Life of St. Paul and the Holy Spirit – Being heard in a noisy world

Reading:      Acts 17.22-31

Introduction

Does it ever feel to you that you’re speaking a different language to everyone else around you?  And I don’t mean Polish – although we can hear some of that on our streets don’t we.

Sometimes when you’re out on the streets, going shopping or just in a queue – and we can wonder how different things have become in the last 20 years.

I wonder how that makes you feel?  You can see a reaction to all that in politics today across Europe and in this country, with alarmist voices calling for an end to immigration and to reassert our Christian heritage. 

And it isn’t just about foreign people in the country – it seems that young people are speaking another language too.  Almost everyone is on a mobile phone, chatting away for ages – or sending texts, or sending a tweet.  I was listening to a group of young people as I drove them back from sailing, and after chatting on the minibus they couldn’t wait to get back home and onto social media sites, sharing ideas, gossip, videos and music.

It's as if we are in a huge market place, where there is so much being exchanged – not just fruit and vegetables, but ideas, thoughts and words.  I don’t know if there ever was an age when everyone in this country thought and believed the same thing – but if it ever existed, it’s long gone. 

Even the church is changing – with modern songs and new liturgies – and now we’re going to be getting women bishops!  What is the world coming to? 

How does that make you feel?  We can feel bemused and retreat from the world into a comfortable nostalgia - and remember the good old days and wonderful vicars from the past who knew how to be a proper priest.  Or we can try and engage with things as they are now, with all its changes.

Sent to all the world

In our gospel reading Jesus spoke to his disciples and gives them the great commission to go to all nations and tell them the good news.  And he promises to be with them always – through the presence of the Holy Spirit – helping them to remember Jesus’ words to them, and to going out to tell others.

And that’s what happened.  The first Christians, ordinary men and women, with no theological training or presentation skills, went out, led by the Holy Spirit, and spoke to all kinds of people, telling them about Jesus Christ and how he had changed their lives.

These men and women were mostly Jews who believed in Jesus the Messiah.  To begin with they kept in the synagogues, meeting on a Sabbath, and they told their brothers and sisters about The Messiah.  Some believed, but others would not.

You can see the story unfolding in the Acts of the Apostles.  First with St. Peter and then with St. Paul, they found opposition and rejection with Jewish people, but an openness and acceptance among non-Jews.

Despite centuries of prejudice, believing that God was only for the Jews, they now found God blessing non-Jews as well – and filling them with his Holy Spirit – just like them.

And as we heard last week The Holy Spirit prompted Paul to go on three missionary journeys far across the Roman Empire to spread the word to Jews and non-Jews alike – and in our reading today we find him on European soil in Athens.

Adapting the message

He found a city full of ideas of science, philosophy and debate. He found a people who were open to all sorts of ideas and religions – and loved to argue about it with one another.  They were open to all things, they believed in everything – which meant, of course, that they truly believed in nothing.

Paul was used to speaking in small towns, going first to synagogues, and then perhaps to anyone else who would listen.  If people responded he would set up a little church fellowship – appoint a few elders and leave them to it – writing some letters to them for guidance and visiting them when he could.

But now he's in a big cosmopolitan city!  How do you begin to tell the Christian message to a people who think they know everything, who have heard it all before, who have such a variety of beliefs and superstitions on offer all around them?

I think it's fascinating to see what Paul does, and how he adapts his message for the situation.  For Jewish listeners he would preach from the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures, and tells them about the promised Messiah who has come, Jesus Christ.

Now, in Athens, Paul has to think again.  He takes his time - he studies the environment – gets to see how the people think and what God is doing among them. He looks at the religious beliefs, looks around their temples, reads up their poets and authors – and he uses this as a way to start a conversation.

As we heard - he praises them for what they have. “Men and Women of Athens – I see that you are really religious – you worship all kinds of Gods – even one called an unknown God.  Well - he is the God I serve – let me tell you more about him”.
And from there he starts to show them how the unknown God has come to make himself known to all people, through Jesus Christ.

Brilliant.  He understood the barriers those Greek people had to his message, and made an effort to bridge the gap.  Some made fun of him, but others wanted to know more.

Application

We are in a very similar position now.  In previous generations people may have known the Christian story, its symbols, and its language.  Church buildings were more familiar, and held in more respect.  But in the last 50 years that’s been lost.

Today Britain is a market place of religious beliefs, superstition and points of view – where everything is equal.  People are open to everything, and so tend to believe in nothing.

The Christian message is being drowned out in the noise and clamour of the market. And when it is heard, it sounds so dated and irrelevant that it isn’t being accepted.

Like St. Paul we too have to change our message, and the way we do things.  We too need the Holy Spirit to show us the ways to change so that we can be heard in our society today.

The people around us still have the same needs.  They still need to know that God loves them, that they were created for a purpose, and that God wants them to have a close relationship with him and enjoy his presence for all eternity.

They still need the Holy Spirit to be their comforter in times of trouble. They will still be hit by tragedy and loss and need to know that God offers them eternal life now and beyond the grave.

It won't be easy for us to engage with this society.  Many of the arguments within the church are rooted in this issue of how to adapt and change.  But we do need to change to overcome the barriers between us and society – to become more welcoming, to help people to belong to God and to each other, to believe the Christian message, and to behave as God wants us to.

As we have seen, Saint Paul and the early Church had to adapt and change, and so do we.  May the Holy Spirit bring us wisdom, guidance and courage to change and to grow.  Amen.