In our first reading from Acts 17, St. Paul could be speaking to almost any American community this morning. I'm going to read it again, beginning with the verses which come before what was read earlier, because it really sets up the whole story.

The longer Paul waited in Athens for Silas and Timothy, he was greatly upset when he noticed how full of idols the city was. He discussed it with the Jews and other like-minded people at their meeting place. And every day he went out on the streets and talked with anyone who happened along. He got to know some of the Epicurean and Stoic intellectuals pretty well through these conversations. Some of them dismissed him with sarcasm: "What an airhead!" But others, listening to him go on about Jesus and the resurrection, were intrigued: "That's a new slant on the gods. Tell us more." These people got together and asked him to make a public presentation over at the Areopagus, where things were a little quieter. They said, "This is a new one on us. We've never heard anything quite like it. Where did you come up with this anyway? Explain it so we can understand." Downtown Athens was a great place for gossip. There were always people hanging around, local citizens and tourists alike, waiting for the latest gossip on most anything.

So Paul took his stand in the open space at the Areopagus and laid it out for them. "It is plain to see that you Athenians take your religion seriously. When I arrived here the other day, I was fascinated with all the shrines I came across. And then I found one inscribed, to the god nobody knows. I'm here to introduce you to this God so you can worship intelligently, know who you're dealing with.

"The God who made the world and everything in it, this Master of sky and land, doesn't live in custom-made shrines or need the human race to run errands for him, as if he couldn't take care of himself. He makes the creatures; the creatures don't make him. Starting from scratch, he made the entire human race and made the earth hospitable, with plenty of time and space for living so we could seek after God, and not just grope around in the dark but actually find him. He doesn't play hide-and-seek with us. He's not remote; he's near. We live and move in him, can't get away from him! One of your poets said it well: 'We're God's offspring.' Well, if we are God's offspring, it doesn't make a lot of sense to think we could hire a sculptor to chisel a god out of stone for us, does it?

"God overlooks it as long as you don't know any better - but that time is past. The unknown is now known, and he's calling for a radical life-change. He has set a day when the entire human race will be judged and everything set right. And he has already appointed the judge, confirming him before everyone by raising him from the dead."

At the phrase "raising him from the dead," the listeners split: Some laughed at him and walked off making jokes; others said, "Let's do this again. We want to hear more." But that was it for the day, and Paul left. There were still others, it turned out, who were convinced then and there, and stuck with Paul.

What Paul was doing in Athens, Greece is like ordinary people like you or me going to Harvard, let's say, and teaching a room full of PhD philosophers! Pretty audacious; pretty bold. In fact, the intellectuals of Athens first dismiss him as a total airhead, but something in what he says intrigues them, and they ask to hear more.

That's what I hope these past three years of preparing for your Confirmation, or Affirmation, of Baptism have done for you. These years of study, service, and small group companionship were never intended to answer all your questions about God, or to make you religious intellectuals, or experts on the Bible. It is intended to draw you more deeply into the mysteries" of the Christian faith; to not only teach you, but to make you more curious; to demonstrate through your small group and worship life that the Christian faith isn't only about me 'n Jesus," but about being part of the whole body or Christ" (the church); to see through your adult guides and mentors that the Christian faith isn't just about book-learning, but it is an intriguing way of life; and to let you experience through your service activities what a positive and healing effect your single life of following Jesus has on others, especially others who are suffering or struggling. And join your single life of following Jesus with all of these others who are seeking to do the same, God uses us to literally change peoples' lives. God uses you and me and all of us imperfect people gathered with and around you today, to continue to make God's reign real and visible in Nisswa, Pequot Lakes, Brainerd and wherever God may lead you on this planet over the course of your life.

The Christian faith isn't about being religious." That can mean almost anything. Paul tells the intellectuals and the philosophers of Athens that they are extremely religious." Their chief problem isn't atheism (belief in no god) but idolatry. They will worship anything - statues made of gold, silver, or wood; they will worship sex, military power, money, prestige. And just in case they missed one, they even erected an altar to an unknown god," just to cover their bases, lest they overlook some god and make it angry. Paul's comment is really rather tongue-in-cheek: Yes, these folks are very religious" - they will worship just about anything!

And y'know what? The American culture you are growing up in offers much the same thing. There is a virtual supermarket of spiritualities, philosophies, religions out there. There's really nothing new about that. What is new is an increasingly wishy-washy approach to the Christian faith by Christian people when we say, Well, all religions teach basically the same thing. They are all just different paths to God."

But the Christian faith is not simply one of many philosophies or spiritualities or religions which leads us to some kind of enlightened self-aware-ness and social do-goodism. The Christian faith isn't simply one of many paths to God. The Christian faith isn't a path at all; it is a person - Jesus, who said, I and the Father are one. If you have seen me, you have seen God;" who, though he was fully God, became human in order to draw us not toward enlightened self-awareness, but to the LIVING GOD; who suffered, and died a horrible death in our place, conquering sin and death and opening the way to eternal life for us; who rose from the dead to bring us abundant lives, resurrected lives of joy, praise, and service toward God and our neighbor - not just pie in the sky when we die" - but now, as we live resurrected lives on earth.

Christianity is nothing like Hinduism, Confucianism, Buddhism, New Ageism, Mormonism. We certainly respect other faiths, and the people who practice them. But they are not all the same. Yours is not only a cosmic, eternal, intellectual, holy, powerful God; yours is a deeply personal God who knows you by name, who knows everything about you - all the best and all the worst - who had committed himself to you, who loves you unconditionally - even to the point of coming to live a life like yours to convince you how deeply God cares for you, to show you the lengths God will go to reveal himself to you in Jesus, so that you never have to wonder what God is like, or if God could possibly love you.

Christianity is not about spirit guides, human wisdom, escaping our bodies and becoming part of a vast spiritual nothingness, or being reincarnated over and over again until you get life right." You don't have to find the path to God.

God has already come to you - first, when you were baptized and didn't even know who God is, when you were totally incapable of knowing who God is. God came to you first, declared his undying love for you, and claimed you as God's own.

God has already come to you in the Bible, in the water and bread and wine of the sacraments.

God has already come to you most perfectly in Jesus.

God has already come to you in other Christians, in whom you see, and from whom you experience, the love of Jesus, the gracious acceptance of God, the great adventure of being a follower of Jesus.

When Jesus calls you to follow him, he doesn't expect you to be some kind of religious super-hero or holier than thou" annoying type of person. When you affirm your baptism and your Christian faith, he doesn't point you to the door and say, So long! Good luck!" He surrounds you with other believers who love Jesus and love you. In this morning's gospel, he promises to not only surround you but dwell within you as the form of the Holy Spirit, the comforter, the guide, and your advocate, to be with you forever - through the best of life that is yet to come, and most especially through the toughest of life.

Jesus doesn't want you to be a religious intellectual. He just wants you to follow him - and where he leads, we can confidently follow.

And so I want to leave you with a simple yet powerful thought which I hope you will remember and draw upon through the rest of your life: Never be afraid to entrust an unknown future to a known God.