Sermon 07.16.2023: Call of Paul

Our calling is for the benefit of the wider world, not just for ourselves. Join us for a sermon series this summer exploring the call stories of different people in scripture, and as we explore our own calls. God is calling you. Yes, you.

Scripture

Acts 9:1-22

Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying 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.’ The men who were travelling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, ‘Ananias.’ He answered, ‘Here I am, Lord.’ The Lord said to him, ‘Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.’ But Ananias answered, ‘Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.’ But the Lord said to him, ‘Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.’ So Ananias went and entered the house. He 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.’ And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored. Then he got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus, and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, ‘He is the Son of God.’ All who heard him were amazed and said, ‘Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem among those who invoked this name? And has he not come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?’ Saul became increasingly more powerful and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Messiah.

Sermon Text 

We are in a summer sermon series on Call.
And today, we are looking at the story of the Apostle Paul’s conversion.

As we consider call, and God’s call on our lives, I invite you to take a deep breath as I share the lyrics to India Arie’s song “What If?”

What if Martin didn’t stand up?
What if Rosa didn’t sit down?
What if Malcolm didn’t man up?
Where would we be now?

What if Marley didn’t get up, stand up?
What if Dubois didn’t come to advance us?
And Mandela didn’t come to teach us?
Where would we be now?

What if Maya didn’t speak out?
What if Langston Hughes didn’t write it down?
What if Josephine Baker didn’t dance it out? (No)
Tell me where would we be now?

What if Sojourner never told the truth?
Or Ida B. Wells never printed the news?
Harriet never went underground?
Where would we be now?

We are the ones we’ve been waiting for
We can change the world
With our love, love, love, love

‘Cause it is up to us
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for
We can change the world
Our love can change the world

Acts 9:1-22

Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.

He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying 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.’

The men who were travelling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one.
Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.
For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias.
The Lord said to him in a vision, ‘Ananias.’ He answered, ‘Here I am, Lord.’
The Lord said to him, ‘Get up and go to the street called Straight,
and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul.
At this moment he is praying, and he has seen in a vision
a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him
so that he might regain his sight.’

But Ananias answered, ‘Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem;
and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.’

But the Lord said to him, ‘Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.’

So Ananias went and entered the house.

He 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.’
And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored.

Then he got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus, and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, ‘He is the Son of God.’ All who heard him were amazed and said,
'Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem among those who invoked this name?
And has he not come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?’

Saul became increasingly more powerful and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Messiah.

The Word of the Lord / Thanks be to God.

Today, we are on week 3 of our 6-week sermon series on Call. We have considered the Call of Samuel and the Call of Esther so far, both of whom were fairly young and without much power when God calls them. Esther was a queen, sure, but she was also a Jew in the Persian Empire and a girl in a male-dominated world. Samuel was just a child, younger than thirteen and serving Eli the priest when God calls. Both of these young people hear God’s call with the help of others, Eli & Hannah in Samuel’s case and Mordecai in Esther’s.

But today’s story on call is about the Apostle Paul. In Jewish circles, he was known as Saul. And unlike other important figures in Judeo-Christian history, Saul did not undergo a name change when called by God. Rather, he was known in Greek-speaking circles by his Greco-Roman name, Paul, while among his Jewish family and community, he would be known by the Hebrew equivalent, Saul.

It reminds me of first- or second-generation immigrants who have both an “American” name and the name their parents call them at home. I was Joann at school, but at home and at our Korean immigrant church, I was always Haejong. Having two names, though, is probably about as far as my similarities with the Apostle Paul goes. But I digress.

As I was saying, the Call of Paul is quite different from Samuel and Esther. First of all, Paul has a direct encounter with the Risen Christ, and while Ananias is needed to help him recover from that encounter, no one serves as a go-between for Paul and Jesus. They meet directly, on the road to Damascus, causing Paul to fall to the ground and lose his sight for three days.

The Call of Paul is also different because he is not young nor is he powerless. He is a full-grown adult with the privileges of both Roman citizenship and authority from the Jewish Temple to persecute Christians. When he is called, Paul is a fanatic Pharisee who breathes “threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.”

Paul has made a career of persecuting followers of, what was then called, “The Way.” In fact, just in the previous chapter of Acts, Paul approves of the stoning of Stephen to death for being a follower of Jesus. Even those in Damascus had heard of his ruthless ravaging of the church.

Paul, then, is called out of a place of power and privilege and becomes like those whom he has persecuted, a follower of The Way.

Now, I know that most of us have not had a Damascus Road experience, but all of us have some kind of power and privilege. Like Paul, who is a citizen of the Roman Empire, merely being a citizen of this country certainly has privileges.

So perhaps, like Paul, we are called to stand in solidarity with those who are persecuted in this nation, whether it be directly by our own hand or, more often than not, through the policies and laws of our government.

I think of how we became a Sanctuary Church in 2018. There were concerns about what that meant and how it might be received. There were those who spoke out against it, and those who supported it but were nervous that it would make some people want to leave.

But becoming a Sanctuary Church and following this call from God, to stand in solidarity with immigrants and refugees who are being persecuted in this country, allowed us to bring together a family, fleeing from violence in their country and who had been separated from each other for far too long.

Being a Sanctuary Church has allowed us to learn more about how this country treats those who are not citizens, calling us to stand alongside those with court appointments and to wait with those who are at the mercy of American bureaucracy. We have learned and witnessed so much, all because we were able to heed God’s call in this one thing.

Now, following Jesus doesn’t mean we draw lines of separation. But those in power often draw these lines themselves, and humans somehow still feel the need to persecute those with whom we don’t agree or understand. We’re experiencing that this morning, aren’t we?

When this happens, when lines are drawn between the powerful and the vulnerable, between the persecuted and the persecutor, we can proclaim with a good amount of certainty, that Jesus stands on the side of the oppressed. In other words, Jesus would bake that cake; Jesus would build that website. Jesus has no patience for those with great privilege using it to deny others of their basic human rights.

The first words Jesus says to Paul are, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4) It’s not “why do you persecute my followers,” but “why do you persecute me?”

As a Matthew 25 church, we know that whenever we feed the hungry, bring drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, and visit the prisoner, we are not doing these things not only because Jesus tells us to do them, but because in doing so, we are serving Jesus himself. Whatever we do for the least of these, we have done unto Jesus.

Likewise, when we persecute others, we persecute Jesus himself, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

We, all of us together, are the Body of Christ. Without those who are unhoused, without those who are gay, lesbian, or transgender, without those who are drag queens and non-binary, without those who are undocumented or from another country or race, the Body of Christ is not complete.

We, like Paul, must be willing to be called out of a place of power and privilege and become like or stand in solidarity with those who are persecuted. That’s what happened to Paul in his call story. But there’s more.

The story of Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus, also teaches us that even when we think we can see clearly and understand God’s purposes fully, there is so much we might not get right and might not be able to see.

Paul believed in his mission to persecute the followers of Jesus. He was thoroughly convinced that he was right, and they were wrong. Sound familiar?

But he didn’t have the full picture, did he? It’s no coincidence that his dramatic encounter with Jesus temporarily takes away his sight for three days. He has to rely on others to be led to Damascus, and then Ananias has to come and lay hands on him before the scales fall from Paul’s eyes, and he is able to see again.

Paul, in his persecution of Christians, was not seeing clearly. His rage, his righteous indignation, his pride kept him in a state of perpetual unseeing and unknowing.

So in what ways do we have scales on our eyes? What might we not understand or see clearly?

Growing up, my family attended a Korean Presbyterian Church, but to be Christian in Texas pretty much meant that there were Southern Baptist undertones everywhere we went.

In this environment, I assumed that to be a follower of Jesus, you would of course (1) Be pro-life and (2) Condemn same-sex relationships. To be fair, in this environment, you kind of had to condemn anything remotely sexual at all, so, naturally, homosexuality fell under that umbrella. There was a pervasive fear and guilt that underlie their theology, and to question it was to “backslide.”

It wasn’t until I went to seminary, that the scales fell from my eyes. I had taken for granted that all Christians agreed on certain issues of our day. But my small, very conservative worldview suddenly expanded and allowed me to see in a new way.

My seminary allowed same-sex partners to live in student housing together and to get insurance coverage for both partners, before gay marriage was legal in this country, and before the denomination officially allowed for the ordination of those who identify as LGBTQIA.

They accepted and nurtured the call of many students who technically couldn’t yet be ordained because of their sexuality, but who were called by God nonetheless.

I learned so much from my peers and my professors. And as I made friends with other students some of whom identified as LGBTQIA+, and most of whom supported the ordination of gay and lesbian individuals, I realized that I had been wrong. All people, regardless of sexuality and gender identity, are called by God, loved by God, and created by God, just as they are.

And it was in seminary where I heard stories of abortion and statistics on inequitable access to reproductive healthcare, and I began to realize that to follow Jesus might just mean allowing women to have the right to choose.

Have you ever assumed you were right, only to have the scales fall from your eyes? Perhaps that is what is meant by what the prophet Micah calls “walking humbly with God” (Micah 6:8).

Friends, we are allowed to change our mind, and it is okay to admit that you were once wrong; in fact, sometimes, perhaps that is exactly what God is calling us to do.

Are we teachable? Can we learn? Because as our UCC siblings say, “God is still speaking.”

Too many of us go about our lives with spiritual blindness, so certain that the way we see the world is the only right way. But perhaps we are just one Jesus-encounter-away from scales falling from our eyes.

Which leads us to another thing we can learn from this story of Paul’s conversion, which is that no one is beyond redemption. If you look back on your life and think, there is no way God could use me after all I’ve done or not done. Hear this now: God used Paul: Paul the one whom Ananias describes as “having done evil,” Paul the persecutor, Paul the murderer.

This very Paul transforms into a missionary to the Gentiles, a church planter across the Roman Empire, a martyr for the gospel, and one whose letters continue to transform communities and individuals still today.

Religious Studies Professor James Tabor from UNC Charlotte even proclaims that Paul “is the single most influential figure in human history…” Tabor argues that “Paul has done more to shape all we think about almost everything than anyone else. In terms of influence, Paul trumps even the great “founders,” whether Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, or Mohammed.”[1]

Now I’m not sure I agree with Dr. Tabor on all that. But he has enough of an argument for it to fill up a 300-page book. And in some of our churches, we certainly see that they are trying to follow the very particular words of Paul over the way Jesus lived his life.

At the very least, we can assert that Paul’s calling undoubtedly transformed the trajectory of Christianity and human history, allowing for many of us to know and follow Jesus today. I guarantee you that I have zero Jewish ancestry. Most of us sitting here today are what the early Christians would have called “Gentiles.” And so to be here, grafted into the family of God, is yes, through the love and life of Jesus, but also from the mission and call of Paul.

Paul was a man with dirty hands, a blemished soul, a man with anger and hatred in his heart so great that it led to violence. But his encounter with Jesus, that called him to a different way of life, changed all of that.

Caedmon’s Call is a Christian band from Houston. I used to know every one of their songs, and this line from one of them continues to challenge me still today. They sing, “Everyone cries for the innocent. You say to love the guilty too.”[2]

That was Jesus’s way. Love your neighbor as yourself. And love your enemies, too.

Paul was clearly guilty. And he was mean. And he wrongfully killed in the name of his God. If Paul can be called, surely no one is beyond redemption.

I don’t always have the most positive or sunny outlook on life. I prefer to keep my expectations low, so I’m not disappointed. But if the conversion of Saul is possible, then perhaps the billionaires of this world might stop fighting each other in literal cage matches and be called by God to share with the world the extravagant wealth of their existence.

And perhaps this country, that spends billions on “national defense” [$797.7 billion to be exact][3] might be called to spend more on caring for veterans who fought to defend this nation.

And maybe, just maybe, if the conversion of Saul is possible, those who have sent us hate mail all through June and those who are protesting us this morning just might see the error of their ways. Maybe, just maybe.

After all, no one and nothing is beyond redemption. And transformation, even the unlikeliest of transformations, is possible. That is what Paul’s conversion continues to tell us today.

But this is just the beginning of Paul’s story. And that’s what’s so amazing about it all. There is so much more to the story of his life.

After he met Jesus, his life changed, and he was called not just for himself, but to serve others. In our individualistic culture, some Christians have made our encounters with Jesus solely about themselves – their own salvation, their own personal relationship with Jesus.

But that’s just it. Our personal encounters with Jesus shouldn’t leave us with a privatized faith that hoards God’s blessings just for our own betterment.

Instead, our calling from God, our encounters with Jesus, are for the benefit of the wider world, not just for the benefit of ourselves. In fact, Paul’s life wasn’t made easier by this call. He wouldn’t have suffered in prison or been lashed 40 minus 1 times. He probably would have led a pretty comfortable life chasing down and persecuting those Jesus followers.

But God had a different plan for him. And throughout his life, God continued to call him to plant new churches, to move to new cities, to travel far and wide to share the love of God.

So when we are called and able to finally answer, our story begins anew. And no matter what our story said before, it is now a story of grace and gratitude, a story of love and new life, a story written by God to help make the world a better place.

God says of Paul that “he is an instrument whom I have chosen.” Friends, you, too, are an instrument whom God has chosen.

I can’t promise you that what God calls us to will be easy or comfortable. But I can promise you that God will be with us, and that doing what God calls us to do will resound so deeply within our soul, that it may be just as Buechner says, the place where “our greatest joy meets the world’s greatest need.”

Friends, you are called and claimed by God, no matter your past, no matter how wrong and how obstinate you’ve been, no matter how egregious your actions, God wants to partner with you in creating a world where justice and mercy prevail.

God could do it alone. But God wants us, calls us, beckons us to share in this work together.

What a privilege it is to take part, even in small ways! As the old hymn goes:

“If you cannot preach like Peter, if you cannot pray like Paul, you can tell the love of Jesus, who died to save us all.”[4]

Thanks be to God, Amen.



[1] Tabor, James. Paul and Jesus: How the Apostle Transformed Christianity. 2013

[2] Caedmon’s Call, “Long Line of Leavers.” 2000.

[3] https://appropriations.house.gov/sites/democrats.appropriations.house.gov/files/Defense%20FY23%20Summary.pdf

[4] Burleigh, Harry Thacker. “There is a Balm in Gilead.” 1919.