SEEK. SENSE. FIND.

Wednesday of the 6^th Week of Easter

Acts 17:15, 22-18:1

…so they might seek God, perhaps even sense and find him.  Acts 17:27

Leaving trouble in Thessalonica, Paul is off to Athens.  This wandering Jewish preacher finds religious curiosity among the cultured elite. Luke’s details are specific and telling.  The Gospel meets yet another population through the person of Paul.  Transformation is the goal.

The text seems to say that ‘seeking’ is in our nature.  God made us to seek.  God is near but sensing God’s presence is something we cultivate.  The Greek verb translated as ‘sense’ has a physicalness about it…a good antidote for over-spiritualizing.  I grope (dismiss the sexual connotations) for God. 

My daughter once went to a restaurant where all the staff was blind.  The sighted patrons came to experience their world.  Groping in the dark…to find the table, the chair, the plate, the food, the wine…groping.  Groping and eventually finding led to a deep satisfaction.

Paul sees the Athenians.  He sees how their altar to some ‘Unnamed God’ speaks of their seeking and groping.  Maybe Paul is like a kind of ‘service dog’ steering and guiding to the satisfaction of finding.