7H and the Areopagus
A lot in mind this morning, above looking east and south, StAndrewsBay at 0358 Tuesday morning, May 8, three shrimp boats trawling in front of me here at 7H, only two in the picture, with TAFB light in the background and a planet above right of the moon. To the far left, downtown Panama City. Living at the Old Place, I liked to wander down the front path to pick up Linda's PCNH about this hour and watch early and light traffic coming down West Beach Drive, that is until bears started swimming across from Tyndall and coming into the neighborhood. Also and especially, until in our thick bush of azaleas I found a cooler box with beer in it and evidence of one or more humans having slept there - - men infinitely more threatening than bears.
71F and 55% out here on 7H porch at the moment, now 4:23 a.m.
My prize picture of the week, FrT standing with a 1951 Jaguar Mark 7 this past Sunday morning,
having just parked back at the church after driving it from here to Cherry Street, down East Beach Drive across Tarpon Dock Bridge up to Harrison, to 4th Street, across 4th Street Bridge, to Bonita Avenue and back to the church at 3rd Street. My first ever driving a Jag, and this a classic, in my mind and memory the most beautiful one ever made. More solid, thick wood inside than anyone's custom kitchen cabinetry, easy shifting four-speed stick shift, easy that is once I got used to where fourth gear is.
1951 when I was fifteen then sixteen, it was a very good year.
And now, Paul at the Areopagus, one of his most famous visits. Athens must have been a magnificent city in Paul's day. Thanks to Luke for this wonderful story and all the memories.
Acts 17:10-34
Paul and Silas in Berea
That very night the believers sent Paul and Silas off to Berea; and when they arrived, they went to the Jewish synagogue. These Jews were more receptive than those in Thessalonica, for they welcomed the message very eagerly and examined the scriptures every day to see whether these things were so. Many of them therefore believed, including not a few Greek women and men of high standing. But when the Jews of Thessalonica learned that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul in Berea as well, they came there too, to stir up and incite the crowds. Then the believers immediately sent Paul away to the coast, but Silas and Timothy remained behind. Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens; and after receiving instructions to have Silas and Timothy join him as soon as possible, they left him.
Paul in Athens
While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and also in the market-place every day with those who happened to be there. Also some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers debated with him. Some said, ‘What does this babbler want to say?’ Others said, ‘He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign divinities.’ (This was because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.)
So they took him and brought him to the Areopagus and asked him, ‘May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? It sounds rather strange to us, so we would like to know what it means.’ Now all the Athenians and the foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new.
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.”
Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.’
When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed; but others said, ‘We will hear you again about this.’ At that point Paul left them. But some of them joined him and became believers, including Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.