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Sermon:
January 25 is the day the Church marks the conversion of St Paul. Paul was to become the greatest evangelist of the early church. He was also its greatest theologian and his letters form a key part of the New Testament. They provide the earliest testimony that we have to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Some see him also as the greatest mystic of the church. Paul’s conversion is therefore an event of the highest significance.
The story of how Paul came to faith in Jesus Christ is well known. Indeed, the idea of a ‘Damascus-road experience’ has become part of the popular imagination to describe anyone who suddenly and radically changes their viewpoint. Paul – or rather Saul as he was then called – was active in persecuting the early church. We are told in Acts 8 verse 1 that Saul approved of the killing of Stephen. Saul then led house to house searches for believers, committing them to prison. When it became apparent that many believers were fleeing Jerusalem for other cities and towns, Saul sought authority from the high priest to extend the persecution to Damascus. In today’s reading we are told that as he approached Damascus a light from heaven flashed around him and he had a direct personal encounter with the risen Jesus Christ. The experience blinded him and he remained blind and in a state of collapse for three days. This trauma ended when a disciple in Damascus named Ananias had a vision telling him to go and lay his hands on Saul to heal him. A rather worried Ananias did as he was bidden. Saul was filled with the Holy Spirit and his sight returned. He was baptised and very soon began preaching the new faith about Jesus in the local synagogues. This amazed everyone as they knew that Saul’s task had been to try to exterminate the new faith, and now here he is enthusiastically proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah.
It is sometimes said that in his ‘conversion’, Saul moved from the Jewish faith and became a Christian. This is highly misleading. It would be many years before the word ‘Christian’ would even be invented. It would be more accurate to say that Saul moved from being an observant Jew who did not believe Jesus was the Messiah to becoming an observant Jew who did believe that Jesus was the Messiah.
Paul’s distinctive role would be as an apostle to the Gentiles. This was revealed to Ananias in verse 15 of today’s reading. Paul not only went on to preach to the Gentiles, he also played a key role in determining how Gentiles were received into the Church. In the first years of the Jesus movement, it had been tacitly assumed that a Gentile who wished to follow Jesus would become a Jewish proselyte prior to baptism. Paul was instrumental in insisting that this was not merely unnecessary, it must not happen. God’s purpose, he believed, from the very beginning had been for there to be one Church in which observant Jews worshipped side by side and in unity with Gentile believers who were free of the Law. As we draw to the end of the week of prayer for Christian unity, it is worth recalling that Paul was totally committed to the unity of the Church. Indeed, the Apostle to the Gentiles was to expend a huge effort in organising a large-scale monetary gift from the Gentile Churches to the mother Church in Jerusalem. This effort, borne out of a conviction that the worldwide Church was one Church, was to lead to Paul’s final arrest and ultimately cost him his life.
In verse 16, Ananias is told that Paul will suffer. This suffering is indeed recounted vividly in Paul’s later letters, such as 2 Corinthians chapters 6 and 11. The cost of discipleship is a theme in our gospel reading today also, where Jesus assures Peter that those who leave everything behind to follow Jesus in his ministry of suffering love will gain immense spiritual riches and will inherit eternal life.
The conversion of St Paul is an encouragement and a challenge to us. It challenges us to live in fellowship with Jesus Christ and be totally dedicated to his service. It encourages us as we see that the life that Paul went on to live was indeed full of the spiritual riches that Jesus promised in the gospel reading. I pray that we will find fulfilment, joy and peace as we commit ourselves to a life of faith in Jesus Christ. Amen.
Questions:
- How does your faith in Jesus Christ affect the way you live and the things you do?
- Has this led you to a deeper spiritual life?