Acts 17:22-31

What have you been preaching on these last few weeks of “social distancing?” The lectionary has led us through Acts, but I can’t help but notice how much time those early Christians spent together–teaching, worshipping, giving thanks, EATING–all the germs! I have avoided Acts because it seems odd to talk about this continually connected group of believers while we are so disconnected.

But Paul’s discourse in Athens is a wonderful word of encouragement to us in our disconnected state.

“The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands.” (Acts 17:24)

I am amazed that this proclamation is as startling to me today as it must have been to the people of Athens. After all, the people in Paul’s day were heavily invested in their commitment to their idols.

Idol worship was big business. Acts 19 tells of the outrage of the craftsmen whose livelihood was dependent on the idols they crafted for faithful worshippers. They raised up opposition against Paul under the guise of wrong “theology” when their business interests were at stake.

It was a source of connection and status in the eyes of the community. Many people in that time were members of multiple “guilds,” both formed around particular occupations and particular gods or goddesses. The worship of idols gave the residents of Athens and other cities occasions to gather together, topics of conversation and debate, indicators of social status and hierarchy.

It was a means of asserting the illusion of control over the uncontrollable. The worship of gods and goddesses offered hope that a particular sacrifice, act of worship, or donation might provide safety, security, wealth, health, fertility, success, and respect. They were so thorough in Athens, that they even had the altar “To an unknown god.” They had all their bases covered, in the hopes of keeping chaos at bay.

Paul’s assertion that there is one true God who does not live in a temple must have been startling to the people of Athens, whose lives revolved around the production and worship of idols.

But surely this should not be so startling to Christians today. We have over two thousand years of faithful worship of the resurrected Christ, who, as today’s other reading reminds us, “has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand–with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.” (1 Peter 3:22) For the entirety of Christian history, we have been preaching this, singing it, reading it, shouting it. Surely, we should read Paul’s discourse in Athens without comment or surprise. Of course our God is “not served by human hands.” Of course our God “does not live in temples built by human hands.”

And yet.

For weeks, many of us—even (and maybe especially) leaders of the church—have been wringing our hands at our inability to meet together. In our temples. Serving God with human hands, as if God needs our programs and routines to be present in our world.

Shockingly, we may have fallen into the exact same pattern as the Athenians. Our church services are big business. They are sources of connection and status in the eyes of the community. They are a means of creating the illusion that we can control the uncontrollable. Sadly, all too much, the true degree of our belief that God does, in fact, live in temples built by human hands has been unveiled to the world and to ourselves.

To be honest, this has never been one of my favorite stories in Acts. I don’t really like to debate and argue, and I find this culture vaguely annoying. (Luke seems skeptical as well. See 17:21.) But I find the words of Paul to be a breath of fresh air for our current situation.

“The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands.” (Acts 17:24)

May our faith be renewed in God’s ability to work in unseen ways without “gold or silver or stone.” May the faith we have inadvertently placed in our own created images be challenged. May we see with new eyes that God is never “far from any one of us.” May Paul’s words be a source of enlightenment to us, for as today’s Gospel reading tells us, “In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me.” (John 14:19a)

May we see Christ all around us.