Dearest e-votees-
This coming Sunday is Easter 6. We have jumped 10 chapters in Acts from last week's reading and what a difference we see in Paul (our approving coat rack formerly named as Saul in last week's reading).
Peace,
Karl
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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.”
Acts 17:22-31, NRSV
Karl Barth is quoted as saying you should preach with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. Paul had neither the Bible as we know it (he was still in the process of writing his portions) nor did he have a newspaper as we know it (which future generations might soon not have as well). But he did have the truth revealed to him by God (like the Bible) and an understanding of the context of the culture and the current events (like the newspaper).
Paul has an incredibly engaging hook for his message to the Athenians. As he wandered about he found an altar to an unknown god. He saw in the culture a desire to worship but perhaps a lack of clarity as to the best recipient of that worship. Starting from their self-expressed needs and desires he offers them Jesus.
All of us live in a world where people are searching. They desire to attach their worship and allegiance but often have difficulty discerning who or what is reliable and worthy. We can find ways to point people to Jesus as Paul did. We can proclaim the resurrection as Paul did. We can live lives of witness and service as God did. We can trust that God's grace is sufficient for us and that God's power is made perfect in weakness as was revealed to Paul.
We should seek to be students of our culture and allow scripture to shape us. With the Bible in one hand and whatever news conduit in the other and the indwelling Holy Spirit we can give very good news to a world that is longing to hear it.
God, continue to reveal yourself to us that you might not be unknown in our lives. Use us to reveal you to the world we inhabit. Amen.
This coming Sunday is Easter 6. We have jumped 10 chapters in Acts from last week's reading and what a difference we see in Paul (our approving coat rack formerly named as Saul in last week's reading).
Peace,
Karl
------------
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,
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.”
Karl Barth is quoted as saying you should preach with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. Paul had neither the Bible as we know it (he was still in the process of writing his portions) nor did he have a newspaper as we know it (which future generations might soon not have as well). But he did have the truth revealed to him by God (like the Bible) and an understanding of the context of the culture and the current events (like the newspaper).
Paul has an incredibly engaging hook for his message to the Athenians. As he wandered about he found an altar to an unknown god. He saw in the culture a desire to worship but perhaps a lack of clarity as to the best recipient of that worship. Starting from their self-expressed needs and desires he offers them Jesus.
All of us live in a world where people are searching. They desire to attach their worship and allegiance but often have difficulty discerning who or what is reliable and worthy. We can find ways to point people to Jesus as Paul did. We can proclaim the resurrection as Paul did. We can live lives of witness and service as God did. We can trust that God's grace is sufficient for us and that God's power is made perfect in weakness as was revealed to Paul.
We should seek to be students of our culture and allow scripture to shape us. With the Bible in one hand and whatever news conduit in the other and the indwelling Holy Spirit we can give very good news to a world that is longing to hear it.
God, continue to reveal yourself to us that you might not be unknown in our lives. Use us to reveal you to the world we inhabit. Amen.
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