Learning to worship the one true God
Acts of the apostles 17:15, 22—18:1
After Paul’s escorts had taken him to Athens, they came away
with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible. Then
Paul stood up at the Areopagus and said: “You Athenians, I see that in every
respect you are very religious. For as I walked around looking carefully at
your shrines, I even discovered an altar inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’ What
therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you. The God who made the
world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in
sanctuaries made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands because he
needs anything. Rather it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and
everything.
Have you
ever heard of “hedging your bets”? People sometimes hedge their bets when they
go to the horse races. Now, I only know about this because friends who go to
the races have told me. So, for example, you think the long-shot “Dixie Belle”
will win, but you also place a bet on the highly favored “Yankee Doodle.” You
see, when you hedge your bets you try not to lose your shirt at the horse
races. That’s why when I gamble, I only take half the Sunday collection – that
way we still have some money to pay the priests’ salaries. “Baby needs a new
pair of stained glass windows!!!”
But we hedge
our bets on all kinds of things, don’t we? We bet that a democrat will be the
next president, but we’re also nice to the republicans in case that party gets
into the White House. We bet that the stock market will go up, but we keep some
money in savings in case it goes down. We hope Fr. Joseph will have the morning
Mass, but we try not to be disappointed if Fr. John shows up instead. You see,
we hedge our bets in life because we don’t know who will win, and we want to
keep our options open.
In the first
reading from Acts 17, the Athenians are also hedging their best, but they’re
playing very high stakes poker because they are betting on which god is the
true God. St. Paul notices that the Greeks have lots of shrines to a gaggle of
different gods. But he also finds an unusual shrine with the title “To an
Unknown God.” In other words, the Greeks were hedging their bets on God: they
weren’t sure which one was the true God, so they kept all their options open.
But St. Paul preaches that there’s no need to hedge your bets with God: there
is only one God. He explains, “The God who made heaven and earth and all that
is in it, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands…Rather, it is he
who gives to everyone life and breath and everything.” That is, there is only
one God, and there is no one else to hedge your bets on; there is no need to
keep your options open because there is only one option. Believe in him and be
saved.
My friends,
don’t be too quick to scoff at the ancient Athenians and their shrines and
gods. Don’t we also “hedge our bets” with God and wonder whether he can make us
truly happy? Don’t we, too, erect small shrines to “lesser gods” in our hearts
whom we hope will make us happy in case the true God lets us down? We make
shrines to money, and to power, and to popularity, and to our egos or to some
pleasure; we sometimes erect shrines to legendary sports figures or patriotic
shrines to our country, or we make shrines of our children and grandchildren.
We are almost tempted to “worship” these lesser gods, and all the while our
churches sit empty, like “shrines to an Unknown God.” But when it comes to God,
there is no hedging your bets because there is only One. And we must believe in
him, if we are to be saved.
Praised be
Jesus Christ!
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