Acts 17:29-34 [1]     John 17:1-11 [2]  [3]

A couple of weeks ago my family and I had the opportunity to spend some time in the great city of San Francisco.  We looked at some colleges for my oldest, visited some relatives and took in the usual tourist sites.  Our first day we drove across the Golden Gate Bridge toward Marin County.  We parked the car and walked back over the bridge toward the City.  On our way we met up with a worker who was coming out of one of the towers.  My husband, always inquisitive, began to pepper him with questions about the bridge.  We learned some very interesting things:  The Bridge opened in 1937 and it has never been damaged, in spite of ferocious winds and enormous earthquakes.  Before its completion the bridge was considered impossible to build, due to persistently foggy weather, 60 mile per hour winds, and strong ocean currents, which whipped through a deep canyon below.  The bridge contains 80,000 miles of steel wire, which is enough to circle the equator three times and the concrete poured to cement the bridge into the stormy waters below could have also been used to pave a five foot sidewalk from New York to San Francisco.  There are 600,000 rivets in each tower, towers that are 191 feet taller than the Washington monument.  And they never stop painting the bridge!  When they get to one side-they immediately begin again.  Building the Golden Gate Bridge not only required vision but also an incredible amount of resources-money, people, time, creativity.  It seems like a lot for one bridge, but throughout history, people have willingly gone to great lengths to achieve monumental feats. 

          Pastor Bill Hybels suggests that it's because of our internal desire to span a chasm.  He writes:  "People on one cliff want to visit residents on another cliff.  Merchants want to reach customers on the other side.  Families and friends want access to each other.  And since the beginning of time, sensing vast distance separating them, people have been consumed by the desire to somehow get over the chasm separating them from God" (Just Walk Across the Room pg. 133)

          Today is the last Sunday dedicated to the current sermon series "letters to an unknown god"  In this series we've attempted to address some of the claims our culture makes about God. Rather than run from these claims or ignore them our hope is that you'll be encouraged to engage in conversations that wrestle honestly about who God is and what God might be up to. Studies show that the gap between church and culture is perceived by many to be growing-but that's not how it has to be-in fact, it's not how God intends it to be.  God has invited us to follow Jesus and in Jesus' words in the Gospel reading today he makes it clear that those who follow him remain in the world. As followers of Christ we aren't immune to what goes on in the world.  We are in it-part of it, effected by it.  But we do not belong to it-it does not have power over us.  It doesn't define us or control us.  As followers of Christ we belong to God, not to the world-that IS true--but we can't forget that the world does belong to God.  Keeping this in mind leads us to live in ways that respect and care for God's creation and all who are part of it.

          That's Paul's starting point in his famous sermon to the Athenians at the Areopagus as recorded by Luke in the lesson from Acts.  For understanding people outside the church, it needs to be our starting point too: God made the world and everything in it.  There is no sphere of influence outside of God's care and concern.  All of so-called "secular" life-law, literature, medicine, education, the arts, business, government, science-anything and everything is a place where God is already present and creating to bring order out of chaos.  Our challenge as people of faith is to continually look for signs of God being at work in our world and to ask ourselves what is God up to and be open to ways in which we can take part.

          In the Gospel Jesus is praying to God.  It's just before his trial begins which leads to his crucifixion and death.  In this prayer Jesus begins by acknowledging his relationship with God. They are one.  And Jesus' finds strength for what lies ahead in knowing that his crucifixion and death will give glory to God.  They will be in each other's presence again, just as they were before the world existed.  Jesus' prayer could have stopped there, but that would have served only himself which is not what Jesus was about.  Jesus continues with prayers for his disciples and for those who will believe, which is to say that this prayer is for you and me too.  Jesus asks that God protect us as we remain in the world and that we may be one with him and God.  Jesus prays for unity which invites us into God's creative process of bringing about wholeness and healing for the world.

          This is why we can't be ambivalent about a gap that exists between the culture and the church. Finding ways to bridge that gap gives glory to God.  It's what we're called to do. It's what we're empowered to do.  No matter where you are-your home, the office, the playground, a restaurant, a school and no matter what situation you might find yourself in or conversation you may be a part of we are called to live with eyes of faith that look for where God might be at work.  We are part of God's church; we are part of the culture.  By God's Holy Spirit we can be the bridge which carries the healing news of God's love for all people. 

          Last week, if you were here, we read part of the first lesson that we read again today.  Today's lesson goes a little further and tells of how Paul's time in Athens comes to an end.  In these scripture verses Paul affirms that we are all God's offspring.  God is the reason for our existence-God is the one in whom we live and move and have our being.  God is the creator of all things and all things belong to God.  It's a statement of faith that to some, can sound as if God is selfish but in Jesus the selflessness of God is revealed. In Jesus, God emptied himself, being born in human likeness, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death-even death on a cross. 

          There's a children's book that tells the story of 7 blind mice that encounter an elephant for the first time and they are trying to figure out what it is exactly.  One touches the giant leg and says, "It's like a tree".  Another feels the trunk and says "No, no.  It's like a giant python."  A third feels the rope and says "No-you're wrong, it's a coarse rope".  In many ways, God is like that elephant, in that none of us are able to see the fullness of God.  None of us can comprehend God's greatness and so God comes close to us in Jesus.  In Jesus we are able to catch a glimpse God's heart which longs to be in a relationship with us.

          Whether we're in the church or not humanity has these things in common:  we are all created by God and none of us can create God.  A child doesn't give birth to his or her parent, and creatures do not create their own creator.  But creatures do create.  In the story of creation, God creates trees and then empowers the trees to create more trees.  When God creates humans God empowers us to create too.  So while God is not "like" an image created by the "art and imagination of mortals" as it says in verse 29, art can begin to describe God, and open hearts and minds to an experience of God.  It makes sense then that Paul quotes poets from the culture to speak about what God is like.  When we embrace human creativity as a gift from God, we are drawn closer to God.  When we embrace the world and all that is in it we understand the nature of God better too.

          Paul is an incredible role model for us as we try to be faithful witnesses to the love of Christ.  The needed news of God's saving love for all people doesn't change but in order to be heard or experienced our approach needs to always be changing.  We can learn so much from Paul.  Paul left his comfort zone and went to the people; he did not wait for people to come to him.  People called him names-but seeds were planted. Paul persevered and the story of Jesus was heard.  We are empowered to do the same.  When you are outside your comfort zone, pay attention to the people around you.  Pay attention to peoples' stories.  Listen to the music preferred by others.  Learn from those with different life experiences.  Look for God who is already present there.  And then pray to be open-open to God working through you to reveal his love in a way that can be seen and heard.  We don't know the impact we might have-but trust that God is with you as you hope to bridge the cultural gap.  Some will scoff.  Some will want to hear more...and others might just discover the God who has been with them all along.  Amen.