Sunday, June 20, 2021

 

Sunday Reflection: The creator and the created

 Last week in Sunday Morning Jesus Club we were talking about Acts 17, where we found this (as Paul spoke to those in Athens, which of course would be a tough crowd given the long traditions and established beliefs of that remarkable place):

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[i] 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[j] 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.’

I'm not a huge fan of Paul; I think he was wrong a lot and too often arrogant. But this exchange is moving and elegant. He starts not from his own beliefs and culture, but from theirs: the temple to an unknown god is a doorway, and the allusion to their poetry is powerful. 

I also love the idea that we grope to find God, even though he is not far from each of us. How true is that?!? 


# posted by Mark Osler @ 1:00 AM
Comments:
Re: Paul's arrogance. I heard a pastor once say that if you read his letters in order that they were written that you would find he grew in humility. Whereas the early letters he's boasting about his credentials, in the later letters he's calling himself the chief of all sinners. I haven't fact-checked that trend for myself, but I thought it was an interesting observation and seems to fit the bill for other Christians I know who are older and wiser. (Note: Not the ones who are older and crankier.)

And I agree, the groping for and nearness of God does ring very true.
# posted by Blogger Heather Garcia : 9:52 PM
 
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