Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said, “…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 hand … he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else” (Acts 17:22, 24).

Here’s a link to the entire passage!

Our first two passages in our current Won’t You be a Neighbor? series featured Jesus.  This week, we’ll see how Jesus-follower Paul practiced neighboring some folks he met in Athens.

This week’s passage (Acts 17:16-34) is part of Luke’s report on Paul’s second missionary trip around the eastern Mediterranean.  Paul ends up in Athens in a somewhat unplanned way.  Having had good results up the road in Berea, and not so good results before that in Thessalonica, he was chased out of Berea by some angry Jewish Thessalonians.  Fearing for his safety, members of his team escort him to Athens, perhaps hoping that the anonymity afforded by a much larger city might add some protection.  They then return to Berea, leaving Paul on his own.

Paul being Paul cannot content himself with mere sightseeing.  As he tours the city, he is struck by the abundance of temples, shrines, holy sites and statues of various gods, and is “greatly distressed” that so many are so ensnared in so much false worship.  So he does the neighborly thing.

Paul goes to the “marketplace” (think something like Times Square in New York City).  There he finds a kind of Philosophers’ Club or Debating Society and jumps right in.  He stirs up enough trouble that the locals bring him to Mars Hill (the Areopagus), which functions as a kind of community standards council.  This is not a promotion for Paul, it’s a kind of trial, maybe something like this: “We may enjoy debates, but what kind of a trouble-maker are you, really?  You’re not from around here – and Jewish as well, right?  Are you preaching some kind of new, foreign religion?”  

Paul is not intimidated.  He wants his neighbors to know three things:

• The “unknown God,” the God above all the known gods, is the Creator of everything and everyone.  The physical world is neither an illusion nor a prison, but the good gift of the Good Creator.  And each and every human person is of inestimable value.
• You don’t know this “unknown God,” but this God has decided to make himself known to you!  The One who created and sustains all things, who gives you everything needed for life, does not need you to build him “houses” or offer animals in sacrifice.  You cannot bring this God near by what you do, but this God has decided already to draw near to you so that you might draw near to him!  
• This God has acted in Jesus to pronounce judgment upon all your familiar gods and goddesses.  Regardless of your many sacrifices and temple construction projects, your gods cannot deliver you from the power of Death.  But the Creator God can, and has, and you can know this because God raised Jesus from the dead.

If this sounds like a pretty contemporary conversation, you’re getting it!  Many of our neighbors view the world as either a large, meaningless machine, or an illusory kind of prison from which we need to escape into some imagined “spiritual” dimension.  Many are agnostic (“we cannot know”) concerning questions of capital-T Truth.  Many engage in all kinds of rituals in hope of achieving and securing “life”: some buy and consume, others obsess over health and beauty, some go to great lengths to “eat right,” many strive to live “enlightened” lives and to “be good” – and we pretty much want to be left alone to pick and choose among our various “spiritual options.”  And we do have all kinds of gods (athletes, celebrities, superheroes) and temples and idols: imagine what Paul might have to say as he visits a modern mall, a multiplex movie theater or just takes a stroll through downtown Raleigh, Durham or Chapel Hill!

What are one or two ways you could build a “conversational bridge” towards a neighbor who doesn’t necessarily share your faith or values?