Word to the Wise
Monday, May 11, 2009 - Monday in the Fifth Week of Easter
[Acts 14:5-18 and John 14:21-26]"Men, why are you doing this? We are of the same nature as you, human beings. We proclaim to you good news that you should turn from these idols to the living God, who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them. In the past generations he allowed all Gentiles to go their own ways; yet, in bestowing his goodness, he did not leve himself without witness, for he gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, and filled you with nourishment and gladness for your hearts."
These eloquent words are spoken in a very embarrassing situation, perhaps an amusing one from our perspective 2000 years later! Paul heals a gentile man and the reaction is that Paul and Barnabus are thought to be personifications of pagan deities! (Centuries later, this same kind of mistake would have lethal consequences for the South American Indians who thought the same thing about the invading Spaniards!) The text continues and says: Even with these words, they scarecely restrained the crowds from offering sacrifice to them. Later on, in his Letter to the Romans, Paul would be as stern with the unbelieving attitudes of pagans as he would be with his fellow Jews who rejected him: For what can be known about God is evident to them, because God made it evident to them. Ever since the creation of the word, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made. In Acts, Paul's address to the Greek philosophers at the Areopagus in Athens has a simliar thrust: You Athenians, I see in every respect are are very religious. For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines, I even discovered an altar inscribed, 'To an Unknown God.' What therefore you unknowingly worship, I procliam to you. The God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything. Rather it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything." [Acts 17:22-25] The diversity of the audience for the Word of God remains immense! To those with whom we share some revelation (Jews and Moslems) we try to build on that common revelation. To those with whom we share simply the experience of all human persons who reflect on the world and all its wonders, we speak of God's great providence. St. Thomas Aquinas tells us that God may be known through human reason. My own preaching experience nowadays tells me that one must first persuade people to use that reason to reflect on their own experiences as a possible source of revelation about God. Our secular culture has substituted the idols of science and consumerism and many folks simply do not go beyond those idols! We who believe in the God that St. Paul speaks of must by our lives and words reveal the God who has remained hidden in others through ignorance. AMEN
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