Acts 17:22-34                                                    6th Sunday of Easter

 Some friends from the Jehovah’s Witnesses came to my house the other day. The same woman keeps coming. She has a beautiful smile, and I keep telling her I too love the Lord, and am so glad that Christ has saved me, and that I’m pastor of a Presbyterian Church, and that I admire their courage in sharing their faith. I do, even though I don’t value their message, I admire their zeal, especially when they are as gracious as that couple the other day.

 You know that joke about what happens when you cross a Presbyterian with a Jehovah’s Witness. What do you get? Someone who knocks on doors and doesn’t know what to say.

 I hope that joke will not even be funny twenty years from now because Presbyterians are going to learn what to say. Find your voice, Presbyterians. Has God done something for you? Tell somebody about it. Are you excited about God’s grace, which is changing your life and can change the lives of others? Speak about it. Do you have more hope and more joy and more peace because of your relationship with God and with your church family? Don’t be shy about that. Share it. Talk about it.

 When I was a kid, I was so shy my first grade teacher called my mother and told her I was anti-social. I think I got the mark, “Does NOT play well with others.” Not because
I was mean but because I was painfully shy. Now I’m employed as an Evangelist by this presbytery. Yes, that’s what we new church pastors are called -- Evangelists – people who share good news. But you’re evangelist too. My job is to encourage you to do yours. I can build a certain number of relationships with people in this community and I can preach every week to all who are here, but multiply my contacts by nearly 100 and that’s what Peace can do. If I talk about God to five people in the next month perhaps one of them will get interested and maybe come to Peace. If you talk about the Lord to five people this month then that’s 500 people and if 20% of them come to Peace, that would be 100 people here with us to worship and serve with us. WOW! That’s exciting.

 But how will they know if we don’t talk? Gone are the days when people automatically look for a church because it’s the thing to do. People are not necessarily seeking a church, any more than the Athenian philosophers were hoping to hear about Jesus Christ from the Apostle Paul. But Paul helped them warm up to his unusual message, just like we must learn to do.

 When going to church was the standard American activity on Sunday morning, we did not have to do evangelism. We just needed to supply a good Sunday morning of programs and people would come and stay. But now we like Paul need to find a way to speak a new language and share about the God whom we know in Jesus Christ. First Paul mentions their own spiritual interests, then he mentions God as creator and sustainer of life, a conceptual understanding not difficult for them, and finally, he particularizes his message by talking about the Resurrection of Jesus. He doesn’t use a lot of Jesus talk.  He is careful to say it in such a way that they can hear.

 Listen to Paul’s message to the Athenians:

 Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said,

 "Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, 'To an unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, The One who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is God  served by human hands, as though God needed anything, since God gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.

 From one ancestor God made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps feel around for and find God-though indeed God is not far from each one of us.

 For 'In God we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we too are God's offspring.' Since we are God's offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals.

 While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now God commands all people everywhere to repent, because God has fixed a day on which the world will be judged in righteousness by a man whom God has appointed, and of this God has given assurance to all by raising him (Jesus) from the dead." 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, including Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them. (Acts 17:22-34)
 

 I bet over half of you sitting out there are saying to yourselves, “I can’t talk about my faith.” I can’t talk about God. I don’t want to impose my faith on other people. Live and let live.” If you met a young parent who needed childcare, would you not tell them everything you know about preschools and daycare, even if you didn’t know all there was to know? If a new neighbor moved in and needed a physician wouldn’t you share that information? So why not faith? It’s too personal? Well, on television, have you noticed that we talk about sexual dysfunction and incontinence? On the talk shows we discuss any number of very personal family affairs, topics which in previous generations were taboo.

 So why not talk about Christian faith? Why is it off limits? Because other Christians have talked about it the wrong ways. Then it’s all the more important for us to share the news of God’s great love – in the right way. Isn’t it of more value than any of these other personal topics that get discussed openly? Start like Paul. Start with your common ground with them. Most Americans are interested in spirituality. Most Americans believe in God. Many Americans claim Christian faith and yet are not involved in a church. Your job is to help them see that involvement in a Christian community has value. Help them see that they can grow in faith and be blessed by being part of a church like Peace. Help them appreciate the fact that they are blessed to be a blessing to others, that the Christian life is not just a one-time mental or emotional decision about Jesus being the Savior but a lifelong commitment to love and service in his name. Help them understand that the good news about Jesus Christ is for everyone, and that our particular claims about Christ are not intended to be claims against Jews or Muslims or Buddhists. We recognize that God is at work in other faith traditions, but we believe there’s something special about the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

 When you tell someone about a restaurant you love, you are not condemning all other restaurants in town. Same with church. When you tell someone about the uniqueness, the particularity of Jesus Christ, the wonderful friend you have, the beautiful Savior, who knows your joys and sorrows, who lives with you and yet reigns above you in power, when you say that you have a Savior that you love and a community of Christian people you truly value, you can share that enthusiastically without worry. You are simply saying, “Let me tell you about something valuable to me.” You don’t have to apologize for that. You don’t have to be a perfect Christian to talk about your faith. Look at Paul. He had been killing the Christians, then he became one. And he helped many others come to Christian faith by talking about it.

 Find your voice. Some who heard Paul scoffed, but others said, “We’ll hear your again.” When you share your faith, some people will try to get away from the subject as quickly as possible. Maybe they’ve had a bad experience in the past. Maybe they have misconceptions about us. That’s okay. Be secure in yourself that what you are sharing is of tremendous value and the person with whom you are sharing is of tremendous value to God.

 Find a way to speak about the One who is near to all of us, never far away, the One in whom we live and move and have our being. Be natural. Be enthusiastic. Be vocal about your faith. Why? Because people need the Lord. And at Peace we believe they will experience the Lord’s presence and be challenged to serve the Lord with all their heart and mind and strength. People need the Lord and people need to know about Peace Presbyterian, where we don’t have all the answers but we search openly for God’s way and we serve with generosity and compassion, where we don’t drop tradition and don’t ignore contemporary trends, where we take relationships seriously, where we hold Word and Sacrament together, old and young together. People are hurting and need the reassurance of God’s presence and a community’s love. People need the Lord. “People need the Lord. At the end of broken dreams, God’s the open door. People need the Lord. People need the Lord. When will we realize that people need the Lord.”