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April 27, 2008
Acts 17:1-34Rev. Dr. David A. Davis
“How Extremely Religious You Are!”
Our second scripture lesson this morning comes from the Book of Acts, the 17th chapter. It is the story of the Apostle Paul in Athens; Paul at the Areopagus; or as recorded in the King James, Paul at Mars Hill. This is Paul speaking to the intellectual crowd; the philosophical elite; Paul speaking to those sometimes described as Christianity’s “cultured despisers”. This is Paul far away from a synagogue or a house church. The Areopagus. It is Paul stepping out on foreign soil, “foreign” referring to a whole lot more than location. As one professor describes it, this is an “away game” for Paul.
As recorded here in the 17th chapter, before Paul arrives in Athens, he and Silas come to Thessalonica. After three days in the synagogue, three days of preaching and teaching and discussing the scriptures and the suffering of the Messiah and the resurrection of Jesus, the whole city is in an uproar. Synagogue leaders are jealous. Crowds turn into a mob. The bible actually describes them as “ruffians”. The crowd goes looking for Paul and Silas. The crowd attacks the house of a guy named Jason. They drag him out and haul him before the authorities. You see, Jason had welcomed Paul into his house. The text says he “entertained them as guests.” Some scholars surmise Jason was leading a house church. The crowds tell the authorities that “these people have been turning the world upside down.” Turning the world upside down; that was the accusation.
Paul and Silas and Timothy make another stop on their way to Athens. Those crowds from Thessalonica, they actually follow them to the next stop. They follow them fifty miles or so, and the crowd, they stir things up again. That’s when Paul heads to the coast to Athens; for safety perhaps as much as anything else. Our text begins as Paul is waiting for Silas and Timothy to join him there in Athens.
Acts 17:16-34
Just to complete the scene for you, to wrap the whole story in the context of the drama, just to put a stamp on it, when Paul leaves Athens, as the narrative in Acts moves to the 18th chapter, Paul goes to Corinth. There he finds a Jewish man named Aquila and his wife Priscilla, sometimes referred to in scripture as Prisca. Aquila and Priscilla are immigrants in Corinth. They had been expelled from Rome when the emperor cast out all of the Jews from the royal city. Prisca and Aquila are tent-makers. Like Paul, they dabble in leather, they make a living with tents. Paul lives with them there in Corinth. The scripture account is not clear as to when the two became believers, or when they were baptized, but at some point the two clearly join Paul in his ministry, his missionary journey, his evangelistic effort. The text tells of Aquila and Priscilla traveling with Paul to Ephesus. At some point they must have returned home to Rome, because in Paul’s letter to the Romans, he offers a bunch of thanks there at the end. Right at the end of Romans Paul gives a shout out. He sends greetings to Prisca and Aquila, who to quote Paul directly, “work with me in Christ Jesus, and who risked their necks for my life”…”Greet the church in their house”, Paul writes. By the way there in Romans Paul also sends greetings to a whole bunch for folks you never ever hear another word about in scripture: Epaenetus a first convert. Mary a hard worker. Andronicus and Junia who were in prison with Paul. Ampliatus. Urbanus. Stachys. Apelles. The family of Aristobulus. Herodion. The family of Narcissus. Tryphaena and Tryphosa. Peris. Rufus and his mother. Asyncritus. Phelgon. Hermes. Patrobas. Hermas. Philologus. Julia. Nereus and his sister. Olympas….Name after name that you and I never read about, much less hear about. It’s one of those list Paul likes to make; like fruit of the Spirit, like gifts of the Spirit. Paul in Romans with his list of a whole lot of people to thank.
Acts 17. Paul. Silas. Timothy. Jason. Aquila. Priscilla. The Stoics and the Epicureans. The ruffians. The marketplace crowds. And at the center of it all, is Paul at the Aeropagus. When Paul arrives in Athens, he can’t help but see the city so full of idols. Like he had done in every other place, he goes into the synagogue to proclaim and to challenge and to inspire. “To argue”, that’s how Luke puts it here in Acts. In addition to that lively and familiar conversation on the religious turf of the synagogue, Paul is in the marketplace everyday. He engages the people “who happened to be there.” Then there are the philosophers, the academics, the thinkers. The Epicureans and the Stoics. They are trying to wrap their heads around Paul’s teaching about Jesus the Messiah and this resurrection. “It sounds like he’s talking about two different kinds of divinity, two idols, savior and messiah on the one hand….and resurrected one on the other. He’s a proclaimer of foreign divinities!” “What is this babbler trying to say?” They call him a babbler. Elder Beverly Gaventa points out in her commentary on Acts that the term “babbler” literarily means “someone who picks up seeds.” It conjures up the image of a disheveled looking person wandering the public square picking up stuff and looking in garbage cans and talking to himself. All this talk, this meaningless chat, this idle tale. “Who is this babbler!”
According to Luke, “the Athenians and the foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new” It’s almost like they can’t help themselves. They have to hear more of what he is saying. They want to know what’s so new in Paul’s approach. They are smitten with ideas and argument for the sake of argument and the phenomena of debate. “We want to know what this new teaching is that you are presenting. It sounds so strange to us” But they want to hear more, they want to talk more, they want to argue more. So they take Paul right to the center of it all; right to the heart of their new idea culture; where memorable speeches are given; where legal arguments take place; where the brightest and best are trained, where the greatest minds gather. They take him to the Areopagus. Not because he has been officially charged, not because it is a formal proceeding..but because they can’t help but take every idea, every philosophy, every doctrine and pick it a part and argue about it and dissect it forever and ever and ever.
“Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way!” And Paul goes on from there to proclaim a God who doesn’t live in idols made by human beings, a God who isn’t served by human hands as if God needed something, a God who gives breath and life and to all humankind. The God that humanity searches after and gropes for and finds. For God is not far from each one of us for “in God we live and move and have our being.” “I see how extremely religious you are in every way!” And Paul goes on from there to proclaim a message of repentance for God has fixed a day of judgment and God has appointed the One by whom the world will be judged in all righteousness. And God has given us assurance by raising him from the dead. “I see how extremely religious you are in every way!” and Paul goes on from there to proclaim Jesus and his resurrection.
How extremely religious you are! And Paul goes on from there. Scholars and preachers and the readers of Luke-Acts often try to assess the level of sarcasm in the first line of Paul’s address at the Areopagus. Paul, honestly looking around at all the idols, or Paul gearing up to take on all the philosophy, or Paul taunting their fascination with each and every new idea. How religious you are! It’s tough to judge without a tone of voice, tough to judge that famous quote from Paul and his memorable sermon at the Areopagus.
But I keep thinking about Jason. I’m not sure I ever knew there was a guy in scripture named Jason. Yes, I get that Paul at the Areopagus rests at the center of it all here in Acts 17. This sermon from Paul at Mars Hill! The reader can’t and shouldn’t miss it. But what about Jason? He was dragged out of his house, probably beaten up a bit. He was publicly accused and actually had to post bail all because he had welcomed the Christians into his home. He was part of the group that was “turning the world upside down.” You and I and the church, we better not forget Paul and his sermon about the God who is not far from each of us. But what about Jason and Aquila and Priscilla? You know they risked their necks for the faith!
We will never know about Paul and whether his comment about being so religious was sarcastic, but Luke, here, the writer of Luke-Acts, he frames Paul’s challenge to the Athenian’s who were so religious, he brackets the gospel challenge to those who like to think and argue and talk and entertain new ideas, he places Paul at the Areopagus smack in between Jason and Aquila and Priscilla. How extremely religious you are here in the public square of intellectual encounter and philosophical exploration and ivory tower examination! Let me tell you about a couple of folks who lived the faith and didn’t just talk about. You babblers who just keep on talking!
When John Calvin writes about Paul and Jason and their friends who were “turning the world upside down” and getting beat up for it apparently on regular basis from town to town to town, Calvin concludes that “we see how Paul could nowhere erect the kingdom of Christ without some conflict, for so soon as any fruit of doctrine appeared, there arose persecution therewithal.” When the fruit of doctrine appeared, which I take to mean, the Christian life. The fruit of doctrine. In the Christian life….when the kingdom of God breaks out, and religious power is challenged, when the poor are lifted up, when hospitality is extended, when the oppressed are set free, when those who mourn are comforted and claim resurrection hope, when lives are transformed, when a prophetic word is spoken, when forgiveness is received and offered and shared, when the world is turned upside down. Living the fruit of doctrine. It stands in direct contrast to any who would prefer to spend their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new….there at the Areopagus. “How religious you are!” Paul says, and there in the fabric of the narrative Luke is pointing to Jason and Priscilla and Aquila and Epaenetus and Andronicus and Junia and Ampliatus and Rufus and Julia….
James didn’t write “faith without words is dead.” (Which is an ironic conclusion for a preacher). Who would have thought that a presidential election in 2008 could be influenced by a preacher in the South Side of Chicago who had served his congregation for 37 years? I mention Jeremiah Wright not to defend his words in those You-Tube clips played over and over again. I’ve probably seen them as many times as you have, and I still get knots in my stomach. But as one who has been doing this for almost every Sunday for 22 years and has upset a few people along the way by I what I have said and by what I haven’t said, I think you should hear from your pastor and preacher that I don’t believe Jeremiah Wright deserves to be demonized, accused even yesterday in the New York Times for his “oratorical racism.” Critical discussion and engagement can lead to discussions of black preaching and the role of the church in politics and the prophetic tradition in preaching and race in America and a lineage of voices that includes Dr. King and Gardner Taylor and Bishop Patterson and Samuel Proctor and Frederick Douglas and the history and mission of Trinity Church in the South Side of Chicago. David Buttrick often said that a preacher should be judged not by one sermon or another, or by a month of sermons, but by the redemptive life of the community of faith he or she serves (redemptive life…fruit of doctrine). Clearly Barak Obama has been and will be judged by his relationship to Jeremiah Wright. Maybe Jeremiah Wright the preacher ought to best be judged by the life of Barak Obama and the 8,000 other members of Trinity Church.
So the next time someone from the congregation at Nassau Presbyterian Church runs for office….may it not be about my words but about our life together. Preacher and congregation. Our fruit of doctrine. In a soon to be published essay, my predecessor, Wallace Alston tells of when he accepted the call to become pastor of this congregation, George Buttrick sent him a note of congratulations that ended with these words “Joy and peace and power to you….but not too much peace.” Wallace goes on to affirm that parish ministry doesn’t come with whole lot of peace, at least as the world gives. Or as Calvin would put it, you can’t “erect the kingdom of Christ without some conflict.”
The next time one of you runs for office, will they talk about how religious we are or will they talk about how we keep trying to turn the world upside down?
© 2008, Property of Nassau Presbyterian Church
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