BECOMING DAMARIS

Dr. Richard J. Henderson May 5, 2002

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John 14: 15-21
Acts 17:22-34

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, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he 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 grope for him and find him - though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For "In him we live and move and have our being"; as even some of your own poets have said,

"For we too are his 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 he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him 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.

Introduction

A friend of our daughter's had a message on her answering machine that went like this: "Commitment - OK, now that the men have all hung up, if you would like to leave a message, I'd be happy to call you back." Although they are famous for it, it isn't just men who are afraid of commitments.

I went to a preaching seminar several years ago where the speaker cautioned preachers from talking about commitment.

He said, the "GI generation," those who served in World War II and committed themselves to defending the world from Hitler's terror, understand commitment and will offer themselves to those causes they are committed to.

These whom Tom Brokaw called "The greatest generation" will commit themselves to a cause.

But, the speaker went on to say the "Baby boomer" generation doesn't like the idea of commitment, and "Generation X" doesn't want to hear about commitment.

Some say the "Generation X" is named that because they aren't committed to anything... commitments are X'ed out.

The picture this speaker painted was of a lack of commitment that was trickling down from one generation to the next, and getting worse as it went along.

Of course, a great deal of this is overstatement and generalization. When terrorist attacked the World Trade Center, some reports said that the terrorist didn't think the US could sustain a strong response, because all our young people were spoiled and had life too easy. They clearly were wrong about that. Our young people have shown a strong and enduring commitment.

I

The Apostle Paul, a master orator, comes to speak to a group of philosophers. He is in Athens, Greece, a place well-known for the wisdom of its thinkers, and he's there to address these philosophers about his faith.

These are wise people who do nothing but sit and think and listen to debates and discuss ideas all day long. They are always looking for a new idea. Maybe that's why they have Paul there to speak.

Can you imagine how scary Paul's situation would be? It would be worse than going before the philosophy department at University of Michigan and telling them what you believed.

But Paul is calm. He begins, "I see that you are very religious. I have noticed the many objects of your worship." He begins by complimenting them and putting them on his side as religious people. He doesn't condemn their idol worship, but lifts it up as a sign of their religion concern.

Then Paul points to one particular object he has seen, an alter to an "Unknown God." Paul uses this as an opportunity to talk about his God. The god that you worship as unknown, he says, has now made himself known in the world.

Paul goes on to talk about how God has created all that exists. God is the ruler of both heaven and earth, and this God is not confined to man-made shrines. In fact, God doesn't need humans at all, but gives life to everything that breathes.

The Athenians are nodding their heads; this is interesting stuff.

Paul goes on to say that God is the One "in whom we live and move and have our being," as one of their poets has put it. Then he begins to talk about Jesus. He tells of Jesus' life and teaching, of his death and resurrection.

That's when he loses most of his audience. Some laugh. Some scoff at him. Some write off what he's saying as impossible. There are a few who say, "We'll hear you again about this. We'll talk about this again sometime." They're interested, but not committed.

II

This last group could have been in the church. A lot of people in the church find faith an interesting topic to discuss. We even like to study it, learn more about it, be inspired by it.

But when faith makes demands of us, then we aren't as comfortable. We're glad to hear about it and talk about it, but when faith requires commitment - giving ourselves - it becomes a lot more difficult.

Church is a great place to meet friends, to be inspired, to worship God, but when faith is related to giving, we get more nervous...and less interested.

In the past few months I have heard of people who have left their churches for the following reasons: 1) The services sometimes ran longer than 60 minutes, 2) another felt the stewardship program was "too direct", 3) a third family brought their newborn baby to church and the pastor didn't make enough of a fuss over it. Maybe I'm wrong, but these don't sound like examples of people strongly committed to their faith.

Conclusion

Unpopular as it is today, Jesus demands commitment from us. Jesus wants more than, "We will hear you again about this," he wants us to give ourselves to God.

He wants to hear, "I trust in you and I want to grow to the point where I can give my life over to you." Christ teaches us that God is to be the center of our lives, guiding, supporting and influencing everything that we do.

In some ways it is like marriage. Who wants to be in a relationship where you talk about the relationship all the time; you even study what would make it better, but never commit yourselves to each other.

What is required is risk - what the Christian philosopher Soren Kierkegaard called a "Leap of faith."

A marriage won't happen - the growth of that relationship can't begin until we are willing to risk - until we are able to give ourselves to each other. The real depth and joy of marriage can't begin until we make promises to each other.

In the same way, our faith can't grow until we take the risk and commit ourselves to God. We won't enjoy the richness of our relationship with God until we let go and trust God. Are we able to take that leap?

Amen.

©Richard J. Henderson 2002