The Unknown God

*** Narrative Lectionary *** Lectionary Reading: Acts 17:16-31 CLASSIC POEM: The Unknown God Anna Laetitia Barbauld To learned Athens, led by fame, As once the man of Tarsus came, With pity and surprise Midst idol altars as he stood, O’er sculptured marble, brass and wood, He rolled his awful eyes. But one, apart, his notice caught, That seemed with higher meaning fraught, Graved on the wounded stone; Nor form nor name was there expressed; Deep reverence filled the musing breast, Perusing, “To the God unknown.” Age after age has rolled away, Altars and thrones have felt decay, Sages and saints have risen; And, like a giant roused from sleep, Man has explored the pathless deep, And lightnings snatched from heaven. And many a shrine in dust is laid, Where kneeling nations homage paid, By rock, or fount, or grove: Ephesian Dian sees no more Her workmen fuse the silver ore, Nor Capitolian Jove. E’en Salem’s hallowed courts have ceased With solemn pomps her tribes to feast, No more the victim bleeds; To censers filled with rare perfumes, And vestments from Egyptian looms, A purer rite succeeds. Yet still, where’er presumptuous man His Maker’s essence strives to scan, And lifts his feeble hands, Though saint and sage their powers unite, To fathom that abyss of light, Ah! still that altar stands. *** This poem is in the public domain, and may be read in a live-streamed worship service. CONTEMPORARY POEM: In Whom We Live and Move and Have Our Being Denise Levertov SNIPPET: Birds afloat in air’s current, sacred breath? No, not breath of God, … [ READ THE FULL POEM ]