Bursting Your Bubble: Acts 17:16-34 - Fifth Sunday of Easter

¹⁶ While Paul was waiting in Athens, he was upset to see all the idols in the city. ¹⁷ He went to the synagogue to speak to the Jews and to anyone who worshiped with them. Day after day he also spoke to everyone he met in the market. ¹⁸ Some of them were Epicureans and some were Stoics, and they started arguing with him. People were asking, “What is this know-it-all trying to say?” Some even said, “Paul must be preaching about foreign gods! That's what he means when he talks about Jesus and about people rising from death.” ¹⁹ They brought Paul before a council called the Areopagus, and said, “Tell us what your new teaching is all about. ²⁰ We have heard you say some strange things, and we want to know what you mean.” ²¹ More than anything else the people of Athens and the foreigners living there loved to hear and to talk about anything new.

²² So Paul stood up in front of the council and said: “People of Athens, I see that you are very religious. ²³  As I was going through your city and looking at the things you worship, I found an altar with the words, “To an Unknown God.” You worship this God, but you don't really know him. So I want to tell you about him. ²⁴  This God made the world and everything in it. He is Lord of heaven and earth, and he doesn't live in temples built by human hands. ²⁵  He doesn't need help from anyone. He gives life, breath, and everything else to all people. ²⁶  From one person God made all nations who live on earth, and he decided when and where every nation would be. ²⁷  God has done all this, so that we will look for him and reach out and find him. He isn't far from any of us, ²⁸ and he gives us the power to live, to move, and to be who we are. “We are his children,” just as some of your poets have said. ²⁹ Since we are God's children, we must not think that he is like an idol made out of gold or silver or stone. He isn't like anything that humans have thought up and made. ³⁰ In the past, God forgave all this because people did not know what they were doing. But now he says that everyone everywhere must turn to him. ³¹ He has set a day when he will judge the world's people with fairness. And he has chosen the man Jesus to do the judging for him. God has given proof of this to all of us by raising Jesus from death.

³² As soon as the people heard Paul say a man had been raised from death, some of them started laughing. Others said, “We will hear you talk about this some other time.” ³³ When Paul left the council meeting, ³⁴ some of the men put their faith in the Lord and went with Paul. One of them was a council member named Dionysius. A woman named Damaris and several others also put their faith in the Lord. (CEV) 

Bubble by zacktionman on flickr. CC BY-NC 2.0

I’ve never visited a foreign country, or any place where English was not the first language… Therefore, I’d never experienced culture shock like the Friday night my friends invited me to Ghost Riders, a country line dancing club just north of Butler on Route 8.

I had never listened to country music—and I can’t dance. At all. This was about as far out of my element as I could be.

Walking through the front door was like stepping into another world. Hundreds of people were on the dance floor, all in sync to the honky-tonk beat. To my left, a cheering crowd surrounded a mechanical bull as a male patron held on for dear life; his cowboy hat flying off his head in the process. I probably looked like an alien, since I was practically the only person not wearing a cowboy hat and boots. 

As awkward as it was for me, we laughed had a great time. I even went back. To this day, we still talk about that place, even though it’s long gone. 

In today’s reading from Acts, the Apostle Paul has his own experience of culture shock in the ancient Greek city of Athens. He’s distressed to see that the city was full of idols. He gets into some deep debates with people in the marketplace, and it does not go well. He comes across as foolish and ignorant in all his talk about “foreign gods.” 

So, they take Paul to appear before the Areopagus, a council which exercised authority over the ideas and philosophies being promoted in the city. When Paul stands up to speak, he chooses his words wisely. He said, “I see how religious you are. I found an altar inscribed with the words “to an unknown god. This is the God of whom I speak.” When he says, “we are God’s children,” he’s quoting a Greek poet. 

Many scoff at what he says. Others remain curious and want to hear more. But some become believers, including Dionysius and Damaris—two prominent members of the council.

This is quite an amazing story, even though only a few became followers of Jesus. If Paul had gone into this city with a giant chip on his shoulder, trying to convince everyone that they were wrong and he was right, I doubt anyone would’ve become a believer. And Paul may not have left the city alive. 

From the beginning, Paul recognized that he had much more in common with these Greeks than anything that set them apart. It was on this common ground that Paul related to them—and ultimately, share Christ with them. Paul rightly recognized that God was never far from them, even though they were not of Jewish ancestry and were wholly unfamiliar with the Law and the Prophets. The God they were seeking had been there all along. God had always been for them, never against them.

It begs the question: are we divided as a society because we are that fundamentally different? Or are we divided because we have forgotten how to be neighbors with those different from ourselves?

A big reason why we are so divided is because we live inside of bubbles, populated almost exclusively with people who look the same, believe the same, vote the same, and are of similar socio-economic status. Social media and cable news only add to the problem. And in this tense partisan political environment, we’re being conditioned to fear those who live outside our bubbles. 

Let’s be honest: how many of your close friends are persons of color, or persons whose first language isn’t English? Do you know what it’s like to be someone living on the margins of society? Is it safe to talk politics or religion with someone you know is not “on your side?”

As our society becomes more secular, a social and cultural barrier is being created between us and the unchurched. For many, stepping into church for the first time presents its own form of culture shock. It’s hard enough to be among strangers. But to throw in unfamiliar music, rituals, and traditions, church is practically another world. We didn’t create this barrier, but we must be the ones to break it.

That’s why this sanctuary is not Jesus’s mission field. Jesus’s mission field is out there in the world. As live your life each day, you will encounter people with whom you will have much in common—a common aspiration, a common struggle, a common fear. The common ground you share will then be your opportunity to share Christ with someone, giving your listening ear, offering your prayers, being a companion. 

Ministry has nothing to do with winning converts. It has everything to do with seeking Jesus—and finding him in the neighbors who need your time, your friendship, your gifts, and your good works. And sometimes, the people who have the greatest impact on you will be those who are most different from you in every way.

We need others to grow in our faith. The uniqueness of everyone in the body of Christ not only enriches our common life, but it makes us stronger in our witness. 

As God’s kingdom comes, the bubbles we build around ourselves are going to burst and the walls that divide us are going to fall, because God is much too big for them. 

Be prepared to meet Jesus in the people you encounter this week. Make sure that they witness Jesus in you. 

Don’t hesitate to follow Jesus to unfamiliar places to meet people different from you, because that’s how you grow. God is bigger than the world you know; God is bigger than your comfort zone. You’ve seen what God can do here. Now see what God can do out there. Go in peace, because the joy of the Lord awaits you.