Readings:
Acts 17:22-31;
Psalm 66:7-end;
1 Peter 3:13-end;
John 14:15-21

Collect:
Risen Christ,
by the lakeside you renewed your call to your disciples:
help your Church to obey your command
and draw the nations to the fire of your love,
to the glory of God the Father. Amen.

Reflection:
People are, generally, a very curious bunch. We are constantly exploring, discovering and learning. From the recent moon expedition of Artemis, where the crew of four astronauts flew further into space than any humans had travelled before, or the fascinating documentaries by David Attenborough, as he shows us the life of the world around us, either far off, or in our own back garden. We constantly are seeking to find out more about the world that surrounds us. Some of the curiosity is simply for curiosities sake, sometimes it is to develop our scientific knowledge for the benefit of our fellow human beings and the world, and indeed universe that we live, and sometimes it is because we need the exhilaration of the next new thing.

There is nothing new about this. And in our reading from Acts this week, Paul is in Ancient Greece, a place where philosophy and discovery was the very heart of life, as was the clamouring to discover the next ‘big thing’. And so, when Paul finds himself in Athens, Paul does what comes naturally, he engages in conversation and debate with those around him, and of course, starts to attract attention, and when he is invited to speak formally, Paul accepts. Paul has been in Athens for a little while now, and has been exploring the city, and finding out about the multicultural population there, and so begins, cautiously and with some flattery, speaking of their religious conduct, their overtly devout practice. But then, skilfully and carefully, and using their own philosopher’s language, starts to call them out, and starts to share the good news of our life-giving God and the good news of Christ. Emphasising an altar that he discovered was to ‘An Unknown God’, that they seem not to understand who or what their religious devotions are for. Just that they should be doing them, and seen to be doing them. And so, Paul then steers the speech to what he wants to speak about, the Lord of Heaven and Earth. Who is beyond all things that people can make or build, however spectacular they may be, and cannot be confined. Unlike the Greek and other pagan religions of the time, he is not cast in precious metals, created by humans, beautiful, but lifeless. No, the God of this new religious movement, that the Greek people are so fascinated by is different. This God that Paul speaks of, is the God who gives life itself. Who has created all things and breathes life into all that lives, and as Paul quotes from the Cilician philosopher Aratus, we are his offspring’, Paul reminds his hosts that we are the offspring of our living God. And that trough him, and Paul quotes that Cretan philosopher Epimenides, ‘For in him we live and move and have our being’. Our God, who made all things, does not demand that we follow and obey, but desires it, he desires that we reach out for him, that we invite his life-giving spirit in, so we can live in fullness of life.

As Jesus teaches us in our passage from John today, that is we ask the Father, he will give us the advocate, the Spirit of God, who will be with us forever. And in reaching out and receiving the Spirit, we are given the strength in our devotion, which gives us to live a life in joyful and loving obedience and service to other, which is all rooted in his love for all of us, whoever we are and wherever we are from. Following Jesus is not a temporary thing, not a fleeting fashion that we pick up and put down in curiosity as many Greeks seem to have done at the time of Paul. It is a lifelong relationship with a God who loves us deeply, who, when we invite him, continually fills us with the spirit to strengthen and sustain us in our loving service to him, and gives us a sense of fulfilment, in that in his love, God has given us everything our hearts could desire.

There is a quote by St Ignatius of Loyola, that speaks into the ever-living love that gives our hearts all that we need.

‘You have given all to me. To you Lord I return it. Everything is yours; do with it what you will. Give me only your love and your grace, that is enough for me.’

Revd Kath Long