Acts 17:22-28; May 10, 2026; Sixth Sunday of Easter
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The verse right after ours reads: “Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals.” – Acts 17:29
Now as someone who has always relished the imagination of mortals, especially those who master brush strokes of oil on canvas, I’ve always been somewhat frustrated by the ending of this verse.
And yet, I get it! I get it.
For my image of God or Jesus shouldn’t be solely informed by Caravaggio (as brilliant as he was), or even by Jeff Cline (as brilliant as he is!). Nor likely should it be only persuaded by the panels of our stained glass here (as pretty as they are), or by the architecture of Bryn Athyn Cathedral (as breath-taking as it is). While they all inspire and conjure impressions of the divine, we must yet remember that they are just that – impressions, of a reality, that exists far beyond any attempt to capture, paint, or mold it.
And Paul here seems to be uniquely concerned about this. That people have been too easily swayed to look first and only to objects, to shrines, to golden calves, and to live and pray at their literal feet, rather than at the figurative throne of God’s grace.
Which got me thinking – are we falling into the same trappings today? Have we given more of our time and attention to these things than we should?
Perhaps for you, it’s less Bryn Athyn and more the shrines in your closet: your clothes, your shoes, your accessories. Spending hours each day obsessing about how you present yourself instead of just being yourself.
Or perhaps it’s your house, your car, your “vibe” (ugh), that you aura-farm to keep up with Smiths and Jones’ rather than just being the Russos that you are.
Or maybe it’s the idols you have fashioned from those you see on social media. Caricatures that sound like they speak with truth, but actually, only distort the truth with their simple platitudes and abject nonsense.
What idols have we built as substitutes for God, my friends? Who have we allowed to fill the blank spaces of our days with emptiness rather than the fullness of truth and righteousness?
Paul is reminding us today, as brothers and sisters, as God’s offspring, that even if God is unseen, the pursuit of knowing this divinity is still infinitely better than just settling for what’s in front of us, the garbage heap of crap that’s ever-present in our face.
You know, some years ago a member of the Wu-Tang Clan (yup! it’s music recognition Sunday) rapped: “the dumb are mostly intrigued by the drum.” Whatever keeps the beat going without having to think too much, without having to search too deeply, is what sells and keeps people moving…unfortunately so.
The full lyrical section is even better though: “Light is provided through sparks of energy / From the mind that travels in rhyme form / Giving sight to the blind / but the dumb are mostly intrigued by the drum.”
And so many years removed from that singularity of light, from that burst of energy, from the Creation event that spawned from God our Father and Mother, we find ourselves now just fumbling about. Moving but not growing. Hearing but not listening. Watching but not learning. Blindly wasting our time, conquering the blank spaces of our days with stupid shows, stupid music, and stupid pursuits, ignoring the bigger questions and the existential mysteries of our being, which are far more mind-bending and hair-raising than gold, silver, drugs, and trinkets.
Amen?
If you were to ask me then, or Paul for that matter, the most disappointing thing about society (besides the obvious: wars, violence, greed, and corruption) is the lack of curiosity. The lack of depth. The apparent total apathy towards pathways of illumination and serious discourse.
I mean, I like sports. I like watching sports. But you know what I can’t stand about sports? The discourse around sports. It’s so many hot takes, and knee-jerk reactions, by talking heads who would rather stir up controversy and drama, parroting the first and most viral thought rather than actually talking about the game, the intricacies, the complexities.
And, of course, it’s not just sports. But movies, books, politics. Basically everywhere today where what is vapid and artificial has somehow become acceptable, normal, commendable, marketable.
Ugh x2.
It reminds me of another rap song (yes!) called “Thieves in the Night” and one of the best verses ever conceived and delivered by the great Mos Def, which starts like this:
“I’m sure that everybody out listening agrees
That everything you see ain’t really how it be
A lot of jokers out running in place, chasing the style
Not a lot going on beneath the empty smile…”
And while that’s indeed awesome, Mr. Def, it’s yet super depressing because it’s precisely how so many of us seem to be living. Caught up in deceptions and mirages, chasing styles and erecting shrines, rather than devoting our time to what’s real, what’s authentic, what’s deeper, and substantive.
I mean, imagine what we could achieve if we just got back to a time when rap was at least somewhat intelligent, or when characters in movies didn’t have to spell out the plot, or when social media didn’t exist, or when art was something more than AI and a banana duct-taped to a wall?
But more seriously, imagine if we could actually celebrate and emulate intellectual discourse, where each of us would not only be willing to engage in honest dialog and thorough debate, but also listen to people who model that for us? Where instead of only being interested in fueling division, they/we might also be interested in working towards mutually beneficial solutions?
I mean that is after all what Paul was attempting to do here in Acts. For he didn’t come into Athens with a hot take. A snazzy one-liner. A stirred-up controversy, talking in absolutes and black and whites, arguing that everyone else was wrong and that he alone was right.
No, rather he sought an agreement, an accord, as he appealed to Athenian wisdom and acknowledged their position, even going so far as to quote their own poets and philosophers, all while at the Areopagus: literally the hill of Ares, the mythological god of war.
And it’s there, my friends, in that giant shadow of destruction, that he critically and thoroughly attempts to convince them that we are not made in that empty brazen image, but rather, in the fullness of light and the glory of peace; in the name of the One in whom we all live and move and have our being.
Amen
