6 Easter a
May 21, 2017
Acts 17:22 -31 Ps. Ps. 66
1 Peter 3:13-22
John 14:15-21
At the Arlington National Cemetery there is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The unidentified remains of fallen soldiers are buried there. So we know that the soldiers actually lived and fought in battles but in the days before DNA identification their remains could not be identified.
When St. Paul went to Athens he found himself in conversation with philosophers who were Epicureans and Stoics. And as a good tourist in Athens, St. Paul visited the Areopagus on Mars Hill to visit the famed sites. If you go to Athens you have to visit the Parthenon, right?
Among the statues on Mars Hill, St. Paul focused upon an particular altar with an inscription: To an unknown god. What is this? Is this a philosophical joke? Was there a god who was lost in action and became unidentified? Didn't this unknown god have a story? The other gods and goddesses of the Greek had the myths that were well known in the writings of the poets. How could there be an unknown god?
Since the Greeks were always seeking something new, maybe this was an altar to the god who still might be revealed and known.
Whatever the origin of this altar, St. Paul took the opportunity to share something new about God as God became known in Jesus Christ.
St. Paul told them that their poets had an important insight when they wrote that human beings were divine offspring.
This is in agreement with the Genesis story: Adam and Eve were offspring of God, made in the divine image.
If men and women are offspring of God, then something of God must be hidden within humanity. What is it within humanity that can allow us to discover God? What is it within us that allows us to be able to say that we know God?
Since humanity has scripture, has writing and since we have use language, this trait is the strongest point of likeness with God. In the Gospel of John, it is written that Word was in the beginning of human experience as we know it and the Word was with God and the Word was God. But Word also came to define the entire material world. The Word was made flesh and dwelled with us. This is the confession about Jesus Christ. He was God's Word being made human experience in such a way that image of God could become known to us in a very special and particular way.
How is it that something remains unknown to us? Something remains foreign to us unless it is translated into our experience. God can be present and remain unknown unless someone can translate the meaning of God to us. St. Paul wanted the people of Athens to know that Jesus Christ was the person who was cosmically bi-lingual. He spoke the life of God and he knew and spoke the words of human experience. So in Jesus Christ, the life and identity of God became known in a new and special way. Jesus Christ translated the life of God into human experience, and what did Jesus translate to us about God?
Jesus Christ affirmed that men and women are indeed God's offspring. We are God's children and because we are God's children, we can discover our divine likeness. And when we do, we will never feel like abandoned orphans.
Jesus told his friends, You are not orphans. You are still children of God who is present and known even when you can't see God. Why? The likeness of God has arisen in you as an inner Advocate. This inner advocate is a coach, a distiller of peace and one who affirms and comforts us. When mom and dad leave their the baby in the next room, it does not mean mom and dad are absent from the baby. The love and caring presence of parents follows a child everywhere. So too, Jesus encouraged his friends to discover and enter into a relationship with this inner Advocate, the Holy Spirit who is the continuing presence of God in each person.
And what do we say to children who are struggling with relationship? Use your words. Your words create meaning, understanding and relationship. Our words are our spirits and they are our life and so we need to use our prayer words to discover and understand our relationship with God who can be known within us as an inner Advocate. Love is to be our practice with God and each other. And how is love best known? By keeping the commandments. Commandments are not just arbitrary rules written in words; the commandments are the body language of love and justice. What does love look like in practice? It looks like the behaviors of love and justice. Keeping commandments is making the Word of God flesh in the actual behaviors of our lives.
Is God unknown to us today? If God is an unknown God for us, it probably means that God is the God who is ignored by us, because we don't want to bother to know.
Do we have God locked into the unknown status in our lives? Is God unknown and ignored by us. If we do, then we have not activated the likeness of God that can be found, known and practiced in our lives.
You've heard the expression, "It takes two to tango." In our relationship with God, it takes two willing parties. St. Paul and Gospel writers tell us that God is a very willing party to know us and God sent the "bi-lingual" Jesus to introduce us to a meaningful knowledge of God.
Let us read the Gospel as an invitation to develop a meaningful knowledge of God as it has been lived and shown to us in the life of Jesus Christ. Amen.
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