Sermon for April 25, 2004

Elizabeth Macaulay

“No Way”

Acts 9: 1-20

This morning I am going to weave some reflections into the reading of this morning's text. This story we experience today is simply too deep and rich to taste in one big gulp.

We will hear this morning about a villain named Saul, a most reluctant savior named Ananias, and a man made so new that his very name changed from Saul to Paul.

Before we hear the first part of the text, we need to know this about Saul. He was a man devoted to a mission of persecution. He was devoted to rooting out the evil that he perceived in the followers of the Way - the followers of Jesus. He was convinced that his crusade was correct. If it took execution or powerful speeches or constant harassment, it was all justified. He was a zealot devoted to his cause. He would do all in his power to shut down this Jesus movement.

Read Acts 9: 1-9

A man devoted to the killing of the Jesus movement is visited by the power of love that will not die, and will not give up. As a good Jew, Saul knows from his study of scripture that appearances of the Holy do happen, and they are often accompanied by light breaking forth and voices speaking and so he hears:

Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

Imagine that question. Rather than berating Saul or sending down swarms of locusts to make him good and miserable for all of the misery he is dishing out, the voice of Jesus comes to this so self-righteous persecutor of the followers of Jesus in a question.

Why are you persecuting me?

I cannot hear that question without hearing its echo throughout the ages. We, who are the Body of Christ. We, who are neither Greek nor Jew nor woman nor man nor anything separable from the reality that is Christ present in each other.

We know the walk of the zealots continues. Persecutions continue. Convictions become so firmly held and brandished. Those bent upon cleaning up creation by getting rid of the riff-raff forget that it is Christ who is being persecuted.

Listen. You read the papers. You know that persecutions continue. You know that the connections we share with each other sometimes get lost in the fevered pitch that some folks take to campaigns with.

Surely this is so as we have listened in on the conversations about the varieties of sexual orientation. In the civic, and in the faith communities, this issue has evoked such intensity.

Beginning this week, United Methodists from around the world are gathering in Pittsburgh for our General Conference. This happens every four years. It is a chance for elected delegates - and equal number of clergy and lay members - to come together to proclaim our covenant as a people.

It is also a time when the decisions by which we order our lives for the next four years are made.

We United Methodists are no different from every other denomination. We are struggling mightily with the issue of how it is we will or will not allow our clergy to bless holy unions of same sex couples, and we are struggling mightily with whether we will allow ordination of gay or lesbian clergy who are in committed relationships.

What I hear is that the meeting in Pittsburgh could be very painful.

It's not that disagreement is a bad thing. There are many opinions in this sanctuary and there will be many opinions about the issue at General Conference.

But I pray so fiercely for the grace of Christ to empower all of us to remember:

It is when we forget about the humanity that is represented in every decision we make or conviction we hold that persecution is possible.

There are people affected by our actions. They are our children and our friends and they are strangers to us and they are Jesus, who please God will not longer have to knock us off our self-righteous feet to ask the question -

Why do you persecute me?

May we have the wisdom to know the voice of Jesus behind the question.

And so Saul is blinded after his encounter with Jesus. He is led into the tomb of three sightless days. He is helpless and dependent and he has time to think about what he has heard.

Enter Ananias. He is a disciple of Jesus living in Damascus. He has heard of the horrible threat that is this man Saul. He may have gotten word that Saul was intending to come to Damascus to cause some trouble. Ananias must have very strong feelings about this man who participated in the death of his fellow disciple Stephen.

Hear now what it is Jesus asks of him:

Acts 9: 7- 18b

What kind of a thing is that to ask of Ananias? To seek out a man he had every right to hate and fear and be the instrument of his healing? Not only through the power of prayer, but by actually having to reach out and touch the flesh of another you have learned to hate?

It is exactly what Jesus calls Ananias to do. Saul, who has had such an intimate encounter with Jesus, cannot know the full power of his conversion until a member of the Jesus community has touched him.

It is a lesson we must remember.

Conversion is a wild and amazing experience. When a heart has been opened to the touch of Jesus life feels so very different.

But it is not possible to know conversion fully without being in community. We need to be touched and learn from and challenge each other.

One of the things I really admire about John Wesley, the founder of what became the Methodist movement, is the way that he felt so strongly about forming small groups. Preaching and praying for conversion experiences for a believer without the support and care of being in a small group was irresponsible he felt. We all need faith companioning.

I believe he is right. We will be working very intentionally in the year to come to create small groups here at church.

One of the more conservative churches in Duluth has a thriving drama ministry. They put on plays often, and they are well attended. One of the plays really made me gnash my teeth. It was called "Heaven's Gates, Hell's Fires". The gist of the story was that if you died before you confessed Jesus as your Lord and savior, you would go to hell. Plain and simple. The play depicted a scene where a family got in a car crash. Upon their death, some went up, and some went down. And that was that.

The end of the night offered an altar call. People who wanted to claim Jesus as their Lord and Savior were encouraged to come up to the front and be prayed over. So many people, some frightened to bits (I had youth from my church who went with friends, and the message of the play really scared them), and others I am sure touched by a vision of relationship with Jesus that they wanted to claimed, went forward each night.

What I wanted to know was this: what kind of care was given to each individual after their responding to the invitation. I wanted to believe that the church would support and touch these folks on their faith journey.

Because if we don't, we churches, we are not listening to the call of Jesus. So there, Robert Schuller.

So to be a disciple of Jesus is to be asked to touch your enemy with healing.

To be a disciple of Jesus is to allow yourself to be touched and healed and blessed in community.

And what does Saul, this once-been enemy of Christ do with this gift of touch and prayer?

He takes himself to be baptized. He claims and is claimed by Christ and the community of believers. He restores himself, and he begins to tell the story of Jesus.

I want to tell you something I experienced on Wednesday night. The Confirmation class and their mentors went bowling - whacky bowling, it turns out. It helps to have a phy ed teacher in the midst - thanks, Teri. Anyway, we had a good time embarrassing ourselves and getting to know each other.

As we were munching on Dilly Bars at church afterward, I asked those gathered to share a blessing they would like for creation to share.

And this is what one of your faith kin said:

She said: I am realizing that I am wanting to share my faith more. I want to tell the story to more people.

Here, in your church, is a sister of Paul. And that story is in the heart and in the lives of us each.

We don't have to be arch villains on the road to Damascus. We don't have to see blinding lights or hear distinct voices. We don't have to be blinded for three days.

We just have to let ourselves be aware that the in breaking of Jesus is going on in our souls in subtle and wild ways.

We just have to let ourselves be aware that we need each other in order to grow ourselves into rich discipleship.

And we just have to be willing to tell the good news of Jesus Christ.