"I can see you are a religious people..."

Acts 17.22-31    NRSV     courtesy of http://www.biblestudytools.com/
22 Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, "Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. 23 For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, "To an unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. 26 From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, 27 so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. 28 For "In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said, "For we too are his offspring.' 29 Since we are God's offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. 30 While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead."

Paul is clearly the kind of fellow that can take any situation and make a sermon out of it!  And that is not necessarily an insult!  An effective preacher is able to stand in the middle of your context - in this case, in the middle of the Areopagus - and find a connection between your life and the message of Jesus. 

Not because the preacher is so clever, but because the very message of an incarnate god: Jesus (incarnate meaning 'having flesh') is that God is able to be present in any situation.  Furthermore, having made himself present, Jesus would have something to say to this and any people about their relationship with the creator and redeeming God.

Even to the Greeks who had more gods than they had names for them.  That isn't exactly true, I"m sure they could have thought up a name.  The reason 'an unknown god' has its own statue is rooted in the Greek desire to ensure that they haven't caused insult to a god by overlooking it.  Gods were not particularly happy, friendly, loving spirits according to Greek understanding.  The battles and jealousies of the gods led to most of the heartbreak and turmoil on earth according to their beliefs.  A reasonable person would keep her/his head down so that the gods would not take notice of them....and make their lives even more miserable.

Some starting point for a preacher!  Our picture and understanding of God - YHWH - Jesus' heavenly Father - is quite different.  Where the Greeks might begin with vindictive, jealous, unpredictable the believers in YHWH would start with creative, powerful, and faithful.  Remember the core relationship between God and Israel:  You will be my people and I will be your God.  And although we can't ignore the potential threat in those words, we also recognize the powerful words of belonging and cherishing.

My point for today:  where you begin when you start talking about 'god' has a lot to do with where you end up!  Have you ever had a conversation with someone whose entire emphasis is on God's judgment and demands of the people?  It is very hard to paint any kind of picture about a loving, sacrificial god under those circumstances.

Paul uses his opportunity to talk about God who created all and in whom we 'can live and have our being' (a probable quote from a Greek poem known at the time).  So put away all your ivory, silver and gold.  This God is a god of life, given as a gift and not to be shaped or manipulated by human hands.  The life force of this God is so powerful, it even raised Jesus from the dead. 

And we are God's offspring!  We are family to this God. 

Never once does Paul denigrate their beliefs - he simply expands them beyond what they knew to show them what they hadn't discovered yet.  That sounds like a pretty good sermon to me!

Now tomorrow's question is:  what are the gods we have lined up along our Aeropagus, taking the place of the one, true God?    Peace.