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Week Seventeen, Day Two

Acts 17: 16-34

At last, Paul’s journey brings him to Athens. He left Silas and Timothy behind in the cities they had passed through so they could shore up the churches that had been planted there. When he got to Athens, though, Paul found the city overwhelming and sent for his friends to come and help him. Athens had passed its prime and was no longer the most important city in the West. Still, it was the cultural and educational center and was the largest city Paul had ever visited.

As was his custom, he went to the local synagogue and started his work there. He also soon discovered that a city who trafficked in ideas offered many opportunities for him to proclaim the truth as he understood it. Paul’s sermon on Mars Hill was a major shift and has been called the first act of the modern Church.

He was not talking to Jews, and the typical resistance from Jewish leaders to which he was accustomed was completely absent. What he encountered was similar to the experience of early missionaries to India. No one really resisted the proclamation that Jesus was divine; rather, they just acquiesced that Jesus was just one more God they had not heard about before. There were shrines and temples and statues to hundreds of gods scattered all over the city. Athens was a Roman province, so they knew that even Caesar claimed to be the incarnation of a deity. So, what’s one more? Ho hum.

This is not unlike the response of society to the modern Church. Just one more thing competing for people’s time and attention. Nothing bad, but ho hum. Paul’s words were initially dismissed as “babble.” (17: 18) He discovered that he would have to find a different, more creative way to connect with people who were busy and well educated and erudite. Their glasses were already too full for him to offer them anything more. He might have given up and gone on to places where people were thirsty. What he did, though, was offer them a new glass.

Blessings,

Michael Piazza
President, Hope for Peace & Justice

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