April 19

April 19, 2009

Let’s Change the World
a sermon on Acts 17.1-10
by David C. Mauldin
Westminster Presbyterian Church, Mobile, Alabama

If you haven’t read anything by Alister McGrath, you’re missing out. McGrath is an atheist turned Christian, a biochemist and theologian, and a good writer. We used his book called Doubting in our recent Lenten book study. Another of his books is called The Twilight of Atheism. In it he includes a brief personal reflection of his own conversion. In his youth, he was an atheist. By atheist he means an old school atheist. An old school atheist doesn’t just question God’s existence. He or she has faith that God does not exist. The old school atheist is a believer that God does not exist, and in McGrath’s case, that the world is better off because of it.

During his university years, McGrath discovered two things. His atheist faith was based on all sorts of shaky assumptions. And, what he had rejected was not Christianity but rather a caricature of it. By studying the sciences and the philosophy of science, he broadened his mind enough to hear God’s call.

What interests me about his experience this morning is how he describes his old, youthfully optimistic atheism. He held that faith with all the passion of an idealistic teenager. He believed that religion was a great evil, responsible for much oppression, violence, war, and other evils. The world, he was convinced, would be better off if everyone outgrew this silly notion of God. And he believed this was happening. Let me add, he grew up in Northern Ireland, when Protestants and Catholics were at each other’s throats. So you can see how personal experience would have confirmed his negative view of religion. Here is how he describes his idealism:

The principle cause of my atheism was Marxism, a movement that I believed held the key to the future. The late 1960s were a time of immense optimism concerning the future. It was widely believed that a new world was waiting to be born, and that we would not have long to wait before a new era of justice, peace, and freedom would emerge, sweeping away the discredited old order. Religion was part of that order, and I confidently believed that it would not be around for much longer. [p. 176]

Do you see his position? His atheism was not merely a negative answer to a philosophical or religious question about God. It was a positive affirmation of justice, peace, and freedom. He sounds like an Old Testament prophet except he turns from God rather than to God. He also writes:

Let me stress this point: the appeal of atheism for me lay in its proposal to eradicate religion. If atheism had represented itself simply as commending the merits of a godless worldview, I would not have been attracted to it—and neither would many others. Its lure lay in its proposal to change the world rather than to create little clubs of the godless in the midst of a religious world. [p. 177, emphasis added]

If he sounded like an Old Testament prophet before, he sounds like a New Testament apostle here: “Let’s go change the world! Let’s go tell people the good news of liberation! We are not setting up little clubs of like minded people. We are planting colonies that represent the future of the human race!” The difference, of course, again, was that he thought this would be done by getting rid of religion, not by the coming of God’s kingdom.

His words struck me exactly as I am sure he meant them to—as a warning. What are we doing when we come together as a church? What’s our purpose? Our goal? Are we a little club—a support group for believers in an unbelieving world? As the post-Christian culture around us becomes more hostile to our faith, are we building a ghetto where it’s safe to be a Christian? Or is our vision bigger than that? Are we out to change the world? McGrath suggests people, especially young people with passion and imagination, are not attracted to clubs where people do nothing but talk. They want to change the world. If we are not about that, why would they be interested in what we are doing?

More importantly, we have to ask what God wants and expects of us. Is he content with Westminster as a club that celebrates Christian truth? Or does he want us to try to change the world?

Last Wednesday I was a guest at a Kiwanis pastor appreciation lunch, and the speaker was a pastor who now works with an independent mission board that emphasizes church planting and indigenous leadership. In other words, they don’t send Americans to these countries to pastor the new churches; they train locals to be pastors. Anyway, he mentioned how in some Muslim countries, Muslim converts to Christianity go from village to village sharing their faith. He said they know going in that one of two things will happen, either they will be beaten up and driven out or they will plant a church. They know this, and they go anyway. I had been working on this sermon, and I immediately thought of Paul. That’s basically what he did, although he tended to focus on urban centers rather than villages.

Paul would go in, start in the synagogues, and explain the Good News that Jesus is the Messiah. Whatever success he had there, he then turned to the Gentile population. Depending on the response, he would stay a long or short time, then move on to the next place.

We know he started a church in Thessalonica because we have two letters he wrote to them later, but he did not stay there long because things got hot fast. As usual, he started in the synagogue, using scripture to prove Jesus is the Messiah and that it was necessary for him to suffer and die and then rise again. As usual, many believed and many others did not. There was division. Tension escalated. Some of the leaders went to the authorities.

Now you might think the Roman administration cared nothing about how Jews interpreted the Old Testament, and you would be right. But two things they cared about a lot were social order and sedition. The leaders worked these levers. They said Paul and his colleagues disturbed the peace and followed a different king from Caesar. I love the line they used: “These people who have been turning the world upside down have come here also.”

Turning the world upside down … Paul might prefer to say the world was already upside down when he found it, so he is merely trying to turn it right side up; but otherwise they were correct. The early Christians did turn the world upside down. They did follow a different king. They were not seditious. They weren’t rebels against the government. But they knew Caesar ruled not as the supreme authority but under the authority of God. They did not stir up trouble in the community or disturb the peace. Over and over in the book of Acts, it is the people who oppose the Christian message who riot. You never find Christians rioting in Acts. So they were innocent and guilty at the same time. Innocent of causing mischief. Guilty of turning the world upside down.

They believed, you see, that God’s kingdom is coming. They saw themselves as heralds of that kingdom, as an advance guard. Jesus is the world’s rightful king, and he has asserted his claim over it. Someday he will come to rule. Until then, his people live in the world to demonstrate what the future will be like.

They thought of themselves this way because Jesus had told them to. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you …” “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations …” And, “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father” [Jn 14.12]. From Jesus they got the idea that they were supposed to do what he did: proclaim God’s coming kingdom, do things to make it a present reality, and basically turn the world upside down.

They did this in a variety of ways. Not, as I have noted, by violence. Jesus didn’t use violence, so they didn’t either. Instead they did two things. They proclaimed the Good News. They said Jesus is Lord, and they held up the Christian vision of redeemed humanity. In other words, “God wants something better for you, and here is how he’s made it possible.” The other thing they did: they lived by kingdom values.

Here are just a few of the ways they showed people what the kingdom of God is like: They cared for the poor. We read about that in the book of Acts. Christians were notorious for this. One Roman official complained they even cared for non-Christian poor.

They considered life sacred. In the ancient world, if a child was born handicapped or unwanted, it was taken into the wilderness and left to die. Christians did not do this. They also cared for the sick and dying. At times Christians won grudging respect from their pagan neighbors because when a plague swept through a town, everyone who could fled. But Christians willingly stayed behind to care for the sick and dying. Some, of course, got sick and died. They knew this, but they stayed anyway.

By the way, now that we live in a post-Christian culture, we have the chance to distinguish ourselves by holding life sacred. In the new Post-Christian world, only the lives of people who are healthy and can assert their rights are sacred. This is one of many ways the values of this world and the values of God’s kingdom clash.

For a long time in our society, being a Christian meant you didn’t turn the world upside down. Ours was a culture informed by Christian values. Recall how Alister McGrath as a young atheist saw religion as part of the social order that needed to be swept away for the sake of peace and justice. Now, however, if you are a Christian and you sincerely try to follow Jesus, you are always in danger of turning the world upside down. Our deepest values pose a fierce challenge to a culture that is selfishly individualistic … materialistic … and that treats human beings as disposable.

OK, then—our values are different. But how do we change the world? What can we do? The most important thing comes straight from the book of Acts: We commend Jesus Christ as the answer to the world’s problems.

It’s a good thing Alister McGrath converted to Christianity. If he had maintained his faith in atheism and Marxism, he would have been bitterly disappointed and disillusioned by this point in his life. He looked to those belief systems to change the world—for the better. He was looking for peace, justice, and freedom. Question: What are three things you almost never find in countries with Marxist governments? Think of the old Soviet Union, Communist China, and North Korea. Those would be the last places any sane person would go to find peace, justice, or freedom.

As the 20th century dawned, optimistic liberalism reigned. Things were just going to get better and better as education and scientific breakthroughs changed the world. Then World War I came, and people had to think again. Then World War II came and the Holocaust. How could a sophisticated, modern nation like Germany allow such things to happen? After that, some thought Marxism was the answer. It wasn’t. Today most people in the Western world have become cynical. We’re not sure our problems have an answer.

Trying to change the world is a funny thing. For some reason, it never turns out the way you expect. Our best efforts go awry, and the best of intentions yield unintended results. Given the track record of people trying to change the world, shouldn’t we just settle for a more realistic goal, like being nice people?

I don’t want to sound too pessimistic. Real progress is possible. Advances in medicine and agriculture have changed the world for the better. A number of serious diseases we don’t have to worry about anymore. Literacy is another genuine, attainable good. Do not discount the value of developments such as clean water and basic health education. Much good can be done. Still, isn’t changing the world too big a job for us?

Yes, it is; but this is where the Good News comes in. If Christianity were one more idealistic movement to change the world, it would fail. But if it is the truth about God, and God is going to change the world—well, that’s something different entirely.

The reason so many efforts to change the world fail is because most of our problems originate right here—in the human heart. Only God can do something about that. Only God has the power of new creation. That’s why the resurrection of Jesus is so important. It is the start of new creation, a guarantee that God will set the world right, and a tiny glimpse of what his new creation will be like. So our hope is in God, but … he does use us. And … because we have resurrection hope, we see the world in a certain way. We know what the kingdom of God is supposed to be like, because Jesus told us. What we see around us is not what he described. Therefore, we do everything we can to make present reality conform to his vision, even though we know final victory will come only when Christ returns.

One thing we can do is point to Jesus. Another is to hold up his vision of the kingdom. If God wants something better, we ought not let people be satisfied with what we’ve got now. If God wants justice, we ought not settle for corruption. If God wants peace, we ought to oppose war, unless it is the only way to bring peace. Changing the world starts with a vision of what the world ought to be. Jesus has given us that. We have to hold it up, so others will be inspired.

Here’s just one example how. Our society is very individualistic. Jesus calls people to relationship and community. That’s one way. There are many others.

Not many of us are artists, but let me encourage those who are. The arts are the best vehicle we have for communicating Jesus’ vision for what human life should be. Reconciliation, forgiveness, community, redemption—when these gospel themes find expression in music, print, and the visual arts, the Good News is proclaimed more powerfully than from the pulpit.

So we point to Jesus. We hold up his vision for the coming kingdom of God. And we live that way. That’s how we change the world. In big and small ways, we try to make a difference. We know we are not wasting our time or heading toward disappointment, because we know the risen Jesus will bring his kingdom in all its glory someday.

Most of all, what I want you to take from this sermon is an attitude: Jesus is alive, so let’s change the world. Do not be content to let life pass you by. Do not be content with the way things are. Do not look to other people to do what needs to be done. We who believe are the advance guard. We have a job to do. We dare not become satisfied, comfortable, complacent. Look around you. Get angry. Get sad. What you see is not the will of God done on earth as it is in heaven. So do what Jesus told you to do: Pray for that day to come, and work for it. Amen.

rev_mauldin@yahoo.com back to sermons