Let's Talk About God
Let’s Talk About God
Acts 17:16-34
Recap
Sometimes what gets in the way of God isn't God. It's an idea about God. Maybe it's something we inherited. Something somebody told us. Something we pieced together along the way. And sometimes losing faith in that version of God isn't the end of faith. It might actually be where a deeper faith begins.
In Acts 17, Paul arrives in Athens—a city filled with temples, altars, philosophers, and competing ideas about the divine. Eventually, he finds himself speaking at the Areopagus, where he points to an altar inscribed: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.
Paul sees something beautiful in that altar. In a city filled with things people thought they knew about God, somebody had left a little room for mystery.
Paul tells them about the God who made the world and everything in it. This God cannot be contained in temples. This God doesn't need anything from us. This is the God who gives us “life and breath and everything else.”
Then Paul quotes their own poets: “For in him we live and move and have our being.”
Paul isn't threatened by finding truth outside of his own religious tradition. If God is the creator of everything, then everything good, true, and beautiful ultimately has its source in God.
But Paul also reminds us that this God will always be bigger than our understanding of God. We build temples too—not only physical ones, but intellectual ones. We have systems, doctrines, categories, and explanations. Those things can be important, but our theology is not God.
As Paul writes elsewhere, right now we “see in a mirror dimly.” We know, but we know in part. That means we can have real convictions while holding those convictions with humility. We can say, “This is what I believe. This is where I've landed.” And still leave our hands open enough to say, “And I could be wrong.”
As we begin Let's Talk About It, that's the posture we want to carry with us: curious minds, open hands, and hearts turned toward the God who is always bigger than our understanding of God.
---Go a Little Deeper
There's something fascinating about the way Paul talks to the Athenians. He doesn't begin with the Bible. Paul certainly knows Scripture. His imagination has been formed by it. But standing in front of a group of Greek philosophers, he starts with something they already know. He points to one of their altars. Then he quotes their poets.
“For in him we live and move and have our being” appears to come from the Greek poet Epimenides. Then Paul quotes Aratus: “We are his offspring.”
Paul isn't saying that everything these poets believed about God was correct. He is recognizing that they had caught glimpses of something true.
There's a theological idea Christians have sometimes called general revelation—the belief that because God is the creator of everything, something about God can be encountered through creation, human experience, beauty, reason, conscience, and our longing for something beyond ourselves.
Psalm 19 begins: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”
The heavens don't give us a theology textbook. They don't answer every question we have about God. But they can awaken something in us. Maybe that's part of what Paul recognizes in Athens. These people don't have everything figured out. Neither does Paul pretend they do. But they are searching. They are reaching. And Paul says God is not far from any one of them.
That might change the way we move through the world. Instead of dividing everything into places where God is and places where God isn't, maybe we learn to pay attention.
A mountain can make us wonder. A song can tell the truth. A conversation can expose something in us. A scientist can discover something beautiful. A poet can stumble onto words that sound almost like prayer. And sometimes someone who believes very differently than we do can see something about God that we've missed.
If all truth really is God's truth, then we don't have to be afraid of discovering it in unexpected places. Maybe one of the practices of faith is simply learning to pay attention.
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Discussion Questions
1. What part of Sunday's message stayed with you the longest? Why do you think that was?
2. Think about the picture of God you were given growing up. What was that God like? How has your understanding of God changed over the years?
3. Paul recognizes truth in the poetry and culture of people who don't share his faith. Where have you encountered something good, true, or beautiful in an unexpected place?
4. What do you think it means to say that our theology is not God? Why can it be tempting to confuse our understanding of God with God?
5. Paul says that right now we “know in part.” How can we hold genuine convictions without becoming overly certain that our understanding is the only faithful one?
6. Is there something you were once taught about God that you've had to question or let go of? Did that experience weaken your faith, deepen it, or maybe a little of both?
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Suggested Practice
Practice paying attention this week. Once each day, intentionally notice something good, true, or beautiful that you encounter.
It might be something in nature. A song. A conversation. Something you read. Something your child says. A piece of art. A moment of kindness. Something you learn about the world.
Don't worry about making it explicitly “Christian.” Just notice it.
And when you do, take a moment to pray: “God, what might you be showing me here?”
Let yourself become curious about the possibility that the God you're searching for might already be closer than you think.
“For in him we live and move and have our being.”
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Closing Prayer
God who cannot be contained,
Give us curious minds, open hands, and hearts turned toward you.
Help us recognize what is good, true, and beautiful wherever we find it. Give us courage to question what needs to be questioned and humility to remember that we know only in part.
Free us from the small temples we build for you in our minds, and keep drawing us toward something bigger, deeper, and more beautiful.
When our questions feel overwhelming, remind us that you are not far from any one of us.
For in you we live and move and have our being.
Amen.