Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Little success on Mars Hill

How did Paul take this? As he waited in Athens, he began to preach the Gospel. It was the only time he was less than successful. There was no church to be built at Mar Hill.

In the book of Acts, we read: "A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, "What is this babbler trying to say?" Others remarked, "He seems to be advocating foreign gods." They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.
Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean. (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.) Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 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. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you." ...When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered..."

Today I came very close to stopping this blog that has gone on for a year and three-quarters. I didn't feel, if that is the right word, like writing. I had four readers yesterday. Four. I know one of them who probably would never quit reading as long as I'm writing, but four? I feel as if this might have run its course.

But I got to thinking about Paul up there on that hill in Athens, preaching the Gospel to some folks who were barily interested in it and being sneered at while he preached and on and on. And here I am again, writing something.

All of us, I would gather, face times that are uncertain. How we face them says more about us than the results of those uncertain times. I'm about done writing, clearly, with few book sales and no career any longer.

The question then becomes, do I still have anything to say?

I'm pondering that as I write.

I know only Jesus crucified and resurrected. I've got to get back to that somehow, and the results are the results.

Peace be with you.

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