Acts 9:1-20, Conversions

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=96 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="14a64661egerdp.jpg"> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="525" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="HSIDES" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 50 WIDTH="60"><div> <A HREF="home.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Welcome to Faith"><U><B><IMG SRC="06125250.png" border=0 width="37" height="37" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=CENTER><NOBR><div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#66334C" FACE="Arial" ><B>Faith Lutheran Church</B></FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#66334C" FACE="Arial" ><B>      |    </B></FONT><B> H</B><A HREF="home.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Welcome to Faith"><U><B>ome</B></U></A></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <div> <A HREF="calendar.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Calendar"><U>Calendar</U></A>   |   <A HREF="findfaith.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Finding Faith"><U>Finding Faith</U></A>   |   <A HREF="prayercard.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Prayer Card"><U>Prayer Card</U></A>   |   <A HREF="sermons.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sermons"><U>Sermons</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id32.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Life in Faith"><U>Life in Faith</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id39.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Special Services"><U>Special Services</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id25.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Related Links"><U>Related Links</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="14a64643.jpg"> <div> <I>Sermons</I></div> <div> <A HREF="id85.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Luke 1:4655, Justice"><U>Luke 1:46-55, Justice</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id77.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mark 16:18, To Be Continued"><U>Mark 16:1-8, To Be Continued</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id31.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ten Commandments"><U>Ten Commandments</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id86.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Luke 13:1021, Sabbath Rest"><U>Luke 13:10-21, Sabbath Rest</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="grace.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="John 1:118 Grace"><U>John 1:1-18 Grace</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="grace46.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="John 6:121, Eating All Natural"><U>John 6:1-21, Eating All Natural</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id67.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="John 20:1931"><U>John 20:19-31</U></A></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c84c336600.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Acts 9:1-20, Conversions</B></div> <div> <A HREF="id46.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mark 9:3848, Fatal Distractions"><U>Mark 9:38-48, Fatal Distractions</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id30.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="John 15:18"><U>John 15:1-8</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="grace54.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mark 10:1731"><U>Mark 10:17-31</U></A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=384 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="14964643.jpg"> <div> <I>Acts 9:1-20, Conversions</I></div> <div> <I>3rd Sunday of Easter</I></div> <bR> <div> The central story of Christianity--the number one story--is the total story of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.</div> <div> But the experience of Paul as he made his way to Damascus, a city a little over 100 miles north of Jerusalem, ranks a close number two. It is not the central story, but it is so important that Luke, who is the author of the book of Acts, tells it three times. We just heard the first telling.</div> <div> It is so important that we'd be odds-on safe to say that, had Paul not been knocked down by God, and blinded, and led to the city, and healed by Ananias's trembling hands, we wouldn't be sitting here today, Lutheran Christians.</div> <div> There would have been no Paul the Christian missionary. There'd be just Saul, threat- and murder-breathing pursuer and persecutor of the followers of the Way of Jesus.</div> <div> There would have been none of Paul's epistles. None of those great bossy and cajoling letters to the churches of Galatia and Corinth and his master's thesis to the people of Christ in Rome. There would be no churches to write to, in the first place. There would have been no Pauline theology to inspire Augustine and Martin Luther. There would never have been "justification by grace through faith." Nothing for Lutherans to quote to their Roman rivals. No Lutherans, even.</div> <div> No St. Paul's cathedral.</div> <div> It was Paul who more than any other--at least as we know from scripture--who spread the Good News throughout the eastern Mediterranean. Paul was the church's most prolific and successful missionary. He lived for his churches. He badgered them into adhering to his consistent theology and practice. He flattered them and he argued with them and he built them up and built them to last.</div> <div> Peter may have been the rock on which the church was founded. But if Peter was the rock, then Paul was the Kudzu. The churches that Paul founded and nurtured were like weeds, tough, stubborn, and fruitful.</div> <div> But Paul started life with the name Saul. His job was to hunt down Christians and bring them to trial, put them in prison. By all accounts (including his own) he did a great job. He was a good and ruthless hunter. He was the Sheriff of Nottingham to Christianity's Band of Merry Men. Or perhaps more up to date: he was Darth Vader to Christianity's Rebel Forces. </div> <div> But something happened to Saul. Something changed in him. It was as if Darth Vader were to become Obi Wan Kenobi. Or better, as if Darth Vader were to defect to the rebels.</div> <div> Saul was turned around, and the direction of his life changed. This story shows us a lot about Paul and a critical moment in the history of the church. But more than that, it shows us the ability of God to come into our lives and to change them radically. And the willingness-eagerness, even-of God to do that. It tells us about the way God changes the direction of our lives. The short word for this is conversion: God turning our lives around.</div> <div> This story tells us five key things about conversion.</div> <div> First, it tells us that conversion is not always welcome.</div> <div> As Paul was, many of us are good at what we do. Satisfied with the way things are going, the direction in which things seem to be headed. We aren't looking for a change. We might not be hoping for God to shake things up.</div> <div> Second, it tells us that, nonetheless, conversion is something we are prepared for.</div> <div> Though conversion is often surprising, it is rarely incomprehensible. Saul knew about the Jewish followers of Jesus. He was intimately connected with the Christian community. He was present at the stoning death of Stephen. He was an observer of Christians; he must have learned about them even as he despised them. Paul was ripe and ready.</div> <div> We are the people we are because of all of our past, even the parts that seemed unwelcome at the time. It takes all our history-the good and the not so good-to get us to where we are. And where we are is where God finds us.</div> <div> Third, it tells us that conversion is a result of God's efforts, not ours.</div> <div> God found Saul on the road to Damascus, where "suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. … A voice [said] to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" He asked, "Who are you, Lord?" The reply came, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do."</div> <div> Even though our life prepares us for conversion, it is not something we can or need to prepare for. It is not up to us, not a result of some effort we have made. Martin Luther spent his early life striving for the change in his life that he hoped God would bring. In the end he realized that he didn't have to strive for it; that God was doing the work.</div> <div> Fourth, the story tells us that other people are important in conversion. </div> <div> The light and voice of Jesus frightened Paul and blinded him. It was the words and actions of Ananias that let him see again. Ananias laid his hands on Saul and said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit."</div> <div> Our lives are changed by the words and actions of those around us. Perhaps not as dramatically as Ananias was, they are sent to comfort us, to teach us, to feed us, to strengthen us, and to open our eyes. </div> <div> Fifth and finally, it tells us that conversion is not an event, it is a discovery.</div> <div> The conversion of Paul started long before he approached the outskirts of Damascus. Paul and God were the original Harry and Sally. They already had a relationship. They were intimately connected, but Paul didn't see it.</div> <div> Conversion is a new way of seeing things. A new way of seeing ourselves.</div> <div> To see a capable person where before we saw a klutz.</div> <div> To see a loving person where before we saw a selfish one. </div> <div> To see a beauty where before we saw a beast. </div> <div> To see a brave person where before we saw a timid one. </div> <div> To see a faithful person where before we saw a skeptic.</div> <div> A conversion like Paul's is the recognition of an new life, not the cause of it.</div> <div>  As God moves in people's lives to change their direction, so does God move in institutions like the church. So God is, I think, moving here at Faith.</div> <div> Friday and yesterday a retreat was held for the six Boston and Cambridge Lutheran churches. Five people from Faith represented this church. At the retreat there was, I think it fair to say, a feeling that something has happened, is happening here at Faith. </div> <div> Someone said to me a while back, "We used to wonder: will we be around in two years? Now we're wondering: what great things we will be doing in five years?" That sounds like a conversion to me.</div> <div> We are looking at things in a new way. We are looking at ourselves in a new way. We are still Faith Church, Cambridge. But where once we saw a small church, we are seeing a strong church. Where once we saw an anxious church, we see an eager one.</div> <div> God was preparing Paul for a mission. "He is an instrument I have chosen," God told Ananias. After Ananias had helped Paul to see, Paul got up, and ate, and found his mission to be building churches.</div> <div> Now strong and eager, we get up (and certainly, being Lutherans, have a bite to eat). And we wonder: what great things will we be doing in five years? What will our mission be?</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>