By Amy Booker-Hirsch

RCL: Acts 17:22-31; Psalm 66:8-20; 1 Peter 3:13-22; John 14:15-21
LM: Acts 8:5-8, 14-17; Psalm 66:1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20; 1 Peter 3:15-18; John 14:15-21

Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, in his book Hunger for Justice, writes about walking the streets of Calcutta, India, and recognizing this hard truth: "In the suffering of the poor, God was screaming at me, in fact at all of us and at our institutions and social systems that cause and perpetuate hunger, poverty, and inequality." ¹ Waiter Wink, citing this quote, continues on this same theme in his book The Powers That Be: Theology for a New,' Millennium: "We end, then, with that divine cry ringing in our ears, exhorting us to engage these mighty Powers in the strength of the Holy Spirit, that human life might become more fully human."²

In today's passage from Acts 17, the apostle Paul "screams" at us to be about God's work. The altar to an unknown god in Athens unsettles him. The altars to "known gods" in our day should unsettle us! Can we name a few? The automobile, a meal in five minutes, even modern plumbing and lights? God "commands all people everywhere to repent" (v. 30). Here are some ways to start repenting! Is walking to church an option? How about fasting? How about a prayer meeting devoted just to prayers for the world's poor people? The possibilities for our work of dismantling "institutions and social systems that cause and perpetuate hunger, poverty, and inequality" abound. God can start with you and dismantle your own prejudices about those who are poor. If the first-century Christians could do it in the face of great persecution, why can't we?

John's Gospel text today, a text often used at funerals, gives us some help when it comes to living in the Spirit. After all, the disciples are asked to start "making the break" from Jesus. Jesus himself knows his death is near. But the disciples don't understand that yet. Without Jesus embodied, working with them and next to them, what can they expect? Jesus' use of the word "Counselor" translates as "one called to work alongside." Jesus points the disciples toward the future as lie presses die point that he and the Spirit are one.³

Look to the future with and in the Spirit. Pentecost is near, but more importantly, the Spirit is here, in you and in all. Take the time to begin the season by drinking in the Spirit. Do not stop there. Dwell in the Spirit. The Spirit of God, as Wink so poignantly states, exhorts us "to engage these mighty Powers in the strength of the Holy Spirit, that human life might become more fully human."

Prayer

Breathe on us, God. Dismantle our fear that no one will like us if we preach the Good News. We need a "good talkin' to" from you so that we might claim our complicity in a "privileged world." Guide us to take bold actions in the Spirit to unravel one thread at a time the "coat of privilege" we wear. Alleluia! Amen!

Musical Suggestions [LH]

The Lord Hears the Cry of the Poor—BP 109
God Our Author and Creator—NCH 530
O God in Heaven—NCH 279
Now Praise the Hidden God of Love—PH 402

1. Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, Hunger for Justice (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1980)
2. Walter Wink, The Powers That Be: Theology For a New Millennium (New York: Galilee Doubleday, 1998) 199.
3. D. Moody Smith, Harper's Bible Commentary (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1988) 1068.

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Reflection from Hunger for the Word, Year A
© 2005 by the order of Saint Benedict, Inc.
Published by Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota.
Reprinted with permission.