Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year A

​​Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way...”
~Acts 17:22
 
Paul is paying attention. He’s gone carefully through the city, eyes open, observant, curious, full of respect. He takes his hearers seriously—their ways of being, their religious symbols, their commitments—as he shares with them in their way his own understanding of how earth tangles with heaven.
 
We all have a story, after all, a set of experiences and influences, elders who have shaped and inspired us, stories and traditions that help us find meaning and purpose. We come to the Bible and to our faith with our personal histories, our unique understanding of love and the astonishing human experience. You have a story. I have a story. Our neighbor across the street and that beautiful, nonverbal soul that visits us on a Bridge Ministry Sunday has a story that helps to complete our own story, to fill out what is missing within us, to correct, to name what is false of the gods we construct, to fill in what is unknown of the Holy we seek.
 
“I will not leave you orphaned,” Jesus tells his disciples in John, on the eve of his death. Indeed, we are not orphaned, we are no longer strangers, we are filled with faith; we are surrounded by a company of care.
 
 
Enter into worship.
 
Readings: Acts 17:22-31 † Psalm 66 † 1 Peter 3:13-22 † John 14:15-21
 
About the Art:: Hands, all together, from a youth fellowship day sponsored by Avondale Pattillo United Methodist Church, Decatur, GA, 2007. From Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55247 [retrieved May 8, 2023]. Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/apmethodist/1678695596/.

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