Searching for Something: Acts 17:22-33

Gracious God, give us humble, teachable, and obedient hearts, that we may receive what you have revealed, and do what you have commanded. Amen.

I love to Google. Some of you understand what I just said but for the rest of you all it requires some explanation. Google is a search engine on the Internet. You type in a word or phrase and corresponding websites come up. You can search for anything: news, sports, entertainment, music, quotations. If you are like me and you remember a line from a movie but cannot remember the actor or the movie, it comes from and it just drives you crazy, just Google it. It is so popular that the word Google is now a verb describing the act of searching. It is really amazing to me because there are billions and billions of websites out there and Google brings them all up in less than a second it is really impressive. When you search usually, you find something on Google. If you type in “God” 470 millions websites pop up from all over the world in less than a second. Humanity searches for the Divine in many places. Some search for a deeper understanding of God and some search to find God in the first place. We search because we know that there is something out there greater than ourselves, something bigger.

The Ancient Greeks also searched for the Divine and they found divinity in all kinds of things. The created gods and goddesses for everything. They had a god of war, a god of the ocean, and a god of the sun and moon. They had a goddess of beauty, and knowledge and everything in between. They built temples, shrines, and idols to the gods and goddess. In fact, the Parthenon, a replica of which you can visit in Nashville, was a temple to Athena, goddess of knowledge and wisdom. They believed that the gods and goddesses interacted with humans according to their own amusement. They treated humanity with both kindness and cruelty depending on their mood. The Greeks told stories about how the gods blest some and cursed others. So they strove not to offend the gods in any way by leaving any of them out and so the Athenians created a shrine to an unknown god. Just in case there was a god that they did not know they wanted to cover their bases as not to offend this unknown god.

Our lesson from the book of Acts this morning tells the story of Paul’s travels to Athens. Paul wanted to understand the Greek and Athenian culture better and so he walked around the city observing the lives of the people. Paul became distressed at all the idols the people worshiped as false gods. Paul walked to the Areopagus, which meant hill of Aries, god of war, the Latin translation is Mars Hill. This was a place where the leaders of Athens gathered to discuss, debate, and decide the items and issues of the day. Athens is known for its philosophers and its love of logic and so Paul decides to us their own logic against them and to show them the unknown God they were really missing.

Paul begins with flattery. He tells them that they are so religious in every way that they even have a shrine to an unknown god and he says that he will now reveal this unknown God to them. Paul the gives a simple sermon, some might even call it a testimony, outlining the basic Christian concepts of God. God does not dwell in temples, shrines, or on Mount Olympus. God does not need altars or shrines because the earth and the universe is his shrine. God created the universe and everything in it as a demonstration of his love and glory. God created humanity not to toy with, but to love and God created humanity in God’s own image. He also tells them that God will judge humanity, but that God also demonstrated mercy and love in the person of Jesus. This sermon was a beginning. This was a foundation, a stepping stone from which he might build a church.

These people were not unspiritual. In fact they were quite the opposite. They searched and searched for the Divine, but to no avail. There were not unspiritual or even unreligious, but simply unchurched. How many unchurched people to we know? One? Two? Twenty? Are they unspiritual or simply unchurched? I think that people are more spiritual then they care to admit. They are spiritual because they constantly search for the Divine. We all grasp and grope for a piece of the Divine in sometime in our lives. We all search for a piece of God’s truth and some of us find that truth in Christ while others continue the search.

Others search in vain for the truth that we find in God. We all search for something greater than ourselves and we search for it because we are hardwired to worship something greater than ourselves. So we search for it. Some search for it in selfish individualism and narcissism. They believe that no one is better, smarter, or more beautiful than them. They search for the Divine in the accumulation of things and riches. They believe that they become great when they buy that new car, new house, or new clothes. Others search for God in drug and alcohol use and abuse. They try to get high and find God. In all these pursuits a person is really just trying to find something greater than him/herself.

There are others who want God on their terms. They believe in God but they do not want to have anything to do with the church or what they call organized religion. These people say “I am spiritual, but not religious.” “I find God in nature and so I don’t need to go to church.” What they are really saying is “I want all the good things that come with worshipping God without any of the discipline or life changing.” I want the benefits without the sacrifice. Some call this “Sheliaism” which is named for young nurse who said that “I believe in God, but I am not a religious fanatic. I don’t know the last time I went to church.” She picked and chose what she wanted from spirituality and left the rest in the pile. You might think of this as Piccadilly Christianity. Most of you have been to a Piccadilly Cafeteria or something similar. This is one of those place where you can go in line and pick the meat and veggies you want and nothing you don’t want. I mean who wants to eat brussels sprouts when you there is Mac and cheese or potato casserole. No one will choose the steamed broccoli over the mashed potatoes or macaroni and cheese. Some believe that religion and faith is like that as well. You pick and choose the good and leave the discipline and life changing back at the buffet. This is also called wishy-washy faith or a lukewarm faith. Part of being a Christian is accepting the difficult with the easy. It is easy to accept God’s love; it is hard to live as God wants us to live. It is about becoming more Christlike everyday and because Christ is our goal the bar is set very high. However, there is good news. God’s grace is set high as well.

Then there is a flip side to that same coin. There are those so search for God so deeply and intently and they focus so much on the discipline that they end up missing God completely. In fact, their disciplined and orthodox lifestyle becomes an idol they worship over and above God. I hear preachers stand at the pulpit and say in all seriousness that they know God’s will fully and what’s more only they got it right. So come to my church to here my sermons and lessons, buy my book, because I know God like the back of my hand. I have a hotline to the Almighty. This is a dangerous faith. This is a breeding ground for fanaticism and extremist faith. If you hear a preacher say they have all the answers…RUN! No one knows God fully and even pastors and theologians who study God for a lifetime only know a little.

Then again there are intellectuals, teachers, professors, researchers, theologians who can quote chapter and verse, they can tell you any theory from any theologian of the last 2,000 years. They can just pop it out at you and they seem so smart, but they have no real faith. Will Willemon, who is Bishop of the North Alabama conference, tells a story of a college girl who complained to him about her professors. She said that they know everything about God except for God. Some say that God is only found in personal experience, in revelation, and revival. Others say that God is only found through careful study of Scripture and the history behind it. God is in the details of theology and in the mind. Each of these ideas are idols.

So where do we find God? As Paul tells the Athenians, God is not far from any of us. If you quiet yourself and stop searching within yourself and in the world you will find God. God is in our hearts and our minds. God is in the eyes of the homeless man we pass by, and in the eyes of the child playing and laughing. God is also in the joy we feel when we gather as a community to worship and fellowship with one another, and in pain and sorrow we feel when death and tragedy grasps us.

God is everywhere and for all times and it is because of this we will never fully understand God in this lifetime. God is infinite and our minds are finite. However, God is also close to us, closer than we really know and I do believe that perhaps each of us has a small piece of the truth and that we must listen to one another and learn from each other.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.