I have always had a love-hate relationship with Halloween. I went trick or treating from my earliest days of child hood. The costumes were always too hot indoors and then I was sweaty and cold outdoors. You can’t really see with those masks on either. And I had a tiger costume and kept stepping on my tail and ripping it off.
I was very judgmental of homes that did not prepare properly for trick or treating. The worst was Betty Hupp’s mother. One year, we got to the door and she told us that she forgot. We just stood there. No one knew what to do when you don’t get candy. Finally she found a pack of gum and gave us each a stick. Tacky. Very Tacky. I also remember another home where Mrs. Weber always bought far more than she needed. And so she would watch us pick out candy and keep saying ‘take more, take more.’
Now that I’m more theological, of course I realize that a day to celebrate death and spirits is not actually a Christian holiday. And so some Christians participate and some avoid it and some go back and forth as I have. Today, we are going to look at Paul in Greece, visiting the birthplace of democracy. In his life as More Than a Survivor, Paul gives a speech which is well received. He compliments the culture and gets a hearing from the sophisticated Greeks. Today’s message will introduce new ways you may be able to live a life for God that really affects and influences others in a positive way. It makes you feel good about living. And its coming in just a few minutes as we learn from the life of Paul today.
Paul is not naďve about the spiritual darkness of the first century Greek culture. He is deeply troubled by what he sees as he walks through the streets of Athens. Too many idols. Too few indications of purity and virtue. Yes, this homeland of Socrates and Plato is the birthplace of democracy. But political rebirth did not bring them spiritual hope.
Curiously, Paul’s inner turmoil with the outward display of false religion actually motivates him to get involved. Did you see that in the transition from verse 16 to verse 17? “He was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there” (16–18).
I find it interesting that Paul was not put off by the obvious spiritual needs in the culture of Athens. Some people look out on life and see dirt. Paul thanked God for soil in which to scatter seed. Instead of bemoaning the fact that our culture is captivated by “spiritual but not religious,” celebrate what that captivation indicates. Spiritual hunger. Spiritual thirst.
Paul started with those with whom he had a common denominator. Scope out and begin spending time with the most receptive listeners you can find. Paul didn’t scatter seed indiscriminately. He purposely focused his time and energy on individuals who were more apt to speak his language. Perhaps it was a way of gaining confidence and building momentum. The Jews and God-fearing Greeks were monotheistic. Paul’s God was their God. They didn’t understand that only Jesus could bring them into a personal relationship with him, but they didn’t worship the Greek idols. In addition, they affirmed the Old Testament as the Word of God. So, Paul had a starting point.
That takes us back to Halloween. Community Church is known in Jackson Heights as a place for children. And the one event in the community that draws 5,000 kids is the Halloween Parade. It brings the mayor. And so I went with my thoughts and reservations. And God inspired someone to interview me as why I was there. And I wasn’t sure why I was there. But suddenly, I said to the reporter, ‘I’m in a religion that is all about raising people from the dead. So of course, I have to be here’
So we’re going to try to have a float this year. It does not mean that we celebrate death. But it does mean that we love kids and love the community, just like a lot of the parents and sponsors. And for a child, I don’t remember the spirits and witches from Halloween. I remember the candy, and Betty Hupp’s mother, and the tiger tail, and Mrs. Weber with ‘take more’.
When you celebrate what others value, they will value what you have to say. the cultural compliment principle. When surrounded by a crowd of uninterested listeners, Paul calls attention to the Athenians’ spiritual sensitivity as a means of affirming his audience. He found a worthy virtue. He made positive reference to something they were aware of. “Men of Athens, I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.”
But that’s not all Paul did. He also quoted from a couple of the Greeks’ revered poets. Epimenides lived about 600 years earlier and is credited with writing “In him we live and move and have our being.” Aratus was a Greek poet who lived in the days of Alexander the Great. His works include “We are his offspring.” Now, I’m not sure we can make a case that these poets were favorites of Paul. True, Paul was educated and had an enviable background in scholarship. But, I’d be more inclined to think that Paul went out of his way to inform himself of literary works his would-be converts would be aware of.
This was not the only time Paul quoted Greek poets as he opened up ear-gates with the key of cultural references. In his first letter to the Corinthians, he quotes from an ancient Greek comedy written by the poet Menander when he says, “Bad company corrupts good character” (1 Corinthians 15:33). Instead of mocking their spiritual ignorance or judging their paganistic tendencies, Paul complimented them. And what was the result? That’s right. There were converts. Our passage in Acts only identifies a couple of them by name—Dionysius and Daramis—but there were many others. You might say Paul’s strategy was one of “earning the right to be heard.”
Next week, I am going to propose to church leaders that Community Church have a table at the gay pride parade in early June. Jackson Heights has a large gay community. And the common image that churches have in our society is being the last place to keep gay people out. Our church needs to be a leader in this community to bring people in. I would call Community Church quietly welcoming to gay people. Like President Clinton, we say, don’t ask, don’t tell.
But every person here believes that God’s grace is to be offered to every person. So why don’t we take a risk and stand in a place where people might not know that this is a safe place to come and pray?
Major Ian Thomas writes, ‘I simply argue that the cross be raised again at the center of the marketplace as well as on the steeple of the church. I am recovering the claim that Jesus was not crucified between two candles but on a crossroads so metropolitan that they had to write his title in Hebrew and in Latin and in Greek; at the kind of place where cynics talk smut and thieves curse and soldiers gamble and disciples pray. Because that is where he died, and this what he died about. And that is where churchmen ought to be and what churchmen should be about.’
Our 50-Day Adventure is all about being “more than survivors.” Not just holding on by “the skin of our teeth” (to quote Thornton Wilder, a famous American playwright), but embracing the world—embracing each day—with confidence and courage, and with the conviction that the Lord wants to use us to illuminate and savor our society. Isn’t that what Jesus had in mind when he said we were to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world? The apostle Paul in Athens is not an example of one who is cowering in a corner. He models for us what it means to thrive spiritually getting out into society.
I have offered a couple of program examples because the church usually helps our individual witness by making programs. But you will have opportunities this week, at school, at work, at a community event, to compliment the culture. Be a bridge builder this week, not a wall builder. If you and I are going to thrive spiritually and be more than just survivors, then we need to follow the apostle Paul’s lead: Be attentive to the culture that surrounds you. Be positive. Look for ways to compliment the culture whenever and wherever you can. And be bold. Go ahead and share Jesus. Some will be eternally grateful you did.
