I have taught the Bible to Episcopalians now for many years, even as I remain the Bible’s student, learning from a text that I can only describe as alive — alive with the spirit of God, which has the power to lodge in our souls and transform them.
Maybe understanding people who should be incomprehensible to us will still be the sign that we’re beginning to live less according to the flesh… Less as individuals who understand themselves over and against their rivals and more as a people who live by a spirit that truly wants communion among all of God’s children. A Pentecostal people who won’t be satisfied any longer with a life that is anything less.
Jesus in flight sees the cosmos as a whole. He sees beyond the imaginary boundaries of earthly kingdoms and imagines a world of boundless beauty and possibilities.
I’m interested in the Areopagus and in Paul’s clever imitation of Socrates in his argument. I like that he approached the Athenians rhetorically through an alley door they’d left ajar in their religious system, using their altar to an unknown god to lure them into the big T Truth. But honestly, right about now, I have a lot less need for what’s clever in my life than I do for what is real. And I think this story is about returning us and returning our religion to what is real. We have a way of wandering away from the real, both as a species and as individuals.
For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Sophie Pauti and I am a senior at Memphis Central High School. Thursday, March 12th was the day we found out that spring break was going to be a week longer. I took this as a blessing from God himself because I had been telling my mom “I’m tired of school, I am ready to walk across that stage and get that diploma today!!” Little did I know that March 12th would be my last day of high school. It’s like the phrase ‘be careful what you wish for’ and I definitely have learned that lesson the hard way. Since that day I have been quarantined in my house, sitting and thinking about what the future holds for me and the rest of the world. Will this pandemic affect the people I love the most? Will it allow me to go to college in the fall? Will there be a vaccine by the end of 2020? Will the world ever go back to normal? What’s next?