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In Acts 17, Paul spends most of his time preaching to a group of philosophers at the Areopagus. He is clearly focused on doing whatever he can to talk about Jesus, explain the truth of Jesus, and invite people to follow Jesus. But he didn’t start his efforts to do this in Athens at the Areopagus with the philosophers. He started somewhere else. This morning, we’re going to look at where he started, what led him away from there, and how that may shape how we think about when and where we spend our time and energy talking about Jesus. That’s in today’s Covenant Weekly for May 5, 2026.

The passage in Acts 17, which read on Sunday begins with these words:

While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.

Paul arrived in Athens and was deeply bothered by all the idols there. What did he do with that disappointment? He took it to the same place he always started with the message of Jesus - to the synagogue. Here are people who say they are worshipers of Yahweh, whether they were Jewish or Gentile converts.  Of all people who should be aware of and disturbed by a smorgasbord of idols, it is these people! But, here in Athens, he doesn’t seem to get a hearing there. It is as though they are so familiar with the idols, the images of false gods are so commonplace, that the Yahweh worshipers are unbothered by them.

Finding no hearing there, among those who should have been primed to listen, he heads to the marketplace where people start to listen. That is where he encounters curious philosophers who debate him and invite him to share the sermon we focused on this past Sunday.

It wasn’t that long ago in Canada that no matter where you went, in churches or the marketplace, everyone had some familiarity with church and the Bible, God, Jesus. Not everyone believed. But most people believed they understood. So talking about faith, God, Jesus, the Bible usually began with hearing the thoughts, beliefs, or convictions others had on those things. Most of the time, people were either convinced in their faith or they were aware skeptics, often with significant wounds from religion. There were very few people to whom the good news of Jesus was completely foreign. To talk about Jesus was to go into the synagogue. And, to be blunt, to talk about Jesus wasn’t always well received.

When talking about Jesus in the community, those with baggage or deep wounds from those who used the name Christian were often antagonistic even to conversation. I wish I could say things have been different in churches, but I know many gifted and qualified pastors who have left church ministry to pursue ministry in para-church settings, or they have simply left ministry altogether because people in churches refuse to listen when pointed to Jesus. And I know very few pastors who haven’t endured some level of interpersonal violence with the church, even if they have remained in ministry. The disconnect between the way of Jesus and the way of many churches has been so strong that two pastors once coauthored a book called, “Jesus Wants to Save Christians.”

I’m not going to dwell on this too much, other than to encourage us to, in the words of the writer of Hebrews, to keep our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfector of our faith.

What I do want to dwell on is the way in which our world has changed. And that is that, in the marketplaces, we are constantly getting closer to the way things were in Paul’s day, as opposed to the way things were in the 1500’s, 1800’s, 1950’s, or even the turn of the millennium. Increasingly, when we speak the name of Jesus in our communities, people wonder what we’re talking about. There are fewer presuppositions and there is more ignorance. While this doesn’t get them closer to Jesus, it provides an opportunity, like Paul had, to introduce people to Jesus without hurdles that have been put there by people claiming his name. And this is a beautiful gift and opportunity! Like Paul, we have the opportunity to pay attention to what is around us and speak to how Jesus - not religion, not primarily the church, not our moral or political conclusions - how Jesus connects to the life, longing, and questions of people around us.

If we want everyone to be religious, things are bleak. If we want everyone around us to fit the mold of 20th Century American Evangelicalism, which is incredibly comfortable with idols, we’ll feel threatened. But if we want to truly follow and point people to Jesus, despite all the idols of our world around us, I believe there is a unique and special opportunity today to speak to how he answers their questions and their longings that they don’t even know how to identify. Many feel the lack in all that is going on around them. They are reaching for an unknown God. And we have the chance to tell them, his name is Jesus.