The Unknown God
Dear church,
What would it sound like if we transferred Paul’s speech in Athens, his famous talk on that little rock above the ancient Greek city, into today’s world and mindset? Paul started by saying, “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious.” Let’s start there. Is that true for the majority of people in America in 2026? Are we very religious? I hesitate to give you a straight yes or no answer. I will have to give you one of those beloved “on the one hand, on the other hand” replies. On the one hand, people in this age are not very religious anymore. We see that in so many indicators, such as church attendance and membership, the number of people who identify as “nones” (no religious affiliation), the fact that the majority of weddings are no longer held in houses of worship or that people fill their Sundays with sleeping, shopping, driving kids to tournaments, parties and work. That’s the one side of the equation: a society that is trending secular, non-religious, in some corners anti-religious.
On the other hand, most people are still kind of religious. It may express itself in very non-traditional ways that the old church fathers would have called pagan. A couple of years ago, the President of the Southern Baptist Seminary wrote an article for a national Weekly Magazine that included this powerful, spot-on statement: “Americans may not know who their God is, but they sure know who their team is.” And many follow those teams religiously, with prayers, supplications and offerings. Communal rituals are designed around the fellowship of fans. Followers make significant sacrifices to attend important games. Every-once-in-a-while you read about some fan who is selling his house in order to attend the World Cup or the Super Bowl or something like that. Professional sports are steeped with religious fervor.
The religiosity of our people also pops up in other ways: many non-traditional ways of spirituality, some that have frankly enriched our church life here at St. Peter’s: yoga, shamanism, mysticism. This is to say and to make clear: I am not against other forms of religion or spirituality; I would just draw the line when those practices turn into idolatry.
The Apostle Paul did not come to Athens to tell the people that they have the wrong religion. He was much smarter than that. He just let them know that behind many of their cults there loomed a divine presence that is deeper and more profound than everything they knew, and since that divine presence can never be captured in an image, he pointed to a sign that was custom-made for his message. Here is what he said:
“For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.”
This is a very important passage for our time and for the Christian church. What if Paul was speaking to us - not to the “nones,” not to religiously impassioned Eagles fans, not to people who find truth in non-traditional spiritual practices, but primarily to the church people of our time. We have objects of worship. We don’t call them that. We are more sophisticated than worshipping objects. But we have them: the cross, the altar, the images on stained glass windows, the Bible, the Baptismal Font, the church building, etc. We regard them as symbols and sources of our faith that lead us deeper into the mystery of God. Yet, often enough, people get very attached to those objects, don’t they? And guess what? The very objects that form our faith can also become idols that keep our faith from growing and maturing. They can prematurely satisfy our curiosity and shut down our yearning to go deeper. In some churches and congregations, the message or the Bible are almost bigger than God. And that shouldn’t be.
And so, we are asked to go back from our objects and beliefs to the invisible God who reveals him or herself every so often and offers us a glimpse into the eternal mystery surrounding this world and life itself. It can be hard to deal with the uncertainty of the divine. Some churches fill that anxious human desire to know with very certain answers and very specific belief statements. But that can also lead to idolatry. Both the speech that Paul gave in Athens according to the Book of Acts and the gospel for this Sunday point in a different direction. Paul put the difficult to describe presence of God in our lives into these beautiful and brilliant words: “He is not far from any one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being.” And in John 15, Jesus says to his followers who are all so desperate for some certainties: “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth.”
Sometimes it can feel as thou God is playing catch with us. “Catch me if you can!” “I am here, I am there, I am in your life, I am in your breath, I am in your darkest moments, I am your glory days…” That can be, especially for the more structured people among us, a challenge. “Where is God?” It can also exciting and liberating because it doesn’t reduce us to one message and one way of believing. It truly opens the door for us. “Follow me. I am the way and the truth and the life.” Jesus says. And: “You don’t need to catch me. Just be in my presence.”
Amen.
