Sermon for May 10, 2026, Sixth Sunday of Easter, preached at First Presbyterian Church of Rolla. Based on Acts 17:16-34.
Today’s lesson finds Paul in Athens, first in the agora and then on trial before the Areopagus. Let’s broaden our view just a bit to get into the story. Saul of Tarsus was a persecutor of the early Christians, then had a vision on the road to Damascus. He was ultimately converted into a follower of the Way and began a series of missionary journeys. For the most part, when he arrived in a new city, he would go to the synagogue and teach the Jews and the God-fearers, who were Gentiles who worshiped our God but did not get circumcised and actually become Jews.
Paul’s teachings in the synagogues were mostly rejected, but not entirely. Mostly, Jews could not accept the concept of a Messiah who had been crucified. That just didn’t fit their view of what a Messiah would be and do. A few Jews and God-fearers did become followers of Jesus Christ, though, and would start house churches.
Paul was also a tentmaker and would work in the market, having conversations with people who happened by his booth. Today’s story finds him in the agora, the central market in Athens. This wasn’t just a place to do business. It was also the social hub of the city, the place where locals and foreigners alike would gather to converse. Paul took advantage of this opportunity to spread the message of Jesus Christ, the crucified and resurrected Savior of humanity.
The Jews could not accept a Messiah who was crucified. Gentiles could not accept a human who was resurrected. The prevailing beliefs in Greek society did not align with the possibility of resurrection. Some believed that when we die, our bodies become part of the universe and lose their distinctive identity as a person. Others believed that our souls shed the imperfections of the material world and become perfect. Yet others believed in Hades, a shadowy realm where souls dwelt and perhaps were punished for their earthly wrongdoing. In any case, they did not believe that the souls of the departed could return to this life.
So when Paul started his babbling, the philosophers rejected him and the common people rejected him. It sounded like he was proclaiming a foreign god, which was illegal. So he was hauled before the Areopagus.
The actual Areopagus was a hill overlooking the city. Its name means “Mars Hill.” It became a gathering place for a group of elders whose role was not much different from the House of Lords in England or the Supreme Court in America. They were responsible for making sure laws were properly formulated. They were also the court for murder trials. More importantly for today’s story, they were responsible for determining which religions and gods were appropriate for Athenians to worship. So this wasn’t just some grand debating society. This was a tribunal established to stamp out heresy.
And indeed, heresy was exactly what Paul was preaching in the agora. People across the ancient world truly believed that their idols served as conduits to the gods that they represented. They believed in the reality of the gods that they worshiped, and the truth of the myths that we read now as literature. If the gods were not worshiped, then the city would not be blessed by them. Religion was a civic duty.
Idolatry was common throughout the ancient world, and yet was rejected by those who worshiped our God. The Second Commandment explicitly forbids the worship of idols, representations of anything from the created universe. Idols have psychological value: they serve as tangible focal points for worship. But that is their inherent weakness. An idol consumes the worshiper’s focus. Rather than serving as a gateway to understanding the god it represents, an idol serves as an end in itself. God commanded the ancient Israelites to separate themselves from this form of worship, and commands us still. God understood that if humans have a visible, tangible idol to serve, they will not turn to an invisible God in times of joy or sorrow. They will worship the created rather than the Creator, the giver of life.
It is tempting to think that we, as a society, have outgrown this need for idols, but in fact, we have more idols today than ever before. I could start listing and explaining everything we modern Americans treat as idols, but I know you all want to get home before sunset. Fundamentally, an idol is anything that consumes our focus, rather than serving as a window or a lens that helps us see the world more clearly. An idol is anything that is an end in itself, rather than a means to pursuing the Great Commandment to love God and love our neighbors. An idol is anything that obstructs our ability to pursue the Gospel promise of universal human flourishing. As Martin Luther said, “Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God, your functional savior.” An idol is whatever you cling to that is not God but that you treat as if it were your savior.
Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God, your functional savior.
Martin Luther
The most obvious idol is money. As Paul wrote, the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. As Jesus said, you cannot worship both God and wealth. Jesus even personified wealth as Mammon, reflecting its immense spiritual power over us.
Now, I am not saying that we should all pursue lives of poverty. Money is useful. Money enables us to function in the world without bartering. Modern society would be impossible without money, whether physical coins and bills or money that exists only as numbers in a database somewhere.
The problem isn’t money per se, but the pursuit of money as an end in itself. That pursuit creates barriers that convert people who should be friends into competitors, and ultimately enemies. The pursuit destroys families. The pursuit of money and the desire to protect wealth drives decisions at all levels of government, from the harassment directed at the homeless population of Rolla to the unfair and corrupt tax code at the federal level. The pursuit of money drives corruption that exploits the powerless and rewards those without integrity. Indeed, the desire for wealth has a corrosive effect on integrity.
This is the fundamental reason why giving to the church is so important. Yes, the church needs income to cover expenses, as do all charitable organizations. However, the spiritual value of giving is to reduce a person’s anxious attachment to wealth and to encourage a healthier relationship with money, and therefore healthier relationships with God and the people in your lives.
Money is the most obvious idol, but let’s talk about another one: weapons, violence, and military might. Now, I fundamentally support the military and believe that defense is important. I am not a pacifist. Rather, I am adherent of just war theory, the belief that some wars are just, but some wars are not. I recently listened to a podcast about just war theory, and was reminded that even in a just war, the participants are sinning. When they return from battle, they are obligated to confess, repent, and perhaps do penance. If the war is truly just, such as in World War II when we were trying to bring the Holocaust to an end or in the first Gulf War when we were defending Kuwait from Iraqi aggression, then the sinfulness of war is the lesser evil—but still evil.
Where we go awry is when we put our trust in the power of the military to change the world, rather than the power of God. Guns and bombs lead only to destruction, never to healing and wholeness. We are witnessing the limits of military might in the Middle East right now. First, Israel’s war in Gaza achieved significant destruction, but left the Palestinian people even more opposed to peace and reconciliation with the Israeli government. Now, our attacks on Iran have led only to destruction and worldwide economic blight. Even if we somehow win the war, we will have turned moderate Iranians into anti-American supporters of the Iranian regime.
Yet we continue to believe that the solution is even more military might, more weapons, more destruction. The lessons of the last eight decades seem to never be learned. Our military solution to the situation in Afghanistan fell apart even before we finished our withdrawal. Our military solution to the situation in Vietnam never achieved any stability. Our military solution to the situation in Korea has resulted in a lifetime of balancing on a knife’s edge, always one misstep away from a brutal resumption of hostility between two opposing governments.
Ultimately, as the psalmist wrote, we should not put our trust in princes, in human beings. We are instead blessed if our help is in the LORD our God.
Let’s talk about one more form of idolatry: bibliolatry, the worship of the Bible. Now, you might think, How can giving respect to the Bible be a bad thing? And I would say that giving it due respect is good, not bad. But we are called Christians, not Biblians. We worship the triune God, not the Bible.
We Presbyterians tend to do pretty well about giving the Bible the proper amount of respect and no more. But we are inheritors of the Calvinist tradition of sola scriptura, that is, only scripture. Some traditions take that to its logical conclusion: if it’s not in the Bible, it isn’t true; if it is in the Bible, it is absolutely, perfectly true.
I grew up Methodist in the Wesleyan tradition. The Bible is just one leg of the Wesleyan quadrilateral along with tradition, reason, and experience. The reality is that everyone, to a greater or lesser extent, uses all four legs of the quadrilateral to understand God. They just don’t all admit it.
Too often, people cling to their particular translation and interpretation of the Bible to the exclusion of other perspectives. They will claim objectivity, but in reality, they have built their understanding upon the teachings of their leaders. The Bible is a thick book written in ancient languages for ancient cultures, so it cannot be read without translation and interpretation. Who does the translating? Who does the interpreting? That’s who controls the message. If you only listen to one person’s interpretation of one translation of the ancient texts, you aren’t a Christian—you’re in a Bible-worshiping cult.
So, how do we escape bibliolatry? The same way we escape all forms of idolatry. The Bible isn’t inherently bad. Guns are not inherently bad. Money isn’t inherently bad. What makes any of these into an idol is when we elevate its status above God’s status in our lives. And the way to reduce their status as an idol is to remove them from your life, at least in part, at least temporarily.
So if money is your idol, do as Jesus suggested to the rich young ruler: Sell your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Well, perhaps you don’t need to sell all your possessions and give all the money to the poor, but start by giving some to the service of the Great Commandment—that is, to God and to your suffering neighbor. Give until you feel a release from the worship of money.
Or if guns and weapons and military might are your idol, spend some time studying just war theory, or perhaps even try being a pacifist. At least, read about pacifism or spend time talking with pacifists. Not to argue with them, but to understand them. Broaden your perspective. Learn from victims of violence, whether at home or abroad, whether current or historical.
Or if bibliolatry is standing between you and God, try reading the Bible through a different lens. Or try different translations. Maybe you’re a King James Version purist, or maybe you’re committed to the NRSVue that we read here in worship. Either way, read other versions—NIV, The Message, whatever. Read a little about how we got the Bible in its present form and the translation principles that resulted in the different versions. Read it through one of the four helpful lenses that Zach Lambert talks about in Better Ways to Read the Bible: the Jesus lens, the context lens, the fruitfulness lens, or the flourishing lens. Read it as a path towards a relationship with the living God, rather than as dead words on the page that must be obeyed.
Because ultimately, that’s our goal as Christians: an ongoing relationship with the living God, in whom we live and move and have our being. Our first and most important task as evangelists is to model a way of living with God in our hearts and minds, so that others will see life with God as a path to flourishing in their lives. And as Paul taught, let us reject the idols of every age, idols who are made by and served by human hands, created objects. Let us instead worship the Creator always, the loving God who empowers us by the Holy Spirit to flourish as God’s most beloved creations. Amen.
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