In his book, The Song of the Bird, Anthony Demello tells this story,

Lots of things happen in the name of religion that I think God would be ashamed of. Just this week The Rev. Al Sharpton said no one who really believes in God could vote for a Mormon. In our own Anglican Communion, Peter Akinola, Archbishop of Nigeria, and other African bishops refuse to receive the Blessed Sacrament with our Presiding Bishop because she is a woman and because we of the American Church have ordained gay people. The Hamas of Palestine use a cartoon character that looks like Mickey Mouse to teach their preschoolers to hate Jews. You can add to the list, I’m sure. Religious extremists of every stripe surely cause God to be ashamed.

St. Luke tells a fascinating story in the Acts of the Apostles. Paul and Barnabas are in the town of Lystria in Asia Minor. Because of the healing of a crippled man the townspeople mistake them for the Greek gods, Zeus and Hermes, and try to worship them. Paul, desperate to avoid such a blasphemous act, barely persuades them that Barnabas and he are men, not gods come down in the form of men.

The Acts of the Apostles is the history of the expansion of the early Church. There is a lot be learned from their evangelistic effort and how we are to relate to those who differ from us. How do we respect other faiths? How do we stand up for what we believe without putting others down?

First, Paul acknowledges the value of other religions. Even if they might seem incomplete in some ways from our Christian perspective, they reflect something of the Creator. Secondly, Paul met people where they were. He dealt with them at their level, in their context, in their culture. And, thirdly, and most importantly, Paul was able to do this because he was grounded in Christ. He had received God’s peace in Christ, as today’s Gospel puts it, “Jesus said, …’My peace I give to you …Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.’” Paul could do all that he did, and respect others and other religions, because he knew who he was and in whom he believed. Because he was rooted and grounded in Christ he was not afraid; he was not troubled. He did not have to be fearful of the truth revealed in other religions. He was not defensive, but he was bold to proclaim the full truth he had received in the Spirit of Christ.

Paul told those Greeks that God never leaves himself without witness. In the hearts of all men and women, everywhere, from the beginning of time, there is an empty spot; that place can only be filled by God. From the most primitive to the most sophisticated, there is in people a need to acknowledge a supreme, a superior being. Perhaps that is the primary witness to God: the need for the divine.

If God has not left himself without witness to past generations, what does it mean to us who follow Christ in this generation? It means to me that God is certainly not limited to my definitions or understandings. Try as we might to make God in our image, we are confronted by a God who is ultimately beyond our comprehension and who reveals himself in a variety of ways, and not just in Christianity. God has revealed himself through other religions, other perceptions, but it is the same reality.

If God has not left himself without witness to past generations, it means that we need not “put down” other religions and viewpoints but can accept them as manifestations of the one God. It means that believing in Jesus does not exclude others.It means that we are free to see God in all of God’s power and beauty. It means that we can appreciate nature and science as witnesses of the Creator. And this understanding of God frees us from a narrow dogmatism and extreme fundamentalism.

Don’t we grow weary of the debate between science and religion; the arguments between creationists and evolutionists? If you would like a wonderful exposition on the integral relationship between science and religion I recommend that you read Teilhard de Chardin, the French Jesuit and paleontologist.

In this incident in Lystria, and in all of Paul’s teaching and preaching, he met people where they were. You and I, as the Church of today, are called to do the same. In the brief time I’ve been here with you I have discovered that this parish really strives to meet people where they are. This community of faith understands that mission and worship are not an either/or proposition. One of the characteristics of this congregation seems to be an effort at a balanced approach to mission and worship.

Paul never hesitated to talk to people in a language they understood and about issues with which they were concerned. Today, all too often, many in the Church want to convert people first, and then talk about substantive matters. Instead of that approach, the Church must be dealing with the issues of world where people are living and dying, questioning and searching, hurting and loving. The crucible of existence is where the crucial issues are being confronted. The most “religious” issues of our time are being decided, are being wrestled with, in the world: in the workplace and in politics. We can learn from Paul and deal with the issues of the day from the perspective of faith in Jesus, the Lord of all life, and continually ask, “Where is God in all this?”; “How do I speak faithfully to the difficult questions of our time?” You can list the issues and controversies before us as a society, as well as I: abortion, capital punishment, pornography, genetic engineering, euthanasia, environmental destruction… What do we, as Christians say to these things? How do we, as Christians, respond to the madness of war? Or the abuse of prisoners? Or the ignoring of civil rights? The madness about us is escalating.

I’m more and more convinced that the Church may be the only place where we who have serious and legitimate differences about these issues can enter into serious conversation, first with each other, and then with those outside the Church. Here at St. John’s we certainly are not called to walk “lock-step” about these matters. But we are called to find ways of entering into dialogue about these issues and be sure that they are informed by the Gospel of Christ.

St. Paul walked among the Greeks who worshipped their ancient gods. What are the modern gods among which we walk? The gods of our age are power and prestige, money and violence. There end is destruction; death is their reward. But you and I have Good News and it comes from the one who gives us his peace, a peace which has no ending, no limits, which casts out fear. And so we can speak of an alternative perspective on life. We can allow those whose hearts are fastened to the idols of power, war, violence, prestige, and money to begin to hear the Good News of the Living God.

These are the lessons I believe St. Paul is teaching us in this little story from the early Church: that rooted in the peace of God which is given by Jesus, the Messiah, we can appreciate other religions, and that we must meet people where they are in order to witness to the full revelation of God in Christ.

I pray that you and I, the Church of today, might learn from the Church of old. Amen.