Title:- Fishing in the Common Ground of Common Graves
Acts 17:28-29 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.'
'For we are also His offspring.' This is the first half of the fifth line, word for word, of an astronomical poem of Aratus, a Greek countryman of the Apostle Paul’s and his predecessor, by about three centuries! As a relevant reference, as an evangelistic fishing reference, ‘For we are also His offspring’ it really doesn't sound such a very powerful hook does it? But maybe it was so well known in those times and such a quoted reference, that it hooked into the contemporary reader’s consciousness and drew out all the other metaphysical connections? Good grief Charlie Brown! Maybe that’s far too ethereal for some of us nowadays eh? However, this is a great way to achieve unspoken yet common and broad based affirmation, of a general and widely accepted precept, upon which you can build a mighty premise. You see, Paul wasn't grasping at straws here, he was being masterful in his evangelism, yes, he was being like the Master when he said, ‘For we are also His offspring!’As for us in the 21st Century, well maybe we miss the common and communal connectivity of ‘For we are also His offspring!’ because our culture does not hold the powerful poetic premise encapsulated, understood and culturally received, in the lines of Aratus? So maybe a more interesting quote, a better hook to put our better bait on for us in our day, would have been from a more recent and well known poet, like William McGonagall maybe? A British poet and possibly a Christian man, who by the way, has the amazing achievement of selling more books than both the poet’s Browning and Tennyson. Imagine that! Maybe then, if McGonagall had written this quote, people in our day would connect more with that powerful, poetic and particular reference? No not really, for unfortunately, McGonagall also 'stands unique and unchallenged as history's worst poet!' So in retrospect he is maybe not the most ideal person to quote then, that is unless you wanted to laugh!
My point is this: whoever wrote the line quoted by the Holy Spirit through Paul, though he be pagan or pilgrim, though they be a craftsman of their art, or a bodger extraordinaire, it’s irrelevant! For the Holy Spirit took it, conceptualized it, applied it and utilized it. That is all that really matters. God the Holy Spirit, making the difference by taking the words of our common cultural reference points, sanctifying them and so making them useful to the Master, profitable for every good work.
Now think about this will you , for I wonder how many movies, songs, and sagas, so prevalent in the current cultural mindset, have a whole bunch of relevant spiritual hooks all lying around readily available for us to stick some bait on and use them in evangelistic fishing?
Without being of the world, we must thoroughly understand the world and its culture, investigate it and then expropriate all that is useful for correctly transmitting the message of the Gospel. In other words, why don’t you go and watch a few movies and read a few bestsellers maybe! For God is at work in ancient and modern culture, painting pictures of His immanence and drawing sketches of His great redemption. Why not join Him there?
Listen: - “…But I am the LORD your God, Who divided the sea whose waves roared — The LORD of hosts is His name. And I have put My words in your mouth; I have covered you with the shadow of My hand, That I may plant the heavens, Lay the foundations of the earth, And say to Zion, 'You are My people.'“ Isaiah 51:15-16
Pray: - …Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight O lord, my strength and my redeemer, and Lord, give me hooks and give then give me the bait of grace to lay upon it, that in this mad, mad world, You would bring Your people up from their deep dark and watery graves. In Jesus name I pray, amen. Psalm 19:14a
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