An Unknown God

I'm thinking about "unknown gods" today ( fr: Acts 17 - Paul's sightseeing trip to Athens where he stumbles upon the statue dedicated to the "Unknown God" - Athenians apparently liked to have all their diety-bases covered).

We like to know things, don't we? We generally don't like the unknown. And, we REALLY hate unknown gods - at least in our dominant US culture these days (remember when the "goddess" convention happened in Minnesota a few years back? Whew! One thing we hate more than a strange god making an appearance is if it is a godDESS!).

We will do just about anything to avoid the unknown. We will try to have all the answers so when the unknown makes an appearance, we'll know what's happening and have everything under control. We like to have our ducks in a row, our "i"s dotted and "t"s crossed, and our contigency plans laid out. We buy insurance. We have all our escape routes mapped out, and we tie up ourloose ends.

We are really not like the Athenians. I'm not sure they enjoyed the unknown...but they seemed to think it was worthy of some honor, at least a statue. Yes, it was an idol - a thing they worshipped, but I think it was because they believed that something very valuable and worthwhile could very well be beyond their knowing and beyond their understanding. And they gave homage to that. And, of course, the philosophers loved to argue and discuss all the finer details.

To worship an unknown god is quite intriguing, really. It strikes me that it's a little like sitting in a jungle or a forest and knowing that a wild animal could come upon you, face to face, at any moment. Yet, still you sit there. Watching, enthralled and fascinated. And indeed a wild animal does come. And you look at it. You know you can't change it, you can't run away from it, you can't control it...it might very well eat you, but you know deep down it is worthy of your homage. So out of respect and some curiousity, you sit and watch and wait for it to teach you something.

I think we all have an unknown God waiting just beyond our sight, beyond our reach, and beyond our comprehension...waiting to teach us something. We need to stop screaming and running around in fear, feeling threatened as if it were an enemy, or pretending it doesn't exist. Rather, just watch and learn.