Looking at the Lectionary, we see that Paul doesn’t push away the beliefs of the Athenians like he would a rotten fish. Instead, he listens to what they have to say, and uses their understanding to frame his explanation of the good news of Jesus Christ.
Acts 17:29 … “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.” Sometimes it seems to me we go one step further even than they did, not saying God is like gold, but gold is God. We prioritise the making of money over people’s lives, especially when those who do the actual work of making wealth (and risking their lives) are not the ones who harvest most of it. We could support people’s incomes – the queues at the food bank are the measure of our society. Some people are already forced to risk their lives because they have no other source of income than the work they do.
It was breezy up towards Torside, and a small shower came across, with what the weather forecasters’ style book calls ‘a wintry mix’. This is not something you’d’ve got in the old-time Woolworths on a chilly day, but rain and sleet and graupel on this occasion.
We pray for all those
who are reeling from
double blow of the virus
and an unfair society.
Give them what they need
and what they deserve.