Sometimes Being Solo Is What Saves the Soul; Message for July 21, 2019; Acts 17: 16-33

Rev. George Miller
July 21, 2019
Acts 17:16-33

Last Friday the ARC Foundation held a fundraiser called Heels That Heal, celebrating women in philanthropy.

One of the guest speakers was a dear friend and community organizer, Aisha Alayande from Drug Free Highlands.

Aisha spoke of the importance of listening to your body. She spoke about the importance of family.

Perhaps most importantly, she spoke about the need to find and form your own “tribe”- that group of individuals in which you can always be yourself, be authentic, and be vulnerable with.

For some people in the room, this use of the word “tribe” was a new one, and it became a part of that night’s vocabulary, appearing in various conversations and Facebook postings.

It can be said that in the Book of Acts we have been following the ways in which people like Paul have been building their own tribe; a tribe founded on Jesus Christ.

Paul’s tribe began with Ananias, who had the courage to call him “Brother.”

Paul’s tribe expanded when he bonded with Barnabas, strengthened souls is Syria, and joined the gang in Jerusalem.

Paul’s tribe grew and grew as he announced the Good News in Antioch, spent time with Timothy, set sail with Silas, and sat down with Lydia outside the gates of the city.

Paul’s tribe included a throng of powerful women in Thessalonica, and a burly band of brothers in Bereo.

And then…it came to a screeching halt.

Due to an uproar from the Religious Right, Paul’s life became endangered.

He is separated from his traveling companions and sent to Athens, all alone….

There is no more tribe.

No cohorts, no friends, no family.

No Timothy, no Silas, no Peter, no Lydia, no Golden Girls or Silver Guys.

Just Paul, in a strange new land, with strange new customs, with shrines all over the place devoted to deities who don’t even have names.

It is beyond “magenta.”

I wonder how many people here today have an inkling of what Paul must have been going through.

To be all alone in a place with people you don’t really know. No family, no friends, no church.

No one who thinks like you do, talks like you do, believes as you do.

Add to this the fact that Paul’s faith is still brand new and seen by everyone as awkwardly odd.

Paul is the lone follower of Christ in a community of folk who still hold onto the old ways, believe in Zeus or have no belief at all.

So not only is Paul alone, abandoned in Athens, he has not a single person to sing “Jesus Loves Me” with.

He has no one to recite “The Lord’s Prayer” with.

He has no one to break the bread and share the cup with.

Paul is that single, solitary sparrow in a world of strange shrines and curious customs…

On the surface, today’s scripture sounds triumphant, but if you read between the lines you discover that it’s about a very real person going through the very real aspect of what it means to be all alone.

If this was a movie, there were would be that montage filmed in blacks and greys in which a French accordion would play as we watch Paul wander through the streets of the city.

We would see Paul walk along endless storefronts, passing endless shrines as it rains.

He would be sitting alone in a café watching couples kiss and laugh.

Paul would be that guy coming home, popping a tv dinner into the microwave and eating it in silence while watching TV.

That Paul did not lose his faith in God or lose sight of the Good News is absolutely amazing.

With nary a tribe in sight, he just keeps on keepin’ on.

…That’s what faith in Christ can do…

Without anyone else by his side, Paul sets out to do what he can.

He speaks up.

He reaches out.

He talks so much that the locals label him as “The Babbler”…

…but eventually the people begin to listen; they want to know; they become curious; they request to hear more about the resurrection.

As it turns out, all those lonely days, all those woeful walks through the park has paid off, because Paul is able to use what he has seen to share what he knows to be true.

By being alone and having no one else but Christ to confide in, he conjures up a conversation no one was prepared for-

“You see that shrine over there,” he says with the confidence of a natural born man, “That shrine devoted to an unknown god? Well let me tell you just who that god is; and let me tell you what God has done!”

While standing amidst a throng of over-thinkers, in a place of people who put philosophy over personhood, Paul tells them all about God-

God the creator, God who is unlimited, God who can take one ancestor and make a nation.

But more than that, I think what Paul is actually doing is preaching to himself.

That at this moment in which he has been abandoned by his tribe, he has been shipped off and left on his own, in which he has spent countless days, hours, weeks by himself…

…Paul is preaching to remind himself just who he is and what God is about.

Paul is reminding Paul who God is-

Not consigned to one place, not stuck to one building, not limited by circumstances or geography or people who look or act or think as you do.

How God can take one ancestor; one single sparrow, and create an abundance, a flock, a nation…a tribe.

Paul tells them, and in essence tells himself, and tells us, that no matter what- GOD. IS. THERE.

Even if we have to search; God is there.

Even if we have to seek out; God is there.

Even if we have to wait, wrestle, or walk it alone; God is there.

And when we discover that no matter what, God is there, we can live, and we can find belonging.

As result of Paul’s preaching, pay attention to what happens- he ends up finding a new group of folks, he ends up discovering a new tribe.

Dionysus and Damaris join him as do others, and a brand-new chapter begins.

Today’s scripture is a reminder that the Christian story is one about always moving forward, always creating, co-creating and celebrating new communities.

Of reaching out and finding out that there are others reaching back.

Today’s story is a reminder that God is not limited to or found only in shrines and buildings and people and places that are familiar, but that God can also be found in the strange places, the new places, and the lonely places.

That God can be found within ourselves, and in the stories that we share.

Perhaps most of all, God is found in the communities we create and the tribes that we form, in which Christ is the center and the Holy Spirit moves through all.

Amen and amen.