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Week Seventeen, Day Four

Acts 17: 28-34

After telling the sages on Mars Hill that this unknown God was the one who created us all, he goes on to point out that this unknown God didn't fling creation into existence, but continued to be one with creation and one with us. This God is the One in whom we live, and move, and have our being.

Paul then goes on to speak to them about the resurrection of the dead. Some of his listeners scoffed at him, but others were intrigued and insisted that he return and talk to them again. That of course is the preacher's dream: to have people want to listen to her again or to know more from him.

So, Paul left with some hope, even if he did not feel like he had accomplished much. Still, Luke notes that there were some who were convinced, including Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damarius as well as others. Dionysius was one of the 30 or so members of the court who heard Paul that day. He didn't need to hear anymore. Something in Paul's words rang true to him, and he took them into his heart and was changed.

We don't know who Damarius was. In that day, the average Athenian woman would not have been present in a crowd of strange men. The implication, of course, is that she is one of the less respectable women, or perhaps she was simply more courageous or willing to disregard the opinions of others. Either way, she is one more example of how the Church's early appeal was equally to those at the center of power and those on the margins of society.

Luke wanted us to know that, while huge numbers of people were not converted in Athens, a powerful man and a marginalized woman were left behind as the nucleus of what ultimately became the Athenian church. Luke names them because, though they may mean little to us, they obviously were the ones who made the Gospel a reality in the place where they lived.

Blessings,

Michael Piazza
President, Hope for Peace & Justice

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