If you want to call people to stand on holy ground you must first find common ground. At first glance it may have seen as though there was nothing with which Paul could work. But God is very good at creating something out of nothing. Paul saw an empty place in the patchwork of idols and altars. Like water in the desert, or a quiet corner in a noisy room, the emptiness of one altar held the possibility of encounter.

There was the bare altar - no symbols or images sat upon it. In the inscription, "to an unknown God", was the silent admission that there might be more to know about God than all the philosophers and kings had yet said.

Paul knew an opening when he saw one, and he stepped forward and he spoke. Paul admitted the existence of a vast field of possibilities, the images were all around him, but he proclaimed that it is God in whom we live and move and have our being.

The empty altar pointed to one who made all things - there would be no gold, nor wood or silver for the fabrication of the adjacent idols had God not made the earth and all that is on it. There could be no heated exchange amongst philosophers if God not first given them the breath of life. Paul reminded his listeners of the words of their own poets', "For we too are his offspring".

The echoes of the divine are embedded in art and poetry, but humanity is bounded by time and space. We live our allotted time and we grope along in ignorance until we find our way by accident, instruction from others, or grace. We put tremendous energy into parenting, and education, to try to help people find their way through life without seriously damaging themselves, the people around them, or the planet on which we live.

Paul models for us the necessity of building from the foundation up. God is the ground of our being. As Paul says in one of his letters, "You are God's building, God's field". We are formed and nurtured by the God who created us.

This silent and invisible agency gives us life and growth and whatever increases in knowledge and material goods we may possess. God is more than we can imagine. God is more than we can image. No idol, however lovely or revered, is a sufficient stand-in for a conscious relationship with our Creator. No philosophy, however eloquent, can sustain our whole being or give us life.

We are made in such a way that we can move through life like children playing pin the tail on the donkey. We are told that there is some mark to hit and a prize waiting to be won if we just move in the right direction. But our sight is veiled and we are turned to and fro by the vagaries of the world until we lose all sense of proper direction. We cannot see the target and we do not know the true nature of the prize even as we ache to win it.

God is indeed not far from each of us. But neither are all the glittering things that distract and misdirect God's children of all ages. We need to be in community, and in communion, to grow strong, to be well formed, to be pointed in the right direction and to fulfill our calling.

Unless we are connected to God and to each other we will not have the fullness of life that God desires to give us. In the men's bible study last month Larry Haislip drew a parallel between God's gift offered in Christ and a phrase used in some contests: "You may already have won".

The prize is very near us…as near as the air we breathe, and the image of God within us. We may already have won…Already? Through Christ's death and resurrection we have indeed won. We have simply to connect and claim the prize.

Jesus used the metaphor of vine and branches.
It is such a clear image, of course a branch has no life by itself, anyone can see that. Branches have no roots- they are not sufficient unto themselves. It is how they are built. A branch cannot bear fruit on it's own. A branch cannot even survive without a connection to the vine that sustains it. Why do we so easily imagine we can make it on our own?

Our dependence on God and our interdependence on each other are not weakness or bad news. It is the Good News that Christ was dying to tell us.

The reality is that we truly can do nothing without God.
At the same time, the reality is that all things are possible with God.

We acknowledge and foster our connection with God by how we act in the world. In the first letter of Peter we heard, "…have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse; but, on the contrary, repay with a blessing. It is for this that you were called."

There are a thousand opportunities in life to seek vengeance, to lash out in anger or to render judgment on others. There are an equal number of opportunities to pray for those who have harmed us and to reach out to help even those who have done nothing to deserve our assistance. Let others dig graves for their enemies. Let us dig channels for grace that it might flow like a mighty river.

We acknowledge and foster not only our own connection with God, but that of others, by how we respond in the world. "Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence." Faith saved my life. Is it offensive to throw the life ring one holds in one'shands to another drowning soul? We have something precious to offer to a world that so often loses the sense of what is truly valuable.

We live in a twenty-first century analog of ancient Athens - in a polyglot culture, surrounded by idols of chrome and glass, status and power. Yet our roots are strong, and life pulses through the vine. In the noise and confusion of our own lives, in the ebb and flow of our workplaces, there are those moments of silent longing, those empty places waiting for the Word to be spoken, waiting for the light of God to be lifted up.

Remember Paul in Athens, full of grace and willing to meet people where they were. Paul pointed to the emptiness and told the Athenians how God encompassed all they knew and all they did not yet know.

You and I are also called to the same kind of proclamation. Look and listen in the marketplace. Be alert in the harbor and on the hills and when the moment is right- when the opening is there- step up and tell the stories you know to be true.

The vine-grower is very skilled at grafting all manners of branches into one body. So tell the aching travelers around you about the unknown God who seeks them in their search. Tell them that God is inviting them to connection, communion and community. Tell all who will listen that Christ has come to gather those who are wandering, and those who think they are lost, into a kingdom that is growing in silent splendor, one new branch at a time.