“The Work of the Spirit, Part 4: The Witness of the Spirit” by the Rev. Dr. Don Wahlig, May 10, 2026, Year A / Easter 6 – Psalm 104:24-34 ¨  Acts 17:16-32

THEME:   The Spirit guides and inspires us to witness to others by living out our core Christian values and meeting them where they are.

One thing is immediately and abundantly clear from today’s portrait of Paul in Athens. The energy and zeal with which he once persecuted followers of Christ is now fully transformed and repurposed by the Spirit. The proof is in his persistence, as he shares the gospel in cities of the Eastern Mediterranean world, despite numerous obstacles. In this second missionary journey, Paul has faced consistent, often violent, opposition. In Philippi he was whipped and thrown in jail. In Thessalonica he barely escaped a riot. Most recently, he was run out of Berea, because the ruffians in Thessalonica followed him there.

As if all that were not hard enough, Paul is now evangelizing alone. He has fallen out with Barnabas, his mentor and partner in the first missionary journey. Timothy and Silas are his companions on this second missionary journey. But they have stayed behind in Berea to try to hold the church together. As a result, when Paul steps off the boat in Athens he is all by himself. 

Athens is like no place Paul has ever been. At its height 500 years before, Athens was famous. It was the intellectual, cultural, and political center of Greece.  It was the birthplace of democracy, the home of classical philosophy, theater, and architecture. Even after Romans conquered Athens in the first century BC, Athens remained the Empire’s premier cultural and intellectual hub. Not only is the city of Athens unlike any Paul has seen before, so are its people. The Athenians are intellectually curious and religiously observant – in the extreme. Ordinarily those would be positive attributes, but not from Luke’s perspective, and certainly not from Paul’s. The people have an insatiable appetite for debating any and every new idea. They have a phobic compulsion to worship every small-g god they can think of.

For this reason, the city is littered with statues, alters and shrines.  After all, all these gods need to be worshiped.  To ignore any of them was to risk angering them.  Superstition dictates that, when the gods are angry, bad things happen to mortals. So, just in case they had overlooked any of the pantheon of deities, the Athenians covered their bases by creating a statue to an unknown god.

When he enters the city Paul is deeply disturbed to find such rampant idolatry. The question is what should he do? Should he confront the people and condemn their heretical blasphemous religious observance? What would you do? Paul’s first step is to meet the people to whom he is witnessing. He wants to better understand them. So, he goes to the synagogue and the marketplace. He tells them about the God of Israel and his son, the Messiah, Jesus Christ, in whom new, eternal life is now possible. 

This is news to the people of Athens. It sounds strange to their ears. This brings him to the attention of those who follow the various philosophical schools. They dismiss him as a babbler. But, as more and more people become curious, they bring him to the Areopagus. The Areopagus was the high court of domestic law where a council of judges oversee religious life in Athens. In addition to trying cases of law and order, the council supervises the teaching of philosophy and public lecturers, including the investigation of foreign religious ideas. Here they give Paul a proper hearing. And Paul shows us what great witness looks like. Rather than condemning the idolatry that he finds so offensive, he meets the people where they are.  He speaks first of what he has seen and appreciated in them and their culture. He praises in them what they admire about themselves, namely their deep religious impulse. In my sales training, we would call this establishing rapport.

Then Paul shows us what a genius evangelizer he is. He points them to the alter of the unknown god. He appeals to their intellectual and religious orientation by explaining just who this unknown god really is. Now, with their good will and full attention secured, he explains about the one true God.  Previously unknown to the Athenians, this God whom Paul proclaims made the world and everything in it.  He defined where and how long people live. Most of all, God made humankind so that they would seek him out, fumbling around and finding him.  God, who is Lord of Heaven and Earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands. Nevertheless, he is never far away from his children, which includes all of them.

And the day is coming – when, only God knows – when a man of his choosing will return to judge the earth and all peoples. And we know this is true because God raised this man from the dead when he was here with us.  Now he calls all humankind to repent and serve him, and him alone. And so the seed of the church was planted in Athens, among the Greco-Roman world’s most sophisticated, jaded peoples. I recognize that culture. Maybe you do, too. It is very much like our own.  Like the Athenians, contemporary American culture thrives on new ideas, new ways of thinking. 

The difference is that, instead of having to go the marketplace or courthouse to hear them, we simply turn on our phones and start scrolling. The ever-growing amount of screen time we spend on our devices is statistical proof of our addiction to the digital content which entertains us. When it comes to faith and religion, our addiction to novelty is equally apparent. We become bored with orthodoxy. Rather than making the sincere and difficult effort to grow deeper in the practice of our own faith, we seek out others. We even create our own syncretistic spiritual beliefs to suit our interests and satisfy our insatiable appetite for all things new. This is usually what folks mean when they say they are “spiritual but not religious.”

It is tempting for those of us who are firmly rooted in orthodox Christian faith to criticize and even condemn these impulses. But we do so at the risk of missing the opportunity that God has given us to witness to Christ as Paul did.  

The question is, how can we do, here and now, what Paul did, then and there? The first step is to meet folks where they are. That means recognizing and validating the impulses that they most honor in themselves, even if the actual practice is not what we might hope for them. There are three prominent impulses which are the hallmarks of our contemporary culture.

First and foremost, an intense spiritual hunger in the midst of a secular society. Second, a craving for stability in the midst of a chaotic world. Finally, a deep desire for authentic community in the midst of fractured family relationships. These three fundamental needs – spirituality, stability, and relationships, are needs that we in the church are well-equipped to meet. The proof is in the numbers. Folks of all ages, particularly younger generations, are increasingly returning to church.  This trend dates back to COVID and shows no sign of dissipating.

For those of us in the church this is good news. It is up to us as a congregation to take these needs seriously by welcoming and affirming folks of all ages when we see them here in worship, especially those we have not seen in a while, as well as those we have not met before. Here at SSPC, we are generally pretty good at this. That is because we are living out our 5 core values:  glorifying God, showing compassion, sharing hospitality, nurturing relationships and stewarding our gifts.

People rightly expect this from us when they are here in church. The real question is are we living out these values in our personal lives? Is God glorified in our day-to-day interactions with family, friends and strangers? In our secular lives, are we showing compassion to others in need? As we encounter others in daily activities, do we open ourselves up to make them feel welcome? When we have the opportunity to deepen existing relationships and forge new ones, do we take advantage of it?

Finally, does the way we use our money, our time and our God-given talents reflect the fact that Christ is our Lord and Savior? Friends, living out these values is the foundation of our Christian witness. Living this way naturally leads to a conversation with others. That conversation centers on the question “Why?”

Others will notice the way we live and act. They will wonder why we are the way we are, and we why we live the way we live. That is the invitation for us to testify to our faith in Christ. It is all because of Christ. What God did in Christ has given us new life. Our values are the way we express that new life. It is how we show our love for God, and our love for others.

That is our witness. May it be so.