"In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead."

         Paul found himself alone in Athens, feeling very much a long way from home. As he wandered around the city, all he seemed to see was idols. One commentator described Athens at that time as a "forest of idols." Paul grew up in a strict Jewish background, and was trained as a Pharisee. He was greatly distressed at all the idols he saw. He felt that way, not because he was naïve or sheltered or because he had never heard of what went on in the big city. Rather, he is distressed because he was looking for evidence of the presence of God in Athens, and he could not find any. God was not in the forest of idols.

         Do you ever get distressed because you can't seem to find where God is at work around you? When we were in Cuernivaca, Mexico, this past week, we got caught in a torrential rainstorm, and we hopped into a taxi. As we drove it became apparent that the defroster was not working, and it was just pouring hot, moist air onto the windshield, until I could not see out of it at all. Then the driver took a rag from under the seat and began to wipe the window furiously, but it did not seem to do any good. In the busy traffic, darting in and out of side streets, we could not seem to see anything. I began to get distressed. The driver said in Spanish, "If I didn't have a customer, I would pull over and wait."

         I said, "It's OK with me."

         Sometimes our lives get like that. We cannot see where we are going. We cannot see God. Where is He? What is He doing? We become distressed.

         Henry Blackaby writes that in our daily life we should look for where God is at work, and then we should go and join him in that work. So he encourages people to take silent prayer walks, observing where God might be active. He directs people to spend time journal-writing or writing their life story. Often we can see how God has worked in our past when we intentionally look back over it. He calls us to look for the activity of God in our relationships with other people, in conversations, listening for where God is working in their lives. If a person begins to talk about spiritual life, about their beliefs, even in ways that raise our defenses, then you can be sure God is working in them. That is the time to move closer to them, to invite them to share more. In that way we can join God in his work. We can show them the way to the Father through Jesus Christ.

         Rick Richardson of Wheaton College puts it a little differently in his book, "Reimagining Evangelism." He says when we are talking to an unbeliever, we should stop looking for an opening in the conversation to share what we believe, or to share a little script outlining the Gospel. Rather, we should ask the person what they believe, what they think about God, and let them talk, even at length, even if what they say makes you uncomfortable. At some point they will invite you into the conversation. This is how Paul entered the conversation with the people of Athens.

         Paul goes to the synagogue. He talks to the people. He reasons with them. He then goes to the marketplace, and enters into conversation with he philosophers. But they dispute with him and say, "What is this babbler trying to say?"

         Then they took him to the Areopagus, to the Council, and had kind of a trial for him, so they could understand him. Paul begins to speak to them, and says he has found God in Athens in an altar to an "unknown god." Wherever we go, we find that people know a lot, they hold strong opinions, especially about religion. Most people are religious, they have thought about it, and have made up their mind. So Paul did not argue with them about the things that they knew, about their opinions and philosophies. He talked about what they did not know:

• They did not know that there is a God who is the creator, a God who does not need to be served food and water and incense and flowers.
• They did not know that there is a God who does not live in a temple or shrine.
• They did not know that this God was not far from them, and that if they would seek him, they would find him.
• They did not know that this God now commanded them to repent.
• They did not know that this God is the Judge of their lives, and had proved that by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

         People are born with an innate thirst to find God. But, so often, they use that spiritual nature to make objects to worship. They build gods of silver or gold.

         But what about us? We don't build idols, do we? But do we not fill our cities with pictures of ourselves, with idealized images of the perfect woman, the perfect man? Do we not give value to the images of sports heroes, movie stars, models who show us what to wear, and who advertise what we should eat and drink?

         Don't we in fact worship ourselves? We fill our lives with idealized images of ourselves and give them value. And God remains unknown as we admire these images.

         Paul speaks to our culture, that God, the Creator, is near and we might reach out to him and find him. Jesus says he is the way to the Father.

         Paul calls the Athenians to repent and believe in God who raised Jesus from the dead.

If God is the Lord of creation, then the wisest thing to do is to turn to him. If God is judge of our lives, the wisest thing to do is put our hope in him. This was a more difficult word for the Athenians to hear. Some of them sneered, some needed to hear more, a few believed.

         Today we gather at the table on Worldwide Communion Sunday. We begin to prepare our hearts for an offering in Jesus' name.

         We begin in repentance:

•   We repent of valuing ourselves too highly, of losing sight of God in the forest of idols of self-worship.
•   We repent of pouring our lives into our own personal gain and neglecting the living God who judges all.
•   We repent of seeking life in illusions and images.
•   We repent of ignoring the people of the world: the poor, the suffering, and the people of the worldwide church.

         And then we respond to the invitation to BELIEVE that God raised Jesus from the dead. He is the way, the truth and the life. Follow him, for he is Lord.

         Amen.