May 24, 2022

The Great Debater

Last week we heard about a nasty individual named Saul who had a surprising turn around in his life.  He went from being a hate-filled, angry persecutor of the followers of Jesus to a preacher that travelled all around the ancient world sharing the good news of Easter.  Same passion, same energy, but different focus. 

Paul the passionate, Paul the positive, Paul the opportunist, and Paul the powerful debater.  Paul, who travelled to Greece and Turkey to preach.  What was the secret to his success?  Is there anything we can learn from him?

Like all of us, Paul was not perfect, and some of his writings show this.  He could scold the Galatians and Corinthians one moment and praise them the next.  His writings disrespect women’s roles in the new church in the Timothy letters (probably not authentic Paul), and yet his letter to the Romans ends with a list of strong women preachers and leaders, even naming women as apostles and ordering  the church to treat them with the same respect as himself.  Paul was a complex man but at the heart of his message was a strong conviction that hope and change and renewal was possible.  Transformation could and did happen, and it did so for the better.

In this story, Paul carefully observed Athens.  He looked at how the city decorated itself, what the buildings and streets were like.  He saw statues of Zeus, Hera, Apollo, and of course the bright-eyed goddess of wisdom herself, Athena.  And being named after the goddess of wisdom, Athenians prided themselves in their culture and philosophy.  Acts describes them as being full of Stoics and Epicureans.  Stoics focused on being resilient through the study of ethics and the practice of virtual living, including self-denial.  Epicureans, on the other hand, believed that pleasure was the most important part of life, so let’s eat, drink and be merry. These were sophisticated debaters and thinkers, and yet they were still hungry for new ideas.  There were other peoples as well, of different nationalities and different faith traditions, all ready to debate and discuss.  Paul was an exciting new thinker who was talking about things they didn’t understand.  So, they brought him to the big debate corner, the ultimate soapbox location, where people came to talk about the latest trend.

It would be like getting on the Oprah Show to talk about what Athabasca United is doing here.  Smack dab in the middle of the public eye, Paul had hit the big time.  He cleverly and very bravely started where they were at, talking about the statues they had to the Unknown God.  It was a way of showing that he was seeing what they thought was important. And hearing their search for answers to the questions that their philosophies were not answering.  He wanted them to know he listened to them, saw what they cared about and respected their values and beliefs.  He even quoted one of their philosophers, when he said ‘In God we live and move and have our being’.

It was all about making a connection with his listeners.

Then he talked about his understanding of what they were looking for.  They were uncertain about the Unknown Deity, what God was, who God was, what was God like, what did God hold as important.  Unlike many people whom he had preached to in the past, at synagogues and gatherings of Jewish people, the Greeks were unfamiliar with the Torah, the scriptures Paul loved to quote.   Instead, he painted a picture of God that was very different than what they were used to seeing, not an Athena who played favorites or a Zeus who was a skirt chaser or a Hera that was a jealous wife or an Apollo who was both healer and destroyer.  Not one of many gods, a god who specialized as these other gods did, over some aspect of human existence, but the only God. A simple idea that would have seemed very intriguing to people!  Simple, straightforward, and grounded in a God who didn’t need bribes and fancy rituals, ornate sculptures, frequent parades and complex recipes of offerings to connect with humans. 

Simple

But then he lost his audience.  He talked about Jesus, crucified and risen, our judge and our hope.  Just as today, it’s not logical or rational, it offends the natural order, it is a leap of faith that confronts and challenges cynicism, apathy and depression.  It is not just a call for us to ponder how we live life, it assumes that there will be a time of justice and a time of accountability for the lives we live.  Something the stoics would struggle with, because they thought that the life of virtue would be its own reward, and the same for the epicureans. And it’s not just about how we live our lives but how our lives impact others.

So, Paul thought he had failed.  And indeed, the message of a God of love was resisted by Athens for a long time.  But Paul had planted seeds of faith in his debate with the Athenians.  Two of the listeners, Dionysius and Damaris, founded a tiny congregation with a few others.  400 years later Dionysius was recognized by historians as being the first bishop of Athens as well as its patron saint.  And while Christianity was strongly resisted in Athens for 300 years, now it has many churches, Greek Orthodox and Baptist and everything in between.

Today we can also reach people by sharing the good news with Paul’s simple formula.  First, and most importantly, observe.  Then connect.  Simply share your story, and last trust that the seeds planted here can keep growing in the days ahead.  If this was done in love when Europeans first came to Turtle Island, imagine how much different our history would have been.  Observe lovingly, connect lovingly, share lovingly and trust lovingly.  That is the way to share our story to those who feel overwhelmed by the many gods pulling for their attention, the many spiritual trends that leave people feeling empty and hopeless, and the many people searching for meaning and healing in our challenging world.  May we have the courage of Paul to speak in love to those we meet who hope of a better world and a better life.

 Thanks to Cam Dierker for sharing her photos of Greece!

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