May 14, 2023  Easter 6 

Lighting the Christ Candle

 

Welcome and Announcements 

Called to Worship: 

Come and hear, all you who fear God,
and we will tell what God has done for us.
God is the Sovereign of heaven and earth,
maker of this world and all within it.  God has given to all mortals life and breath and every blessing.
Bless our God, O peoples!   Let the sound of God’s praise be heard.
Blessed be God who fills us with love, grace and mercy. 

Hymn:  290  Immortal Invisible

 

Prayer of Adoration 

Source of all creation, maker of the world and everything in it, you are never far from each one of us.   Through the prophets you have made yourself known to us.  In Jesus you make yourself known to us.  In your Holy Spirit you confirm your presence with us as the God who was, who is and who is to come.
We come into your house seeking you, O giver of life and breath.
We praise you that as you reveal yourself to us you dwell with us; and abide in us.
We pour out our gratitude because we know that we live because of you; we hope because of you; we have purpose because of you. 
In the name of Jesus Christ in whom we live, and the Spirit of Truth who abides in us, amen. 

That we may know you more fully, we bring you our confessions, trusting in your mercy.  We say together: 

Unison Prayer of Confession:
Maker and giver of all, forgive us when we are too preoccupied to notice your presence in our lives:  when we walk through this world and fail to see the wonder of you upholding our lives and all creation;  when we walk through our lives and fail to see you abiding with, within, and around us;  and when we walk through holy moments failing to savor your presence,  Open our eyes to your presence, God of love, that we may lean on you—for you uphold all of creation in tenderness and power. Amen. 

Assurance of Pardon 

the light of God is shining in you, on you, and through you. Out of God’s great love, you have been redeemed and made whole. Rejoice, beloved of God! AMEN.
 

The Peace 

The peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.   

We share a sign of peace. 

Hymn:  625  Seek ye first

 

Scripture Lessons:

Psalm 66: 8-20  
Acts 17: 22-31  

Sermon:  The unknown God 

There are times when we are bursting with the joy of the good news of Jesus and the salvation that is found in him.  So, we tell everyone.  Sometimes it goes well, and sometimes it doesn’t. 

Sometimes we take the time to get to know people a little better and within that relationship of friendship and trust, we share the news of Jesus with love and confidence.  Sometimes it goes well, and sometimes it doesn’t. 

So what do we do?   

In all things we listen to the Spirit and discern when is the right time to share the good news.  But the result will be the same.  Sometimes it will go well, and sometimes it doesn’t. 

So what can we know for sure?   Well Jesus, crucified and risen.  More than that we can know for sure that we are not responsible for the outcome when we share the good news in Christ.   We tell the good news and we trust the Spirit to bring about the changes in good time. 

Today we read the account of Paul who is visiting in Greece and sharing the good news of Jesus with all whom he meets.  Sometimes it goes well, and sometimes it doesn’t. 

The first stop is in Thessalonica.   

He began by visiting with the believers who continued to worship in the Synagogues there.  While there, Paul he preached to them from the Scriptures, opening up the texts so they understood what they’d been reading all their lives: that the Messiah absolutely had to be put to death and raised from the dead…and introducing you them to the  Messiah. 

Scripture records:  

4-5 Some of them were won over and joined ranks with Paul and Silas, among them a great many God-fearing Greeks and a considerable number of women from the aristocracy. But the hard-line Jews became furious over the conversions. MSG 

Sometimes it goes well, sometimes it doesn’t.  Eventually Paul was run out of town. 

From there he went to Berea.  There Paul continued to preach and teach in the Synagogue.  Scripture reports:   The Jews received Paul’s message with enthusiasm and met with him daily, examining the Scriptures to see if they supported what he said. A lot of them became believers, including many Greeks who were prominent in the community, women and men of influence.  MSG 

When the people in Thessalonica heard of this they came with a mob and caused trouble for Paul. 

He then fled to Athens where he waited to be joined by Timothy and Silas. 

While there, he wandered around the city, and was noted that the city was crowded with statues to the gods of the Athenians.  

He discussed what he had found while exploring Athens with the believers in the meeting place and then he went out into the streets and talked with the people he met there.  There followed many conversations with intellectuals and philosophers.  He got to know the Epicurians and the Stoics fairly well and in those discussions, Paul impressed them with his knowledge of Greek culture, quoting from their authors and poets and teachers.   And in those discussions Paul told the people about God’s plan for salvation in Jesus. 

Some heard and called him a babbler, or a fool, or worse an idiot who had nothing good to say.  Others wanted to know more and they invited him to a fuller discussion in the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?” 

Even with people eager to hear more it was still a message received with mixed reviews. 

Maybe it was the understanding the Greeks had about their gods, with whom they did not have a relationship that was good.  The gods often made their lives a hardship, they were difficult to please; and part of the panoply of their beliefs was to hedge their bets and find the gods who would support them.  And they didn’t want to insult the gods they didn’t know, hence the statue to the unknown god. 

So, their gods were not helpful to the people as they traveled through the earthly life they knew.  For that reason, they knew that the mortal life was merely something to be endured until you could escape from it in death. 

Despite Paul trying to connect with them on their own level, with a knowledge and understanding of their culture, literature and gods, he missed the mark with them in this one fundamental area.  The commentators agree it was a big miss, but were divided on why and how.  Some point out that Paul insulted his listeners by calling them superstitious for the panoply of their beliefs.   Other commentators say that he missed understanding the philosophical yearning to escape the earthly toil forever. 

I think that Paul realized from his encounter with Jesus, that the knowledge of what God has given us in Jesus, was something that needed to be shared with some urgency.  This was the most important thing in Paul’s life.   

So, in his knowledge of the people in Athens he appealed to them on the place where he thought they would find some common ground—religious searching and yearning.  We are a people created by God to be in a relationship with God.  If we are not yet in that relationship, all of our life is a searching for and yearning for what completes us.  We are all on a journey of faith.  For some of us it is a direct journey, for others it is a journey with many detours.   

Paul sees in the journey of the Athenians a desire to know the one true God, because in their desire to not leave out any god they had erected a statue to the “unknown god”.  He merely wants to tell them that he knows this unknown god whom they are seeking.   

In all the reading I have done this week, I kept being reminded of Calvin, who wrote that in all religions there is truth that points to God.  That’s what is seen as a part of the journey of yearning.  It seems that this is what Paul is saying as he tries to tell the Athenians who this unknown god really is, and what a gift of grace and salvation he has given them in Jesus, who lived and died, and rose again. 

There in Areopagus, Paul told them the history of God and his creation.  In simple words he told them that the unknown god whom they seek is God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth and everything that is in the earth.  He told them that this God created humans in his image and could not be contained in a Temple or anything made by human hands. 

Paul shared the good news that the God they seek had given himself to everyone by giving them their very life and breath. 

More importantly,  he told them that God was the God of the people of all the nations and had given them a home.  For that reason said Paul, everyone would seek God and find him no matter where they were.  And Paul said, we don’t really need to look far for God because he is always with us.   

Connecting with the people he told them that their own poets spoke of this God when they wrote that we belong to him as his children.   Therefore, we are his children and we don’t think of him as a divine stone or gold statue, but as our Father. 

I am sure these were strange words for the people to hear.  

At this point in the account with the people of Athens, we are reminded that the preaching of the cross is considered foolishness to many.  And there were some in the crowd who felt that way for sure. 

When Paul continued by saying that up until now God has ignored the ignorance of the people by seeking him in other gods he stirred up the anger some of the people were feeling.  It got worse when he said that God was now judging the people and calling them to repentance. 

I am not sure that calling people ignorant and telling them that they are under the judgment of God is the best way to reach their hearts and minds.   

I wonder if Paul is thinking of his own experience on the road to Damascus, where he was called to account for his persecution of the followers of Jesus.   

Did he recall the many gifts of God’s grace that followed his dramatic encounter with Jesus?  Did he tell them that his experience of the judgment of God was filled with grace, and mercy; love and justice?   

We don’t have the full account of everything that was said and done that day, and so it can appear that Paul knew more about the Athenians than they did about him and even then, very little.  Was the insult that some felt because of Paul’s words, or because of their own struggles.  Clearly, like in every other stop along the way, some were angered by this turn in the conversation. 

Being called ignorant.  Being told that God lived and died and lived again in Jesus.  Being told that this gift from God was our judgment…all of it was more than they could understand… and some jeered and scoffed, and they missed the grace that always accompanies judgement. 

I believe that for all of us this will also be true.  No matter how we present the story of Jesus there will be those who hear, those who choose to follow Jesus, those who will reject the message, and those who will feel the judgment and miss the grace.  This is the reality of teaching people about Jesus.     

And yet, we see that in the end, this was for Paul one of the days when it went well.  It truly wasn’t the worst day Paul had experienced in Greece, because although some scoffed, others asked Paul to tell them more, and still others became followers and no one drove him out of town or tried to kill him. 

Some days it goes well.  And some days it doesn’t.  But there are some days when there is a marvelous connection between God, the teacher, and those who listen. 

We are all called to share the story of Jesus.  Sometimes with strangers in an airport.  Sometimes with our friends that don’t know Jesus.  Sometimes with those who come to us asking about this God we know.   

All we can do is tell the story.  We will do well to tell the essentials, we will even speak about the depth of God’s grace and mercy, but we cannot predict how the message will be received.  From that point we have to trust that the Holy Spirit will take the words we plant from there.  It is not our job to convince anyone, it is simply our job to tell the story. 

Some days it will go well.  Some days will be disastrous.  And glory be to God, some days will change the lives of the people with whom we speak, in a wondrous way.  We just need to remember that God is always with us, whether it is a good day, a bad day or a wondrous day.  For those of us who know him, the unknown God is always with us.  Amen 

 

 

Hymn: 474 The love of God draws close

  

Offering
Doxology 830 Praise God from whom all blessings flow

Offertory Prayer 

Your love, O God, is an active love:  engaged, involved, immersed.  Your love, O God, is seen in your opening of the way to life to all who will come.   

And your love, O God, is expressed through people like us as we share our wealth in simplicity and generosity,  as we share our hearts and our service by bringing hospitality, by being truly present to the lonely, the imprisoned and the marginalized;  and as  we share peace in kindness, listening and acceptance.  Amen. 

 

 

Gathering Prayer Requests 
Prayers of the People and the Lord’s Prayer 

Mighty God, in whom we know the power of redemption, you stand among us in the shadows of our time.  We thank you that as we have moved through every sorrow and trial of this life, you have upheld us with the power of your grace and mercy. 

Open our hearts to your power moving around us and between us and within us, until your glory is revealed in our love of both friend and enemy,
in communities transformed by justice and compassion, and in the healing of all that is broken. 

We bring you our prayers of joy, concern for those whom we love and concern for the world whom you love 

Joys: 

Concerns: 

 

First responders everywhere/ Another murdered police officer 

Flooding/people away from homes/loss of homes/family of drowned woman in Okanagan Lake 

Fires here (Kalamalka lake) and in AB/Drayton Valley/ away from home/loss of home/damage environment/ loss of habitat 

The World; 

Ukraine 

People fleeing danger in South America, seeking asylum/waiting for assistance/stuck in Mexico 

Those throughout the world where there are coups/ disputes with neighbouring countries.    

 

Our Mothers:  today O God, we also pause to thank you for our mothers, who have loved us.  What they have given has been a blessing and we hope we have blessed them in return. 

Receive these prayers, O God, and transform us through them, that we may have eyes to see and hearts to understand not only what you do on our behalf, but what you call us to do so that your realm will come to fruition in glory.  We thank you for Jesus and we pray together as he has taught us, saying:    

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.  Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread and forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever.  Amen 

Hymn:  376 Lord, the light of your love is shining

 

Charge and Benediction 

Wherever we are, we are in God.
Wherever we are, we are in Christ, and Christ is in us.
Wherever we are, the Spirit abides with us and in us.
We go forth in peace and hope, upheld by God in every way.
We go forth in faithfulness and trust, in the sure knowledge that the God we know, walks with us and carries our burdens. 

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God and the Guidance of the Holy Spirit rest upon us and be within us now and forevermore. 

 

Sung Blessing
252 BP
He is Lord