Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
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Acts 17:16-34
In Athens
16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean.” 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” 33 At that, Paul left the Council. 34 A few people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.
For my money, this is one of the most important stories in the Acts of the Apostles – and one that’s become more and more relevant to the circumstances of the church in our time.
In this story, the apostle Paul comes to the attention of the intellectual leaders of the city of Athens. As you probably remember from History class, Athens was the cradle of the philosophical heritage of our western civilization. It was the intellectual center of the Greek civilization, and the importance of that civilization can be seen from the fact that the New Testament was originally written in Greek.
Anyway, back to the story: When Paul attracts the attention of the Athenian philosophers, he is taken to the Areopagus, which was the most important public forum in the city. And Paul is invited to tell the story of Jesus to those who have gathered in the Areopagus. So he gives a brief introduction to the Christian gospel, explaining how Jesus fits within God’s overall plan for the world. Some of the Athenians are intrigued by what Paul has to say, but – not surprisingly – some find the idea of the resurrection ridiculous.
That’s the rough outline of the story. And when you think about the way that Paul told the story of Jesus at the Areopagus, there are several important lessons for people like us as we try to share our faith.
We should probably start by noting that the religious situation in Athens was not unlike that of our own American culture. People held a wide variety of religious beliefs, and there was no single religion that people were expected to embrace, aside from the obligatory respect for the Roman Empire’s traditions.
When he gets up to speak, Paul doesn’t start by telling these Athenian pagans that they’re all going to hell unless they accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Instead, he starts out by complimenting them as thoughtful and “religious” people. That seems to me like a model worth emulating. As we try to talk about our faith with others, starting out by expressing respect will almost always make people more receptive than starting out with judgment and condemnation.
And if you remember, Paul gives a brief version of the Jesus story and then stops. That also seems worth imitating. Some followers of Jesus think that when you have the chance to talk about your faith, you should keep talking until the person ‘gives their heart to Jesus,’ or you’ve failed. But it seems to me that what we’re really called to do is what Paul did: bear witness to what we know. Then we can trust that the Holy Spirit will move in some people’s hearts and let the word take root so they hunger to know more.
One significant detail that can get lost in this story is that Paul tells the story of Jesus in language the Greeks understand. He even uses some of their own religious and philosophical language to tell the story. Some of that Greek philosophy has found its way into standard Christian expression, like “In him we live and move and have our being,” which is an expression Paul borrowed from the Greeks.
In other words, he spoke their language, and the closer we can come to speaking to people in their own language, the better chance we have of helping the story of Jesus sink in.
But that’s where an issue arises that we need to be cautious about. Some scholars say the Christian faith has adopted some beliefs that are actually more Greek than Biblical. For instance, the Greeks believed that the body was crude and degraded and only the soul could be pure and holy. The Christian faith seems to have adopted that belief, which probably explains why the Christian faith has been more obsessed with sex than any other major religion – and certainly more that the Jewish tradition it grew out of. It probably helps to explain things like the celibate priesthood, and the constant arguments about sexual issues.
It was Greek philosophers – not the Bible – who taught that at death, the soul would leave the body and go up to a “realm of souls.” But even though New Testament theology embraces “the resurrection of the body,” as the Apostles’ Creed says, most modern Christians really have an understanding of heaven that’s more like Plato’s realm of souls than like anything in the New Testament. So it’s important to make sure that any ideas we borrow from other traditions don’t replace the real teachings of the Bible.
But having said that, it’s still true that the Athenian culture Paul is speaking into in this story from Acts probably has enough in common with contemporary American culture to make this story an important one for us to reflect on.
Let’s pray. Lord, we thank you for the example of your servant Paul, and for his thoughtful approach to proclaiming the gospel. Help us to learn from his example, and to bear witness effectively in our world, so others will come to know and follow Jesus as we do. Amen.
Have a great weekend, and worship God joyfully on Sunday!
Henry
(The listed readings for today are Psalms 32 and 139; Esther 1:1-19; Acts 17:1-15; and John 12:36b-43. Our readings come from the NIV Bible, as posted on Biblica.org, the website of the International Bible Society.)
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