LATEST SERMON; Faith on Trial

Sermon Easter 6, 10 May

Readings: Acts 17. 22-31; 1 Peter 3. 13-22; John 14. 15-21

Theme: Faith on Trial

There are different traditions within Christianity as to how the church should relate to the world. For some, the approach is primarily oppositional. The world is a place of sin and evil and needs to be opposed by the truth of the gospel. This approach is characteristic of the Puritan traditions in history and contemporary forms of Christianity which separate themselves from the world to create a contrast community built on explicitly Christian values. These communities typically have a very strong identity and demand total adherence in order to belong.

However, there is another approach to the world portrayed in the Bible; namely, that of seeking to understand it and to find goodness within it. This style is based on the view that the world is God´s creation and there are seeds of the truth embedded within all people of goodwill. This approach engages positively with the world so as to discover just how God is working in it. This style is very different. It tends to seek ways of building bridges and fostering deeper encounters that recognize that God works in mysterious ways that sometimes don´t fit within our own traditional categories.

This second approach characterizes an important aspect of the readings that we are presented with for the sixth Sunday of Easter. Paul at the Areopagus trial uses a paradigm example of this second Christian approach. He is conscious of the context he is in, in Athens, and is therefore sensitive to the fact that many of the Greeks had sincerely sought the truth and a just and good way to live, and this was not to be dismissed as nonsense. It was to be built on so as to discover how God brings this to fulfilment and leads it into the whole truth who is Christ.

Both of these traditional approaches to the world have things to commend them from a Christian point of view, and often one requires a certain mixture of each of them in order to be discerning in how we are to engage in a responsible way in Christian evangelism.

This sense of engaging with the world in a complex way is sometimes expressed through interfaith encounters today. These are encounters between people of sincerely held beliefs which demand a respect for these beliefs at the same time as not necessarily having to accept that they are true.

 In Christian history, adoption of one or other of these approaches has often been dictated by the position of the Christian community in the wider society; whether it is in the majority or not, and whether it is under persecution. Context is important for these issues, and contexts differ in time and in place. This is why flexibility in one’s approach is required if we are to be sensitive to the particular context we are in.

In the early church, Christianity was a minority religion, and it was often asked to justify itself. The legacy of this period is sometimes expressed by, “If you were put on trial for being a Christian would there be enough evidence to convict you?” This saying, often used to convey the idea that being a Christian requires a certain level of evidence in real life, is taken from the biblical motif that following the Lord involves a costly confrontation with worldly powers and alternative ideas. The readings for the sixth Sunday of Easter speak to this theme of how the evidence of our lives is to be used to proclaim and defend the gospel to a world which still entertains many alternatives some of which may even be hostile to Christianity.

The first reading from the Acts of the Apostles is an example of this “faith on trial,” but with a certain twist that incorporates important elements of the second approach to evangelism mentioned above. Paul, travelling through Greece, stops off at the cultural heart of ancient Greece, Athens. It is here, at the place of the great thinkers of the ancient world: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, that Paul is asked to give a justification of both his own faith and why this faith is worthy of a hearing among the many gods and goddesses of the pantheon of the local council of the Areopagus. In Paul´s case, the evidence of his own personal faith is clear, and so he is asked by the local ruling court to justify his preaching about this crucified and risen Christ.

Paul knows that the sages of old had long searched for truth, justice and the one true God, and though imperfect in how they had conceived of this quest, they had unknown elements of the Christian message in this searching. This is why he follows the advice of Peter, given in the second reading, that when we are to defend the hope we have through our faith, we should do it with “gentleness and reverence” for our interlocuter. It is the Spirit of truth who will be speaking through us at this moment of trial, and this same Spirit utters words that we ourselves do not own because they are given to us to speak. As the gospel of John puts it, at this moment we are given “another Advocate” who will offer this defense through us.

Paul’s example of defending the faith is paradigmatic for us. It even sounds quite contemporary because in some ways we are in an analogous context to Paul. We too live in a world of different religions and worldviews each competing for our allegiance. Consequently, how we proclaim the faith should be done with gentleness and reverence. There is much good in the world, and we should never undermine this but rather, as with Paul, seek to show that with our God, the source of all goodness, there is even more of what our hearts truly desire.