April 27, 2008 | 8:00 a.m.

God by Any Other Name

John W. Vest
Associate Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church

Psalm 29
Acts 17:22–31

[Certain experiences] leave us wondering whether Christ can be more than Christianity. Or even other than Christianity. Can it be that the teachings of the gospel are embedded and can be found in reality itself rather than being exclusively isolated in sacred texts and our interpretations of these texts? If the answer is yes, can it be that they are embedded in other stories, other peoples’ histories, and even other religions?

Samir Selmanovic
in An Emergent Manifesto of Hope

Stanley Yelnats was in the wrong place at the wrong time. A pair of athletic shoes apparently fall out of the sky and land on his head. He takes them, thinking they are a “gift from God.” It turns out, however, that they are shoes donated to charity by a famous athlete but that have just been stolen. Stanley is therefore accused and convicted of stealing them and is sentenced to what can only be described as a chain gang for youth, forced to dig holes out in the desert, apparently looking for something important but never told what it might be.

Some members of his family, who have lived in poverty for generations, blame their consistent bad luck on a curse that goes back to Stanley’s great-great-grandfather. But as Stanley’s story unwinds, we wonder if it is a curse or something else. You see, his story and the story of his ancestors intersect in incredible ways with the stories of outlaw Kissin’ Kate Barlow and her murdered lover, Sam; the people responsible for Sam’s death and their descendants; the gypsy who supposedly cursed Stanley’s great-great-grandfather; and her descendents. A central location to the coming together of these stories is an oasis in the desert located on the top of a butte called “God’s Thumb.” In the end, these parallel histories are woven together and are resolved with a happy and good ending (Louis Sachar, Holes).

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Joseph was his father’s favorite and taunted his brothers with his dreams of greatness and influence. Tired of his attitude and their father’s favoritism, his brothers beat him up in the desert, fake his death, and sell him into slavery, which eventually brings him down to Egypt. While in Egypt, another unfortunate event brings him to prison. But this is overshadowed by a string of situations in which he was in the right place at the right time, and he ends up being appointed the most powerful man in Egypt, second only to the Pharaoh himself. This position of power and influence allows him to save not only Egypt from a devastating famine, but his family as well, with whom he is eventually reunited.

At the end of Joseph’s story, after he and his brothers have been reconciled, his brothers still fear that he might hold a grudge against them and wish to pay them back for the wrong they did to him. They plead for forgiveness before him, which brings Joseph to tears. Joseph, who had lived quite a remarkable and turbulent life, says this to them: “Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God? Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good” (Genesis 37–50).

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On a distant planet called Krypton, a scientist named Jor-El has discovered that his planet his headed toward imminent destruction. Unable to convince other scientists and leaders that he is right, he obeys the ruling council’s order that neither he nor his wife leave the planet. But he is able to save their son, Kal-El, by placing him in a homemade rocket and sending him through space to the faraway planet of Earth. Krypton is indeed destroyed, and Kal-El remains a lone survivor. On Earth he possesses great strength and remarkable powers, such as the ability to fly, and he grows up to become a savior of the world. (This is a summary of the Superman mythology from comics, film, and other media.)

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The Israelites’ population, enslaved to the Egyptians, grows so quickly that Pharaoh fears a potential revolution, so he dooms newborn Hebrew boys to death. Wishing to save her son, a woman named Jocheved places him in a homemade basket and sends him down the Nile River, where he is eventually discovered and raised by a daughter of Pharaoh. When he grows up, this child, named Moses, learns of his true ancestry and is eventually called by God in the desert to become the savior of his enslaved people. Moses is given remarkable powers by God and performs many signs and wonders in his efforts to save his people and lead them to freedom (Exodus 1–17).

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When Kal-El grows up, he is known to the world as Superman. Seeking advice and training from the spirit of his father, Kal-El is told this: “Even though you’ve been raised as a human being, you are not one of them. They could be a great people, Kal-El, if they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason, above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you, my only son.” (This is dialogue from the 1978 Richard Donner film, Superman. It was edited and reused in a teaser trailer for the 2006 Bryan Singer film, Superman Returns.)

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“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it” (John 1:1–5).

“And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

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Martin Luther King Jr. led an unprecedented and incredibly influential civil rights movement in the United States. He taught and practiced a form of nonviolent resistance that opened up eyes across our nation to the persistent and horrific realities of segregation and racism. King’s legacy lives on today through his teaching and his life’s example.

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When asked what was the greatest commandment, Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these’” (Mark 12:29–31).

Jesus also said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile” (Matthew 5:38–41).

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I share these many stories this morning—and there are many more I could tell—to demonstrate an important point. The core stories, themes, and archetypes of our faith tradition are deeply embedded in the stories of our contemporary culture. These stories have been retold and reinterpreted, to be sure, but one could argue that the essential messages persist, regardless of the particulars of characters and circumstances.

I find this fascinating in light of our scripture lesson this morning, the story of Paul preaching in Athens. Paul is on a missionary journey, spreading the good news of God through Christ throughout the Roman Empire. He comes to the Greek city of Athens, long known for philosophical and intellectual inquiry. He begins as he usually does, preaching and teaching from the scriptures in Jewish synagogues. Then he brings his message to the marketplace. And finally, he comes to a place called the Areopagus, which means “Mars Hill.” And there he debates and preaches the gospel to the gathered philosophers and thinkers, who are eager to hear something new.

He begins with something that is a curiosity to him. Among the many altars and idols throughout the city of Athens, Paul discovered an altar inscribed “To an unknown god.” Paul uses this as an opportunity to proclaim that his God, the God of Israel and the God of Jesus, is this “unknown god” revered by the Athenians. He then proceeds to tell the story of redemption that we know from the pages of the Bible.

But what I find truly remarkable about this speech is that Paul never once mentions God by name; never once mentions Israel by name; never once mentions Jesus by name. He talks about the gospel in a way that will be accessible to his audience, unencumbered by cultural and religious traditions that would not make sense to the Athenians.

I’ve thought about this story a lot over the years, and my appreciation of it has changed as my own thinking about ministry has developed. As a lifelong student of the Bible, I first read this story as a biblical purist. I found it troubling that Paul presented such a generic version of the Christian story. I was—and in many respects still am—of the mind that you can’t understand the New Testament story of Jesus and his followers without understanding the Bible as a whole. In other words, if you don’t understand the stories, traditions, themes, and issues of the Old Testament, you can never truly understand and appreciate what is important about Jesus’ life and message.

I would bristle at stories of missionaries going into remote areas of African jungles and simply telling the story of Jesus, often using native cultural elements to help explain and interpret the central gospel story. I would bristle as well at the amateur evangelists I knew closer to home, those earnest people passing out tracts of simplified theology and explaining short and sweet evangelistic concepts like “The Four Spiritual Laws.”

But now that I am further along in my own ministry, I think about this story of Paul on Mars Hills in a somewhat different way. I’m now something of a missionary myself, a missionary to the church, a church that is no longer familiar with the breadth and depth of the biblical story. It is well known that biblical and religious illiteracy is a widespread phenomenon in our culture. People don’t know the stories like they used to. Beyond the few vague recollections they have from Sunday school, the members of our churches are most familiar with the stories of Christmas and Easter but not much that happened before, between, and after these pivotal moments in the story.

And so I wonder if perhaps Paul was on to something. Am I being too dogmatic and rigid in my desire to teach and pass on the particulars of our Christian story? Is it worth the trouble it takes to teach a story that no one seems interested in learning? Is it enough to make sure that people know the essential themes and archetypes and teachings?

For example, what if this was the bare minimum that we proclaimed: God created the world, God redeems the world through love, Jesus came to show us how God wants us to live, Jesus taught us to love God and love each other as ourselves, and Jesus’ death and resurrection somehow reconciles us with God and each other.

Is this enough? And is it possible to convey these core truths through any medium? Can Stanley Yelnats, Superman, and Martin Luther King speak to us just as well, or perhaps even better, than the Bible?

Part of me wants to answer, yes. I know enough about how religion works to know that a variety of stories can share a common set of archetypes and themes and that these are the things that convey a sense of truth to people.

But I also want to answer, no. I tend to think of religion like a language. As people, we have experiences with something out there that is greater than us. Christians call this God. Beyond this, our biblical stories and theological traditions provide an entire vocabulary of language to describe and understand this God, who is in reality beyond our ability to understand and render into words.

If religion is like a language, we have choices to make about how fluent we wish to be. I know enough Spanish to order more food and drinks at a Mexican restaurant and, of course, how to ask for a bathroom. On the other end of the spectrum is someone who is fluent in Spanish, able to communicate with anyone else who is also fluent, able to understand and appreciate the most beautiful poetry and most lyrical music. When I’m stuck with “mas aqua por favor,” what am I missing out on?

Back to Paul on Mars Hill. When he got to the part of his story that dealt with resurrection, some people just blew him off. But others were intrigued and wanted to hear more. They said, “We will hear you again about this.”

I wonder what that follow-up conversation might have been like. I wonder what detail Paul might have added to his story.

We’ll never know, I guess. But God is calling us to tell our own stories, knowing that it is through these stories and through the actions that they inspire that our faith stays alive.

When we find ourselves on our own version of Mars Hill, what story will we tell?

Amen.