Word to the Wise
Wednesday, May 8, 2024 - 6th Week of Easter - Wed
[Acts 17:15, 22-18:1 and John 16:12-15]Then Paul stood up at the Areopagus and said: "You Athenians, I see that in every respect you 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 proclaim to you." [Acts]
Paul's speech in the Areopagus is a masterpiece of preaching in our own age! The scene is important and its setting is described before the passage from today's scripture. While Paul was waiting for Silas and Timothy in Athens, he grew exasperated at the sight of the city full of idols. This led him to debate not only with Jews but with anyone who would engage with him, which included "philosophers" known as Epicureans and Stoics, whose beliefs about life are still around in many ways in our Western culture. Finally some of them got him to come to the "Areopagus," a place for public debate. "They took him and led him to the Areopagus and said, "May we learn what this new teaching is that you speak of? For you bring some strange notions to our ears; we should like to know what these things mean." This sets the scene for the speech in today's first scripture.
Greek mythology is a subject widely read and taught in courses on "civilization." In Paul's day, it was alive and well and still influences the way we look at things. Our own culture is, in many ways, a "city full of idols." Wealth, power, pleasure, science, celebrities, etc. all have their "altars." In the midst of these idols comes Paul and any dedicated Christian preacher to proclaim something that is "strange": Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. Paul uses the unusual shrine to an "Unknown God" to serve as his focal point.
In so many ways in our own modern culture, God remains "unknown" even though there are many shrines which we call "churches!" These shrines are considered important, but are they more important than our other "shrines?" Secular shrines surround us. Can we have the courage and wisdom to preach Christ in this culture? It will mean more than visiting our own "shrine to an Unknown God!" It will mean knowing God and proclaiming God in the Areopagus of daily life and our secular culture. Not everyone will accept what we believe. What is important is that we proclaim it. AMEN