"As One Obsessed"
Sermon Presented April 22, 2007
Acts 9:1-20
Daily, we hear news broadcasts with reports of wars raging between Israel and Palestine and between Sunni Muslims and Shiite Muslims in Iraq. Many such conflicts begin over religious ideology and then move to power struggles. Wars are waging in mainline Christian denominations over how to interpret the Bible, whether homosexual people can have equal status in the Church, and what should be done about gun control and Global Warming. Again, we see movement from religious ideology to issues of power and control.
The world is filled with conflict because people of faith who are passionate about their understanding of God's will allow their righteous anger to burst forth without listening to those of a different persuasion. Broken relationships, broken lives and broken bodies lie in the wake of these conflicts.
The story of Saul in our text fits this pattern. Saul is one obsessed and on a mission. But something happens that causes him to make a 180-degree turn. Let's look at the story found in Acts 9:1-20. (Read text.)
Saul is the kind of religious fanatic with which the world has been abundantly cursed! His heart burns with zeal as he approaches the High Priest for permission to go to Damascus and arrest followers of the Way (the first designated name for Christians.) Now mind you, it's a 135 mile journey from Jerusalem to Damascus, so this isn't just a side trip. Saul has no paddy wagon or train to transport his prisoners, but a person obsessed doesn't always consider the obstacles to the mission. With what he believes is a mandate from God, he journeys to Damascus to arrest Jews in the synagogues who are followers of Jesus.
Because he's so angry, self-righteous and determined to rid the world of Christians, it takes an extraordinary act of God to derail him, but that's just what happens! Outside the city of Damascus, Saul encounters Jesus in a way that leaves him blind and shaken.
For the next three days, Saul remains in a Damascus home, neither eating nor drinking. During this time, God appears in a vision to a Christian named Ananias, and God sends him to Saul. Ananias does as directed, and Saul sees again, is filled with the Spirit, and is baptized. This is the first step to fulfill his call to tell all people - Jews, Gentiles, royalty and ordinary people about Jesus. He remains a Jew, but now is as passionate in proclaiming Jesus as he was in persecuting Christians.
This is a great story - a powerful story of conversion and a changed life - but what does it say to us in the 21st century? Let's look at some insights that I believe speak to us.
First, there are no hopeless cases! Saul is passionately evil - sanctioning violence and murder! He thinks he's doing the right thing, but his passion is misdirected. Because he believes that the message being spread by the followers of Jesus is in error, he sets out to stop the message by silencing the messengers. His heart is hardened by misunderstanding, and this man on a mission appears to be hopeless!
I'll bet everyone here can name someone you believe is hopeless. Steven Avery appears to most Wisconsin residents as hopeless! Any one who can rape, kill and dismember a person must be beyond hope. I doubt if there are many Christians praying for Avery's conversion or for the conversion of the Wisconsin teenager now on trial for killing his high school principal. If the young man who perpetrated the killings at Virginia Tech had lived, he would also be on our list. But God got hold of Saul and changed him miraculously! Saul heard the truth and did a 180 degree turn. No one is hopeless where God is concerned.
We read testimonies of people who have "seen the light" and radically turned around on civil rights issues. They can honestly say "I didn't know! I didn't understand! I'm sorry!" And we believe them! That's what happened to Saul! He literally "saw the light" and the passion he directed toward eradicating Christianity was redirected to spreading Christianity.
Since the mid-eighties, I have been aware of the great conflict between those who believe in inerrancy - the belief that God dictated the biblical texts and everything that is written is to be taken literally, and those who believe that the Bible is the faith story of God's people and is the guide for faith and practice - but not everything is meant to be taken literally. When I entered seminary, I was determined to prove that people on both sides of the divide could get along with one another when treated with love and respect.
I zeroed in on one member of my class, a literalist named Scott - for my experiment. Scott once told me that there were no conservative professors in the seminary because none would state in class that women shouldn't be pastors. As you can imagine, I was furious. The year after graduation, I was asked to preach at the most liberal Southern Baptist Church in the Kansas City area. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that this former literalist was a member of that church and was slated to introduce me. I was flabbergasted! I learned that the church where he had been pastor was even more Fundamentalist than he and they ran him off because he didn't preach what they told him to preach. As a result of his treatment there, he came to see God in a new way and experienced a radical conversion!
Often our understanding of God keeps us from a genuine relationship with God. Saul believed that he was at the center of God's will when he set out to rid Society of Jesus' followers. His understanding of God was the source of his identity and the heart of his values. In one awful moment the center of his universe shifted. He didn't understand at all! Neither can we know all there is to know about God, so it's important to keep an open mind to new understandings.
Gregory Jones, dean of Duke Divinity School, quoted Arch Bishop William Temple's warning: "If you have a false idea of God, the more religious you are, the worse it is for you-it were better for you to be an atheist" (Christian Century, May 20-27, 1998, p. 544.) That statement fits Saul! He's so burning with religious zeal that he unknowingly moves completely away from God.
I believe that there will always be different understandings of and responses to God within the Christian community. Some people are religious zealots - but zealots on opposite sides of the same issue. Others can't define their beliefs but try to follow Jesus. Some refer to God in diverse and seemingly incompatible ways. Differences arise because of our religious and socio-economic backgrounds, what we read, and who we listen to. Christians aren't cut out with a cookie cutter. So in the midst of our diversity, how do we, like Saul, learn to identify God and understand God's relationship to the world and our lives? It takes time to reach such understanding because we aren't struck blind. In our growth process, it's important to question what we can't readily accept and read differing viewpoints. Pray and talk to those whom you respect. Conversion for most is a life-long process.
Another issue in this text is the offering of unconditional hospitality. Ananias and the Christian community extended genuine hospitality to Saul after his conversion. This could have been dangerous because they knew his reputation. God called them to overcome their fear and minister to a man whose purpose for being there was to arrest them and take them to Jerusalem. They obeyed God and put out the banner "All are welcome," calling Saul "Brother". They didn't wait for proof or propose a litmus test for faith. They obeyed God and welcomed a man who carried the baggage of past violence. By accepting Saul, they played a key role in what happened to him - and to the spread of Christianity.
Saul was a passionate man - no matter what side of the fence he was on. What do we do with our passion? Are we passionate about anything or are we passionate about many things? We can let our passion die by doing nothing or we can channel it for either good or evil. Expressions of passion are evident on the political scene and in churches and denominations. Do we try to effect change through elections, economic support of candidates, and correspondence with people in power? Do we get involved in health, poverty or ideological issues? There is great diversity in the Christian community, but when God makes us aware of a need, we should work with passion for issues of peace and justice.
Yesterday, I received an e-mail message from Rowena, a young Filipino woman who moved to Marysville, KS about eight years ago to work as a lab technician at the hospital. She is on contract with the hospital and must pay back the hospital for arranging for her to be here as well as send money home to her family in the Philippines. Rowena was extremely homesick after arriving in Kansas because her boyfriend was still in the Philippines, but eventually he came to Nebraska to work in a hospital not far from Marysville. They married a couple of years ago and live in Marysville.
Rowena is a committed Christian. She told me she and Benjii leave this week for their first trip home since coming to the US. However, during their month's visit, they won't just see their families, but they will work with youth and in a Vacation Bible School. Rowena and Benjii are passionate about their faith, and they are acting on that passion when they share Jesus with their people.
God wants to transform our lives - to give us the opportunity to live passionate lives. Therefore, let's open our minds and hearts for God's transforming power to work within us. Let's be hospitable to others and willing to pray for those who appear to us to be hopeless. Let's ask God to transform us into passionate followers of Jesus who act on those passions. God meets us where we are, and God can direct us to lead passionate and transformed lives. What's holding you back?
