April 27, 2008 - Easter 6
Acts 17:22-31

      Someone recently shared a short newspaper clipping with me from the Associated Press about a new kind of worship service in Sidney, OH. The article is entitled "Church and a Beer and a Bull."

Another round and amen! Beer was on tap and a mechanical bull inspired the sermon as a new church held its inaugural service in a western Ohio bar. The Country Rock Church drew about 100 people to Sunday night's meeting at the Pub Lounge in Sidney, 35 miles north of Dayton. The barroom church is an offshoot of Sidney United First Methodist Church, whose head pastor says he's been looking for creative ways to reach people in unconventional places. The church's web site for its new branch advertises "Top regional bands, pizza, wings, rowdy fun & a short message." The Rev. Chris Heckaman says people really seemed to enjoy themselves so he expects the Country Rock Church will meet weekly. Heckaman's sermon compared staying on the bar's mechanical bull to learning how to get along in life.

      Instead of expecting people to come to them, Pastor Heckaman and his church have figured out a way they can go out to where the people are. They have found a way to connect what people are already doing with faith in Jesus Christ. More and more churches are thinking outside of the box these days, reportedly in response to plummeting church attendance numbers and culture changes. In truth, though, thinking outside of the box and finding unique ways to connect people to Jesus is nothing new when it comes to sharing our faith. The story of the apostle Paul's visit to Athens in the reading from Acts teaches us this.
     When we meet Paul in today's reading, he is speaking to the Athenians at the Areopagus. This is how he came to be there. Paul was on his second missionary journey when he found himself in need of a safe place to stay for a while. You see, he had riled some people up in his previous stops with his message about Jesus. So, he found himself in Athens.     
     While he was waiting for Timothy and Silas, his traveling partners, to join him, he took time to look around the city and became deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols. He began to tell the story about Jesus to Jews in the synagogue and to anyone who would listen in the marketplaces. Some people wrote him off as a babbler, but others who heard him were a bit curious. They enjoyed hearing about something new, so they invited him to the Areopagus where we catch up with him in the reading for today.
     The Areopagus in Paul's day was kind of like our modern day water cooler, favorite pub or after church lunch spot. It was the place where matters of importance were discussed, argued and settled. Things like law, philosophy, religion, culture and politics. As Paul spoke to the Athenians in that place, it is clear he is outside of his box. Not a single other person there believed in Jesus or had even heard of him for that matter.
     Still, Paul was exactly where he knew he needed to be. Next, he knew he had to find a connecting point. He knew he had to try to connect something in the life of the Athenians to Jesus Christ. So, what did he go back to? He went back to the thing about Athens that distressed him the most. The idols. Specifically, an altar with an inscription entitled, "To an unknown god."
     As Paul spoke, he used the altar "to an unknown God" to connect the faith they already had with a more specific faith in Jesus Christ. He helped people make connections to the True God. He argued that God is not unknown, but the very one who made the world and everything in it. He argued that God is not brought near by being trapped in shrines made by human hands, but is near to each one of us because God is our Father and we are his offspring. He argued that God has come closest to us through his Son, Jesus Christ, who had been raised from the dead.
     So, did it work? Was there a mass conversion in Athens that day? The verses that follow his talk at the Areopagus tell us that some scoffed at his message and others invited him back the next day to speak more. But, Paul had said all he would say. When he left Athens, the book of Acts tells us that some Athenians joined him and became believers. Little by little the message about Jesus got out.
     As Paul and the other apostles continually stepped outside of their boxes. As they continued to find natural connecting points between the things in the lives of the people they met and Jesus Christ. Stepping outside of the box and finding unique ways to connect people with Jesus. We've heard about how a modern church in Ohio is trying to do this. We've heard how the apostle Paul did this in Athens.
     But, what about us? What about you as individuals? Who have you introduced to Jesus lately? What thing or event in daily life have you used as a connecting point to faith in Jesus? And what about us as a community of faith? Do we ever go out of our box to go out and find the people instead of expecting them to find us? Do we ever use the things and events of daily life to connect people with Jesus?
     If the answer is yes, how? If the answer is no, how can we do this in the future? It is our call to seek for the lost, to connect the disconnected. Paul did it in his own way. A church in Ohio is doing it in their own way. And we do it in our own way. May God guide us as individuals and as a community of faith as we look beyond our box and as we find connections and connecting points in the world to Jesus Christ. Amen.

Kid's Sermon