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READING THE SIGNS
What we have been talking about here is an exercise in what is called semiotics. The Greek word semion in the Gospel accounts is the word for sign. You may remember Jesus in Matthew 16 saying, “You can interpret the appearance of the sky but you cannot read the signs of the times.” Semiotics is reading the signs of the times.
As we have read culture, we have seen a couple signs that give us hints and clues to entry points into conversations we just haven’t understood how to have. My experience as I have talked about this with many Christians, is while there might be initial resistance to think in these ways, they are simply looking for “biblical permission” to think and interact around these topics because they are so common in the cultural airspace.
Semiotics is exactly what Paul used in his now famous Mars Hill interaction. And I want to make sure we touch on it because I think it is another permission giving touch point for us as we head into a spiritually interested culture but one largely hostile to the Christian version.
I realize that for many of us, we have come out of conservative Christian contexts where conversation like this might not only be perceived as off kilter but worse than that, out right flirting with the devil himself. Some of you will giggle, others of you are saying “no kidding,” and are hiding this Fermi Short lest another staff member see it and get you fired. But let’s look at Paul’s semiotic approach.
Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. (Acts 17:22-23)
Paul entered into a spiritually interested area and then started where they were. I want you to note how Paul’s approach differs quite dramatically from that of many of our churches today. Paul doesn’t demonize their ignorance at worshipping at an altar to an unknown God. He doesn’t say all of you that have worshipped here are probably demonically influenced now or in need of deliverance of an unclean spirit. He actually took a totally different tact than that. He said something I think is often missed and is important for us entering the conversation our culture is already having and it is this. He started where they were and expanded their understanding. He affirmed, “You have something right going on here. Can I fill in some of the blanks?”
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man’s design and skill.” (Acts 17:24-29)
Note the missiological move made by Paul here. He started where they were, expanded on their current understanding and then used a national best selling poet to confirm his approach. We might even suggest that Paul here broached both the first person and third person understandings of God. I am intrigued as we read this again because this is not the reading we usually engage as we look at this Mars Hill dialogue. We overlook, or deselect for some reason, that Paul was not only conversant with the cultural material at his disposal, he was more than willing to get into the current and swim around a bit. For Paul this wasn’t compromise; it was a commitment to semiotics and a spiritual conversation engagement that met people at the intersection point of their interest and journey.
JOINING THE CONVERSATION
What would spiritual conversation look like in our culture if we joined the dialogue where it is already going on? What if we trained our people in a Creation-Fall-Redemption-Restoration story? What might happen if we developed a fuller understanding of God in all dimensions, that considered first, second and third person understandings?
As Christ followers we have to ask a number of searching questions.
1. Do we have a full orbed understanding of God’s story, one that includes Creation-Fall-Redemption-Restoration? Or are we fencing only the abbreviated lo-cal Fall-Redemption version?
2. How well have we developed a fully biblical understanding of God as a God of love and compassion as opposed to the judge out there keeping track of the rules? In other words, for all our commitment to the second person view of God how well have we really developed that and passed it on?
3. Do we have a full view of God and his Spirit’s interaction in the lives of all of humanity and creation? How well have we developed, reflected and then integrated into our worldview first and third person perspectives of God?
4. How are we doing at thinking through and applying Paul’s missiological move? Where do we see the conversation and how do we then join it and expand people’s understanding to move toward a conversation that includes second person dimensions?
It seems to me these are the sorts of questions that need to occupy some of our reflection time if we really want to make inroads into our current cultural context. May these conversations continue in our midst so we may be better equipped to join what God is already doing in the culture around us.
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