I don’t know if you have ever had the opportunity to travel in Greece but I am fortunate to have spent a little bit of holiday time there. And while there is a lot of natural beauty, with spectacular beaches on gorgeous islands set in the brilliant blue water of the Mediterranean, it is of course some of the ancient architecture that attracts so many tourists and the curious. The Acropolis is what many of us might consider if we think about Athens. How it stands out on the hill, lit up at night attracting attention and intrigue. Each day, crowds flock to view the columns and structure of the Parthenon and the ancient theatre nearby. It is one of those spots that people want to stand beside and tick off on their bucket list.
Near there is the Areopagus which is a rocky outcrop which served as a meeting place and a judicial court. It is also the place where we catch up with St. Paul this morning.
There he stood with that backdrop, which even two thousand years ago, when he was speaking the words we heard in the reading from Acts, even then it was an historical site of its day. He stands and offers this incredible speech, where he tries to paint a picture of his own understanding of God.
You may remember that it began with Paul saying to those who were listening: For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, “To an unknown god.” Paul found this rather curious.
But it makes a lot of sense to me, I don’t know about you. Many of us search this world trying to find those things that feed our soul, that strengthen our hope, that guide us on right pathways in this world. And you know it is hard work. We search in so many places, and the world of today offers all sorts of advice in terms of options. So many things are being sold as holding the truth: money, fame, fortune, over-confidence in ourselves. The strongest win, the most youthful are the most successful, the wealthiest are the ones who have made it, if you are poor you have done something wrong, you know the things that get said as if they are true. We are told it is OK to destroy this world to support our addictions; it is OK to mistreat the immigrant or the homeless for they deserve what they are getting, it is OK to cheat and steal as long as we don’t get caught. There are many other things, not necessarily said in so many words but underlying themes that you know as well I do in the world of our times. Feel free to add your own. But none of these things point to the true hope that God has in us. We know this if we have read our Bible even a little bit. But these are some of the things that can block our vision of knowing God amongst us, that cause us to lose sight of God’s presence in our midst and why some might consider the need of an altar to an unknown god. That altar is still known.
But St. Paul was curious about it. In fact, he offered a short sermon about it, a beautiful speech, if you will, drawing people’s attention to what faith in God might mean. Listen again to the words and see if they still speak to you even now.
For he said: The God who made the world and everything in it, who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is God served by human hands, as though God needed anything, since God gives to all mortals life and breath and all
things. From one ancestor God made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for God and find God—though indeed God is not far from each one of us. For “In him we live and move and have our being”; as even some of your own poets have said,
“For we too are God’s offspring.”
In God we live and move and have our being. All that we are, all that we possess, all that we do in this world is linked to the presence of the divine. We know this, we have discovered this, it is why we are here. Not to worship an unknown God but the God who knows us. We have discovered, as Paul described, that God is intimately inter-connected with this world and our lives. God’s love surrounds us and enables us to walk in this world in ways that bring hope even in these times where hope is hard to uncover. For we have discovered this.
In the gospel for today, Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and God will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth…” Where have you discovered this Advocate, this Spirit of truth? Often it is in those places where the darkness of the world can overwhelm, places where grief is gripping us, places where a growing lack of concern for our neighbour can seem to be winning out, places where some might say that God is unknown… in these places and a few others we discover that indeed there is an Advocate, a Spirit of Truth who reminds us what is at the core and the centre of life. We discover like St. Paul did that indeed God is known to us and inviting us to draw closer. Is inviting us, you and I, to recognize that indeed we live and move and have our being in the presence of God who forgives and loves us… even us. The Holy Spirit, the Advocate did not simply arrive long, long ago but has not really been seen again since. No… the Spirit of truth, the Advocate, has continued to be in the world and has continued to guide us and direct us in God’s hope and vision for us followers.
In a little while we will receive the bread and wine of Communion. It is a moment where we discover something about this Spirit and the God that we worship, that God is not unknown but very much known to us in the simple elements of bread and wine, bread and wine that we have prayed that God might make holy, that God might make food for our soul, that God might make as a sign of revealing God’s presence to us.
William Willimon writes this, “Few moments in Sunday worship are more moving than when, in the Eucharist, members of the congregation hold out their hands to receive the Body of Christ. Their hands are open and empty, their tight grip on their possessions has been released. The church has enabled them to assume the posture of receptivity. Those who have so much appear, with empty hands outstretched, to be those who are hungry, needing the gift of bread and wine.”
For it is here that we recognize that God is in our midst, known to us in the breaking of this bread. It is here that we recognize that the resurrection of Jesus transforms our relationship with God and with each other into a place where we are known. It is here that we understand that the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, will continue to work in and through us, in the bread and the wine, in the prayers and thanksgivings, in the community expectantly awaiting once again for God to show up.
I think that this is what Paul was speaking about in his description that God does not live in shrines but is the one who gave us life and breath and all things. I think that this is
what Jesus was speaking about in terms of the gift of the Advocate, the Spirit of Truth, revealing a God very much known to us.
St. Paul was in Greece at the Areopagus, and discovered an altar to an unknown god, but used it as an opportunity to describe what knowing God is all about and how it changes all that we see and know in this world. Joan Chittister phrases it this way, “The contemplative is the one among us who can go down into the self, down the tunnel of emptiness, and finding nothing but God in the centre of life, call that Everything.” I hope for all of us here this morning that we might know this Everything, that we might know a breadth and height and a width to God that is far beyond the limitations we might place on God. That we might experience many times where once again God seems palpable, present, known and deeply connected to all that is taking place. That we might know Christ among us in broken bread this morning. That we may know the descending of the Holy Spirit on our lives and inviting us to know more about the fullness of God calling us to the abundance of life. May it be true.