Sixth Sunday of Easter: First Reading, Acts 17:16-31                            

Acts 17:16-31

As I was walking through the reading above the thought came to me, “Study this passage. Spend some time on this passage.” Of course, every word of holy writ demands our attention. But for each of us there are times when certain truths give their own light. I think we would do well to pay a bit of extra attention at those times.

Read it all. Chew and digest with the Holy Spirit’s help. But look today at the very first verse:

“Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols.”

Paul had traveled to the intellectual center of the world with the message of His God only to find that Athens had beaten him to the “god punch.” But in that very observation, Paul’s spirit is provoked within him. It’s a word that points to a great unsettled and perplexed state. Paul feasts his eyes on the blatant and outward affront to His God, the only true God, because of the Athenian’s rampant idolatry. Gods of stone and precious metals. Gods made by human hands. Let’s be frank. It angers the apostle.

Just one question for our consideration together: Are we provoked by the affront to our God made by the foul and nearly limitless idolatry of our day? Do we even see it? It is the ultimate expression of my own importance, of a focus on me. Lord, lift our eyes again to see You. Only You.