The Defense Attorney for Having Our Being – Nick Utphall reflects on philosophers and our particular voice
Care for Creation Commentary on the Revised Common Lectionary
Readings for the 6th Sunday of Easter, Year A (2026)
Acts 17:22–31
Psalm 66:8–20
1 Peter 3:13–22
John 14:15–21
Acts 17 can be a favorite of creation care-oriented folks, but I personally maintain sort of an arm’s-length-distance relationship with this speech of “Paul” from/for the Areopagus. Among my reasons, first, I call it a speech and not sermon because I’m not convinced the speaker ever gets around to proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ; he doesn’t directly discern what the Athenians don’t know (“an unknown god”). Second, you notice I put the speaker’s name in quotation marks, since these words don’t tie very closely to our biblical faith while the real Paul is the probable progenitor of our true proclamation of Jesus and core of Judeo-Christian identity. (I realize not all have that positive understanding of Paul, but I invite your reconsideration or at least to temporarily acquiesce and keep reading.)
For one bit of tidying up, here’s the translation from The Inclusive Bible, which at least clears away all of the masculine-loaded God language in the NRSV:
22 Then Paul stood up before the council of the Areopagus and delivered this address: “Citizens of Athens, I note that in every respect you are scrupulously religious. 23 As I walked about looking at your shrines, I even discovered an altar inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God. Now, what you are worshiping in ignorance I intend to make known to you.
24 “For the God who made the world and all that is in it, the Sovereign of heaven and earth, doesn’t live in sanctuaries made by human hands, 25 and isn’t served by humans, as if in need of anything. No! God is the One who gives everyone life, breath—everything. 26 From one person God created all of humankind to inhabit the entire earth, and set the time for each nation to exist and the exact place where each nation should dwell. 27 God did this so that human beings would seek, reach out for, and perhaps find the One who is not really far from any of us— 28 the One in whom we live and move and have our being. As one of your poets has put it, ‘We too are God’s children.’
29 “If we are in fact children of God, then it’s inexcusable to think that the Divine Nature is like an image of gold, silver or stone an image formed by the art and thought of mortals. 30 God, who overlooked such ignorance in the past, now commands all people everywhere to reform their lives. 31 For a day has been set when the whole world will be judged with justice. And this judge, who is a human being, has already been appointed. God has given proof of all of this by raising this judge from the dead.”
As to my skepticism about the representation of Paul, I note that this speaker isn’t grounded in the God revealed in our Scriptures, but is operating within Greek philosophical categories. To notice the context, we need to look outside of our lectionary pericope. It’s not just that the speaker happens to be standing at a Mars Hill and telling people about (a) God. In verse 18, it mentions that Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were questioning and debating with him. The setting is about responding and putting the resurrection faith within non-Christian philosophical parameters. It can be argued he’s using the vernacular of those people in Athens in order to invite them into a framework of Jesus and the resurrection, but I’m not totally swayed by the conversion therapy of this lowest common denominator approach.
Justo González, in Acts: The Gospel of the Spirit, writes “It is the philosophers of these two schools who show some curiosity about Paul’s teachings—curiosity, not respect. The word that the NRSV and NIV translate as “babbler” (“parrot” in the JB) [verse 18] is spermologos, which originally referred to birds that went about searching for food. Then it began to be employed for people who lived by rummaging through waste dumps. Eventually it was used to refer to any charlatan or dilettante who went about collecting ideas and joining them to each other with no particular sense or wisdom. It is in this latter sense that it is applied to Paul” (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2001, p201).
As an aside, I enjoy that Paul could be compared to a bird searching for seeds. On the whole, I’m not rejecting dialogue (or maybe debate) between our beliefs and others, much less comparing this practice to scavenging a waste dump. There could be reasonable parallels now in how we discuss faith and science, or religion and psychology. Such can be not only valuably fruitful but beautifully essential.
Still, I maintain my arm’s length because creation care folks really love the start of verse 28: “the One in whom we live and move and have our being.” The thing is, the speaker isn’t referencing the Bible, but is adapting from a Greek poet (Epimenides, who tended sheep on that hill in Athens about seven centuries earlier, according to Wikipedia).
To me, we miss a significant opportunity when we ignore or bypass rich resources that proclaim God’s and our connection with creation and only rely on someone else’s words. We don’t need to appreciate biodiversity because it’s statistically more resilient; we get to proclaim God’s extraordinary capacity for creativity and delight among our all-species family. We don’t need to reduce being compelled to be nice to each other as obeying laws or as generic morality or as a genetic predisposition of altruism or kindness, but can claim our own worldview that we are inspired to love all our neighbors as kin. There can—and should—be overlap between our faith and our dialogue partners, but we should not surrender our voice and our peculiar (unique) perspectives.
I certainly don’t want to reject the possibility in identifying God as “the One in whom we live and move and have our being,” but want to claim our proclamation. How can we, in this Easter season of life and of new life, remain centered in “the One who gives everyone life, breath—everything” (Acts 17:25). It may be enough that this overcomes national borders. ThereIt may be room, also, to consider the requirements of breathing, and that it involves re-respiration between us who breathe oxygen and those who can process our out-gassed carbon dioxide—not just trees that may be sprouting new leaves but also so much algae and plankton through the oceans, all periodically portrayed as the lungs of the planet.
Another important aspect of Acts relates to the phrase that God “made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and […] allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live” (17:26, NRSV). For this, Professor González wrote, “to inhabit the earth does not mean only to occupy it physically, but also to care for it in such a way that it continues to be habitable. One of the greatest collective sins of humanity in our generation has been the manner in which we have offended God by destroying the land…Is it not high time that the Church, which believes that God has placed us here so we may seek God and inhabit the earth, take decided action for the salvation of the earth itself?” (González, p205). He describes desertification around Lake Aral, deforestation in the Amazon, and air quality in Mexico City, and also cites the rights of people to continue living on their homelands. We could add local or global sins or struggles that have continued or come up in the quarter century since Professor González’s list.
After that emphasis we can find and draw out from Acts, we turn to the Psalm. Selected to respond to the First Reading, Psalm 66 as assigned by the lectionary doesn’t particularly assist in eagerly endorsing creation care. The psalmody could’ve tried to echo the favored verse about our Creator by choosing something like Psalm 8 (“O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” verse 1 and 9). That would’ve even used scriptural words attributed to our own ancient shepherd, David. Instead the selected Psalm seems to focus on going to worship (“I will enter your house”, verse 13) and—maybe more basically—the notion of proclamation to be paired with the Paul character, in the line “Come and listen, all you who believe, and I will tell you what God has done for me” (verse 16).
So we move on to more of First Peter in this lectionary sequence. It’s likely in these days (as at all times) there is fruit in questioning what God’s will is regarding fear, intimidation, and if we “suffer for doing what is right,” (verse 14) including as people are responding to current events by discovering necessary resistance to violent and oppressive structures.
But instead of that broad theodicy, for this reflection centered on creation care, we might instead zero-in on Noah and the flood, an image that conveys many animals, and so should not stop at your possible octagonal (eight-sided, for how many people in Noah’s family survived) baptismal font but expanding to a circle that can include countless creatures for God’s intention of preservation. If the ark, in Genesis 6-8, was intended for preserving all of the species of this planet, then First Peter says, in a way, that baptism connects us to every creature!
Again, just outside the lectionary passage, 1 Peter 3:10 in Greek mentions those who “love life,” or even zoos, if you will (zooan agapan – those who agape zoos!). For creation connections, you might consider how zoos (or seedbanks) are striving to maintain species as risk and threats of extinction compound.
Yet also beyond that, verse 19 is also a cornerstone of biblical belief and assurance that even death will not separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. For that three-tiered view of existence (heaven above, earth where we are, hell below), when 1 Peter says that Jesus “went and made proclamation to the spirits in prison”, it gives rise to our saying with the Nicene Creed that he “descended to the dead / into hell” so that none remain separated or cut off from this promise of new life.
That leads us into the Gospel for the week, a continuation of words of Jesus from the evening before he died. Jesus promises to send “another Advocate”. I’ll note that the gendering of the Spirit (ruach, pneuma, and on to Sophia/Wisdom) in both Testaments can be reasonably be female, so this could be a place to alter pronouns for God to be she/her.
The Advocate whom Jesus promised is in Greek the Paraklete. (Again, since we had an early reference to Paul pecking for seeds, here for more bird/word fun it can be like Jesus promised a parakeet!) Paraklete is the ancient word for a defense attorney, often coming to us as Advocate or Comforter. If you were concerned about the wellbeing of life on this planet—the creatures who occupy zoos, those facing poisons or destruction of their homes, or any and all who live and move and have their being—here is a promise about an attorney for the defense who is on the way on behalf of the love of all life!
And this defense attorney is in you; Jesus says she “abides with you” (verse 17). So as you continue the work of Jesus, “that you love one another just as I have loved you” (John 13:34), your love can come to the defense of all life around you. You can Advocate for Endangered Species Act protections, environmental safeguards, and clean energy. You can be a Mediator and a Comforter for those who are suffering. The Paraklete of Jesus is abiding with you.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Originally written by Nick Utphall in 2026.
nick@theMCC.net
https://utphall.wordpress.com/
PRAYER OF THE DAY
Almighty and ever-living God, you hold together all things in heaven and on earth. In your great mercy receive the prayers of all your children, and give to all the world the Spirit of your truth and peace, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Sixth Sunday of Easter in Year A (Utphall26)
The Defense Attorney for Having Our Being – Nick Utphall reflects on philosophers and our particular voice
Care for Creation Commentary on the Revised Common Lectionary
Readings for the 6th Sunday of Easter, Year A (2026)
Acts 17:22–31
Psalm 66:8–20
1 Peter 3:13–22
John 14:15–21
Acts 17 can be a favorite of creation care-oriented folks, but I personally maintain sort of an arm’s-length-distance relationship with this speech of “Paul” from/for the Areopagus. Among my reasons, first, I call it a speech and not sermon because I’m not convinced the speaker ever gets around to proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ; he doesn’t directly discern what the Athenians don’t know (“an unknown god”). Second, you notice I put the speaker’s name in quotation marks, since these words don’t tie very closely to our biblical faith while the real Paul is the probable progenitor of our true proclamation of Jesus and core of Judeo-Christian identity. (I realize not all have that positive understanding of Paul, but I invite your reconsideration or at least to temporarily acquiesce and keep reading.)
For one bit of tidying up, here’s the translation from The Inclusive Bible, which at least clears away all of the masculine-loaded God language in the NRSV:
22 Then Paul stood up before the council of the Areopagus and delivered this address: “Citizens of Athens, I note that in every respect you are scrupulously religious. 23 As I walked about looking at your shrines, I even discovered an altar inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God. Now, what you are worshiping in ignorance I intend to make known to you.
24 “For the God who made the world and all that is in it, the Sovereign of heaven and earth, doesn’t live in sanctuaries made by human hands, 25 and isn’t served by humans, as if in need of anything. No! God is the One who gives everyone life, breath—everything. 26 From one person God created all of humankind to inhabit the entire earth, and set the time for each nation to exist and the exact place where each nation should dwell. 27 God did this so that human beings would seek, reach out for, and perhaps find the One who is not really far from any of us— 28 the One in whom we live and move and have our being. As one of your poets has put it, ‘We too are God’s children.’
29 “If we are in fact children of God, then it’s inexcusable to think that the Divine Nature is like an image of gold, silver or stone an image formed by the art and thought of mortals. 30 God, who overlooked such ignorance in the past, now commands all people everywhere to reform their lives. 31 For a day has been set when the whole world will be judged with justice. And this judge, who is a human being, has already been appointed. God has given proof of all of this by raising this judge from the dead.”
As to my skepticism about the representation of Paul, I note that this speaker isn’t grounded in the God revealed in our Scriptures, but is operating within Greek philosophical categories. To notice the context, we need to look outside of our lectionary pericope. It’s not just that the speaker happens to be standing at a Mars Hill and telling people about (a) God. In verse 18, it mentions that Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were questioning and debating with him. The setting is about responding and putting the resurrection faith within non-Christian philosophical parameters. It can be argued he’s using the vernacular of those people in Athens in order to invite them into a framework of Jesus and the resurrection, but I’m not totally swayed by the conversion therapy of this lowest common denominator approach.
Justo González, in Acts: The Gospel of the Spirit, writes “It is the philosophers of these two schools who show some curiosity about Paul’s teachings—curiosity, not respect. The word that the NRSV and NIV translate as “babbler” (“parrot” in the JB) [verse 18] is spermologos, which originally referred to birds that went about searching for food. Then it began to be employed for people who lived by rummaging through waste dumps. Eventually it was used to refer to any charlatan or dilettante who went about collecting ideas and joining them to each other with no particular sense or wisdom. It is in this latter sense that it is applied to Paul” (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2001, p201).
As an aside, I enjoy that Paul could be compared to a bird searching for seeds. On the whole, I’m not rejecting dialogue (or maybe debate) between our beliefs and others, much less comparing this practice to scavenging a waste dump. There could be reasonable parallels now in how we discuss faith and science, or religion and psychology. Such can be not only valuably fruitful but beautifully essential.
Still, I maintain my arm’s length because creation care folks really love the start of verse 28: “the One in whom we live and move and have our being.” The thing is, the speaker isn’t referencing the Bible, but is adapting from a Greek poet (Epimenides, who tended sheep on that hill in Athens about seven centuries earlier, according to Wikipedia).
To me, we miss a significant opportunity when we ignore or bypass rich resources that proclaim God’s and our connection with creation and only rely on someone else’s words. We don’t need to appreciate biodiversity because it’s statistically more resilient; we get to proclaim God’s extraordinary capacity for creativity and delight among our all-species family. We don’t need to reduce being compelled to be nice to each other as obeying laws or as generic morality or as a genetic predisposition of altruism or kindness, but can claim our own worldview that we are inspired to love all our neighbors as kin. There can—and should—be overlap between our faith and our dialogue partners, but we should not surrender our voice and our peculiar (unique) perspectives.
I certainly don’t want to reject the possibility in identifying God as “the One in whom we live and move and have our being,” but want to claim our proclamation. How can we, in this Easter season of life and of new life, remain centered in “the One who gives everyone life, breath—everything” (Acts 17:25). It may be enough that this overcomes national borders. ThereIt may be room, also, to consider the requirements of breathing, and that it involves re-respiration between us who breathe oxygen and those who can process our out-gassed carbon dioxide—not just trees that may be sprouting new leaves but also so much algae and plankton through the oceans, all periodically portrayed as the lungs of the planet.
Another important aspect of Acts relates to the phrase that God “made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and […] allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live” (17:26, NRSV). For this, Professor González wrote, “to inhabit the earth does not mean only to occupy it physically, but also to care for it in such a way that it continues to be habitable. One of the greatest collective sins of humanity in our generation has been the manner in which we have offended God by destroying the land…Is it not high time that the Church, which believes that God has placed us here so we may seek God and inhabit the earth, take decided action for the salvation of the earth itself?” (González, p205). He describes desertification around Lake Aral, deforestation in the Amazon, and air quality in Mexico City, and also cites the rights of people to continue living on their homelands. We could add local or global sins or struggles that have continued or come up in the quarter century since Professor González’s list.
After that emphasis we can find and draw out from Acts, we turn to the Psalm. Selected to respond to the First Reading, Psalm 66 as assigned by the lectionary doesn’t particularly assist in eagerly endorsing creation care. The psalmody could’ve tried to echo the favored verse about our Creator by choosing something like Psalm 8 (“O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” verse 1 and 9). That would’ve even used scriptural words attributed to our own ancient shepherd, David. Instead the selected Psalm seems to focus on going to worship (“I will enter your house”, verse 13) and—maybe more basically—the notion of proclamation to be paired with the Paul character, in the line “Come and listen, all you who believe, and I will tell you what God has done for me” (verse 16).
So we move on to more of First Peter in this lectionary sequence. It’s likely in these days (as at all times) there is fruit in questioning what God’s will is regarding fear, intimidation, and if we “suffer for doing what is right,” (verse 14) including as people are responding to current events by discovering necessary resistance to violent and oppressive structures.
But instead of that broad theodicy, for this reflection centered on creation care, we might instead zero-in on Noah and the flood, an image that conveys many animals, and so should not stop at your possible octagonal (eight-sided, for how many people in Noah’s family survived) baptismal font but expanding to a circle that can include countless creatures for God’s intention of preservation. If the ark, in Genesis 6-8, was intended for preserving all of the species of this planet, then First Peter says, in a way, that baptism connects us to every creature!
Again, just outside the lectionary passage, 1 Peter 3:10 in Greek mentions those who “love life,” or even zoos, if you will (zooan agapan – those who agape zoos!). For creation connections, you might consider how zoos (or seedbanks) are striving to maintain species as risk and threats of extinction compound.
Yet also beyond that, verse 19 is also a cornerstone of biblical belief and assurance that even death will not separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. For that three-tiered view of existence (heaven above, earth where we are, hell below), when 1 Peter says that Jesus “went and made proclamation to the spirits in prison”, it gives rise to our saying with the Nicene Creed that he “descended to the dead / into hell” so that none remain separated or cut off from this promise of new life.
That leads us into the Gospel for the week, a continuation of words of Jesus from the evening before he died. Jesus promises to send “another Advocate”. I’ll note that the gendering of the Spirit (ruach, pneuma, and on to Sophia/Wisdom) in both Testaments can be reasonably be female, so this could be a place to alter pronouns for God to be she/her.
The Advocate whom Jesus promised is in Greek the Paraklete. (Again, since we had an early reference to Paul pecking for seeds, here for more bird/word fun it can be like Jesus promised a parakeet!) Paraklete is the ancient word for a defense attorney, often coming to us as Advocate or Comforter. If you were concerned about the wellbeing of life on this planet—the creatures who occupy zoos, those facing poisons or destruction of their homes, or any and all who live and move and have their being—here is a promise about an attorney for the defense who is on the way on behalf of the love of all life!
And this defense attorney is in you; Jesus says she “abides with you” (verse 17). So as you continue the work of Jesus, “that you love one another just as I have loved you” (John 13:34), your love can come to the defense of all life around you. You can Advocate for Endangered Species Act protections, environmental safeguards, and clean energy. You can be a Mediator and a Comforter for those who are suffering. The Paraklete of Jesus is abiding with you.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Originally written by Nick Utphall in 2026.
nick@theMCC.net
https://utphall.wordpress.com/
PRAYER OF THE DAY
Almighty and ever-living God, you hold together all things in heaven and on earth. In your great mercy receive the prayers of all your children, and give to all the world the Spirit of your truth and peace, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Keep exploring