In our first reading we note that the Apostle Paul was busy preaching to the Athenians. I find that everywhere I go people are anxious to hear about spiritual things - just as they were in Paul's time. When Paul arrived in Athens he found statues everywhere to every god anyone had ever heard of. Just to be on the safe side the Athenians even had a statue to the unknown god.
They were curious about this God that Paul was talking about so they took him to a hill where he preached. At the end of his sermon some of those listening mocked him, but others said, “One day you’ll have to tell us more about this God of yours.”
There is no record that anyone in the crowd that day believed someone’s life had been changed. The offering was probably quite slim. No church was established in Athens as a result of Paul's preaching. There is no book in the Bible known as Paul’s letter to the Greeks. The problem, you see, was they were curious but it never went beyond that. The Athenians of the first century could have lived very comfortably in Manchester in the twenty first.
They were intellectual in their approach to spirituality. They were informed, analytical, and sophisticated. It would have horrified them to be thought of as religious fanatics - though they worshipped many gods. It seems there is a great deal of that kind of religion still around. You and I have a wide range of gods to which we make our sacrifices. We don’t sacrifice sheep anymore. Rather we sacrifice our money and our time and energy. Regardless of what god we say we serve, if we want an accurate picture of whom or what we worship we must look in two places: in our cheque book and in our diary. At which altars do you sacrifice?
Is it an altar in the Gay Village - like the Rembrandt, or the New Union, or Vanilla. No-one minds giving money to those establishments. They make millions while the church is accused of being too focused on money if we ask for more resources.
Or perhaps it is the gym where we worship. We can lift hundreds of pounds of weights, but learning to pray each day seems to over-tax us. Perhaps our favourite place to worship is at the Trafford Centre or somewhere along Deansgate, or over in Ikea in Warrington.
It seems that Athens wasn’t the only place with a wide variety of gods. Our society is searching for meaning, for spirituality, for anything to take away the pervading sense of boredom which Archbishop Rowan Williams has identified as the predominant hallmark of our society.
One of my favourite programmes on television at the moment is the Channel 4 series "Teachers". It has, of course, been slated by the main teaching unions as it is a satire on modern schools, modern teachers and modern life. Last week's episode explored this theme of boredom as each of the main characters came to realise that their lives were devoid of meaning and the urge to worship led them to worship at the pub, or the shops or in bed - but none of these things actually gave them the meaning their souls longed for.
Many people come to MCC around the world so that they can believe they could be gay or lesbian and Christian. Others come so they can be welcomed and affirmed as Christian and bisexual, or transgendered or transvestite. I hope we all know by now that God is not the narrow-minded person we once feared. But is that all there is? Is that the only message we need? Did God raise this church up only to pat us on the head and tell us we are loved and simply leave it at that?
Many of us came to this place out of curiosity. Many of us came out of fear. Some of us are here because we hoped a little religion would make life better - a little less boring. There is nothing wrong with those reasons, but we must not stop there. Our spirituality must consist of more than feeling okay about being lesbian or gay and Christian.
A little girl asked, “Mommy, what is God like?” Her mother was stumped about how to answer that question so she sent her to ask her father. Her father hadn’t ever given it much thought but assured her that she would know when she got older. As she was walking out of the room she turned and said, “Daddy how much older than you and mommy do I need to be before I can know God?”
You may have discovered already that the passing of time does not deepen your spiritual life. It takes more than getting older. It takes more than just believing God loves lesbian and gay people too.
The gospel lesson today is a continuation of last week’s reading in which Jesus told his disciples he was going away. They were like children sitting on the floor who look up to see their parents putting on their coat. Their questions are the same: “Where are you going? Can we go too? Then who is going to stay with us?”
Jesus explained there is no reason we ever need to live one moment out of touch with God.
“I am going away,” he said, “but I will not leave you orphaned. I will send you another comforter, another presence, another companion.”
The Holy Spirit is God’s presence with us. Most of us still have very little sense of God’s presence in our daily lives. Paul told the Athenians that God was the one in whom “we live and move and have our being.” We are like fish who know nothing of water because it is the reality in which they live their whole life.
But I think there is a bit more to it. In the gospel lesson Jesus tried at least three times to talk about how we could experience God’s presence. He had been with them physically, but soon he would be within them spiritually. What we seem to always miss is that Jesus begins and ends with the key to how we are able to experience this presence.
Jesus began: “If you love me you will keep my commandments and I will ask God to give you another companion...” Jesus then goes on to say in verse 21 “They who keep my commandments are the ones who love me, and those who love me will be loved by God, and I will love them and reveal myself to them."
We have been so eager to hear the words “God is love” and to assure everyone God loves them that we have failed to hear the whole message.
The reality is that, like the Athenians, we may very well live and move and have our very being in the love of God, but we will never have the slightest experience of that love unless we take seriously what Jesus said here about internalising and obeying his teachings. Those who do that are the ones who fully experience the presence of God.
Now, even after he has said this twice in the very next verse his disciples still don’t get it. One said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my God will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from God who sent me.”
Three times Jesus tried to explain it but I wonder if WE finally get it?
Believing in some “unknown god” is not sufficient. Dabbling in faith an hour a week is not enough. Even having faith that you are loved by God is only the beginning.
A little boy was helping his grandpa dig potatoes up in the garden. Finally, after working in the hot sun for nearly an hour the lad stood up and said, “Grandpa, why did you bury so many of these darn things?”
Of course that’s where potatoes grow. And obeying the teachings of Jesus is where our relationship with God grows or not at all. Like the boy we’d like to be able to just walk along and be blessed with no effort, but every relationship takes effort, time, and investment. Our relationship with God is no exception.
There is an American comic strip called “Pontius Puddle.” In the first frame Pontius is thinking, “I wonder if God can really hear me when I pray?” In the second frame he prays, “Hey God, what do you want me to do with my life?” In the third frame a voice from heaven answers, “Feed the hungry. Right injustice. Share all you have.” After a long pause Pontius replies “Just testing!” To which God answers, “Same here.”
One day someone was telling me about how, when they first started to attend church here, they cried every Sunday. What I wanted to know was why they stopped. Coming home to God is like a fish who has been too long out of the water. The relief and refreshment of a spiritual relationship are wonderfully overwhelming. But if we stop there, the benefit is soon lost and the thrill quickly fades. Many people come here and feel refreshed and invigorated and think that is it - the newness of the liturgy, worshipping openly, meeting with others whose journeys are similar can be very liberating, but if that is all there is to our spiritual lives we are not moving beyond the Athenian curiosity with religious things or the modern sense of boredom which can overwhelm us.
Jesus said that in order to fully know the living presence of God in our lives day by day we must allow our love for God to lead us to obedience.
God loves us regardless of our sexual orientation. Now what? Will God remain the intimate stranger? Will God forever be the one in whom we live and move and have our being, but never really know? Will we, like the Athenians, worship an unknown god and make our sacrifices at the same altars as those who have no faith?
Unless we are willing to devote the same quality of energy and time to our relationship with God that we give to serving the gods of our careers, or our bank account, or our playtime, we will remain like the Athenians - religious people who are mostly curious and wanting to hedge our bets.
Today we start a new phase in our life together - we have moved into this wonderful building and are enjoying the hospitality of a very gracious and generous congregation. Some of us may miss St Peter's, some of our people may use the move here as an excuse to slip away. Some people may have found their initial enthusiasm about coming home to God has given way to a sense of boredom and spiritual malaise - because they have thought that simply coming here was all there was to the equation.
Yes, God loves us, but God loves us so much that God desires us to change our lives, to worship at the altars of grace that are given to us - and this change can be painful. We re-order our priorities and find that the old altars call us back- in times like this we have to rely on the counsellor, the Holy Spirit that Jesus promised when he went away.
We are called to do more than be religious and curious. We are called to change our lives so that we obey Jesus and his commands - we are called to pray, to right injustice and to share what we have. If we do this we will find that the unknown God the Athenians puzzled about, will make a home with us and will dwell within us, giving us joy, peace and a cure to the boredom of modern life.
Amen.
This sermon was first preached in the Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester. Click here for further information.