Incurably religious?

Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People 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. What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you…” Acts 17:22-23

“I’m not a particularly religious person, but I certainly found myself praying…” So wrote a newspaper reporter the other day from Ukraine, as bombs and shells exploded around him.

Religious… It’s a word I hate, because it conjures up all sorts of wrong ideas. Somebody once was filling in a crossword, and his frown of puzzled concentration suddenly turned to a smile as he looked up at me and said, “Oh, you’re religious, aren’t you!”, assuming I would know the answer to a particular clue. I wanted to shout back at him “No! I’m not religious. But I do believe in Jesus, and try to follow him! – which is a very different thing.”

In Acts 17 Paul is killing time in Athens, waiting for his friends Silas and Timothy to catch up with him. He takes the opportunity to look around this great city, and is specially struck by the large number of pagan temples there are. There’s even one dedicated “TO AN UNKNOWN GOD” – presumably the Athenians didn’t want to run the risk of missing anyone out!

He gets into discussion with some of the local intellectuals, and is invited to explain his weird “Christian” beliefs in the Areopagus, a council or forum where matters of religion and culture were debated.

In Acts 17:22 he begins his speech by remarking on what a very “religious” city Athens is. It’s interesting that that word occurs exactly twice – just that - in the whole New Testament (the other time is at Acts 25:19). Paul uses it as a “hook” to hang his message on, a point of contact with his listeners. (Note: he doesn’t start by quoting the Bible at them.) I don’t think he’s being derogatory, it’s just that it’s the best word he can find.

And however much we may dislike it today, “religious” is sometimes the best we too can find, so we just have to put up with it, even if through gritted teeth.

But back to that reporter in Ukraine…

It’s been said that the human race “is incurably religious”, and his comment bears that out: he couldn’t help but pray.

Experts who study human cultures and customs tell us that wherever you look you find some kind of belief in the supernatural, what the dictionary calls “action or conduct indicating a belief in, reverence for, and desire to please, a divine ruling power; the exercise or practice of rites or observances implying this”.

At the lowest level this takes the form of what most people would regard as superstition, “religious belief or practice founded upon fear or ignorance”, to quote the same dictionary.

Such beliefs are still well alive, even in our modern, educated, technological world: a cricket fan watching the West Indies/ England test match the other week stood motionless in one particular spot for the duration of the day’s play, believing that his team stood a better chance of winning if he did so (and it was a very hot day!). Funny if not sad!

Christians can be superstitious. There has been a debate recently in the Church of England, stirred up by the pandemic, about taking communion “in one kind” - that is, the bread but not the wine - with people worrying if that can be “a true eucharist”; as if God would withdraw his blessing if things aren’t done strictly according to certain rules.

And we who perhaps pride ourselves on being pure, biblical, evangelical believers can be superstitious: ask yourself, are you comfortable about  finishing a prayer without tagging on the little formula “in Jesus’ name”? I freely confess I find it difficult.

But, having said all that, there is a positive side also to what we might call “religiosity”. Two things are worth noticing…

First, the fact that people are more inclined to pray in times of crisis doesn’t necessarily mean that God rejects those prayers. He is gracious and merciful. “More things are wrought by prayer/ Than this world dreams of” wrote the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson; and what Christian would dispute that?

Our world at the moment is a deeply troubled world, with the war in Ukraine and the continuing simmering of the coronavirus just two of the worst symptoms. As people all over the world cry out “Lord, have mercy on us”, who knows how he might respond?

And second, let’s be encouraged that that deep-seated religiosity in the hearts of our neighbours, friends, families and work-mates might do for us what that altar “to an unknown god” did for Paul: that is, give us a point of contact with frightened, even superstitious people. Might it give us an opportunity to humbly point them to Christ?

Lord, help us to be ready if and when that moment comes!

Father, please forgive me if my faith in you ever degenerates into superstition or mere habit. Forgive me too if ever I am tempted to despise those who cry out to you only in times of crisis. Father, as I know you hear my prayers, please, in your mercy, hear theirs also. Amen.