October 7, 2007

On April 16, 1976 a tall sickly 90 pound man was flown from Mexico to Methodist Hospital in Houston, TX.  He looked like a drug addict or alcoholic from the streets of one of our major cities.  He was dirty and severely malnourished; his hair, beard, and fingernails grossly long.  X-rays showed that broken off hypodermic needles were still embedded in his arms.  The FBI had to use fingerprints to corroborate who the pilot claimed he was: Howard Hughes, a man who had made billions of dollars in Hollywood and in the airline industry.  How many of you remember that news story?   For those of you who are younger, Howard Hughes was probably the richest man alive at that time.  He was 1960's and 70's version of Bill Gates.  And add to that, dashing good looks, celebrity status, connections with powerful government leaders. He had it all.  Sad story isn't it?  What would cause a man who had so much to turn to drugs and alcohol and meet such an horrific end?  Mental illness?  Perhaps.  But this is certainly proof that such things as money, power, and fame don't buy happiness.

Many of the Greeks who gathered on Mars Hill also wanted happiness and fulfillment.  Luke, who wrote Acts, makes an interesting comment about them in verse 21,

All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.

Now obviously in that day in a city like Athens there was only one class of people who could afford to do that: the upper class-the people who had it all and depended on others to support them.  In spite of all they had, they knew something was missing-and they desperately sought to find out what it was.  And so they spent their time listening to all the latest ideas, hoping to find something that would fill the void in their lives.  And it would seem that they that they hadn't found anything for they were still searching for a new idea, a new fad-something would take away the boring monotony of their lives.

Similarly in the area of religion they wanted to make sure they had their bases covered.  As Paul pointed out the Athenians honoured many gods.  They didn't want to leave out one for fear that they might miss out on a blessing.  Yet for all their religious zeal, they knew nothing of the one God who made everything and provided for their lives.

Paul said of such people in Romans 1:3

Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.  Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. ²⁵They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator.

Certainly most people in our society today do not worship idols of stone.  Yet, I wonder where most people are worshiping this morning?  Are most gathered in churches to praise their Creator, or are they somewhere else?  I wonder what will drive most of our lives this week.  Service to our Creator God or something else.  Today our children are well schooled in math and science, in history, in the arts, even in sports; how well are they schooled in the scriptures?   Interestingly, for all our prosperity today, people are more anxious, more depressed, more dissatisfied than in any other time in our history.  A connection perhaps?

Paul pointed out to the people in Athens that the true God never intended this to be the case.  Instead he lovingly provides for our lives.  Why?  Look at verse 27

God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us

He is not far from each one of us. God right there, holding out his hand, wanting for us to take it.  That is because he desires to give us a relationship that will bring joy and fulfillment to our lives.  This thought reminded me of what Genesis 5: 22- 23 said about Enoch,

And after he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. ²³Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years. ²⁴Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.

Strange words aren't they?  They are used later of Noah.  The writer doesn't say, Enoch worshipped God or Enoch served God or obeyed God.  But he walked with him 300 years.  God was the center of Enoch life and everywhere Enoch was God was.  Enoch had a special relationship with God.

That scripture made me think back to the days when I was little and used to go on walks with my dad.  On those walks we would stop pick wild grapes from abandoned vineyard; we would look at wrecked cars rusting in the field. We would skip stones on the pond and find walking sticks. But mostly we talked. And much of the time I set the agenda for conversation. I'll never forget those days.

In Genesis 3: 9 we read,

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day,

The Bible writer doesn't indicate that this was some special act. It seems like it often happened before. It must have, for Adam knew right away that it was God.  I have often wondered whether Adam and Eve used to accompany the Lord as he strolled through the garden. The thought was so amazing to me. Imagine the Creator of the universe, one so huge that even with our largest telescopes we have never seen the end of it... Imagine a God, to whom our galaxy must seem like a grain of sand, coming down to this microscopic planet and walking through the garden with our first parents. Now I don't know for sure if this happened. But the relationship that did exist between God and the people he created was that close.

God created us in such a way that we were able to have that kind of close relationship with him. Unlike the animals God gave us people a special gift. God made us in his image.

Now, an image is a reflection or likeness. It's like what you see when you look in the mirror. You really don't see yourself, but only a reflection of yourself. Just like your image in the mirrors reflects you, people reflect God. But, what do we mean by that? How do people reflect God?

Some have tried to answer this question by looking at how people are different from animals. They figured that if they discovered how people were different from animals, they would discover how they were like God. They pointed out that unlike animals people have souls or spirits that live on after they die. Others, like John Calvin, pointed to the fact that unlike animals people can reason and they have an ability to think more deeply. Some have pointed to the fact that people possess the gift of language .Now such characteristics allow us to know and recognize God in ways that animals cannot.  They allow us to have a relationship with him.  All creatures praise God, but only human beings can have a relationship with him.

It is interesting to note the words of verse 28,

God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number;

These words almost repeat what is found in verse 22, but there is one difference.  Let me read verse 22 and see if you hear it.

God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number

Did you catch it?  Verse 28 has the words to them

God bless them and said to them.

God speaks only with human creatures, for obviously they are the only ones capable of understanding such communication.  But the nature of the relationship God intended goes deeper than that.

Paul points out this special relationship in verse 28, where he says,

We are his offspring.

God created us to have a close relationship like that of a father to his children.  No we are not "little gods' as some cults and heretics have said.  But God, the great Creator is our heavenly Father.

Yet, even though that's what God intended, that's not what happened is it?

Genesis 3: 9 ends this way,

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

And they hid themselves.  The problem is not with God.  He wants a relationship.  The problem is with the people.  In this case it was shame and guilt.  But among their children it has many other causes: things like busy-ness, selfishness, and as we pointed out before, idolatry.

A little boy was visiting his friend's house for lunch.  Before they ate the boy bowed his head and waited for the prayer, which never came.  Instead he saw everyone just passing the food and eating. 

"What's wrong? Why aren't you eating?" asked his friend's mom.

"Don't you pray first?"

"Oh no! We don't follow such quaint traditions around here?"

"Oh I see" said the boy.  You're just like my dog-you start right in."

Yet, as much as we try to ignore God, it's awfully hard for people to get him out of their minds or their lives.  That is because we are not dogs; we are image bearers of God.

St. Augustine put it this way, when he prayed.

"You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you." 

But, even though God desires us to have a close relationship; even though we were made to have a relationship with God; even though we cannot find fulfillment without it, it eludes us why?  I think we all know the story of Adam and Eve and how they rebelled against God. We will consider that story next week.  When they rebelled we lost two other important ways God made us like himself. . Paul refers to them in Ephesians 4: 24, where he calls on believers to

To put on the new self, created to be like God, in true righteousness and holiness

As God is righteous and holy, so we are called to be righteous and holy.  And that is how God originally made us.  These two words are related. They both have to do with the moral part of people, with our ability to choose to do what is right. When we say that people were created righteous we mean that human will was originally in harmony with God's will. Humanity automatically did what God wanted. People found their joy in pleasing God. Human beings and God were of one mind. Just as God is love, so human beings were loving.   And because our will was truly in harmony with God's true love existed between God and the people he created. For isn't harmony and the desire to fully please someone else really the essence of true love?

When we say that human beings were created holy we are referring to the fact that they were pure and totally without any evil thought or desire. It was not so much that they knew right from wrong but they that they only knew what was right. Because they were perfect and holy it was possible for them to have fellowship with a holy God.  Any moral imperfection would have made this relationship impossible. 

Losing holiness made it impossible to have a relationship with God.  After Adam and Eve sinned they and all of us have struggled with guilt and shame. But, more than that, being in the presence of a holy God rightly makes us fear for our lives.  For his holiness will consume and destroy all that is not holy. And losing our holiness also makes us even lose our desire to know God.  Yes, we still have an aching void, but we don't desire to fill it with God.

C.S. Lewis in his book The Problem with Pain says it well when he writes,

"Heaven offers nothing that the mercenary soul can desire.  It is safe to tell the pure in heart that they shall see God, for only the pure in heart want to."

Paul ends his sermon by pointing by to Judgment Day and then saying to the Athenians

He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.

Until someone is raised with Christ few things in Paul's sermon make any sense and he or she is left with a void nothing can fill.  The proof can only to us only when we believe in the resurrection.

People of God, we believe that Jesus arose.  We believe that we have a new life in him.  We believe that his Spirit is renewing us day be day to be more like God, in true righteousness and holiness.  Why then do we still serve idols?  Why do we still hide from God?  Why do we still resist making him the center of our lives?  The Holy Spirit did not move Luke to record Paul's sermon and he did not guide the church put it in the canon for unbelievers but for us.  This is God's word to us.

Next week we will celebrate Holy Communion.  Today our Lord comes to us with these words, words that he first spoke not to unbelievers but to the church in Laodicea,  a church of lukewarm faith, neither hot nor cold,

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

The only way we can know the joy of communion is to open our heart to him-to invite him to be the center of our lives and the master of home.  How long will you leave the Lord knocking?  Oh, Holy Spirit, grant us all the grace to open ourselves to your presence that you might fill the aching void in our lives.  For Jesus sake  AMEN!