Movement.

Moving Forward.

Something I wrote concerning my Faith convictions, the premise of the book I'm putting together and my quick analysis of a piece of scripture:

So enjoy and ask questions, and seek and ponder- I'm excited to be alive right now... with the baby on the way and all the great things happening with the Church. I've come to this conclusion about where my Faith is heading...

My Faith life must be either encouraging to others or offensive and if it's not then I must be missing something. Either I will help build you up or I will put you on edge but either way I must be connecting with you and you with me.


CONNECTING ACTS 17:16-34 TO TODAY

“How much longer will it be?” the grizzled old man asked from behind the semi-closed doors of the retail giant Eazy-Dollar. Judah looked down at his cell phone and back out at the crowd that curled like a snake from between the double doors and the rain soaked sidewalk outside. Well sir, we're not officially opened till 10am and its 9:40 right now it will be about 5 minutes until we hand out vouchers. As Judah walked away from the doors, he saw both the anguish and the buzz in the corridor between the inside of the store and those waiting on the cold side-walk. The line consisted of all age ranges, young and old, white, black, and every shade between. It was a Sunday morning, Judah typically didn't work Sundays if he had a choice. His Sundays were reserved for church and the very thought of having to deal with the grumpy and greedy made him tick with anticipation for his work day to be over. He thought to himself the irony of things, that on his way to work he viewed against the backdrop of a rising sun the offspring of the present system of greed in that of the homeless and the broken. Yet now the time was 15 minutes till open, and Judah had realized that some in the crowd had stayed over night waiting with dire anticipation, these individuals had tents and sleeping bags and lawn chairs- these individuals chose to take up looking homeless, sleeping on the side-walk all for what? The next big video game machine.


As it would happen the day moved on, as days tend to do. Judah wrestled with customers all day and was in charge of driving credit sales for the morning. Selling debt to people all morning, and on Sunday morning of all mornings, “great” he thought to himself. As Judah got ready to leave for the day he thought about how he missed service at 9am, he thought about the church and he thought about the people outside that morning. He wondered what it might look like if people lined up that way for God. What would it be like if people lined up at that way for Jesus? His thoughts moved in and out from his church which currently struggled with membership and with his retail job. He wondered for awhile just how he could connect Sunday church with Monday work. He felt a divide in his life, and it was just about driving him crazy. There has to be a deeper reality to this Jesus thing, Judah thought.

There has to be something more to Faith than a 9-10:30 service on a Sunday morning. What does it mean to be a part of a new humanity?


As he thought about these things he walked a few stores down to the Christian outlet store. He always enjoyed cycling through the new Christian living books and looking at the new music that came in every Tuesday. While thoughts continued in Judah's head about the division in his life between what he lived and what he believed- Judah saw his thoughts play out in the backdrop at the Christian store. Looking around he realized that even in what might be considered a store of sacred products he found secular consumerism. Ugh he thought to himself. Tissue with Psalms on them? Mints with crosses and Jesus fish inscribed on them? No wonder why nobody was lining up for Jesus- it seemed as if he sold cheesy product. Books with titles like “Get Spiritual” and “Spiritual Journey” rang in his head- but I'm physically living right now, why should I even care about the spiritual when it doesn't seem to apply to my living today!

Judah left the store disappointed at this new revelation, he was especially disappointed when the lady wished him a nice day after having just offered him a credit cart at the register. Ugh, Is anything sacred around here? What must it look like to connect the Gospel to every day life? Can it only be found in specialized stores that sell Christian trinkets?! Even then it seems identical to my job, and I do not believe my job to be very spiritual at all! Not to mention all of those around me who talk of being church goers, they say one thing and then do another!It just seems that I can't be a Christian outside of the Church, and even when I'm in what should be a “safe place” or sacred place I find it to be totally unfilling and to be just like the rest of the world!
It was this concept of sacred and secular that filled Judah's head, he thought about all of the bands he truly enjoyed listening to that were not necessarily Christian and all of the bands that he heard at Church and that he found to be only so-so. He thought about the church down the street from his house that was build beautifully and wore incredible stained glass windows. The church was a tower of seemingly perfection and yet across from this multi million dollar building was a low rent apartment complex where people truly struggled and were toiling with pain and guilt over past life happenings. Judah continued to race with thoughts, he thought about how he had difficulty coming to prayer because he was always told that he had to pray a specific way and it didn't jive with him at all. So he just kept quiet. His mind raced and raced, from his morning at work to his mid-day shopping experience, from the stained glass Jesus, low rent apartments, so-so Christian music, prayer on mute and ultimately landed on his thoughts about his own home. As he walked in the door he found a note saying “Do not enter the family room, floor just waxed” and he thought to himself- we never even use the family room- its set up with family heirlooms and uncomfortable furniture. The area is roped off like a crime scene and besides he thought- I spend my time in the living room anyway because that's where life happens. Yet the very thought of the old English room wore on him as he screamed out “What is the deal with sacred and secular and why do we dress up places just to impress!”

In interpreting Acts 17:16-34 I sought to utilize Walter Brueggmans method which involves five steps in total. The first step involves narrative wrestling in which I went about looking over the text for questions that arose from Paul's interaction with the Athenians. The following questions came from my readings of the text: Who is Paul waiting for at the beginning of the event? What is considered an idol? What are the epicurean philosophers and stoic philosophers? What is the Areopagus? Who is Dionysius or Damaris? What is the background of Athens at the point of this writing? What poets are quoted by Paul? What did “taking” Paul entail in verse 19? How did Greek thought differ from what Paul was saying? Why does the crowd sneer at the mentioning of resurrection? What were the primary “gods” they worshiped? Why would they label something an “unknown god”? What happened to the prospect of Christianity spreading in Athens after Paul's initial encounter in this text?


The second portion of the interpretative method involved looking for particular words being used and or repetitive phrases, and specific emotions and reactions. The words I pulled from the text were the following: Idols, Epicurean, Stoic, Areopagus, altar, and believed. The expressions that stood out to me were “life and breath,” God-fearing Greeks, and every and everything. The bulk of words or expressions that I chose to look further into were those that were consistent with the Greek culture. I also thought that it was interesting that Paul chose to explain God and his involvement with humanity as “he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else”. Is it not enough that God gave all men life but that there is a greater significance in understanding God as the one who gives humanity the essence of life and that he is responsible for everything else. The expression of every and everything is repeated through 17:24-25 and leaves no room for error of thinking. God is mentioned in verse twenty-four as making the world and everything in it, in verse twenty-five he is explained as giving everything else and this concludes with God not just making one man but having made every nation of men.


The next area of interpretation is called advocacy and deals with seeking what the text meant to the hearers at the time of the event. Advocacy largely asks the question “what is the ax to grind” in the text, this means that the text should challenge the status que and lead to a deeper understanding of truth and reality. I was able to pull a few different issues from the text that I found to be important with each having significant say on the culture we live in today. The first thing has to do with Paul's approach to speaking the Gospel, Paul utilizes not just the synagogues of the Jews, but he utilizes the market place and then addresses the Council of the Areopagus. Paul goes anywhere, and everywhere because it is vital that people hear the Gospel and it does not matter where they are to hear it because all is Gods anyway. Paul also goes into their culture and conveys God's truth and he does this by connecting to their idols and then quoting their own poets of philosophy. It is in Paul's internalizing the Gospel that he can recognize the Gospel in the lives of those that seemingly do not know God like he does. Paul also explains the Gospel with clear indication that life is going somewhere and has purpose which would have challenged the mindset of the Stoic and Epicurean philosophers. Paul makes sure to mention a progression of who God is and what he does. Paul portrays that if we come from God then it is near insanity to believe that we can mold God or chisel God with our own hands. The final issue I bring up concerns Paul's talk of the resurrection. The resurrection is brought up twice and both times the hearers of the message react negatively over the suggestion that the dead can come back to life.


The fourth point is known as the Collision point and consists of connecting the advocacy of the text with today. Then and Now connect and perhaps even conflict with one another, the main goal is to assume that the text does not only mean something for its first century hearers but for readers of the text in Michigan in 2009. So what does the text have to say for us today?
It is important that we understand that the availability of God's truth is available in everything, and that even in situations that seem ungodly if we find truth we find an aspect of God. We must continue to break down the division of sacred and secular if we're to believe that Paul was right with his connecting with the Athenians. Paul utilizes different locales for his ministry, there does not seem to be a division between where he speaks the truth about Jesus. It is through out all of Paul's travels that he utilizes the worship center of the culture to connect the Gospel to the audience in those places. He does this first in the synagogues which were man-made establishments for expressing Judaism. He even preaches the truth in the Athenian Algora which is referred to as the market place but if we're to truly understand it we would have to note that it is the center of the public, where temples and government buildings were found, an area of offices and the business life of the city. He later moves towards the Areopagus which is the center from which philosophical authority reigns in Athens. How empowering is this text for our world today? This text stands to tell us that we're not designed to separate secular from sacred, and that if the only time we're card carrying Christians is when we're in a four-walled church then we're going up against the very things that Paul stood for and in actuality what the Gospel message stood for. All of these things connect with our present day understanding of calling things spiritual. By calling things spiritual we're dictating then that there are moments in time where there is an absence of “spiritual” life. This very thought process is contrary to the Gospel and it disconnects us from our Judaic roots. Paul maintains that every one was made through God, that everything is made by him and for him. Paul leaves no wiggle room, and he does not separate the physical and the spiritual. He does not separate the physical and the spiritual because to Paul there is no difference or division between the two.


All is Gods, and that means all actions and words point to God in some way or form. This means that going to work is a spiritual experience, driving home from school is a spiritual experience, getting ready for bed, setting your feet on the floor as you awake out of bed is truly a spiritual endeavor. This collision point becomes apparent in the reaction of the Athenians to the mentioning of the resurrection, they are a mix of emotions in concerning something that they themselves can not understand. Yet how often do we do this in our own churches? How often do we spiritualize the Bible, and namely the resurrection? We must ask ourselves as the church what does it mean to worship a man who beat death, what does it mean to truly know and understand that we're a part of a belief system that claims the tomb was empty? We believe in dead men walking, we believe that there is a depth to Jesus that is different than any other human being ever and yet do our actions meet our words?


The final step is that of practice, what can we do today in order to utilize what's been learned from Acts 17:16-34? I would challenge congregations to hold service outside the church building and go to the places where the word needs to be heard. This may mean street corners, it could mean porn conventions, bars and or malls. Go to where the sick are, and bring healing. I would challenge the body of Christ to question, to question why they do what they do and to dig deep. To go beyond “well this is what we have always done,” to ask out loud- why is this a tradition and when does tradition just become meaningless repetition with no power or conviction? What does it mean to be a Christian in the morning business meeting? How will people react when you start praying for them in the aisle of the local grocery? What will the world have to say about you when you are found sitting next to the town drunk at the bar, not participating in his or her actions but living with the understanding that God wants us to truly love our neighbor as thy self. It goes beyond stained glass windows to parking lots, graffiti laced street corners, deep in the woods, far into suburbia, at hospital bedsides, and bad news neighborhoods. The rich and the wealthy, the poor and the sick.


Eazy Dollar? Sacred and Secular? Christian trinkets? Cathedral ceilings and basement living? Family rooms that are old English rooms, living rooms that are family rooms, The irony of the church peering into the culture only to become just like the culture, these events are of the everyday and they permeate our faith walk.

Judah is feeling what most of us feel when we realize the great disconnect in our lives. This may happen while at church or the next day at work. We may find this disconnect in the moments where we finally connect, by connect I mean we touch base with the divine- we hit a Holy moment that can't be explained in human words but only by way of worship. Too many people complain that there is very little room for their walk with God through the week. In a way they seek to survive through separating the world into categories, some of which they claim to be sacred, and these things become tradition and become reserved and eventually become devoid of any true life or energy.


Can it be that our only response to making things Sacred is through putting crosses and Jesus fish on best selling “secular” items in order to call these things good and true? This is what we call revolution? Should we not stop and examine this separation that we created and look at how Jesus felt about spirituality for a moment. If we were to get in a time machine, what would Jesus have to say about his spirituality? I must say that we would quickly realize that Jesus didn't talk about his spiritual life because he didn't have one. He didn't have one, because his life was a spiritual life. He knew only one way and it was the way of his father and involved flesh and bone, spirit and soul.


What would it look like if people truly lined up for God? If people decided that what they really needed to go in debt for was Jesus and then they would find out that he already footed the bill. What would this look like? Yet if we're to connect with Acts 17:16-34 we realize that we must go to them. It is not so much about inviting others into our culture, but about approaching their culture and connecting them with what is true and what is Gods. Could our Athenian Angora be downtown Pontiac? Are we able to see the hospital as the synagogue? Could our Council be the coffee house? What does it mean to stand up and shout out “Men of Athens” - does it sound like “Fellow employees and clientel?


What does it mean to celebrate a dead man? How should we pray? It should be organic and natural without constraints and should come with fervor and depth of emotion. If we're to tell others about how real our God is, then we must represent Him that way. If we're to tell others about what it means to walk with Jesus then we must stop spiritualize his resurrection and start living like those that have been invited to overtake death in victory. We must remove ourselves from stale, reserved and uncomfortable old English room church services and connect with deep in the trenches worship. We must seek to make people wonder about dead men walking, and we must insist that there is no division between sacred and secular even if sneering is their thing.
Judah is not too unlike the rest of us, his day to day is not connecting with his Sunday church experience. Perhaps he feels that his work does not matter to God, or that he must settle for the disconnect of faith and life. In his thoughts of how we spiritualize things he wonders how he could speak about the reality of Faith when he consistently has to subscribe to the world alongside the Gospel. By our measuring of things as sacred and secular we risk telling others that there are places where God reigns and other areas where He does not. The Gospel has ultimate power but we risk isolating that power when we deem certain things safe and others unclean. In the end Judah realizes his place in Athens, and he awaits hearing about the resurrection and just how it will relate to his life right here and now. It is in this vision of Athens, Judah sees the secular become sacred, cathedral buildings filled with the unkempt, lines of men and women who all have the same questions, product sold from human hands which belong to an all powerful creator God. There is no room in Paul's every and everything for a nine to five devoid of God, it must be everyday and everything, it all must be Holy because it all belongs to Him.