Paul's Story
Today's scripture comes from Acts 9:1-20:
Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. 3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
7 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. 8 Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing.So they led him by the hand into Damascus. 9 For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.
10 In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision,“Ananias!”
“Yes, Lord,” he answered.
11 The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”
13 “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. 14 And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”
15 But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”
17 Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, 19 and after taking some food, he regained his strength. Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. 20 At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.
The rain that we have gotten this week is very much a blessing but at the same time it was kind of a pain since we are still calving. The lots are tromped up and there is mud everywhere but for the most part the calves are staying healthy. However, we did have two older calves that came down with pneumonia but we caught it on time and they have recovered well. On Tuesday I found one of them sprawled out in one of the sheds that are in the lot and I gave him our normal round of medicine but this time I did something that I have not done before. I prayed to God that if it was in His will that He would heal that calf and allow him to recover. I know that praying for a calf definitely sounds strange but in that moment, I just felt called to do so. Losing calves bears no financial loss for me so it may be easy for some to wonder why I would care so much but when we become closer to God, we also become closer to all of God’s creatures. Skeptics would say that it was only the medicine that healed that calf and in all honesty I would have difficulty discounting that claim but for me that is not the point. In that moment God taught me something... He taught me there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that I can’t share with Him. There are aspects of our lives that we feel that we do not need to lift up to God since they seem minor or insignificant in the big scheme of things but this situation taught me that there is nothing too minor to share with God. It is easy for us to pray about the major things in life but how often do we take the time share with God those moments that seem minor. See God loves us so much that He wants to be involved in all facets of our lives, not just the major parts. He wants to be with you in every moment of every day. And as our scripture shows us today, it does not matter your past, God wants to be with you every moment of every day. The funny thing is that God is with you all the time but the more you become attuned to your faith, the more you will see that He is there. I know there will be calves that we will lose in the future, but now that I know I can talk to God about them, it gives me an outlet to help me deal with those loses. God gives me an outlet to deal with all that I will encounter and realizing this is the most important part of the whole experience during the past week.
In this morning’s scripture we read about the story of Saul and his transformation into Paul, his transformation from a persecutor of Christians into preaching about the saving power of Jesus Christ. There are several faith lessons that can be taken away from this scripture but I would like to concentrate on three of them. First, I want us to take a closer look at Ananias. This is the disciple that was called to go to Saul in Damascus and speak to him. Ananias is terrified because he knows exactly who Saul is and what he does to those who follow Christ. In the scripture we find Ananias doing all that he can to avoid going to speak with Saul and it just reminded me of how often this happens to all believers. There are times where God calls us to do something and we drag our feet or play it off in the hopes that God ‘forgets’ about what He has called us to do. I am the prime example of this. There were things that I did in the hopes that God give up me so I did not have to follow my calling. Ananias did not go this far but nonetheless he argues with God about going to see Saul. As believers there are things that we are not comfortable doing and we argue with God about doing them. We can all identify with Ananias in the sense that God sometimes calls us to do something that we are not comfortable doing but how many of us are like Ananias in the sense that we listened to God’s calling? After working up the courage to go see Saul, he is the one who baptizes Paul, he is the one who baptized one of the greatest Christians in all of history. There is a story about a man named Ananias in Acts 5 but it is not the same person because the Ananias in chapter 5 dies and there is only one other mention of the Ananias who talked to Paul outside of this morning’s scripture and that is found in Acts 22:12. Therefore, we do not know much about this man named Ananias and his impact on Christianity outside of Paul’s conversion but this shows us something very special about the workings of God: we never know who God will choose as a tool to further His kingdom. This means that God may even use you in a moment that you least expect Him to in order to share the love of Christ with others. Even if you try to drag your feet and put up a fight, God still will find a way to use you to share His message. You may be even sharing His message without even knowing it...
Second, I would like to talk about the conversion of Paul. His conversion happened very quickly and with little resistance from Paul but if something this significant had happened to one of us and the ascended Christ appeared to us we too would probably convert very quickly. If we were blinded only to be healed, then we too would probably believe without much of a fight. But let’s look at this a little closer... Paul was blinded on the road to Damascus which led me to think about our own blindness. We may not be blind in the sense that we cannot see anything, but I would argue that we are blinded nonetheless. Once we accept what Christ did for us on the cross and believe in His resurrection then we too see the world in a different light. We become more attuned to God’s blessings that surround us. The ‘scales’ fall from our eyes and we are able to see so much more than we used to see. Every single moment belongs to God, in every single moment we are now able to see God’s love at work. Like I said, Paul’s conversion happened very quickly but it is important for us to know that this is not always the case. Sometimes it takes several months or even years for someone to find their faith. There is nothing wrong with this, all God wants is an intimate relationship with you and based on the events of your life, it may be more difficult for some to accept this than it is for others. We already know that God is in every moment, but do you see Him there? This leads me to my third faith lesson: what is your story? How did God reveal Himself to you? And how has that changed you? Each story is unique, each story has separate mountaintops and valleys but how do you interact with God and what impact has this had on how you approach this life? Paul’s conversion caused him to make a dramatic U-turn in how he lived his life but again, this is not always the case. Sometimes a conversion only means a few adjustments to your life and sometimes it is somewhere in the middle. In my situation, my conversion was quick but the strength found in my faith today has taken me more than 10 years to develop and it will never stop developing or changing. One thing that I found very interesting in this morning’s scripture was how Saul was persecuting anyone “who belonged to the Way.” Saul, and others like him, knew that there was something special and unique about those who followed Christ but they did not understand their faith but what they did understand was that there were easy to find because their faith had made them very identifiable. Once someone converted to Christianity it changed ‘the way’ they lived. It is not until chapter 11 of Acts that followers of Christ are given the official title of Christians so before that there were known by this name, ‘The Way.’ Professor Eric Barreto of Luther Seminary has this to say: ““The Way” is a powerful metaphor for Christian identity. Instead of being identified by a set of beliefs, these faithful communities were known by their character in the world. Christian faith was a way of life and one that impelled individuals and communities to leave the safe confines of home and church to walk on the road God had set out. “The Way” suggests that faith is a living, active way of life.” So no matter how your conversion has taken place, are you living a life that I just described? Is your faith a living, active way of life or is it something that comes and goes, something that you only pick up when you need it? No matter your circumstance, no matter how you got here this morning, your faith can be a way of life if you so choose it to be. A life with Christ is not any less painful than one without, but a life with Christ is endless, it a life where His blessings greet you when you wake up in the morning and surround you when you sleep at night, it is a life still filled with heartbreak and loss but also with love. If you want to start living your faith actively, you may do so today. You may come forward and show the congregation that you are accepting the love of Christ but you may also renew your spirit right from where you are sitting. It is easy for our spirit to become overwhelmed so it is important for us continually strengthen our spirit. If we are hungry, we eat, if we are thirsty we drink, if we are tired we sleep, so if our spirit is weak, we must renew it. My hope is that worshipping here allows for that renewal that is much needed. In closing, remember that God’s love surrounds you but it is your faith that allows you to escape blindness and see God’s glory, mercy and love in all that you do. Amen.
Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. 3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
7 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. 8 Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing.So they led him by the hand into Damascus. 9 For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.
10 In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision,“Ananias!”
“Yes, Lord,” he answered.
11 The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”
13 “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. 14 And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”
15 But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”
17 Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, 19 and after taking some food, he regained his strength. Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. 20 At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.
The rain that we have gotten this week is very much a blessing but at the same time it was kind of a pain since we are still calving. The lots are tromped up and there is mud everywhere but for the most part the calves are staying healthy. However, we did have two older calves that came down with pneumonia but we caught it on time and they have recovered well. On Tuesday I found one of them sprawled out in one of the sheds that are in the lot and I gave him our normal round of medicine but this time I did something that I have not done before. I prayed to God that if it was in His will that He would heal that calf and allow him to recover. I know that praying for a calf definitely sounds strange but in that moment, I just felt called to do so. Losing calves bears no financial loss for me so it may be easy for some to wonder why I would care so much but when we become closer to God, we also become closer to all of God’s creatures. Skeptics would say that it was only the medicine that healed that calf and in all honesty I would have difficulty discounting that claim but for me that is not the point. In that moment God taught me something... He taught me there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that I can’t share with Him. There are aspects of our lives that we feel that we do not need to lift up to God since they seem minor or insignificant in the big scheme of things but this situation taught me that there is nothing too minor to share with God. It is easy for us to pray about the major things in life but how often do we take the time share with God those moments that seem minor. See God loves us so much that He wants to be involved in all facets of our lives, not just the major parts. He wants to be with you in every moment of every day. And as our scripture shows us today, it does not matter your past, God wants to be with you every moment of every day. The funny thing is that God is with you all the time but the more you become attuned to your faith, the more you will see that He is there. I know there will be calves that we will lose in the future, but now that I know I can talk to God about them, it gives me an outlet to help me deal with those loses. God gives me an outlet to deal with all that I will encounter and realizing this is the most important part of the whole experience during the past week.
In this morning’s scripture we read about the story of Saul and his transformation into Paul, his transformation from a persecutor of Christians into preaching about the saving power of Jesus Christ. There are several faith lessons that can be taken away from this scripture but I would like to concentrate on three of them. First, I want us to take a closer look at Ananias. This is the disciple that was called to go to Saul in Damascus and speak to him. Ananias is terrified because he knows exactly who Saul is and what he does to those who follow Christ. In the scripture we find Ananias doing all that he can to avoid going to speak with Saul and it just reminded me of how often this happens to all believers. There are times where God calls us to do something and we drag our feet or play it off in the hopes that God ‘forgets’ about what He has called us to do. I am the prime example of this. There were things that I did in the hopes that God give up me so I did not have to follow my calling. Ananias did not go this far but nonetheless he argues with God about going to see Saul. As believers there are things that we are not comfortable doing and we argue with God about doing them. We can all identify with Ananias in the sense that God sometimes calls us to do something that we are not comfortable doing but how many of us are like Ananias in the sense that we listened to God’s calling? After working up the courage to go see Saul, he is the one who baptizes Paul, he is the one who baptized one of the greatest Christians in all of history. There is a story about a man named Ananias in Acts 5 but it is not the same person because the Ananias in chapter 5 dies and there is only one other mention of the Ananias who talked to Paul outside of this morning’s scripture and that is found in Acts 22:12. Therefore, we do not know much about this man named Ananias and his impact on Christianity outside of Paul’s conversion but this shows us something very special about the workings of God: we never know who God will choose as a tool to further His kingdom. This means that God may even use you in a moment that you least expect Him to in order to share the love of Christ with others. Even if you try to drag your feet and put up a fight, God still will find a way to use you to share His message. You may be even sharing His message without even knowing it...
Second, I would like to talk about the conversion of Paul. His conversion happened very quickly and with little resistance from Paul but if something this significant had happened to one of us and the ascended Christ appeared to us we too would probably convert very quickly. If we were blinded only to be healed, then we too would probably believe without much of a fight. But let’s look at this a little closer... Paul was blinded on the road to Damascus which led me to think about our own blindness. We may not be blind in the sense that we cannot see anything, but I would argue that we are blinded nonetheless. Once we accept what Christ did for us on the cross and believe in His resurrection then we too see the world in a different light. We become more attuned to God’s blessings that surround us. The ‘scales’ fall from our eyes and we are able to see so much more than we used to see. Every single moment belongs to God, in every single moment we are now able to see God’s love at work. Like I said, Paul’s conversion happened very quickly but it is important for us to know that this is not always the case. Sometimes it takes several months or even years for someone to find their faith. There is nothing wrong with this, all God wants is an intimate relationship with you and based on the events of your life, it may be more difficult for some to accept this than it is for others. We already know that God is in every moment, but do you see Him there? This leads me to my third faith lesson: what is your story? How did God reveal Himself to you? And how has that changed you? Each story is unique, each story has separate mountaintops and valleys but how do you interact with God and what impact has this had on how you approach this life? Paul’s conversion caused him to make a dramatic U-turn in how he lived his life but again, this is not always the case. Sometimes a conversion only means a few adjustments to your life and sometimes it is somewhere in the middle. In my situation, my conversion was quick but the strength found in my faith today has taken me more than 10 years to develop and it will never stop developing or changing. One thing that I found very interesting in this morning’s scripture was how Saul was persecuting anyone “who belonged to the Way.” Saul, and others like him, knew that there was something special and unique about those who followed Christ but they did not understand their faith but what they did understand was that there were easy to find because their faith had made them very identifiable. Once someone converted to Christianity it changed ‘the way’ they lived. It is not until chapter 11 of Acts that followers of Christ are given the official title of Christians so before that there were known by this name, ‘The Way.’ Professor Eric Barreto of Luther Seminary has this to say: ““The Way” is a powerful metaphor for Christian identity. Instead of being identified by a set of beliefs, these faithful communities were known by their character in the world. Christian faith was a way of life and one that impelled individuals and communities to leave the safe confines of home and church to walk on the road God had set out. “The Way” suggests that faith is a living, active way of life.” So no matter how your conversion has taken place, are you living a life that I just described? Is your faith a living, active way of life or is it something that comes and goes, something that you only pick up when you need it? No matter your circumstance, no matter how you got here this morning, your faith can be a way of life if you so choose it to be. A life with Christ is not any less painful than one without, but a life with Christ is endless, it a life where His blessings greet you when you wake up in the morning and surround you when you sleep at night, it is a life still filled with heartbreak and loss but also with love. If you want to start living your faith actively, you may do so today. You may come forward and show the congregation that you are accepting the love of Christ but you may also renew your spirit right from where you are sitting. It is easy for our spirit to become overwhelmed so it is important for us continually strengthen our spirit. If we are hungry, we eat, if we are thirsty we drink, if we are tired we sleep, so if our spirit is weak, we must renew it. My hope is that worshipping here allows for that renewal that is much needed. In closing, remember that God’s love surrounds you but it is your faith that allows you to escape blindness and see God’s glory, mercy and love in all that you do. Amen.
Clinton Wallace
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