The Conversion of St. Paul

The Conversion of St. Paul – January 25, 2004

Acts 9:1-22

Have you ever asked the question, “Why me, Lord?” Perhaps you asked it as the doctor told you of a serious illness. Or perhaps you asked it when your child found their way into serious trouble with the authorities.

There may be a million reasons for asking, “Why me, Lord,” and I added another one just the other day.

You may remember how I was spending my week at Chautauqua a number of summers ago. I spend a week there each summer studying and enjoying the music. It was there, in my little room of eight by twelve feet, furnished only with a bed, chest of drawers and a sink, that I encountered the Apostle Paul.

You may remember my sermon that I preached shortly after that encounter. I knew it was Paul because I had read about him during Greek class in seminary. He looked exactly as they had described him in my Greek textbook.

Well, I have to ask “Why me, Lord” this week because St. Paul entered my life again. There I was, just sitting at my computer, ready to work and he appeared on the screen. Our encounter went something like this:

St. Paul: Bob, we need to talk.

Bob: Is that you, St. Paul?

SP: Yes, it is me. We need to talk.

B: What about?

SP: What else, mission! What God wants us to be doing is to tell others of the love God has for us in Christ.

B: Amen. But, why do we need to talk about that?

SP: Let me do a little history for you.

B: OK.

SP: Remember that I was on the wrong track. I was persecuting believers in Christ for the authorities. I was the one who held the coats of those who stoned to death St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr.

B: Yes, I do remember how you started out on the wrong track. But, you did see the light.

SP: Yes, I did see the light, but that is getting ahead of the story. Remember, Bob, that my persecution of believers came from inside me. It was my deafness to God, my spiritual blindness that kept me from hearing and seeing what God wanted me to do.

B: Well, St. Paul, all of us can become deaf and blind to what God wants of us from time to time. Indeed, I know it happens to me.

SP: Bob, you are right. Anyone can shut God out of their lives, and we often do. It leads us to pathways that do not serve God and our Lord Jesus. Fortunately, the Holy Spirit can move us back to the path of faith. That is what happened on the road to Damascus for me. The Holy Spirit arranged an encounter with our Lord Jesus and I was a different man. By the way, just call me “Paul.”

B: OK, Paul. Yes, indeed, the Holy Spirit does nudge us back into a relationship with Jesus when we wander. Isn’t that what the cross is all about; about forgiving us our wandering, our sin, so that we can live reconciled to God in our Lord Jesus?

SP: Yes, Bob, that is the cross, the truth of the death and resurrection of Jesus. There we are forgiven, and from that cross we live forever in Jesus. That is the life for us.

B: And that forgiveness of the cross makes us different doesn’t it? Doesn’t it change us inside? Doesn’t it deal with us when we are spiritually deaf and blind?

SP: You bet. Cross-forgiven we are made new people in Jesus. My new life began with me literally blind. That really nice fellow, Ananias, had to come and heal me, both of my literal and my spiritual blindness.

B: I must say that was a tough assignment from God to Ananias. You had really been tough on believers, and now Ananias was to go to you? I am sure your reputation preceded you, and if I had been Ananias, I would have had to think twice about going to heal you.

SP: Thank God, Bob, that Ananias did not think twice. He faithfully did his mission calling. That is, he came to this persecutor turned believer and helped to birth me into faith. He was there to baptize and to heal. He was there with others to support me and help learn what the faith was all about. Thanks be to God for Ananias and all the folks who helped me.

B: Paul, I am thinking that is what we need to be now. There is a popular song that has this as a lyric: “If you cannot pray like Peter, if you cannot preach like Paul, go home and tell your neighbor that He died to save us all.” Just as Ananias came to you, we need to go to others, don’t we?

SP: Indeed, Bob that is the heart of mission: taking the love of God in our Lord Jesus to others. It is the calling of every believer. Tell the folks that on Sunday. You need to hear it; they need to hear it, which is why I am with you today.

B: I will do that. I will tell them.

SP: See you again, Bob, another time.

Before I could reply, St. Paul was gone.

The words, though, kept repeating in my mind and heart. “You need to hear it; they need to hear it.” We need to hear that it is the baptismal calling of every believer to go home and tell the neighbor, “He died to save us all.” Amen.

Pastor Robert F. Holley