3^rd Sabbath in Easter

April 20/22, 2007

Consecration Day

Victor H. Nixon

ON THE WAY TO CONVERSION

Scripture: Acts 9:1-20

I was shocked recently to learn that I had been incorrectly tying my shoes. Like most of you I learned to tie shoes as a pre-schooler. With daily practice, it became a routine process, habitual, something that I never really thought about—except when I tied them in a hard knot or broke a lace. I can’t believe I walked around for more than sixty years sporting badly knotted laces without so much as a hint of something amiss.

My eyes were opened by a newspaper article featuring Gary Smith, a member of our congregation I trust about such matters because he knows a great deal about running, walking, and shoes—as well as how they should be tied. I thought that I was tying the standard knot, never giving much thought to the fact that my bows always ran up and down the middle of my shoe rather than laying neatly across it—a dead giveaway, according to Gary, that my knots were all wrong.

So, I resolved to change my ways and become an orthodox shoelace tier. I’ve been unlearning and relearning how to tie shoes correctly, not a particularly easy process since habits are hard to break and this one is no exception. It takes a very patient, intentional effort that sometimes results in tangles and having to start all over because my mind and my fingers don’t always cooperate. Sometimes I forget and regress into my habitual knots. By the grace of God, I’m improving and, most days, my bows lay correctly across my shoes. So, I’m on the way to conversion.

And so was Saul as he made his way to Damascus—although he was unaware of it. He had no intention of becoming anything other than what he was: a zealous Pharisee on his way to locate Christians, have them arrested, brought back to Jerusalem and, perhaps, executed—all, of course, in accordance with the Law, as he and the majority of his compatriots understood it. When you have religion and law on your side with little inclination to question either, then you can do just about whatever you want, particularly to those you consider opponents. That’s the best argument I know of for keeping religion and state separate.

Luke, the author of the Book of Acts, opens our text saying that Saul was "still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord"(9:1). Back in Chapter 7 a religious lynch mob had laid their coats at Saul’s feet while they executed Stephen, the first Christian martyr, by gruesomely stoning him on a trumped-up charge of slandering the Law of Moses. Christians got the message and scattered. Word got back to Saul in Jerusalem that some believers had shown up in Damascus synagogues, so he and his cohorts, armed with an arrest warrant from the high priest, were on their way to apprehend them. Will Willimon calls Saul "enemy number one" for the early church.(1) On his way to Damascus, Saul was obsessed with wiping out any who belonged to "the Way," as Luke refers to early Christianity.

This week we saw a horrifying example of another young man obsessed with death in the killings of 32 people on the Virginia Tech University campus. Self-made videos reveal a friendless person filled with hatred for others and, probably, for himself, who could see no option other than to kill those his demented mind perceived as threats, including himself. Our hearts go out to the innocent victims of his death wish, to their families and friends. Our hearts go out to the young man’s family, also victims. Our hearts go out to him because he too was a victim of a hatred and obsession that could see no other option, no way out.

It’s an extreme example of a scenario played over and over again in history and in our culture by those filled with hate who mistakenly perceive that there are no other options, such as suicide bombers who continue to kill hundreds and themselves in Iraq each week. It’s a scenario in which groups in disagreement perceive no other options than to fight or to fire one another, like our Little Rock District School Board. It’s a "my way or the highway" scenario that is unable or unwilling to entertain options that may lead to reconciliation, wholeness and peace. Whether in Virginia, Iraq, Little Rock or wherever people have run out of options, there must be another, better way.

And there is: God’s way. As Saul and his fellow travelers approached Damascus their journey was interrupted. Light flashed. Saul fell to the ground. The Risen Christ called out, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" Notice that question: it assumes that persecuting followers constitutes persecuting Christ, e.g. when you do it to God’s children, you do it to God. Saul wants to know who’s behind the voice. "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Get up, enter the city, and you will be told what to do." Saul, unable to see, was led by his speechless fellow travelers into Damascus. Don’t miss the irony here: Saul had also been blind to the truth of God before this incident on the Damascus road. His blindness continued for three days during which he ate and drank nothing. Amazingly, Saul, the obsessive, threatening religious zealot has become as helpless as a child—the pre-condition, Jesus said, for entrance into the kingdom of God.

Luke has described conversion as an act of God in Saul’s life, a transformation that occurred when he experienced the Risen Christ. This isn’t the only way that conversion occurs—dramatically with light, voices, blindness, helplessness—in the Book of Acts where Luke has placed this conversion story among several other conversion stories or even in our personal experience. Whenever or wherever conversion occurs, in scripture or in life, it is solely the work of God. It is God who provides another option, another way, when we are blinded by our obsessions.

Today we consecrate our newly renovated spaces and newly constructed administrative/education wing. We dedicate the cornerstone for the new building "to the glory of God." Pulaski Heights UMC began this journey of building and renovation several years ago. It didn’t begin with architectural drawings. It didn’t begin with a financial drive. It didn’t begin with bricks and mortar. Those came much later. And it certainly didn’t begin with the senior pastor telling the church what should be done. This journey began by asking God to lead and show us the way. We began with a process of discernment by which we attempted to perceive God’s will for our congregation because only God can inspire churches to change directions and move on a different path. Only God can inspire human hearts to support such efforts generously and sacrificially. Today’s celebration isn’t merely about a wonderful new building and beautiful spaces; it is a joyous celebration "to the glory of God" who is converting us into a new shape for the future toward which God leads us. Glory to God!

But God doesn’t complete the process of conversion alone. Luke tells us that there was a disciple in Damascus called Ananias who received a message from God telling him to go over to Judas’ house on Straight Street where he would find a fellow by the name of Saul of Tarsus in prayer and to lay hands on him so he could regain his sight. But Ananias said, "Lord, you’ve got to be kidding! That guy is dangerous, particularly where Christians are concerned. Can’t somebody else do this?" We all see ourselves in dear discipleship-challenged Ananias!

Conversion doesn’t just happen once in a life of faith; God calls disciples to continue to change and to be ministry to others. Ananias was a disciple but his converting wasn’t complete; it never is. Conversion was a lifetime enterprise for Ananias as it is for us. That’s the reason our church mission statement is "Growing in Christ," another phrase for continuous conversion by God’s grace through faith.

God delivered a bombshell to Ananias: "I have chosen Saul as the instrument to deliver the message of Christ to the gentiles," to those outside of the Hebrew community of faith." The very one who was out to persecute those who "call on the name" (v. 14) is to be the one who now goes forth to bear the name (vv. 15, 16). My goodness! Talk about conversion!

Ananias, newly converted again, does what God asks. He lays on hands and Saul receives sight and the Holy Spirit. Ananias does something else that you may have missed. He no longer refers to Saul as "this man," but as "Brother Saul." The despised enemy, the alien, has become family by the grace of God and the faith of Ananias. On the way to do in the followers of "the Way," Saul was turned around, converted, and set on the Way of Christ. He remained with the church in Damascus, Luke says, and began to proclaim Jesus as the Son of God. Saul changed his Hebrew name to a Greek (Gentile) name and became Paul who proclaimed the message of Christ throughout the Mediterranean world and assisted God in converting thousands to the Way.

Whether relearning to tie shoelaces or relearning to be a disciple of Jesus, we are those God has called upon to assist in God’s conversion process, like Ananias, to provide hands on opportunities and spaces for ourselves and others to receive insight into God’s life-changing option in Christ that transforms enemies and outsiders into brothers and sisters, and keeps us on that path of continuous conversion we call faith—all to the glory of God!

Thanks be to God. Amen.