May 15, 2023
Today’s Reading: Acts 17:16-31
Daily Lectionary: Numbers 8:5-26; Luke 15:11-32
They should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. (Acts 17:27)
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Alleluia! Christ is risen! In seminary, I had a professor who said, “You need to exegete the culture.” Exegesis is what’s done when a biblical text is analyzed and application is drawn out from it. In the same way as you delve into God’s Word to draw out the message, look at the world around you.
It’s important to acknowledge that all people are God’s creatures. When we hear the far-fetched things that people outside the church are doing, it’s tempting to say, “I thank you God that I am not like them.” But just as you have compassion when you see an awful car accident on the side of the road, we ought to see those lost in false belief. In many ways, the unbelievers are not completely cut off from God (yet).
When Paul was in Athens, “his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.” He had compassion for these people who imagined that their life was in the hands of fate and moody deities. He started with what they sort-of had right: “I perceive that in every way you are very religious.” He even quoted where some of their poets saw the truth. Yet, Paul was clear to correct what they had wrong and would lead to them perishing eternally.
We can do a similar thing in our own day. Think of a person who is confused about their gender because of their emotions and onset of hormonal changes. He or she needs to hear that they were created purposefully by God either male or female. They need to be guided to see their body as good, but damaged by sin, and to find help from this God who loves him or her and has compassion.
The philosophy of Critical Theory is right to identify that people are flawed and commit injustices toward each other, and to want to remedy injustice and care for the oppressed. But, they need to be told of the God who “made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth.” That evil is not in white skin, masculinity, or oppressive power structures, but in each of our failures to love God and love our neighbor as ourselves. Rather than upend society, we need to learn from Him who created and redeemed mankind.
It’s easier to simply isolate and be glad that we have the Gospel. But God who “made from one man every nation” desires “all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:4) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
The world’s remotest races, Upon whose weary faces The sun looks from the sky,
Shall run with zeal untiring, With joy Your light desiring That breaks upon them from on high. (Arise and Shine in Splendor, LSB 396:3)
– Pastor Michael A. Miller is Pastor at Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Lebanon, OR.
Audio Reflections Speaker: Jonathan Lackey is an LCMS seminarian.
Study Christ’s words on the cross to see how you can show more Christlike grace in your life. Perfect for group or individual study, each chapter has a Q&A at the end, and the back of the book includes a leader guide. Available now from Concordia Publishing House.
