Almost at the Pinnacle

Over the last week or so, Carol and I have begun making preparations for a trip to Greece and Turkey to follow in the footsteps of Paul through Ephesus, Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Corinth, and of course, Athens.  Plus a little side trip to Patmos where John wrote Revelation.

Just like many who go on these 'once in a lifetime' trips, we are doing lots of reading and watching of videos from the Lonely Planet, Frommers, Fodors, and Rick Steve's section of the library.  As I was watching a video of footage from around Athens, the location of the Areopagus struck me like never before.

The Areopagus (sometimes also called Mars Hill) was that place in Athens where the Apostle Paul preached to the philosophers, sharing the message of Jesus and contextualizing it in the culture and philosophy of the day.  The Areopagus was an outcropping of rock just below the summit, almost at the pinnacle of the Acropolis, that hulking rock mountain in the middle of Athens upon which sits the Parthenon, the ancient Greek temple dedicated to Athena, the goddess of wisdom.

In Paul's day, on the heels of Athen's 'Golden Age' (ok, 500 years after, but the heel-marks were still there) the learned men of Athens were beginning to wane in their religious impulses for Athena, the goddess of wisdom as they began to assert themselves in their 'almost at the pinnacle' Areopagus for their own wisdom.  There are parallels to Babel here, as the people, proud of the own accomplishments, assert themselves and lose their religious impulses.  And there are parallels to Cambridge.  Our 'Golden Age' wasn't 500 years ago, but there is a proud heritage of hard work, faith and patriotism in our town.  And it's waning.

In our day, as Cambridge's proud heritage gives way to 'something else' we see people all around us searching for something more in all sorts of ways, almost at the pinnacle, but yet hanging out on a rocky outcropping.  Kind of like the Areopagus.

As we make our plans to go to Athens, we notice the prominence of the Parthenon and the Acropolis in every guide-book we read, but the Areopagus gets barely a mention anywhere.  Pinnacles get remembered, second-place remains just that.

Back to Cambridge, and this starts with you and me:  Are you focussed on the pinnacle or the rocky outcroppings in your life?  Put another way, as Psalm 18 and 62 remind us, God is the Rock.  Paul was, which allowed him to visit rocky outcroppings like the Areopagus and point people beyond the simple summit of the Acropolis and Athena and Athen's 'Golden Age' to the True Pinnacle.    Today, there are about 100,000 others sharing Cambridge with us who are all created with an impulse to reach the True Pinnacle.  Problem is that the rocky outcroppings -- wealth, wisdom, health, sports, politics, the arts, community life -- often disguise themselves as the pinnacle and our fellow citizens get stuck there.  They have smiles on their faces, sometimes, but they lack the 'comfort in life and in death' that many of us have deep in our core.

'Almost at the pinnacle' wasn't enough for Paul when he saw Athens.  He wasn't content to leave the philosophers as they were on the rocky outcropping of the Areopagus.  And because he followed the impulses of the Spirit and spoke into that, authentically, at least two folks -- Dionysius and Damaris -- went from rocky outcropping to 'the Rock'.

As you venture through your city today, I invite you to notice the rocky outcroppings and the Pinnacle and to look and pray for ways to speak and act authentically about the Rock in whom you have found comfort in life and in death.