Acts 17:22-31
So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for
“‘In him we live and move and have our being’;
as even some of your own poets have said,
“‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And tonight, we're starting a new series for the season of Lent all about a theology that is different from the way Christians often think I teased you all about it on Sunday morning, I said it's a religion that doesn't have any ordained priests. It has no buildings, and it is not a dot denomination. But it does have people who preach it from the pulpit every Sunday. It's called moralistic therapeutic deism. Now, when you put those words together, they are a bit of a challenge to run through. So you have to think about them a little bit less. So let's do that. Let's start with the first one, moralistic. What this means is that one of the chief aims of religion is to produce good people, people who do good things. And the idea is it's a moralistic approach to life. You've heard people talk about religion, giving their children or other people a good moral foundation. That's what that's talking about. The second word is therapeutic. And we know therapeutic therapeutic is all about helping us through problems. When you are having a mental health crisis, you go to a therapist. And so moral therapeutic deism is about helping you through your problems. One of the chief aims is to make your life better. Deist. Or deism is the idea that God created the world and let it run on its own. The classic example is the divine watchmaker, a watchmaker, takes all of the parts, puts the watch together, sets it down and watches it run. And a deistic. God is a faraway God, who created the world, set everything in order, and then just let it go on its own. And so a moralistic therapeutic deist is someone who believes that the moralistic approach to life being a good person, and that God is there to help you make your life better. But for the most part, he is pretty far off. Now, I didn't come up with this word, or this phrase, it comes from a book called soul searching the religious and spiritual lives of American teenagers, which came out in 2005. And it is a fascinating book, if you are interested in the spirituality of America, you should definitely read it. Some amazing findings that I think are important to talk about before we get into actual moralistic therapeutic, deism is just very simple. Teenagers will do what you tell them. They found that the vast majority of teenagers were more than happy to go and follow their parents religion. If the parents tell them to go to church, they'll go, and they'll generally be happy about it. Now you guys look at me, and you're like, what? You're crazy, right? Maybe they won't be happy about it in the moment. Maybe when it's early morning, and they're like, Ah, really. But otherwise, they're generally pretty happy about it. If you ask them to wait, no, not if their parents asked them. When the reacher researchers asked them. They were all basically happy just to follow along and live the life that their parents lead. And that's a fundamental thing about teenagers. It if you tell them what to do, they'll be happy about it. And that is actually what happens in our youth group. When we run into teenagers. They might complain Uh huh. I don't want to go. But when they get that they have fun, and they enjoy it. And that's just kind of how teenagers work. Now, you might think, Wait a second, I raised my children in the faith and they don't go to church. I think part of the problem is that we just assumed kids wouldn't be interested in the Orthodox faith that we would have to give them something else. And what we ended up giving them was moralistic therapeutic deism. One of the reasons is because Orthodox churches had been influenced by an American civil religion. That's the religion that politicians use when they say God Bless America, or there's a national tragedy and they read a psalm. They're not thinking about Jesus, they're thinking about their political ambitions. A god of America who loves guns, freedom, and cheeseburgers. Another reason, I think, is that we wanted to make sure that our children had something relevant and useful in their life. And so we tried to convince them that Jesus is worthwhile by giving them well, a religion that helps, that makes their life better, that has a reason in this world, rather than simply pointing them to eternal life and resurrection. Now, moralistic therapeutic deism has five different beliefs as summed up in that book. And what's amazing is that we have five Wednesdays in the season of Lent, and so it works out very well. Each Wednesday, we're going to cover a different one, the five beliefs are one, a god exists, who created and orders the world, and watches over human life on Earth, to God wants people to be good, nice and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible, and by most world religions. Three, the central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself. For God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life, except when God is needed to resolve a problem. And finally, five, good people go to heaven when they die. Tonight, we're going to be talking about the first one, a god exists, who created and orders the world and watches over human life on earth. Now, this is the deistic part of moralistic therapeutic deism. Now, when you ask a young child about God, they will often reply using the same standard language, that God is a guy up in heaven, right? If you tell them draw God, they'll give you pretty standard image, right? It's an old man with a big, white fluffy beard, big, white poofy hair, and he's in a white robe standing on a cloud. And that's the image of God. That image matures a little bit as we grow up. And then until we get to Morgan Freeman, in a white suit, like he was in Bruce Almighty, you know, God is up in heaven, he comes down and he talks, but he's sort of not involved. And you know, in that movie, Bruce complains to God about, about how God is running things. And so God comes down to give him his almighty power. Well, God goes on vacation. The idea behind this is that a deistic God, who looks down on humanity, is someone who is rather uninvolved, and occasionally intervenes in our lives. He's sort of like the jolly old uncle who comes to visit bearing gifts every once in a while, or the divine watchmaker who only needs to repair a piece occasionally, is that what Paul and the Bible tell us about God? Just a little while ago, I read from Acts chapter 17, where it says, what you therefore worship unknown, do this, I proclaim to you, the God who made the world and everything in it being Lord of heaven, and earth does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though He needed anything since he himself gives to mankind, life and breath and everything. And he made from one man, every nation of mankind to live on the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him. Now all of that comports with with God being up and far away. But also St. Paul says this, yet he is actually not far from each one of us. For in Him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said, quote, for we are indeed, his offspring. Now, what does that mean? So if if we are in Him, we live and move and have our being. That means the God is everywhere, and around and in everything, though he is not contained by anything. Right? God is the one who makes reality happen. You see, this God is a transcendent God, and all of reality is contained within him. Psalm 139, which I also read just a little while ago, talks about where God is the psalmist says,
Where shall I go from your spirit? Or where shall I free from your pret flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you're there. If I make my bed industrial, you're there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the most parts of this, even there, your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold. What it means is that God is not a far off God who looks down on creation. But he is intimately involved in everything. He is a God who is in charge of everything, in control of everything. If he is everywhere at all times, and all powerful and all knowing and almighty, nothing happens without his say. So instead of having a divine watchmaker, I think the best way to think about this is the analogy of computer hardware and software. If computer, if God is the hardware, creation is the software that he is running, everything is under his control. All that happens is according with God's plan. Now, what that means is that we have a bit of a challenge in our understanding of God. If everything is happening, according to God and His will, that means that the bad things are part of of his work, too. So what about the earthquake in Turkey? What about cancer? Car accidents, crazy politics? What about those things? Is God there behind it all, too. That's a tough pill to swallow. A lot of us think when we see bad things happen, we say, oh, no, God allows it to happen. But really, if God allows something, and he's all powerful, and all mighty means well, he's part of it to God is in everything around everything, sustaining everything as it happens. If God is truly all powerful, and all controlling, it means he is truly all powerful, and all controlling, which is actually kind of a good thing for us. Because it means God has the power to push everything towards the resurrection, that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. It means that the all powerful Almighty God actually controls history and pushes it to toward the resurrection. Even Satan himself is God's servant. Got devil. Think about it this way. We know that it's God's plan to send His son Jesus Christ to die on the cross. And that is to say this was the plan from the very beginning after Adam and Eve sinned. But think about this. What would have happened if Satan hadn't actually brought about the temptation to put Jesus on the cross? The Bible tells us that Satan tempted Judas to betray him. And Satan was there to tempt the tempt the Pharisees, in fact, in the Gospel of Matthew, Satan, Satan's words are repeated by the Pharisees who stand at the foot of the cross and say, if you are the Son of God, come down from the cross repeating the words that Satan some something just like what Satan said, when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness. Now what would have happened if Satan hadn't tempted these people? If when Jesus went into Jerusalem, the crowds followed Him and cheered. The Pharisees had said, you go Jesus, we love it. This is great. He never would have been arrested. He never would have been tried, beaten, broken crown of thorns, no nailing to a cross and no death and resurrection, to save us. God used Satan to bring about our salvation. Isn't that nuts? But that's because he's God's devil. The real problem is that when you have a deistic God, a God who is far away and only looks down on creation, you have a God who isn't in control. Think about it this way. If God is in charge of everything, it means he's in charge of everything. If God isn't in charge of everything, it means he isn't in charge of everything. If God is in charge of everything, you can rely on him to make sure his promises are true, and will happen. If he isn't in charge of everything. It means that maybe we can escape his hand. Maybe the devil can snatch us from him. That's not the God of the Bible is it? So a deistic God, when you look at it, when you finally get down to what it really means, means that God is not in control of anything. He's got some power, some might, but the rest is up to the world. But if God is truly Almighty and all powerful, it means that he has the power to make salvation for you. And that all things are working towards our eternal life and resurrection on the last day. In Jesus name, amen.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai