Athens: Do Philosophers Need Jesus?

Acts 17:16-34

Paul in Athens – a View on the World

Paul has encountered the diaspora synagogue (Antioch), popular paganism (Lystra), Roman domination (Philippi). Now after Thessalonica and Berea, he comes to Athens, worried for the survival of the infant churches.

Athens, the most famous city in the Greek world, not big or powerful, but very influential, a university city with an unmatched cultural heritage.

Again he starts with the synagogue, where people know Israel’s story, but he also goes to the famous Agora/plaza, with the open-air Stoa/colonnade, that gave Stoic philosophy its name. Where popular philosophies, ‘world-views,’ were taught, debated, shaping shapers of culture.

Here he meets not persecution but puzzlement. He uses ideas people recognize, but puts them together in strange ways, a ‘phrase-dropper.’ He talks about Jesus and Anastasis/Rising. 

Philippi-Joy Facing Painful Challenges

Acts 15:12-34

Roman City and Its Cast of Characters
Paul is on his 2nd mission journey (with Silas, Timothy, Luke and others).
He crosses into Europe to Philippi, named for Alexander the Gt.'s
father. Site of battle of Mark Antony and Octavian against Brutus and Cassius, a colony of Rome. On Roman "Egnatian Way."
There is a Jewish community with a 'Place of Prayer' outside the city walls near Gangites River. Paul finds women there (sitting apart from men?) including Lydia, a merchant, a gentile 'God- fearer,' seeking new identity. She listens to the story of Jesus as Lord, becomes a believer in the Lord. She is baptized and offers her home as a base for the group teaching others by the river.
 

Finding Jesus in the Temple

Luke 2:41-52

Our passage today is a small glimpse into the process of reconciliation that God initiated through Jesus. Luke, has one of the most vivid descriptions and comprehensive narratives surrounding the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of all the Gospels. The text in Luke 2:41-52 is the final of four blocks of text that captures the key events in the infancy of Jesus. It is important to recognize, that Luke is a very careful and deliberate writer. He intends to “draw up an account” of all the things that he has witnessed and investigated as a disciple and follower of Jesus. Luke begins his Gospel with the end of Acts in mind. He is steady and clear in making an ordered testimony of all the events that surrounded the coming of the Lord’s Messiah, Jesus. Luke is trying to make the point, that our expectations will not bind the Messiah, and that Jesus will not only be fulfilling the promise of God’s deliverance, but he will also be undoing our limited expectations of God.
 

Antioch too and Lystra, Stories Made New

Acts 13:21-43

New Territory, Changing Audiences, Continual Danger
Paul and Barnabas left Antioch of Syria, worked in Cyprus, crossed to Asia Minor, traveled north through mountains of Pisidia into Phrygia to Antioch, a Roman garrison, then to Iconium and Lystra in Lycaonia, a Roman garrison. Layers of old culture, Greek, Roman. Jewish communities. Travel was very dangerous. The ethnic conflicts in cities were sensitive. Jews were vulnerable.
The message of Paul and Barnabas set off conflicts in all three cities. Jewish teaching already had impact in these cities: “God-fearing” Gentiles and Proselyte converts. A major identity shift. Paul comes saying that in Jesus, faith in Israel’s one God, forgiveness and life are now open to all ethnic groups. No new religion, but a realization that Israel’s faith through the Messiah was for all.
 

Antioch, Multi-Cultural Mission

Acts 11:19-26; 13:1-3

Antioch -- History, Pain, and Hope
Antioch was capital of Roman Syria, founded in 300 bc after Alexander Gt. By Seleucus I, named for his father Antiochus. On the Orontes River controlling trade from south and east into Asia Minor and Europe. Fortress, 2 sq miles, 150,000 people in 1st cent. ad. (nearly 2x as dense as modern Manhattan). Had Jewish community from beginning with some rights, conflicts. Antioch was important in NT times as the place where inclusion of Gentiles became substantial and mission to Gentiles began.
 

Caesarea, Barrier-Leaping Spirit

Acts 10:34-48

Caesarea: New City, Roman Center
Caesarea, built by Herod the Gt., gift of Augustus. 10 bc. Harbor. Excavations. Many Caesareas. Mixed pagan and Jewish. Herod's Temple to Augustus. Like other Gk cities. Center of Roman government. Pilate inscription.
Philip came there after Jerusalem (6:1-7), Samaria (8:5-25), and the Ethiopian (8:26-40). He was a leader of Gk-speaking believers who began the process of realizingthe promise of Pentecost, reaching out to the world. The Spirit pushed him to new encounters. Now that same Spirit pushes Peter. Luke shows Peter had no intention of going to non-Jews, but visions to Cornelius and Peter (10:1-23) show God's determination to leap that barrier.
 

Jerusalem - Transformative Community

Acts 2:37-47

From Jerusalem to Rome – Hope among City Crowds
Though Jesus came from a village, the Faith in him spread from city to city across the Roman empire. The Spirit came at Pentecost among the crowds gathered from far and wide. The messengers of this new hope, love, understanding of God and life in Jesus took their announcement into the meeting places and markets of Jerusalem, Rome, and far beyond.
Crowds are ‘dumb and panicky’ (MiB), a person is smart. On Pentecost Peter spoke in the court of the great Jerusalem Temple to the persons who had been part of the crowd that crucified Jesus. When they listened to the promise of scripture in Prophets and Psalms, they realized one by one that they had rejected the very Messiah (anointed King) they hoped for.
 

Living God's Manifold Grace

1 Peter 4:7-16

Pentecost – Last Days, New Life Begins
Peter’s letter was written not long before his death under persecution, 32+ yrs after Pentecost, 35 yrs after he first met Jesus. He was spokesman on Pentecost, interpreting the strange events to Jews crowding Jerusalem from all over the Roman empire. Possibly a few of his readers were there.
Filled with this new experience of God’s Spirit, given by the crucified and resurrected Jesus, he knew that this was the fulfillment of ancient promises from God (Joel, David, etc.), promises that marked it as the start of a new age, the “last days,” when the God of Israel would give his life, his Spirit to all people, men and women, old and young, even slaves, all would receive his gifts of grace.
 

Freedom Under Oppression

1 Peter 2:9-25

Living Hope / Resident Aliens – The Inside Challenge
Pagans, Jews, slave, free – the communities Peter addresses were remarkable. We today struggle with diverse communities as did cities of the Roman empire. Christian communities lived with increasing pressure of hostility and persecution. They had become resident aliens. God had called them into a “living hope” created by Jesus’ resurrection. That new birth created the tension between the deep reality of their identity in Jesus and the structures of life and society where they lived and worked. You are a “holy nation” but also perhaps a slave woman abused at the whim of her master.
They had experienced the transformation of their lives within an empire explicitly based on class hierarchy, slavery, sexual hierarchy, ethnicity, and violence, with no opening for political change.
How do you live? You want revenge, rebellion. You want passivity. You want to go back to pagan life: career success, standing in the community. Peter says those desires are at war against your life. Don’t react. Rather actively create an excellent, beautiful way of life. No malice, guile, envy. Learn love, forgiveness. That’s who you are. Live that. Don’t let reaction to evil make you violent, envious. Even under oppression, let every act you control create a place of beauty, God’s glory lived out.
 

The Ancient Future

1 Peter 2:1-10

Learning a Living Hope – Following the Prophets
Peter is leading believers under stress to grasp what it means that they’ve been “born again into a living hope” by Jesus’ resurrection from death. He’s talked of their future imperishable inheritance and that even as they face present persecution they’re guarded by God’s power for salvation. It all centers around Jesus, who brings inexpressible joy and a present experience of that salvation [1:3-9].
Peter knows how hard it is to become spiritual “resident aliens” in a vast empire with contrary values. He want them to know the depth of the story, the ancient past, that’s now theirs. In fact, what they are experiencing through Jesus’ resurrection is the fulfillment of the deepest promises of that past.
He doesn’t tell stories. They’ve probably learned them. He weaves together reflections on those stories in the language of scriptures they can study to help them understand their own life and identity. What they experience in their ‘modern’ time corresponds to what prophets saw in Israel’s life. He leads them into the rich poetic language of scripture to express the transformation they experience.
 

Minds Prepared for Action

1 Peter 1:13-25

Minds Ready to Move, Act, Serve, Do...
In 1 Pet 1:1-12, Peter writes to believers as "resident aliens" facing intense trials, but born again into "a living hope" by Jesus' resurrection. Thus they celebrate even under persecution. They have not seen Jesus, but love and trust him, and experience joy and glory and the deliverance of their lives.
The result is not passivity but readiness for action that can respond to diverse challenging situations. We "gird up the loins of our minds" (KJV). Like Israel at the Exodus, ready to move, to act at a moment's notice. Deliverance of our life / soul is a process in which we actively participate. Think clearly, soberly. Commit to our direction: Set your hope on the grace we see as we see Jesus. That grace has already been revealed and will be fully revealed. We live in and learn that Grace.
 

Born into a Living Hope

1 Peter 1:1-13

Identity Papers for Resident Aliens
1 Peter takes us into the life of 1st century Christians under intense stress. Peter writes "through Silvanus" (5:12) from Rome to Gentile and Jewish believers scattered across northern Asia Minor (Turkey). Tradition says Peter was executed in Nero's persecution in a.d. 64 after fire in Rome.
The experience of dislocation by joining new communities of faith and then suffering persecution stamps the intensity of the letter. Who am I? Why is this happening? Where's my life going? Should I stay?

How Slow Embers Catch Fire

Luke 24:13-48

Broken Hopes and Living Hope
We focus on the meaning of Jesus' resurrection from Easter to Pentecost: a living hope (1Pet 1:3). Jesus entered Jerusalem to such hope, all so cruelly crushed in a cross and tomb! How could things go so wrong? How could a movement emerge? Was it wrong? What did Jesus' resurrection mean?
Luke emphasizes the perplexing events. None of Jesus' disciples could grasp his crucifixion or thought anything good could follow it. They were broken-hearted, disappointed. Male disciples hid. The women went to the tomb with spices to cover the smell of death. Then new things began to happen. An empty tomb. Women were told by 'angels' that Jesus was alive. The apostles couldn't believe it. They were amazed. They talked, argued. If only! Why not prevent death? Why not redeem Israel?

Resurrection - "Come and See...Go and Tell"

Matthew 28:1-10, 16-20

Can this really be happening?
Jesus' resurrection is not a doctrine; it is an event. Christian life has many teachings but none would be known or noticed without what happened that Spring morning, 1986 years ago. Jesus wasn't like other religious founders who labored years to build a religious community. If Jesus had simply stayed in the tomb, nothing would have happened. A different world.

Beauty and Betrayal

Matthew 26:1-16

What Do You See as Events Unfold?
Matthew is leading us to see who Jesus is. He helps us watch as different people interact with Jesus, positively and negatively, and we can respond to what they see in Jesus. His concern is with us readers. He is recounts memories of the early disciples, oft repeated. He counts on our growing sense of expectation, our sense of how difficult this was for many of them.

Two days earlier (Sunday) Jesus entered Jerusalem with a crowd acclaiming him King (21:1-11) as he enacted prophecies of the humble king (Zech 9:9; Ps 118:25-26). Since then, conflict with all the leaders in the temple. Questions of Messiah, Temple, kingdom of the Son of Man – all loaded with expectation and struggle at the time of Passover. All challenging for us.

Lord, When Did We See You Hungry?

Matthew 25:31-46

A Prophetic Vision Revisioned on the road to the Cross
This is the final block of Jesus’ teaching in Matthew. It ends the the last complex discourse of judgment and anticipation (23-25) before things rapidly unfold in Passover and crucifixion.
What is going to happen is so hard for Jesus’ disciples to grasp, so paradoxical, that Jesus wants to plant in them a new vision for the future. He uses an image that he’s often used: the Son of the Human (Son of Man). Often to speak of himself in third person. Always loaded language, drawn from Daniel, used several times in this discourse, with other Daniel refs.

Living with Lamps Ablaze

Matthew 24:45 - 25:13

Parables of Wisdom and Surprise
In this last section of Jesus’ teaching, Matthew records a series of parables, one of Jesus’ most characteristic ways of teaching. Parables are tricky. They range widely from a few words to a substantial story. Jesus often liked to take an easily recognizable situation, even a cliché, but give it an unexpected turn to plant an idea in our minds that we have to keep thinking about.