Acts 17:22--34
Saint John 14:15--21
One of the things all this staying at home is causing me to do is watch more television.
Since the news is upsetting and sports is nonexistent I’m watching shows that I have never heard of before.
I am only on season two of “Call the Midwife” so there is much catching up to. I’ve lost my place completely in the wonderful Canadian television series “Murdoch Mysteries” coming in somewhere in season five so, in this case I have I’m moving backwards and forwards at the same time in the overarching story line.
Sometimes I give up and channel surf.
Doing so I came across a BBC America program about saving the sea turtles of Sri Lanka.
Their life-cycles begin when their mothers come onto the beach at night to lay between 100 and 200 eggs which, if they are not found and consumed by predators hatch in 40 to 60 days. After laying the eggs the mothers just leave.
This means that at birth every turtle is an orphan who makes their way as fast as they can toward the ocean where only one in every 1,000 will survive to adulthood.1
That is the price one pays for being an orphan and having to make it through life all on your own.
I also watched a nature series on Penguins.
While turtles are terrible at parenting Penguins, raising their young in some of the harshest conditions imaginable, are great parents. If you saw “March of the Penguins” or even had to sit through “Happy Feet” with your children or grandchildren 1,000 times you have witnessed what a grueling experience it must be.
The female lays a single egg that is incubated by the male during the long Antarctic winter. A great deal of the 65-day incubation period is spent in darkness. Standing for weeks, balancing an egg on their feet, with no food, in temperatures down to minus 40 Celsius must be the epitome of good parenting. The female devotes this time to replenishing her food reserves in the open sea. On her return, these penguin parents take turns foraging at sea and caring for the chick in the colony.
King Penguins “spend one summer and two winters raising their young.”2
Unlike the average turtle they do not leave their fledglings orphans and neither does Jesus. “I will not leave you orphaned.”3 he promises.
The scene before us today in the Gospel is a flashback.
We are in the upper room on Maundy Thursday and Jesus is at table with his disciples speaking to them about his upcoming departure. It is almost certain that he is going to be arrested and if the Roman charge of sedition holds it might result in his being put to death for treason. We know that it did.
That was the contest in which the promise was made. Our context is different.
Historically we are a long way from the original events. We know that Jesus is not with us in the sense that we can say that if you flag an Uber and head over the such-and-such address you’ll see Jesus. If you ask Siri to tell you were to find Jesus it will reply: “I don’t have an answer for that.” Try it for yourself.
Yet, people of faith affirm the paradox. We affirm that even though Jesus is not here he is present. We insist that while he may seem to be absent he is still nearby.
For some this is too much and so they wander off to see if they can find God on their own.
In that sense modern America is a great deal like ancient Athens.
When Paul arrived in Athens, the Parthenon was already nearly 500 years old; the golden age of Pericles and Socrates was long past, and yet the city was still an architectural wonder - and virtually all the grand marble structures had some religious purpose. The classic pantheon of Greek divinities (Zeus, Athena, Hermes) were worshiped in addition to gods imported from various peoples all over the world.
They had countless gods, but weren't all that serious about any of them (except perhaps Dionysus, the god of wine and parties!).4
As Dr. Eugene Peterson reminds us:
Downtown Athens was a great place for gossip. There were always people hanging around, natives and tourists alike, waiting for the latest tidbit on most anything. So Paul took his stand in the open space at the Areopagus and laid it out for them. “It is plain to see that you Athenians take your religion seriously.” When I arrived here the other day, I was fascinated with all the shrines I came across. And then I found one inscribed, “to the god nobody knows”5
Paul’s approach to persuasion is so much different from some people’s. He doesn’t name call. He doesn’t engage in personal insults. He doesn’t infer that their gods were, “low energy.” He doesn’t demean them for their belief. He doesn’t suggest that they were fakes or zeros but rather he tries to establish common ground by praising what he can about them and their culture while, at the same time, inviting them to something that is richer and more noble. He connects. He invites.
Those who are unsure of themselves often resort to ad hominem attacks where they can only call anybody’s character into questions when their views are challenged. They have an “us” against “them” attitude toward the world. Paul doesn’t have to do this because he is sure of what he believes and who he is.
What he believes is that, unlike his friends in Athens, he doesn’t have to sample one god after another to find just the right one he has been found by God who was wonderfully revealed in Jesus Christ. What Paul is certain of is that he is not an orphan. He is convinced that in Jesus, whom God raised from the dead, has given him a sense of belonging by inviting him to be a part of a greater community that is united by their love for one another.
His homily draws decidedly mixed reactions.
At the phrase “raising him from the dead,” the listeners split: Some laughed at him and walked off making jokes; others said, “Let’s do this again. We want to hear more.” But that was it for the day, and Paul left. There were still others, it turned out, who were convinced then and there, and stuck with Paul—among them Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris.6
Paul’s attempt was somewhere between a total failure and a complete success, I would say.
And that is how it is when we dare to share something as important as our faith. We will probably get the same reactions as Paul.
Most people are too politely sophisticated to laugh directly in our face but I have met a few who have been more than antagonistic and confrontational.
Some will be curious but not quite ready to buy in completely but still wanting to hear more. And some will be interested enough to follow.
We cannot control what their reaction will be any more than we can control who wants to live their life in a solitary existence like a sea turtle living or be a part of a colony like the penguins.
Even the introverts among us know that after awhile the solitary life can become lonely. I think we know now, more than we have ever known it before, that the “home alone” practice of our faith is somehow less than satisfying. Watching online worship and even having Zoom coffee hours are sad replacements for being together. As Mayor Lightfoot, the no nonsense mayor of Chicago wrote, that “‘having grown up in a church’ she is well aware of ‘how the full embrace of a faith community nourishes one’s soul.’”7
There is an affirmation in today’s gospel for such a time like this.
It is the promise that Jesus will not leave us orphans. He promises: “I will ask the Father and he will give you another Comforter, and he will never leave you.”8 The Holy Spirit is the one who will keep us together in this time of separation and keep us together.
I may have talked more in this little excursion about Penguins than I have about Jesus but like the people of Athens I’m sure you’ll be willing to hear more from me another time. Maybe next week?
However, did you know that “a group of penguins in the water is called a ‘raft‘, a group of penguins on land is called a ‘waddle‘.”9
So, as we waddle through this mess waiting for the day when our colony can re-form let us not be tempted to go after lessor gods but hold tight to God whose name we know because it has been revealed to us through Jesus Christ our Lord.
1. “Baby Sea Turtles,” accessed July 15, 2020, https://www.seeturtles.org/baby-turtles.
2. Emma Williams, “Penguins and Their Chicks: Super-Parents.” (2019, November 17). Retrieved May 15, 2020, from https://www.penguinsinternational.org/2019/08/14/penguin-parenting-super-parents/
3. St. John 14:18a. (NRSV) [NRSV=The New Revised Standard Version]
4. James C. Howell, “What can we say May 17? 6th Sunday of Easter.” (2019, January 1). [Web log post]. Retrieved May 15, 2020, from http://jameshowellsweeklypreachingnotions.blogspot.com/
5. Acts 17:21-23. (MESSAGE) [MESSAGE.] Colorado Springs, co: NAVPRESS Publishing Group, 2013.
6. Acts 17:32-34. Op. cit.
7. Fran Spielman, “Lightfoot Warns Religious Leaders She Is Prepared to Enforce Stay-at-Home Orders.” Chicago Sun-Times, May 15, 2020. https://chicago.suntimes.com/city-hall/2020/5/15/21260032/chicago-mayor-lightfoot-warns-religious-leaders-sunday-services-coronavirus.
8. Saint John14:15-15. (TLB) [TLB= The Living Bible] (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers Inc., 1971)
9 Discover the World. “29 Penguin Facts You May Not Know: Discover the World Blog.” Discover the World, November 17, 2017. https://www.discover-the-world.com/blog/29-things-you-might-not-have-known-about-penguins/..
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