The Stereo Receiver

I

 was seventeen years old with a little bit of money in my pocket which I had received from family and friends for my birthday.  My intention was to hold onto the money and save it.  Ah, the dreams of youth!!!  The money lasted just over a week and then I saw something I simply had to have and I had exactly enough money to pay for it.

One of my good friends from high school and I had gone to eat and on the way home we stopped by one of the popular shopping malls in our area.  There was nothing in particular we were looking for which meant that anything we saw was game for purchase—a very dangerous prospect indeed.

We wondered into a large department store, and, as most seventeen-year-old boys do, we found ourselves looking at stereo equipment.  There were all kinds of systems on display.  Some of them could only be purchased as a complete system while others could be purchased one piece at a time allowing the owner to build and tailor the stereo to his own specific needs and wants.  For this reason, the systems were known as component systems and they represented one of the first rites of passage from teenager to adult.

In the middle of the display area, the store had a special promotion.  They were selling a receiver and speakers for just under $100.  As luck would have it, this is the amount of money I had saved and had promised myself I would hold on to but that stereo looked and sounded wonderful.  Needless to say, I buckled and gave in.  I went home, took my savings out and drove back over to the mall and purchased the receiver and the speakers.  I placed them in the trunk of my car and headed home.

It only took about 20 minutes to assemble the receiver and speakers once I selected a place for them in my room.  There were boxes on the floor, plastic wrap thrown across the beds, and speaker and antennae wires running across the room.  The place was a wreck but it sounded fantastic.  I was happy with my purchase and as time progressed my parents helped me add to the system until it was complete.

Each time a new component was added I would open the box, remove it, and wire it to the receiver.  No matter how many pieces I added, they all had to be wired to the receiver.  Without the receiver, the rest of the stereo was of no value.  Every device sent its signal to the receiver which in turn made it possible for everyone in the room---or depending on the volume, the entire house—to hear whatever music I chose to play.  The receiver was the heart and the center of my system and without it, there would have been no sound, no music, no anything.

In Acts 17:28, Luke reminds us of the important place Jesus must hold in our lives.  He underlines the importance of making him the centerpiece, the very heart of our existence.  Luke pens this reminder with the following words, “For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.”

This passage comes from Paul’s speech at the Areopagus in Athens where he was asked to explain his teaching.  Paul pointed out that the men and women of Athens were very religious.  They had erected altars to several deities, even one to “An Unknown God.”  It was this “unknown God” that Paul explained to those listening that day.  He explained that God was the creator of all things and did not live in any temple made by human hands.  Instead, He was the central point of all creation and of all existence and He was much closer than they imagined.

From that point, Paul continued explaining about the coming of Jesus and how he died for all men and how all those who believe in him would have life everlasting.  But the central truth Paul wanted to communicate was that Christ must be the center of our lives.  We must remain plugged into him if we are to reach those around us for God.  As long as we remain connected to Jesus, our lives have purpose and our message is communicated.  However, if we lose contact with him, if we try to send our own message without him, we become as useless as a speaker or a stereo component detached from the receiver.  Our witness simply will not work. This leaves us but one question to consider today.  Are we connected to Christ and is his message getting out through us?