Acts 9:1-20 "Limited Vision"

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         Some years ago the London Daily Telegraph carried a letter an eleven-year-old boy had written to his mother while he was on vacation in Switzerland. He wrote this: "Dear Mom, yesterday the instructor took eight of us to the slopes to teach us to ski. I was not very good at it, so I broke a leg. Thank goodness, it wasn't mine! Love, Billy."

         What really happened on that ski slope?  Billy’s mother will probably never know all the ins and outs.  That letter gives her only limited vision about what really occurred. 

         In a way, it is the same with the story of what happened to Saul on the way to Damascus that we just read.  We do not know what really happened.  We do not have every last detail – especially about what went on inside his head.  And most of all, we do not know why God would ever zero in on someone as despicable and completely unworthy of God’s attention as Saul was. 

       We meet Saul for the first time earlier in the Book of Acts with a brief mention of his name in a story about the stoning of a follower of the new Christ-like Way named Stephen, who turned out to be the very first Christian martyr. 

       Saul’s bit part in the story was that he held the cloaks of the religious leaders who were actually casting the first stones – and all the subsequent ones as well, for that matter.  He was simply watching, taking it all in, and, we are told, approving of everything he saw. 

       Saul was a young and extremely devout Jew.  He attended the synagogue regularly, hanging on the rabbi’s every word.  He knew his Hebrew backwards and forwards.  

       It would not be unreasonable to presume, as Reformed Church pastor Scott Hoezee does, that “Saul interpreted what we call the Old Testament very literally. That interpretation left no room for Jesus of Nazareth to be the Messiah whom God had raised from the dead. That Jesus’ followers claimed he was the Way to God for both Jews and Gentiles (was not so much hogwash as heresy). Since thousands of good Jews had already begun following this Jesus, Saul was determined to stop that change by stopping the movement.” 

       Who knows exactly what the precipitating circumstances were, but Saul became radicalized.  It could even have been Stephen’s bloodletting that he witnessed that birthed his own bloodlust.  Saul was a terrorist.

       He was a thug, like one of Hitler’s brown shirts.  He was a bigot and a zealot.  He totally believed that he was right, and Christians were wrong.  He was a religious fanatic and believed that God had put the finger on him.  His vocation was to hunt down all Christian believers, round up each and every one of them, and have them tried for heresy. 

       As Methodist pastor Frank Trotter wrote, “As the persecution of the followers of Jesus increases, Saul is an enthusiastic participant who ‘(ravages) the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison’ (8:3). It should be no surprise then that many in the early church fled from Jerusalem, hoping to get to safety in Damascus.

         When Saul hears this, however, he is enraged and breathes threats and murder against the Lord’s disciples. He even asks for permission to follow the Christians on the road to Damascus to capture them before they can reach safety. Theologian ‘John Dominic Crossan...[describes] the kind of ‘zeal’ as ‘religious vigilantism based on personal and individual responsibility’ that ‘allows any outraged person’ to take justice and, well, righteousness, too, it seems, into their own hands.’”

         Saul believed passionately that this new Christian cult was a perversion of the Jewish faith.  Hoezee notes:  “He’s so afraid of how Jewish followers of Jesus may change his faith that he rides there to hunt them down.” He will find them and rid the Jewish world of them – even if it means heading to Damascus where rumor has it these heretical refugees are fleeing and, in doing so, spreading their poisonous Jesus movement. 

         He will haul them back to Jerusalem, the Holy City, in chains to be imprisoned and tried – and then stoned just like Stephen was.  Saul wanted to fix things.  He wanted to get Judaism pure again, back on track – and he was using all his energy to do just that.  He would stop at nothing to eliminate this new movement that he felt threatened the very foundation of his religious faith.

         And so Saul, the radicalized young Jew, the fundamentalist, the true believer, the terrorist, grabbed his list of names, and headed to Syria with a couple of presumably equally obsessed traveling companions.  It is here that our story picks up today.  It is here that God reached into history, called this young thug’s name in the same tradition God had called out the names of Abraham, Jacob, and even Moses – “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” – called his name and, in doing so, unleashed an experience that would transform Saul forever. 

         We call this experience the conversion of Saul, and the Book of Acts (in which this story is told three different times, by the way) emphasizes that fact by noting that Saul’s name was changed to Paul in its aftermath.  Most assuredly, it was a conversion, a personal transformation. 

         However, it was also a call, a call to this young man to let the scales fall from his eyes, to see the world differently, and to proclaim the new Way he had found to non-Jews, to the Gentile world.  His call was to proclaim the Jesus Way that challenged its followers to not only believe but also to act as if life was stronger than death, as if love was more courageous than hatred, and as if reconciliation – and not violence – was the pathway to peace.

         This life-changing moment was short and sweet for Saul.  Out of nowhere came a blinding light directed at him a short ways out on the road from Damascus.  He fell to the ground as he tried to shield himself.  He saw a figure before him and, in his heart of hearts, he knew that this was the Risen Christ himself even before the words were spoken:  “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?  Now get up and go into the City, and you will be told just what to do.”

         And then the figure was gone, and the blinding light thankfully vanished as well. Saul stood up and opened his eyes, but he could not see a thing. The light really had been – literally – blinding. 

         Completely dependent now on his traveling companions, Saul and the tiny group made their way slowly into the City of Damascus.  Saul’s friends carefully helped him, so he did not stub his toe or twist his ankle along the way. 

         For three days Saul waited in the City.  Not knowing which way was up by this time, he erred on the side of tradition and did not eat or drink anything for those three days, thereby fulfilling the ancient steps to prepare himself for a message from God. 

         And God did indeed send a message.  But it was not a lightning bolt or a rumble of thunder.  It was not an earthquake or a wild windstorm.  It was not even a voice breaking into the silence with a whisper.  It was a Christian named Ananias. 

         You see, Ananias also had a vision that day.  He was told to build a bridge, break down a wall, and be what he said he was – a follower of Jesus.  He was to go to Saul the terrorist, the thug, the true believer, and touch him, lay hands upon his eyes that he might see again.  He was to love his enemy.

         Ananias was a wee bit shocked at the proposition, and he protested vociferously. “You can’t be serious. Everybody’s talking about this man and the terrible things he’s been doing, his reign of terror against your people in Jerusalem! And now he’s shown up here with papers from the Chief Priest that give him license to do the same to us.  And you expect me to get close enough to touch him, to heal him, so he can continue his reign of terror?”

         But God said, “Don’t argue. Go! I have picked him as my personal representative to non-Jews and kings and Jews.”

         And so Ananias went – obediently but probably not real happily or confidently.  I mean, who really enjoys having their faith put to the test?

         He found Saul, laid his hands over the blind man’s face, thereby putting his newfound faith to action as he whispered tentatively words about Brother Saul, about Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.  It was then actually that the scales fell from Saul’s eyes – as he experienced the warmth of the compassion that overcame Ananias’s fear, the strength of this man’s faith that overcame his doubts. 

         Saul was baptized right then and there, we are told (Presto!  Paul!). Then he sat down to a hearty meal – not knowing then what he would find out in spades later on – that proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah, that being a follower, a disciple, was no Sunday School picnic but rather would test his commitment and his faith over and over again for the rest of his life. 

         Oh, Saul, you despicable, unworthy man you!  You terrorist, thug, narrow-minded true believer you!  You misdirected, un-self-reflective, bigot and closet racist you!

         And Ananias, what about you?  You sniveling, fearful, weak little man you!  You self-proclaimed Christian but who needed a strong kick in the pants from God to even begin to stand up for your faith you!  You “I really do not want to get involved; isn’t there someone else” bystander you!

         And yet, God summoned both of them – Saul and Ananias.  God called both of them to be who they really were meant to be.  God put the finger on the two of them.  God had a job for them to do – and God knew they could do it. 

         God saw beyond the unworthiness and the fearfulness.  God saw beyond Saul’s life not particularly well-lived and Ananias’ reluctance to actually be who he proclaimed himself to be.  God saw beyond the sniveling, the weakness, and even the bloodlust.  God saw in Saul and in Ananias what they could not see in themselves.

         Such limited vision they had! Such limited vision we all have when it comes to what God thinks we are capable of.  And if God could choose – could call – could summon someone as disreputable and reprehensible as Saul and someone as irresolute and hesitant as Ananias to do God’s work, to proclaim and live the Good News, then imagine, just imagine, what God could do with us if we are open to the transformation and new life God offers us. 

         We may not have a Damascus experience as Saul did.  We may not be subject to a direct kick in the pants as Ananias was.  But imagine, just imagine, what God could do – and wants to do - with us!  Here I am, Lord.  Here I am.  I will take up the cup of freedom – freedom to follow – and call on your name, O God!

by Rev. Nancy Foran, Raymond Village Community Church U.C.C., Raymond, Maine