Acts 17:22-31

John 14:15-21

                                                                                                                 

            Throughout history, humans have looked upon the mysteries of the world as great challenges:

 

The mystery of the vast ocean.

The pioneer West of Lewis and Clarke

Antarctica

The Bottom of the Sea—more than 4 miles deep, under tremendous pressure.

The Atom, and the mysteries of the world too small to be seen.

Space, often called the Final Frontier:

 

          

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 But there is still a vast frontier beyond space—a huge void we call God that defies explanation. You get the feeling that if we could get this God thing figured out, then we will have done it; we will have conquered the last great mystery of our existence.

 

            So how is humankind doing in this final frontier? Any great breakthroughs on the horizon?

 

            We have to admit it’s tough going. What tools do we have for exploring the one who passes all human understanding? Do we have the first clue how to go about this? Does religion have anything to offer?

 

            These are questions the Greeks were asking in our reading from Acts.

 

            They demonstrated two common responses to the mystery of God. First, go on a quest for God. The Greeks were open and curious people, eager to obtain new knowledge. This mystery about the divine nature fascinated them and they wanted to figure it out. When someone came to town with a different view or a novel approach, they were eager to hear it. They loved to sit in the marketplace and discuss and probe all manner of philosophy and religion and world views.

 

            But where did it get them? For all of the innovations that gave the Greeks their reputation as the cradle of Western civilization, they didn’t get very far in their religious quest. Their legacy of faith is nonexistent; major world religions that exist today did not spring from ancient Greece.

 

            In the end, the Greek quest to find God was futile. Most settled for the second response: that there is no way to know much about the God who passes all understanding. It is like trying to train a dog to recite Shakespeare or get cattle to understand calculus. As a result, they basically gave up and erected the altar to which Paul refers, an altar to an unknown God. They accepted that some divine power is there, but there is no way we can understand it. God is unknowable; just accept that fact and deal with it.

 

            Those remain the two most common responses to the final frontier, the mystery of God. There are those who try to figure everything out, who go out on a spiritual quest, in search of God. Unlike the Greeks, many people in our time claim success. A lot of people claim to have found God or to have found Jesus.

 

            I’m really uncomfortable with the language of finding God. Finding God implies that either God was lost or God was hiding. The idea of God being lost is ridiculous, so that leaves only the possibility that God was hiding. If God was hiding, then that means God either didn’t want to be found or that God was playing a game with us.

            Either way, the idea of humans finding God is more than a little arrogant. It says that through my own intelligence, perseverance, or just plain goodness, I managed to establish a connection with God. We are the ones responsible for bringing God into our world. We are the ones who created the relationship that God was hoping to have.

 

            That is not what this church teaches. One of the most basic foundations of our faith is: I believe that I cannot by my own understanding or effort believe in Jesus Christ or come to him.

 

            There are many people who reach the second conclusion of the Greeks: God is unknowable. Everything we can say on this subject is just a shot in the dark. Better we stick to things we can know and understand, and just accept that God is God.

 

            The problem with that is then what do we do with this thing called the Bible? The whole point of this book is: God wants to be known. God wants above all else to establish a relationship with us. God wants it badly enough to come to us and say, “This is who I am.”

            It’s not an easy task, even for God. It’s not easy to get a cow to understand calculus. But God can do things that are beyond our understanding. 

 

            What we know about God comes through what God reveals to us. The Bible tells the story of how God has made God’s self known, and is continuing to do so. As we study the Bible, we can see progress.

 

            Take situation at start of the Bible. The 1^st verse says that in the beginning, God created the heavens and earth. The Hebrew word for God in that verse is Elohim. In Hebrew, an “im” ending is plural. Elohim is not a singular person: God is plural—more than one. What’s that all about?

            Keep going a few verses. God says, “Let us make mankind in our image.”

            Our image. We are made in the image of  God and who else? Where does this royal “we” come from?

 

            Here’s one possibility: When the Bible first came into being, the prevailing belief was that the universe was densely populated with gods. Why did they think this? Because they understood that so much of life was outside of human control. If we don’t control it, who does? There must be powerful forces out there that control the things that we don’t. For their own survival, people needed to be on good terms with these forces.

 

            But these controlling forces were not consistent. Two people lead identical lives, one is fortunate, the other is not. One lives, the other dies.

            How do you explain this? Either the divine powers are weird, with no rhyme or reason to anything they do. OR there are opposing forces among the gods. Sometimes one wins, sometimes another.

            That was the answer that made sense and it left people with 2 choices: either try to identify all the gods, satisfy them all, and offend none. A daunting task. OR find and get in good with one particularly powerful god.

 

            That was the mindset that God had to work through. People believed in multiple gods because they understood the power part of God, but were blind and deaf to the rest of God’s nature.  

 

            Throughout the Old Testament, God works relentlessly to show that there is more to God than power displays. That God is good, and is interested in personal relationships. He did this by saying, “You will be my people.” Over time, the Hebrew people heard this and began to believe it.

 

            But they had a hard time fitting this into their world view. They still operated in the multiple gods system, based on raw power. So they understood this offer from the god YHWH to mean that YHWH favors us. We’re lucky because our patron god who has taken such a shine to us is the strongest of the gods. If we stay faithful to this god, we’re in good.

 

            Genesis reflects this thinking. The creation story depicts YHWH as the leader among lesser deities, all wrapped up under the title Elohim.

 

            The Hebrews were not unique in this. Every nation in that region made a special alliance with the gods who they believed were most powerful. For Egypt, it was the Sun God and his court. The Assyrians took their name from their head god, Ashur. The Canaanites were followers of Baal.

 

            The Old Testament is full of competition among gods. In Exodus, Moses declares God’s promise to bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt.

            After the spectacular crossing of the Red Sea, the Hebrews declare in their victory dance: “who is like you O Lord among the gods?” There are many gods out there; but ours is the best. 

            We see this in the contest between Elijah and the prophets of Baal. They have a wood lighting contest and YHWH wins. We have the strong god; you’ve got the wimp.

            We see this in the psalms.

            Psalm 82: “God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment.” God as chairman of the board.

            Psalm 138 “I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart; before the gods I sing your praise.”

            Even one of the later kings, Solomon declares, “The house that I am about to build will be great, for our God is greater than other gods.”

 

            Patiently, relentlessly, God gets rid of these misconceptions. Over the course of centuries, God manages to reveal a clearer understanding of God’s nature. At last, much of the world comes to understand that there is one source of all life and light, and that is the one we call God.

 

            At the same time, God worked to reveal another truth about the nature of God. The truth that God’s most dominant characteristic is not raw power, but love. This revelation began in the Old Testament and then burst upon the earth in a stunning, dramatic fashion--in the life of Jesus.

 

            Changes come slowly though. It’s tough to teach those cows calculus. 2000 years later, we’re still only beginning to understand what that revelation meant.

 

            Paul was one of the first to get a clue. In our story from Acts, he is walking through Athens, trying to figure out what the deal is with all these idols, these competing, inferior gods. He begins to debate about God with some of the Greek philosophers. They are stuck in old line of thinking.“He seems to be a proclaimer of some foreign gods,” they conclude.

 

            They’re back in the “who’s got the best god” mode.  

           

            If he were locked in that old misconception about God, Paul would have hauled  out the fire and brimstone. There is only one God, my God, and all of yours are ridiculous. Accept that I’m right, my god is right, or you’ll burn forever.

 

            But Paul understands now that God is not about raw power; God is about love. Religion is not a deadly competition to prove who’s worshipping the right god in the right way.

            We’re not enemies, says Paul. We’re all trying to understand God. You know that altar there that you built to an unknown God. At first I dismissed it as an idol, false god. But now I think that unknown god you’re worshipping is the same God I worship; you just don’t know much about him. Can we get past the fighting over who has the best and most powerful god, and come together to pool our knowledge of what God has revealed to us.

           

            Sometimes I think we’re still stuck on the old days of the Baal competition and the war between the Gods. Islam and Christianity seem to be sworn enemies today. We are locked in a war between Islam and its God, Allah, and Christianity with its Triune God.

 

            Paul says to the Athenians, “Maybe we’re worshipping about the same God. Let me tell you what I know about this one God of the universe.”

            Today, Islam says there is only one God. Christianity says there is only one God. If there is only one God, both sides are worshipping one God, aren’t we in agreement? Aren’t we worshipping the same God?

             

            Yes, we have different names, difference sources of inspiration and revelation, differences of doctrine. Significant differences, glaring differences. But can we at least come to see that we have to be talking about the same God, because there is only one God. 

 

            We’re all trying to learn about that God, that final frontier. We’re all trying to hear what God is saying. Why don’t we pool our experience instead of hitting each other over the head with weapons from an archaic misunderstanding of the world?

 

            In the gospel for today, Jesus says, “I will reveal myself to those who love.”    Knowledge of God comes to us. It comes to us in love; the mystery is revealed to us when we love.

 

            The Christian witness is to say, here’s what God has revealed to us through the Word. The Bible declares that God is not what we used to think, is not what we could have imagined or figured out on our own. What God revealed to us in the person of Jesus Christ is that God is love.

 

            There is the key to navigating the final frontier. The mystery of God is not something that we solve. Knowledge of God is not something we find. It comes to us in love. That is why we pray at mealtime, “Come, Lord Jesus.” And that is why we pray every Sunday in this place: “Thy kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven.”