Meditation on Acts
17:16-34
May 25, 2014
***
While Paul
was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed to see that the city
was full of idols. So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the
devout persons, and also in the market-place every day with those who
happened to be there. Also some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers debated
with him. Some said, ‘What does this babbler want to say?’ Others said, ‘He
seems to be a proclaimer of foreign divinities.’ (This was because he was
telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.) So they took him
and brought him to the Areopagus and asked him, ‘May we know what this new
teaching is that you are presenting? It sounds rather strange to us, so we
would like to know what it means.’ Now all the Athenians and the
foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing but telling or
hearing something new. Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said,
‘Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. 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. 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, 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. 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, 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. 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.”
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. While God has overlooked the
times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 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.’
When
they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed; but others said, ‘We
will hear you again about this.’ At that point Paul left them. But
some of them joined him and became believers, including Dionysius the
Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
***
I
can’t believe that today is already the last day of our adult Sunday school
class before our summer break. I have mixed emotions. I am sad that my adult
class won’t meet again as a group—not officially—until Rally Day in September.
Three months seems like a long time to go without meeting for prayer,
fellowship and Bible study on Sunday mornings before worship. The group has
been such a blessing to me! And I am also joyful because of how hard the class
has worked! How much you have grown in Spirit and in the knowledge of the Lord
and His Word! And though I can’t take credit for your hard work and the
Spirit’s work in and through you—I still want to say, “I am proud of you!” And,
“Thank you!”
I couldn’t
help but smile when I would open the door to the fellowship hall and see
sometimes 12 or more adults gathered around two tables. And you were smiling,
ready and waiting for me! I didn’t mind at all that sometimes it was hard to
pull you away from your conversation about tractors, farming, or antique
trains! Those conversations led us into a deeper level of fellowship and
improved our learning. They made us laugh and feel more at ease with one
another.
Some
small, rural churches like ours struggle to keep adult Sunday school classes
going, but you have been faithful. You have attended and fully participated,
even when you might not have been thrilled with some of the discussion topics.
You even trusted me enough to allow me to lead you out of your comfort zone with
our study of Islam for four weeks last fall. For many folks, this was their
first real exposure to the religion about which most Americans know very
little, and yet adherents are growing nationwide. About 2.6 million Muslims
worship, learn and pray in about 2,100 mosques and Islamic centers in this
country; 900 of these mosques were built in the last 14 years. Are you
surprised to hear that 38 of the nation’s mosques or Islamic centers are in the
St. Paul/Minneapolis area? And that for every 100,000 people living in
Minnesota, 317 of them are Muslim.
Some who came to study
Islam with me had never known a Muslim person by name, though about 2,000
Muslims live as close to us as Willmar! It is my hope that through our study of
Islam, and by the leading of the Spirit, we will be empowered to live out the
Great Commission—to make disciples of all the nations by developing
relationships with our near neighbors of a different faith.
***
The
apostle Paul is out of his comfort zone on his first visit to Athens in our
Acts reading today. The city was unrivaled for its architectural
magnificence, cultural sophistication, and intellectual resources. But Paul had
not originally planned to come to Athens. His friends escorted him to the city
by sea when violence led him to flee his last two missionary stops—first
Thessalonica, the capital of the province of Macedonia, and then Berea, about
50 miles to the southwest. Now Paul is essentially a tourist, with no purpose
for being in Athens, other than waiting for Silas and Timothy to come for him
so they may return to Macedonia, where the Spirit has led Paul to bring the
gospel.
Luke,
the author of Acts, makes us feel like we are with Paul in Athens when he tells
us what he saw, felt, did and said. Paul, well educated in Tarsus and
Jerusalem, looks around the city and is not impressed by it golden and marble
beauty. All he can see is the idols! The word Luke uses for “idolatry” is found
nowhere else in the New Testament and has not been found in Greek literature.
He says, “kateidolos,” which the NRSV translates as “full of idols,” but
it may be more accurately translated “under” the idols, or perhaps “smothered”
or “swamped” by them.
Paul
is “deeply distressed.” The word Luke uses here is “paroxyno,” which is
found only in one other place in the New Testament—in 1 Corinthians, when Paul
describes love as “not easily angered” or “provoked.” Paul
isn’t feeling pity for the Athenians’ ignorance or fearing for their eternal
salvation when he sees the idols. He is horrified by what is so dishonoring to
the Lord—who in Exodus 20 verses 3 and 4 says, “You shall have no other gods
before Me. You shall not make for
yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth
beneath or in the water under the earth.…”
Paul’s
distress stirs him to go and preach the Good News in the synagogues, and to
anyone who happens to be in the marketplace every day. This includes Gentiles,
such as Epicureans and Stoic philosophers. Paul knows how to speak with them
because he has studied these philosophies. Epicurus, the founder of
Epicureanism who died in 270 B.C., believed that the gods were so remote that
they took no interest in human affairs. Everything that happens in this world
is random, due to chance; there is no larger divine plan, no afterlife, no
judgment. Epicureans live to pursue pleasure and please only themselves. Zeno,
the founder of Stoicism who died in 265 B.C., believed in a supreme being, but
not a loving God. Fate determines the world. Human beings must resign
themselves that life is pain to be endured. They must develop self-sufficiency
and live in harmony with nature and reason.
After
debating with the philosophers, they say he is advocating foreign gods and
insult him, calling him a “seed picker,” which the NRSV translates as
“babbler.” A “seed picker” can be a scavenging bird, but in Athenian
slang, it could also be a human being who lives off food picked up from the
gutter or a teacher who steals ideas from others, picking up scraps of
knowledge here and there, without having an original thought. Then the
philosophers ask to hear more from Paul. They bring him to speak in front of
the Areopagus, the guardians of the city’s religion, morals and
education.
Paul
begins his argument not by attacking idols, but by complimenting the Athenians
that they are “extremely religious.” Next, he uses their accusation that he is
advocating for foreign gods as an opportunity to introduce them to a God that
they don’t yet know. He has seen an altar in Athens with the inscription, “To
an unknown God.” This God is the Creator of all, so He cannot possibly “live in
shrines made by human hands.” This God needs nothing from human beings as He is
the Giver—the one who “gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.”
Paul speaks of this God as also the Father of all people, supporting his claim
by quoting a 3rd century Stoic author, Aratus, from Paul’s
hometown, who wrote, “We are his offspring.” This leads to Paul’s conclusion
that we should not make idols, as it is ridiculous to think of God the Father
of all life in the lifeless form of gold, silver or stone.
What
captures my heart in this argument is right before Paul quotes the Stoic
author, when he says God “made all nations to inhabit the whole earth,” allotting “the
times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would
live.” This is certainly not the remote, uncaring God of the
pleasure-seeking Epicureans or the fatalistic Stoics! Paul makes what must seem
to them to be an incredible statement, implying that God, who already has an
intimate relationship with all humanity, desires to be in even closer
relationship with each one of us. Paul says that the Lord made
human beings “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. For in him we
live and move and have our being.”
***
Unfortunately,
Paul’s preaching in Athens yields few converts. He loses most of his audience
when he speaks of the resurrection of the dead—an idea that differed
drastically from their belief systems. Some who aren’t persuaded say they want
Paul to speak to them some more. Paul does not stay to preach another day,
however. He leaves Athens and heads to Corinth.
But
on this unplanned trip to a city “smothered” by idolatry, some who heard Paul
speak of the unknown God did become believers. Luke identifies two by name:
“Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris.” An ancient historian,
Eusebius, reports that Dionysius, a member of the Areopagite court, became the
first bishop of Athens. But we don’t know if this true. And we know nothing
about Damaris, except that she is a woman whom Luke felt was important enough
to be named. She never appears in scripture again.
Luke identifying two new believers by name—especially people who will be
strangers to future generations reading Acts—fits with Paul’s message of
our personal God, with intimate knowledge of the human beings He created. The
God who desires to be even closer still to each one of us.
Our
Creator God, who has “made all nations to inhabit the whole earth,” has
allotted the times and places in which we will live. Our Father God
had a plan for these new believers before he brought Paul to Athens, just as He
has plan for each one of us to carry the Good News to people who do not yet
know Jesus as their Savior.
And
let this be encouragement to you, that even if only one person that you share
the Gospel with becomes a believer, God could use that one person to bring many
more people closer to Himself, people like us, who are searching for Him all of
our lives.
People
like us, who will find Him through prayer, by His Spirit, and in His Word. For
“indeed, he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live
and move and have our being.”
Let us pray.
Holy One, Our Creator and
Father of All, thank you for knowing us so well and being so intimately
involved in our lives. Thank you for being so very close to us—and desiring to
be closer still. Draw us near to you and let us hear again your Great
Commission with excitement in our hearts. Forgive us for lacking the confidence
or courage to share the gospel with all we meet, with all who don’t know you as
their Savior. Help us to develop new relationships with people who aren’t our
immediate neighbors. Lead us out of our comfort zones to share the Good News of
Christ’s Resurrection with people of different faiths, who may seem strange to
us, but who are in fact, like us, loved unconditionally and known intimately by
you. Remove any prejudice we might harbor in our hearts. And use us to
accomplish your kingdom building purposes. In Christ we pray. Amen.
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