Jesus Christ “doing�? the evangelism, and for the person receiving. If it isn’t, there’s something dreadfully wrong.

Step 1: Paul creates common ground

When our scene opens, Paul is speaking to a gathering of philosophers in Athens, during his second missionary journey around the Mediterranean. Paul arrives ahead of his companions, and is distressed by the worship of all the idols in the city. So he starts talking with people in their local equivalent of a coffee shop/tavern/truck stop/university lecture hall. What a combination, eh? And some of the philosophers – intellectual types – start debating with him. And they invite him to speak with them further on the subjects he’s brought up.

So he goes to talk to them. The passage we heard today is his speech to this group. It is a good example for us of what evangelism is all about. No, it’s not a step-by-step procedure. No, it’s not a method. If it were a method or procedure, we might discount it, because if the end of the passage is any indication, it couldn’t be seen to be an overwhelming success. What it does show us, however, are the values necessary for us to espouse in our evangelism. Moreover, it shows to both Christians and non-Christians alike why Christians have this urge to share their faith. So this morning we’re going to look at Paul’s conversation with these Athenian philosophers.

The first thing we notice about this passage is that Paul begins by creating common ground. He demonstrates at least three things to his dialogue partners: respect, love and common values.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never met a person who woke up every day and said, “I want to be a bad person. I’m going to be a bad person today.�? No, most people do not wake up that way. Most people wake up and want to do their best to be good people – even if their definition of ‘good’ is widely divergent from ours. Some of these versions of ‘good’ can be incredibly self-centered and self-seeking – but they seem to be, in some sense, an attempt to be a good person.

Paul realized this. The first thing he says to them is a compliment: he sees that they are very religious. Paul sees that they and he value something in common, and he uses that for his starting point. He shows them respect in that he validates their attempts at doing what is good and right. He recognizes that they have thought long and hard about what they believe – an activity worthy of respect, even if he disagrees with their conclusions.

From the expression of these common values – value of religion, value of doing what is right – Paul expressed respect for the Athenians as people. He did not just strike a respectful tone – we call that flattery (or something worse): he genuinely held them in respect.

Paul’s respect for these men was authentic because he shows that he really actually cares for them as people, apart from their agreement or disagreement with his speech – whether they end up agreeing with him or disagreeing, he is concerned for their welfare. This care and concern is the beginning of love. He sees that they really want something good. He wants to see them live out that greater good – but he knows that the only way that will be possible is if they experience the power of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ: destroying in them the power of sin, death and the devil and re-creating in them new life in the quality and style of God – eternal life.

Paul has neither “painted a target�? on these men, nor has he just left them to fend for themselves. The seriousness with which he takes his subject is quite obvious to all – this isn’t just a philosophy he thinks we should try on for size as we’re shopping around for a way of looking at the world. At the same time, he isn’t coercive.

This begins to clue us in to why evangelism is really such an essential part of the Christian life: if disciples of Jesus Christ actually believe that we have something valuable to offer to people, if we love people enough to want to offer it to them, then we make efforts to bring Christ to them.

I saw a movie this week where this point was illustrated by counter-example. The movie was satirizing Christian evangelism from the point of view of a non-Christian. At one point the main character, the so-called evangelist becomes quite angry with her friend and potential convert, and screams “I am filled with the love of Christ!�? And she flings her pocket-size leather Bible at the back of the other girl’s head. This girl’s motivations weren’t loving – she was hoping her friend would conform to her way of thinking – but even if they were loving, her love was so judgmental and condescending as to be unrecognizable.

We must be aware that this is the perception that people outside of the church often have of Christian evangelism. We must do our best not to reinforce such perceptions.

Step 2: Paul uses his audience’s cultural terminology

The second thing we notice about Paul’s speech is that he uses his audience’s cultural terminology.

Often, evangelism methods make heavy use of scripture quotations to prove their point. “The Bible says…�? is often the reason given for our point. Of course, we as Christians believe that the Bible is authoritative for faith. At one time in our country, most people knew the Bible – knew the basic story, and had some level of respect for it. Now, that is not the case. Most people haven’t read it – whether Christian or non-Christian. Neither do they have respect for it. That is unfortunate, because we value it highly and find it useful for faith and practice.

And so did Paul. Paul was trained as a Biblical scholar. In most of his encounters with people, and most of his letters, Paul makes heavy use of scriptural quotations. Not in this case, though. His Athenian audience had no clue what the Hebrew scriptures were, nor would they have respected them had he quoted them – they were the holy books of some uneducated, backwater ethnic group in a useless part of the country.

So Paul doesn’t quote scripture to them. Instead, he tells the story the Scriptures tell from a different point of view. He uses their own “media�? sources – quoting a Greek poet whose name we don’t know. He says, “As your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’�? (verse 28)

Now, obviously, we aren’t going to go around quoting ancient Greek poetry to make our evangelistic point. I had to learn some as a part of my college major, and if I were to come up to someone and say,

Andra moi ennepei mousa polouptropon hos mala polla
Planchthei epei Troieis hieron ptoliethron epersei
Pollon d’anthropon iden astea kai no-on egnon

I don’t think we’d get too far.

No, instead, we’d quote from CSI: Miami, if we saw God’s truth being expressed in a way that made sense to our situation. Or “Joan of Arcadia,�? perhaps. Maybe even “The Simpsons.�?

But it’s not just TV or movies – we reference things that have cultural significance to us: like talking about the woman who read portions of Rev. Rick Warren’s The Purpose-Driven Life to the man who shot up the courthouse in Atlanta a couple of months ago and got him to turn himself in.

Paul, the scriptural scholar, doesn’t quote the scripture at that point (of course he does later). He quotes their cultural equivalent of Avril Lavigne or, perhaps Bruce Springsteen. And he tells the story from their point of view, not from his.

Step 3: Paul tells the Great Story

The story Paul tells them is the scriptural Great Story: the story of creation, incarnation and re-creation – from their perspective. Paul, the Jew, explains the Jewish scriptures from a non-Jewish point of view. And, in doing so, he places himself and the Athenians into the scriptural story.

Notice that he sticks to the basic story. God created the world, and all the nations in the world. He has desired a relationship with us from the very beginning, so that we can be empowered and enabled to live out the fullness of what it means to be human, generally, and what it means to be ourselves, personally. To make that possible, after we had fallen into sin and become subject to evil and death, God incarnated the Word – sent Jesus Christ, fully human and fully God, to release us from that power and set us free to turn to him. In raising him from the dead, God began the work of re-creation, bringing us into the fullness of what he has for us.

Paul does not digress into any one of a number of side tracks he could take. He could comment about the dissolution of the Athenian family. He could comment about the depraved sexual morals of the Athenian citizens. He could comment about the improprieties of the Athenian youth.

He could complain about one or the other of the Athenian political parties and how they’re ruining society. He could hearken back to a better moral day in Athens when people really respected those in authority. He could chide them for not seeing the work of God in plain sight in front of them.

But he does none of those things. Instead, he sticks to the story. And the Great Story is what he tells. There are no guilt-trips, no gimmicks, no sales pitches. After all, Paul isn’t selling anything. And while he’s trying to convince them of something, he’s not trying to win them over to himself and his way of thinking: he’s trying to introduce them to the fullness of the God they are already seeking.

And people all throughout our society are seeking God. Many are, in fact, because they have no church affiliation or one that is nominal, are worshipping the Unknown God. And they desire more.

Amy Lee, of the band Evanescence, expressed the desire for God’s new creation to come and make her alive inside in her 2003 album, played on popular, “secular�? radio: http://www.lyred.com/lyrics/Evanescence/Fallen/

(Wake me up) Wake me up inside
(I cant wake up) Wake me up inside
(Save me) Call my name and save me from the dark
(Wake me up) Bid my blood to run
(I cant wake up) Before I come undone
(Save me) Save me from the nothing I’ve become

Bring me to life
I’ve been living a lie
There’s nothing inside
Bring me to life

Conclusion

What do we see from this speech Paul gave? Five things, perhaps:

1. Value people, love them, see them as equals, not as inferiors.
2. Speak to them about things you both care about that are affirming to Christ.
3. Demonstrate how following Christ actually allows them to fulfill that Christ-affirming value more completely
4. Speak to them in their terms
5. Tell the Great Story

And it is the story we must tell: as U2’s Bono pleaded in “Wake Up, Dead Man,�? http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Wake-Up-Dead-Man-lyrics-U2/B790727521CB59194825689600325F4A

Tell me, tell me the story
The one about eternity
And the way it’s all gonna be.