Because the service did not transmit properly, I will again offer he sermon in printed form. The hymns are on Facebook for you to enjoy.
Acts 17:22-31
He is risen! Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Early in my ministry, a quick reading of Acts 17, (initially) inspired me to focus my efforts in sermon preparation in all the wrong directions. I loved the way that Paul manipulated the crowd, taking an object of their belief and twisting it’s meaning around to reflect the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It left me with the impression that preaching was all about word craft. It made me think that if I positioned the words of my sermons, Bible and other studies and theological discussions just right, I could make anyone believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ. It gave me the errant impression that it wasn’t the message that mattered, it was all about the presentation. So, (as I had said at the beginning of this sermon) Acts 17 inspired me to focus my efforts in all the wrong directions.
But I soon learned, that it didn’t matter how well I crafted my words, they did not and would not convince people that Jesus is the Risen Lord and our Savior; I could never craft my words well enough to manipulate people into belief and to have faith. People can be manipulated in many ways, but faith is not really about ideas and well-crafted language. Word craft, or the choice of the right words combined with placing those words together in the right way is important, but only when those words are accompanied by a sincere expression of love and faith on the part of the preacher. But still none of this will ever mean a thing, without the Holy Spirit, giving to the listener the gift of faith.
Paul gave a very creative and well-presented message, but when we read on, this is what followed: “When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed; but others said, ‘We will hear you again about this.’ At that point Paul left them. But some of them joined him and became believers….” It did not say that they believed then, but that they became believers, my guess is over time. Manipulating the people’s belief in an “Unknown God”, saying that he knew the name of that God, telling them that this “Unknown God” was the creator of all things, who raised from the dead the man who was chosen by the one true God, to one day, the day known only to one true God, to judge the world in righteousness, Paul hoped that these pagan believers would turn away from their pagan beliefs, to the Lord Jesus. But that did not really happen. Some, a small number, did come to believe, but with the help of the Holy Spirit and by staying with Paul, seeing how he lived and listening to the stories of Jesus that were shared and enjoyed, and by experiencing first-hand the love of Jesus.
We humans are not really so easy to convince or to change and so it is difficult to make us believe and trust in something new. God does not want us to be so easily manipulated and God does not want us to be tricked into believing in Jesus, His Son. God uses us to put before the people the truth, the simple truth, a truth that sometimes appears as foolishness, and this he has us put in front of people for them to consider; in addition the Holy Spirit gives the gift of faith to people far and wide, so they may use or not use the message we share. This may seem to us as foolishness; well, Paul learned something about such foolishness over time and said something like, the foolishness of God is wiser than all of our wisdom.
I sincerely believe, that as it concerns God, I cannot convince a single person, by argument or wisdom, to believe and to walk by faith in Jesus as her or his Lord and Savior. And yet I stand before you, and preach to you sermons that I spend hours crafting, I teach you and discuss faith with you, and I do this, week after week, month after month, year after year, hoping that my words will carry to you the message my Lord has given me for you. And now, this, this right here, this new foolishness, my standing here in this pulpit looking out at an empty church, trusting that there will be people sitting in their homes, who will actually listen to the message that I give, and from it receive the Word of God, and grow in their faith or maybe even come to faith. Last year I criticized the worship services televised by televangelists for a disconnect with their listeners, yet they, unlike what I’m now doing, actually had a live congregation participating in their services. And now I am leading worship in an almost empty church. Can it be that God really makes use of our foolishness, our feeble attempts at proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ and leading people to faith and encouraging those who have faith to remain strong? Is God working through these words? Is God touching your hearts with these words? You who are listening, tell me, please! I’m on the other side of the camera; my view is a lot different and it looks foolish.
Of this I will tell you without crafting my words; I am certain and I believe and trust that: Jesus was born to a woman, Mary; Jesus’ father was God the Father; Joseph served the Lord God by adopting Jesus and raising him as his own; Jesus grew up and came out to the world as a preacher and miracle worker as a grown man, maybe 30 years of age; Jesus spoke with a profound knowledge of the Scriptures and the eloquence of God; Jesus performed amazing feats of healing, doing things believed not possible without God’s help; Jesus also fed large numbers of people with a young boys lunch and at other times with food meant for just a few people and all of the people were satisfied; Jesus made baptism a one-time event that changed those baptized into children of God; Jesus instituted a sacrament of eating and drinking that brings us closer to God; Jesus allowed himself to be arrested, to be judged falsely, to be abused, flogged, crucified and die so that our sins may be forgiven and so that we may become right with God and so that we will experience new life with God in Jesus’ kingdom; Jesus so pleased his Heavenly Father that He was raised from the dead and then the risen Jesus confirmed for us the promises of forgiveness and salvation. The stories of these events we read week after week in church; they are here for us to help us believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
In today’s Gospel reading we read about Jesus’ call, that we are to love him and we read about his promise to send the Holy Spirit to those who do love him and his promise that God the Father will love them as well, but throughout the Bible we have many more stories that demonstrate God’s and Jesus love for us all. Those are the stories that some may see as foolishness or as outlandish, but they are stories that the Holy Spirit works through to bring us faith.
As it turns out, all that I can do is tell the good news as I learned it, the ideas and stories found in Scripture; all that any pastor or preacher can do is tell those ideas and stories with the conviction and faith given them by God and tell them with the creativity and skill gifted them by the Holy Spirit and trust that the Spirit will work on those people sitting within the walls of the church and those sitting within the community (not limited by any walls) that listens to a pastor’s message. In truth what happens after the message is proclaimed, is all up to you and the Holy Spirit. So, for today, enough of my foolishness! Let us just say, amen.