SERMON ON 25 JANUARY 2015 THE CONVERSION OF SAUL INTRODUCTION I came across this statement in the Church Times yesterday: "When people have been trained to trust themselves and not others, it's a long road. I see situations sometimes where people are foolish and powerful, and how can they be changed? My hope one day is that they will fall down and break their leg, and then maybe in hospital, in a little bit of quiet time, they can change". This might seem a little harsh, especially to anyone who has broken their leg, but let's look at what the speaker was trying to say. These words were said to a group of 70 in the House of Lords on Monday evening this week by Jean Vanier, 86 year old founder of the L'Arche Communities - communities where people with disabilities live with able-bodied people. Jean Vanier had been invited to speak about 'why the strong need the weak.' I suggest Vanier's statement is also about CHANGE, and what needs to happen if we are to change, and how difficult it can be for some people, not least for Saul, who was very sure of himself and saw no need to change. He was very confident that his work of persecuting Christians was the right thing to do as a Jew and a Pharisee. It took a dramatic event to make him stop and be open to change. He had to trust others after seeing the light which blinded him. And he became open to a personal God, in Jesus, who revealed himself directly to him. CHANGE CENTRAL THEME and LINK TO EPIPHANY I suggest that the theme of CHANGE runs through all of our readings, not only today but throughout Epiphany - each of the Sunday's in January and also next Sunday's readings. I propose that most of these readings are to do with CHANGE in people resulting from some kind of REVELATION: * The Magi were guided by a star, they met Jesus, and they went away changed. * Anna and Simeon met Jesus when he was presented at the Temple and their lives were changed. * It could be said that Jesus himself experienced change due to revelation when he was baptised by John, and God affirmed his Sonship and calling, "You are my son, in whom I am well pleased". From then on, Jesus life was totally devoted to the ministry he had been born for. * At the start of Jesus ministry, when he was healing and performing miracles - changing water into wine at Cana - people s lives were changed by meeting Jesus. * When the disciples met Jesus and were called by him, their lives were changed. 1
PAUL AND CHANGE CONVERSION AND CALLING And now we have Paul, whose life was changed in the dramatic events described in today's Acts reading - his conversion and calling on the road to Damascus. He was growing up in Tarsus at the same time that Jesus was growing up and living with Mary and Joseph. Paul was learning the Jewish faith. He was sent to Jerusalem to study under the famous scholar Gamaliel and became able and competent and a strict adherent to his Jewish faith. Then came Jesus death and resurrection and the birth of the church, when the first Christians were sharing the good news of Christ. Paul had become so zealous as a Pharisee that be began persecuting these Christians because he believed that they were a malignant force and needed to be wiped out. Today we would call this religious extremism. There was no question of him changing. He was confident and sure of himself that he was doing what was right. There was no need to even question it. In Acts, we read that he was on his way to Damascus to seek out and capture Christians and take them to Jerusalem. Then he had this dramatic experience which forced him to reflect on his life, and to change. Jesus spoke directly to him Why are you persecuting me? (Because by persecuting Christ s followers, members of the body of Christ, they were persecuting Christ.) He lost his sight. He was led to a house where he stayed for three days, blind and bewildered. During this time, he reflected and prayed. A bit like Vanier's suggestion of enforced time for quiet during a stay in hospital, Paul had time to reflect on the awesome experience of Jesus speaking directly to him. While he was praying, he had a vision that a man named Ananias would visit him and lay hands on him so that we could regain his sight. And it happened! From this point on, Paul was a changed man. 1. He now believed that Jesus was the Son of God. He had a new calling, from God. He spent the rest of his life serving and proclaiming the faith he had been trying to stamp out. 2. He had experienced the GRACE of God. Without God's intervention, he would have carried on in his own strength and confidence. Nothing would have changed. It was remarkable that such a change should happen to him, an about face as one bible commentator puts it. Paul was eternally grateful to God for his grace, in 2
bringing about this change in him, in revealing himself to him in the dramatic Damascus road experience. How do you think you would respond in that situation? Paul s response was that he now made it his mission to share these truths with everyone. This was his calling for the rest of his life. From then on, he was doing all that he did, not in his own strength, but in the strength of God, always being open to God. PAUL S INFLUENCE ON OTHERS THROUGH HISTORY BY HIS LETTERS Not only did Paul act as a missionary for the rest of his life, but his reflections on his faith were recorded in his letters to the churches, a permanent record in the New Testament. Therefore, he continued to have in influence through history, with the potential to change many others. A famous example of this is Martin Luther, 16th century German theologian, who had a similar life-changing insight about the grace of God as a result of reading Paul's letter to the Romans. A devout Christian, living in a monastic community, he had become increasingly frustrated that he would never 'make the grade' in behaving well as a Christian - he constantly felt that he was failing to live up to the increasingly high standards he was setting for himself. Does this ring any bells with you? I know that I can sometimes be very hard on myself! He was trying to live in his own strength. While reading Paul's letter to the Romans, he realised that faith, salvation and righteousness are a free gift of God. His response is beautifully expressed in his words: "I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates". BENEFITS AND POTENTIAL PROBLEMS OF DRAMATIC CONVERSIONS The unlikely change in Paul, the conversion of a ardent persecutor of the church, can give us great hope that even the most unlikely situation can be turned around. But it could also be a problem for us. Why can t God make himself known to us so clearly and dramatically? Or to those we love? If only we could receive clear callings from God, as did Paul, and the prophet Jeremiah, surely that would make it easier for us and for others to believe and follow him? ANANIAS AND HIS ROLE This is where I believe the character Ananias is helpful. He has a much lower profile than Paul, and following this event, he is not mentioned again in the Bible. 3
But at the right time, he was waiting on God and he was obedient to God s call, even though he was fearful because of what he had heard about Paul. He had a very important role to play at this time in going to Paul and laying hands on him and affirming that Jesus had sent him to help him regain his sight and to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Similarly, Anna and Simeon, waited quietly and patiently into their old age, continually trusting God's promise that a Messiah would come. Their openness to God and their faithfulness eventually meant that they were in the right place at the right time, as Christ was presented in the temple. And this was a great change in their lives, a turning point the thing they had been waiting for had now happened in their sight. SOME CHALLENGES AND QUESTIONS ABOUT CHANGE AND OUR OWN LIVES OF FAITH Have we had dramatic, life changing events, as Paul did? Significant turning points, after which life would never be the same again, either from choices we have made or events beyond our control? Or are we aware of more slow-burning, gradual, imperceptible changes, which only become visible with hindsight? Are we aware of revelations from God or new insights that have changed us or people we know, dramatically or otherwise? Are we open to the possibility that whatever we are doing, if we are open to God, we may be part of the change that He is bringing about in us or in others? Importantly, whatever changes or revelations or insights we may have had, what impact has it had on us? If we sense a calling from God, how should we respond? And f we don't sense any particular calling from God, how should we respond? CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS These are all rhetorical questions. To help answer them, there are some common features in all the characters I have mentioned: Whether they were powerful or not; whether they had dramatic experiences and clear callings or not; whether they had been waiting patiently like Anna and Simeon or whether something came out of the blue, as for Paul and Jeremiah; they were not like the foolish and powerful who trust only themselves and not others, (although Paul did need some strong persuasion from God!) They reflected, they prayed, they read the scripture, they listened and they were open to God. They trusted him. 4
In this, God revealed himself to them, they responded... and they were changed forever. St. John s, Ranmoor. Not to be reproduced without permission. Angie Lauener, 25 January 2015 5