Eastertide

May 8, 2023

Scripture Reading: Acts 17:22-31

Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, ‘Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, “To an unknown god.” What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For “In him we live and move and have our being”; as even some of your own poets have said,
“For we too are his offspring.”  –Acts 17:22-28

I read Your God Is Too Small: A Guide for Believers and Skeptics Alike by J.B. Phillips shortly after it was published 40 years ago. I think it is time to dust it off and deal with the question is our God too small? I fear we try to frame God in a way that is comfortable for us, limiting God.  We also need to deal with the aspects of God that may be uncomfortable. For example, God commanded us to love God and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. I fear too often we ask, like the lawyer’s question in the story of the Good Samaritan, who is my neighbor? Which might be appropriate in a court of law but not in Jesus’s world. His answer was the parable.  (See Luke 10:29–37) where we learn that everyone is our neighbor.

The other aspect of this lesson is that our ability to love others is based on our comfort level with loving ourselves. We are experiencing a mental health crisis in this country, not only at its worst being seen in mass shootings and ever-increasing suicides but also in life-draining depression and anxiety. While I strongly support people getting professional help when indicated, we all need to examine ourselves to see if we really believe we are a child of God, loved by a God who forgives us when we miss the mark and guides us to become fully the person, we are capable of being in giving and receiving love.

Prayer: Lord, heal our souls as we live and have our being in a world in crisis. Help us become the conduit of your love needed to reframe that world. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.