{"id":703,"date":"2002-05-05T19:53:44","date_gmt":"2002-05-05T19:53:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/?p=703"},"modified":"2020-12-03T00:00:11","modified_gmt":"2020-12-03T00:00:11","slug":"groping-for-an-illustration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/groping-for-an-illustration\/","title":{"rendered":"Groping for an Illustration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Acts 17:22-34<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

May 5, 2002<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By now I have learned that men and women think differently. That\u2019s the reason why the world is seemingly different. Now half of you here (all the women) think that the way you see the world is the right way. You think you are smarter than men! But rather, the different ways men and women think leads us to put the world together differently. For instance, men tend to think in linear progression (first A, then B, next C). Women are more holistic, think things in context, connecting different elements (C, connected to A leads to B).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, when I go out, I would fill up my gas tank in Mill Valley, stop by the Post Office for some stamps, and pick up a carton of milk at the 7-Eleven on the way home. Now Joy would buy the milk at Mollie Stone\u2019s and pick up some bananas to go with the cold cereal. And since she\u2019s there, she would pick up dinner as well and get the stamps at the supermarket checkout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have difficulty understanding our world because we are thinking so differently. Perhaps that\u2019s the difficulty we have in thinking about Easter. The world is in the grip of death, yet Christians have seen the defeat of death in Easter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a preacher, I want you to come to church and to help you think about God. But it\u2019s not easy. Immediately, as I begin to talk you begin to think\u2014sometimes on things totally different from what I might be saying. You come here with certain convictions about what can and can\u2019t happen, what is expected and reasonable in the world. So I find myself groping for illustrations that would speak to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Familiar Situations<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

When I was in my seminary preaching classes, they told us to always begin where your hearers are. Start off with a relevant story or a funny joke\u2014something that your congregation knows and understands before you attempt to move them toward anything new or unfamiliar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the first things I noticed when I came to San Francisco is how I am so unfamiliar with some of the most important and transforming experiences in your lives. While I grew up in Boston\u2019s black community, many of you grew up in Chinatown, joined the Y, and attended Commodore Stockton School. While I lived most of my life in the East Coast, most you are long-time \u201cCaliforns.\u201d While I have seen many sunrises over the Atlantic, you have seen mostly sunsets over the Pacific. Sometimes, I find myself groping for illustrations!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The famous preacher Harry Fosdick once said, \u201cPeople don\u2019t come to church burning to know whatever happened to the biblical Jebusites.\u201d You come to hear a familiar illustration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You want help with everyday problems. So, I start with everyday illustrations, then to Scripture seeking answers to your modern questions. I try to begin where you are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what if the good news is good because it is NEWS; that is, it isn\u2019t something you have come up with but something that has come to you? What if it\u2019s something that you have never experienced yet but you are asked to still trust that it will happen? What if my job is more than simply to come up with answers to your questions, but rather to give you new questions to ask?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What if my job, as preacher, is not simply to help you think about the world in a new way, but rather to show you a new world, thereby to convince you that you don\u2019t know yet how to think?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul in Athens<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

In today\u2019s Scripture Paul has been traveling all over the known world, preaching. He\u2019s had a good bit of success. He was familiar with his surroundings. But can the good news of Jesus make it in an educated town like Athens? Here we have sophisticated thinking people with Ph.Ds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Athens, Paul is at the cradle of classical civilization. He looks on the Partheon, the Erycheon, the Apollo Belvedere, and the Elgin Marble, and sees, \u201ca city full of idols.\u201d But frankly, he was not impressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So Paul started to argue in the synagogue, then he argues out in the street, down in the marketplace, everywhere he can start an argument with anybody. Some people scoffed him off. Others who were more open-minded said, \u201cHe seems to be talking about gods.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So they brought him to the Areopagus where they had their big philosophical debates, and they ask Paul, \u201cWhat is this new teaching?\u201d You see, Greeks spent all their day doing nothing but learning about new things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul gets up and like a good preacher begins by flattering his hearers, \u201cAthenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way.\u201d (Like the way I said, \u201cWomen are smarter than men!\u201d) Paul helps them to see that the unknown god that they worship is the God who made the world and everything in it. Paul is observant and takes the familiar statues of the Greek gods and leads his hearers to understand something new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul tries to relate with the Athenians by saying that we all have come \u201cFrom one ancestor.\u201d We all have common human origins. Then groping for another illustration, he quotes from a poet, \u201cFor we too are this offspring.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then he says, \u201cGod has overlooked the times of human ignorance\u201d and has fixed a day we shall be judged by a standard higher than that of our own devising. And that God has proved all of this by raising Jesus from the dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And with that, Paul\u2019s sermon ended. \u201cWhen they heard of the resurrection of the dead,\u201d some people scoffed and mocked him. Others found Paul\u2019s teaching so interesting that they wanted to discuss this again sometime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not many people were moved or converted on that day except a few including Dionysius and a woman named Damaris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once Paul made his points about the resurrection of Jesus and the day of God\u2019s judgment, he lost his hearers. They didn\u2019t have anything familiar to understand what he meant. How can they think about things that have no analogy in their experiences? Paul was groping for an illustration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our Thinking Today<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

In our world today, it\u2019s almost like \u201cWe are the center and source of all judgments.\u201d Don\u2019t worry about the Bible, or other people. If it seems right to me than it must be okay. \u201cWho are you to question me?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our world today when something dies, it stays that way. How are we ever going to be able to think of God\u2019s victory over death and in the resurrection of Jesus? It\u2019s not in our range of experiences. The defeat of death is another way of thinking that is beyond both men and women\u2019s ways of thinking about the world. We have no analogies or illustrations to help us to understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This incident of Paul in Athens is like our experiences today. It\u2019s a story about our thinking after Easter. In your bulletin today, it reads, \u201cSixth Sunday after Easter.\u201d We put that in there to remind us to think about Easter. We can relate with Easter bunnies and Easter eggs. And even though we have celebrated Easter with the singing of \u201cAlleluias\u201d and \u201cHe is risen, indeed!\u201d the victory over death is outside of our understanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a preacher, I want so badly to be heard, to be understood. I want you to understand. But it\u2019s hard to understand when the matter for understanding is Easter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I, like Paul, try to take you as far as I can down the road toward understanding. I grope for relevant illustrations every Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then we get to a point where past experiences and present understandings of the world just breaks down. None of us have experienced the judgment of God or seen the resurrection of Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We think that we can reason or think hard enough to believe. But reason can only take us so far. After that, faith is required for the rest of the way. Faith is the gift and grace that enables us to go beyond our thinking to believe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Groping for Repentance<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Almost everybody that day when Paul preached in Athens didn\u2019t get it. But some did. Dionysius got it, and a woman named Damaris got it. They came forward to be disciples. Instead of groping for facts and analogies to believe in, they heard about Jesus Christ and what he did for them. They heard about the day on which God will judge the world. They heard about Jesus\u2019 resurrection. And with that they turned from their own ways and repented for their sins to believe. They discovered a new way of seeing the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus proclaimed in Mark 1:15<\/a>, \u201cThe time has come; the kingdom of God is upon you; repent, and believe in the gospel.\u201d From repentance our faith grows. By turning to God, we begin to see an entirely different understanding of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul said it this way in Romans 12:2<\/a>, \u201cAdapt yourself no longer to the pattern of this present world; but let your minds be remade and your whole nature thus transformed. Then you will be able to discern the will of God, and to know what is good, acceptable, and perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we proclaim the gospel, calling for repentance is at the center of our mission as a church. The first church apostles called people to repentance, baptized them, and shared a common life in prayer and the breaking of bread. We can have a new understanding of the world and begin to identify with the meaning of the day of judgment and the resurrection of Jesus by turning toward God in repentance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why do we celebrate the Lord\u2019s Supper today? It is an invitation for you to repent of your sins and to turn to God in thanksgiving for what God has done for you in the gift of Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps it\u2019s really not that important for me to struggle every week, groping for just the right and relevant illustrations to make my point. When we come willingly and honestly to God seeking his guidance and will for the world, we repent from our sins and are giving the insight of better understanding God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul said in our Scriptures for this morning, \u201cThey would search for God, and perhaps grope for him and find him\u2014though indeed he is not far from each one of us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You and I don\u2019t need to grope for illustrations anymore. Perhaps the best illustration is \u201cyou.\u201d Like Dionysius and Damaris, you are only a small percentage of the people in the Bay Area. When you come to church every Sunday, you are proof of Easter! The evidence of the resurrection is you. The illustration of God transforming real lives is you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faith is not the result of your intellect to solve certain mysteries of life. Faith is not how meaningful my illustrations are. Faith is a gift. It\u2019s God\u2019s grace to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us pray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O God, bless us with a repentant heart so that we may come to understand you and your grace in the world. Lead us to trust you with our lives to do your will. And may our word and deeds signify your love for the whole world. In the name of Jesus Christ whose birth, life, ministry, death, and resurrection reveal who you are for us on this sixth Sunday after Easter. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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