Date: 4/16/2004
Time: 10:54:23 AM
This is the commissioning story of another great leader of the early church, Paul (known as Saul prior to the conversion experience in this story). As with Peter, Paul experiences an encounter with Jesus that transforms him. He moves from denying Jesus--Saul was a known persecutor of those who followed Jesus--to loving Jesus by tending his sheep, the many communities of believers he developed and supported through visits and correspondences.
Date: 4/16/2004
Time: 10:55:25 AM
Saul (later called Paul) appears for the first time in Acts at the stoning of Stephen. He becomes an ardent persecutor of the Christian church. This reading recounts his blinding and conversion experiences on the way to Damascus.
Date: 4/19/2004
Time: 8:51:59 AM
How is this familiar story addressing where I am at, and where the flock is at this week? Here we have the record of of the last appearance (last=ultimate?) according to Paul life. Perhaps the ultimate experience of the resurrection is when we experience the resurrection for our own-self, in our own conversion experience. (But there are less spectacular conversions too, so don't forget to affirm that...)
Perhaps the other angle to take was from the community of believers at Damascus, represented by Ananias. Even though they were virtually unknown, they are one of the most important people, who accepted and discipled Saul into Paul. From them, he picked up "the way" of Jesus and ran with it.
Is our community a disciple-making community? What should we do to transform the community in that direction? From the text, we see...
1) They are people who belong to "the Way". Their faith somehow must be so visible in practice. There were no Christian church sign back then, and this was not simply just ethical living practices (for most other religious practices are also ethical). From the Didache (catechism training manual written even before 100AD), we found the opening line "There are two ways, one of life and one of death, and the difference is great between the two ways..." and it went on to describe the practices of a Christian, perhaps a reference to "the Way" here. In modern terminology, perhaps I would use the word "organizational culture" to describe "the Way". Whatever it is, their Way must be visible enough and consitent enough for Saul to find them and persecute them. In our modern churches, what would be our visible and consitent identification if we striped away the church buildings? It seems that we have transfered our identity from the life of the people to the physical stuff and ritual around us. What we need to do is to shape our "organizational culture" in accordance to Jesus's standard. That should be our visible identification.
2) There is a familiarity in this community with the mystical experiences such as visions and dialogues with God. Even though Saul was their persecutor, Saul himself is also a mystic, ("praying and seeing vision" in v.12) - this was at least the common infrastructure for discipleship to take place. How should we deal with the balance of rationalism vs. mysticism in our church? What are the common infrastructural experiences where discipleship can take place?
3) The community is very aware of the threat they are facing. Annanias heard about Saul, know what he did, his danger, even his resources. It is wrong for us to ignore the threat of the culture around us. For until Jesus return, we still have to wrestle with the issue of "in the world but not of the world". What do we know about the threats of culture to God's people? (So, I entered seminary and learn so much more...)
4) The community is able to see God's perspective. God is at work in Saul before Annanias even get involved. And God is already hard at work in the postmodern culture shift we are working with. The call is for us to see things God's way, to partner with God in the shaping of the culture around us. How do we get the people of God to see this, and have faith in what's God doing to nuture the future Paul for the next generation? It will have to start with the Ananias among us, the leaders. There were some Ananias who would crucified Jesus, the church leaders in the fourth Gospel' and there were some Ananias who would advance Jesus's kingdom, the church leaders seen here.
5) The community took actions and obeyed God. Anaias trusted God and not his risk-calculation; he obeyed and went. The community opened Saul's eyes, physically and spiritually ("be filled with the Holy Spirit"). Saul was baptized and taken into the fellowship through Ananias (eating with him?) And he was learning from these simple guys at Damascus. The funny thing is this last stage of actions were a bunch of minute and mundane details, easily to be overlooked. There were no famous preacher/apostle at Damacus. It seems like Ananias could be just any ordinary small group leader today. In a way, it seems like the major and significances of the impact was in the previous 4 stages before this outworking of the obedience actions in the ordinaries. It is like the great preparation of the whole cosmos before the simple creation of Adam as another addition in the garden. Weird! But that's how God & Son works.
Lord Jesus, I pray for the Paul-in-training among our communities. Help us to see your perspectives so that we can partner with you in the development of your future kingdom well. Grant us your vision, and help us to obey you and not our own rational, risk-managed style of just managing your flock.
Coho, Midway City.
Date: 4/20/2004
Time: 6:27:22 AM
Saul the persecutor meets Christ the persecuted on the Damascus road.
Michelangelo's painting of St. Paul's conversion offers a startling sight. Above is Christ, looming in the clouds. Just as ominously, Saul is pictured below. He's lying on the ground with his arm raised, as if shielding himself. Of course, the painting shouldn't surprise us. This meeting of the risen Christ with Saul the persecutor is not some sweet "How I Found Jesus" story. The picture shows it well. Jesus has found Saul--and Saul has been blinded and knocked to the ground.
Now Saul finds himself in need of divine help.
Saul is reduced to "nothingness." Up to this point, Acts offers a narration of Saul's actions: holding coats at Stephen's stoning, or getting letters to carry out persecutions, then following through, with deadly consequences. Now Saul is a man of action who can do nothing. He is utterly helpless. If there's any way out of this mess, it's not through self-help books or by pulling a little harder on his own bootstraps. Saul needs help beyond himself--divine help.
So how does Christ help? By calling and old enemy to heal him: Ananias.
The idea from Saul's point of view is almost comic. Imagine you are sitting in the dentist's office. You have one of those killer toothaches and something must be done about it. Oh, the hygienist is as helpful as can be. He politely helps you into the chair, gently puts on the goggles, and leaves you lying there listing to "Th Girl from Ipanema" playing over the office speakers. But then, just when you're getting comfortable with the idea of having your tender tooth worked on, the dentist walks in. And surprise--it's a guy you knew from junior high, the one that you and your friends teased mercilessly. Wouldn't you know it? Just at the moment you're most vulnerable and in pain, a person is sent to heal you who may still be nursing an old grudge. As much as you look forward to relief from the toothache, this is decidedly not good news. Saul would understand. He is blind, hungry, and thirsty, and waiting for God's instruction--whatever it is--when God calls an old enemy to heal him.
Of course, Ananias doesn't like Christ's idea, either.
These two were not enemies who didn't know each other. Ananias even mentions Saul's reputation to the Lord in a vision--as if Christ might not have been reading the local papers! Indeed, what is ironic with Saul is truly tragic for Ananias. As part of a community suffering persecution, he senses real, bona fide risk here.
So Christ teaches Ananias about Saul's call: he will suffer in his mission to the Gentiles.
The text is sparse here. What we have is the Lord's announcement of Saul's mission and Ananias's response. The Lord says, "Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and the kings and the sons [children] of Israel; for I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name." Then, having heard this, Ananias goes and does what he says he didn't want to do! Why? Well, perhaps Ananias through this mission to the Gentiles was a good idea. Who, after all, is against sending missionaries? Ananias may have thought this, but that is not sufficient to explain why he would have gone. The Lord, after all, wasn't asking him to visit a friendly missionary just returned from overseas, but a persecutor of the church. So maybe, just maybe, the key is in the second half of the Lord's announcement: "I myself will show him how much he must suffer...." Now that word must have caught Ananias's ears: suffering! That's just what Saul needs! But hold it--we're not talking about malicious glee here. Ananias doesn't respond just because he looks forward to Saul's pain. No, there is probably something deeper than that going on. If the Lord commissions Saul, it is a commission to serve the community of the suffering. And that's a vocation that Ananias understands.
Now Saul can be blessed through the touch of an enemy.
This scene is not one of unadulterated happiness. Saul is indeed healed, but the tragic brokenness, the failure, and the suffering continue. He is blessed, all right, but to be blessed through the touch of an enemy is not to be healed lightly. There are no group hugs; there is just the dirty business of ongoing reconciliation in the face of struggle, confrontation, and yes, even failure. What does this look like? Think of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa. As a requirement for amnesty, those who engaged in violent acts during the apartheid era had to tell all. They had to confess what they had done and face the very people they had wronged. Sure, we think it sounds like they were "getting off the hook." Perhaps on one level they were. Nonetheless, the exchanges witnessed before the Commission in South Africa are not for the fainthearted. They are part of the real, ongoing work of reconciliation. No doubt Saul would understand. In his mission to the Gentiles and in his suffering for it, Saul comes face to face with the inscrutable grace of God. This grace is costly for those whom it calls. For those of us on this side of the Jewish-Christian divide, it comes no more easily. If we are healed, it is a healing directed toward suffering that begins with a realization of Christian complicity in Jewish persecution. How did one commentator react to Pope John Paul II's placement of his prayer for forgiveness in a crack of the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem? "Well, it's a start." So it is with God's unfathomable healing. It is a gracious call that leads into the heart of suffering. That's what happens when you're blessed by an enemy.
Strange isn't it? You never quite know whom you'll meet on the road. Just ask Saul. The Christ he met there called him from the work of inflicting pain to the grace of struggling through it for the sake of the gospel. Oh, it may not be the way to success. But it is the way to Damascus--and beyond.
Date: 4/20/2004
Time: 7:35:15 AM
Many are now reading Rick Warren's "Purpose Driven Life". His first line is; "It's not about you." Acts 9 and John 21 tell of Peter and Paul being told that they are to go and do what the Lord wants, (even when it is contrary to what they want to do, and will involve suffering) Ananias has to do what he does not want to do. Rev. 5 tells that the glory and honor belong only to God and the Lamb.
Easter is a wonderful message for us, but it is alway a call to forget about self and live for God and for others.
All of the strife and difficulty in congregations comes when one or another wants to do what they want done or else. We forget that it is the Lord's church. We forget that we are called to serve the Lord, not be served and pampered, and have our every whim catered to.
When we rebel or question or doubt, we need to remember who it is that is telling us to go and do: it is the risen Lord Jesus. How can we say no?
JTR in OH
Date: 4/20/2004
Time: 8:41:04 AM
If we want to follow the "Purpose Driven Life" tagent a bit on this text, we may want to ask: "Did Ananias let Saul know about God's revelation to him in regard to Saul's ultimate purpose in his life"? Ananias knew, but did share that to Saul too? That may have explained Saul's fervency right after his conversion as well.
Coho, Midway City.
Date: 4/20/2004
Time: 9:28:13 AM
Peter's conversion was not instantaneous--like all conversions it took time to sink in but when it did WOW
Date: 4/21/2004
Time: 9:43:37 AM
Working on the concept of giving it all to God. Many look at the Damascus Road experience as purely a salvation narrative. I feel it has application to believers as well, especially those who are grappling with giving it all or holding back. Working title (I'm from Bama) is "When God Whomps You up the Side of the Head"
Any thoughts on believers' turnaround illustrations?
Peace & blessings
Rich in Bama
Date: 4/21/2004
Time: 11:48:30 AM
The Gospel passage says, "When you are old, someone will come and place a belt around your waist and take you where you do not wish to go." I doubt Paul wanted to be knocked flat, or as Rich in Bama says, "When God womps you upside the head!" (love it!)I doubt Ananias wished to go visit a man who had persecuted the church. I doubt that Peter and the disciples really wanted to leave the fishing they knew best, in order to go out doing ministry and following the ways of Jesus. But there is something about the encounter with the risen Christ, that changes us, and points us in new directions, and fills us with a whole new way of thinking and being.
Susan in Wa.
Date: 4/22/2004
Time: 8:26:47 AM
William Willimon (Acts)points out that the story of Paul's conversion follows the story of the conversion of the Samaritans (8:4) and the Ethipoian (8:26). But there are also some conversions that follow Paul's. There is the conversion of Ananias (9:10), the conversion of Cornelious and Peter (10), and the coversion of the church (11:18). each of these conversions move the church further and further from the orginal group of in Jerusalem, each of these conversions expands the church understanding of what is means to follow Jesus, and who the gospel is for.
Beverly Ganta FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT, points out that there are three aspects to transformation--1. Alteration--when change appears to grow naturally out of a persons past behavior. 2.Pendulum-when change involves a rejection of past convictions and affiliations and affirmation of a new one (which is what is happening to Saul) 3. transformation--in which the past is not rejected but interpeted in a new way
Date: 4/22/2004
Time: 11:10:15 AM
Speaking of Paul’s transformation, I sometimes wonder whether those of us who have experienced the traditional “conversion” way (asked the Lord Jesus to come into our hearts, and profess Christ before (and in) Christian Churches. Do we fool ourselves into thinking we have changed and use other potential Christians by badgering them into professing our way as proof of our when we approach others. I am concerned that we have traded our relationship with Christ for a way similar to Saul’s way before he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. In our quest for the church we persecute those who profess a different belief. Our dogmas have become more dogmatic than the Pharisees of Saul’s time.. Ananias’ honest prayer strikes me as authentic concern that Saul is not to be trusted. His prayer was confessional. He opened himself up to change rather than praying for Saul to be changed. Thus God as Spirit used them both. Is our self-righteousness attitude adding to this present world’s woes?
Shalom
Bammamma
Date: 4/23/2004
Time: 10:34:04 AM
Does anyone have suggestions for a children's sermon on this text? Many thanks! Leanne in AL
Date: 4/23/2004
Time: 12:30:43 PM
I sometimes struggle with Paul's conversion and call because here he was a persecutor of the people of the "Way" and BAM he's thrown to the ground and blinded! As he goes forth in his ministry much of God's love comes through him yet I wonder if a certain amount of fear doesn't drive him as well? I certainly wouldn't want to "tempt" God after an experience such as Paul's. Paul's efforts to grow the Church run into political and theological struggles with Peter and others. I guess my thought is that even though the Light comes on for Paul he still needed the community of believers, as much as they needed him, to remain on the Straight Road. Kenn in PA
Date: 4/23/2004
Time: 7:42:41 PM
I'm going to talk about the role of Ananias, someone brave enough to speak the truth in love, to help someone who was knocked down, to guide someone into "the way". We need more Ananiases in our churches. We think of Paul as a finished product. But even someone like Paul needed a guide and helper. Ananias had the courage to pay attention to his vision and go to Paul and speak. There may be more Pauls out there, waiting for guidance, young people who need help to hear the call to ministry, people who need a word of direction.
I'm not preaching this this year, but it's also interesting to note that Paul's personality never really changed after his conversion. He was just as zealous and dogmatic as a defender of Christianity as he was a persecutor of Christians. We don't get a new personality when we are born again. We still have the same strengths and weaknesses. It's just that we channel them to a different use. God uses our strengths AND our weaknesses for God's glory.
Take Paul for example. We might consider Paul's zealousness a fault, because he used it to harm others, even putting people in prison for the sake of the purity of the faith he understood. But later this same zealousness allowed him to be persuasive and able to persist in the face of rejection. Who else but a zealous person would have managed to keep going in the face of constant persecution, even imprisonment and attempts on his life? Even our faults can be transformed into gifts when used in the service of God.
Anyway, as usual, thank you all for being out there, and for taking the time to post your ideas. You are always helpful.
DGinNYC
Date: 4/23/2004
Time: 7:46:00 PM
I too would love to hear any ideas about a children's sermon based on this passage. I think I'm going to try to have members of the congregation act out the story while I read it (unrehearsed). But any children's themes would be appreciated. DGinNYC
Date: 4/24/2004
Time: 5:33:57 PM
For my Children's sermon, I'm going to cut some irises out of my garden and show them off. Some of the buds are beautiful and colorful and some are "not yet." I can't force the buds to blossom. I have to wait for their time. Some conversions (like Saul's) happen in an instant - like a blossom appearing over night. Some conversions happen over a long period of time. Some blossoms might not emerge at all. I might have to wait till next year for some.
Tim in Memphis
Date: 9/6/2004
Time: 5:42:36 PM
saul turned into paul then he was good