In his first letter, chapter 3, verses 15 and 16, Peter tells us this: “Always be ready to make your defence to any who demands an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence.”

I recently had the opportunity to share something of my faith with a young man whom I had just met.  It was much more brief than Paul’s defence here.  I said that trust in God, love of God, dependence on God and God’s mercy/grace/compassion/love are the foundation of my life.  The young man hardly thought for a moment and came back with, “And how did you come to such a strong faith?  Was it because of your parents or something else?”

This young man was asking for an apologia – the Latin word from which we get apology.  It has nothing to do with being sorry in this case, but asking for an explanation, a justification, of what is foundational to our lives as followers of Jesus.  What do we say?  What does Paul say?

Paul is on the defence here in our passage (“Paul Defends Himself before Agrippa” is what the heading above chapter 26 says in the NRSV Bible), but it’s not so much in the courtroom sense.  We last left Paul in chapter 21 in Jerusalem.  Since then, Paul has been arrested and taken into Roman custody.  He has defended himself before the Jerusalem council and before the Roman governor Felix on charges of teaching against Jewish law and the temple, and sedition against Rome.  After Paul spends two years in Caesarea, a new Roman governor is installed – Festus.  While Paul is on trial before Festus in chapter 25, we read the following (Acts 25:8-12)

After several days, King Agrippa and his sister Bernice come to Caesarea to welcome Festus in his new role.  Festus tells the King that he has a problem.  Festus has no idea what to write to the Emperor with regards to what Paul’s case is about.  (Acts 25:18-22)

Tomorrow comes.  King Agrippa and his wife Bernice enter the audience hall in Caesarea with great pomp and ceremony, with the military tribunes and the prominent men of the city, and you can be sure everyone is dressed in their finest clothing and that this is an august event.  It’s been said that this scene represents a second climactic moment at the end of Acts as we near the end of our journey through this story.  A climactic moment of proclamation.  The first was Peter’s visit to Cornelius’ house in the same city.  Paul stands up before this group, and he’s completely unadorned except for the chains that he’s wearing.  Jesus had promised his followers that they would be brought before kings and governors, and here we see this promise being fulfilled.   Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.”  Then Paul stretched out his hand and began to defend himself: (Acts 26:1)

“Always be ready to make your defence to any who demands an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence.”

How do we do this, and what do we have to learn from Paul’s example this morning?

Paul tells the story.  Stories are how we find meaning and make sense of things.  Stories are how we get to know people.  “What’s your story?” we say when we want to get to know someone (although maybe not in those words).  Stories compel us to greater interest and engagement. Before the World Cup, I appreciated hearing the background of some of the players from Canada’s team.  Sharing stories deepens attachment.  Paul speaks of what he is about and, by extension, what being a follower of Jesus is about.  Paul tells it in the form of a story.  It’s a story of what has taken place in history, and it’s a story of Paul’s encounter with the risen Christ.  We talk about our own stories and how in Christ our own stories are caught up in God’s big story or God’s grand redemption plan.

When telling God’s story, it’s important to know with whom we’re speaking.  Paul knows the person to whom he is primarily speaking, and he cares for the person to whom he’s primarily speaking.  Paul’s purpose here is not to mount what would be considered a regular defence in a court of law. Paul’s purpose is not to win an argument or destroy his opponent. Paul’s purpose here is to tell the story and to make an invitation, as we’ll see.  While others are, of course, listening, Paul addresses King Agrippa, a descendant of Herod.  A man who represents a line of half-Jewish client kings.  They were clients of Rome.  A man who was not unfamiliar with the customs and controversies of Israel, as Paul says.

Paul tells a story that encapsulates the themes that we come back to again and again.  A story of promise, of fulfillment, of tradition, of newness, of darkness and light, of repentance or turning, of forgiveness, of belonging, of resurrection.

A story of life.  The story of life.

How often is the question asked, “There must be more to life than this?”  How people long to be part of something larger than themselves. Paul tells the story of what this longing meant in his life.  A member of a group of people to whom a promise was made.  A member of the strictest sect of his religion.  A man who thought that faithful service to God meant locking up people who claimed the name of Jesus of Nazareth, even casting his vote against them when it came to their death. Trying to force them to blaspheme and even pursuing them to foreign cities.

Of course we all know what happened at that point.  It was hard for Paul to kick against the goads just as it is hard for us to kick against God’s plan for us and what God created us for and who God created us to be and what God created us to do.

I mean, if you’ve ever kicked against that stuff.

What happened at that point when Paul was kicking? Jesus found Paul.  This is the objective thing, the thing that happens outside of ourselves.  Being a follower of Christ is not simply about self-fulfillment, and it’s certainly not primarily about our search for truth or meaning.  It’s about God pursuing us. Surely goodness and mercy will pursue me all the days of my life, is what the Psalmist sang.  Francis Thompson described it like this in a poem called “The Hound of Heaven”: “I fled Him, down the nights and down the days; I fled Him, down the arches of the years; I fled him down the labyrinthe ways; Of my own mind and in the midst of tears I hid from Him, and under running laughter… From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.”

Our job is to let ourselves be caught.  Our job is to stop and to look into the loving eyes of the one who has always been pursuing us and in those eyes to see our true self reflected – our true self as beloved child of God and to see the love in those eyes that is deeper than the mighty ocean.

Christ called out to Paul on the road to Damascus.  The famous double-name call -  “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?  It hurts you to kick against the goads.”  The question comes, “Who are you, Lord?” and the answer comes, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting…”  From that day on, Paul is caught up in the story of God the Father and Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit the Helper. 

Paul describes God’s story most succinctly in just two verses - “To this day I have had help from God, and so I stand here, testifying to both small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would take place, that the Messiah must suffer, and by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.” (22-23)  In other (and more words), promises had been made long ago to a people through whom God would work out his plan to save wayward humanity (humanity gone wrong, and as we’ve said, don’t we all have a general sense that we and our world are in need of saving) and the person through whom this saving work was accomplished is Jesus and Jesus’ suffering is redemptive and atoning, forgiving and life-giving and full of hope for….

He is risen.  He is risen indeed.

Paul’s call was to serve and testify.  We’re not all called to serve like Paul and testify like Paul, or anyone else for that matter.  The call to serve and to tell of Jesus is on all our lives, though.  To be a servant of Christ (and in so being to find freedom, and if you’re a servant of Christ, you know what that’s like) and to tell of Christ.

Paul was called to tell of God’s story and to tell of his experience of God – “to testify to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you.”  To follow Jesus is not simply to have at one time had an encounter with Jesus, but to walk in Jesus’ light on an ongoing basis.  To want to know Christ, as Paul put it, and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.  Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.” (Phil 3:10-12)  Rock’s point was well made, but I couldn’t help thinking, “Ah Chris, you could know him…”

To follow Jesus is not simply to know about him, but to know him.  To come to know ever more profoundly and deeply his love.  To know his grace.  His mercy.  His justice.  His peace. To experience the risen and living Christ.  This invitation is for everybody.  For 2,000 years now Christians have been telling of their experience of the living Christ, following Jesus’ words to the man whom Jesus made whole – “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.”

He’s done things in my life that I know could not have come from me.  This is what I told my young friend when he asked how I came to such a faith.  He’s enabled forgiveness in me that did not come from me.  He’s enabled patience in me that did not come from me.  He’s giving me a whole new way of looking at and relating to the world and everyone and everything in it. He’s given me a purpose and a goal.  He’s given me peace.  He’s given me strength.  He’s given me…

Paul had a personal experience of Jesus.  Paul had an ongoing personal experience of Jesus.  Followers of Christ are having an ongoing personal experience of Jesus together through the power of the Holy Spirit.  It doesn’t mean suffering is over.  It doesn’t mean we don’t sorrow, mourn or grieve.  Rather, our experience of the risen Christ enables us to persevere, to persist.  Christ provides substance and sustenance to this community, and it’s been happening now for over 2,000 years.

So why not come and join us?!  Agrippa asks the question, “Are you so quickly persuading me to   become a Christian?”  Paul comes back with “Whether quickly or not, I pray to God that not   only you but also all who are listening to me today might become such as I am – except for these chains.”  I’m sure he gave a wry smile.

This is the invitation.  If you accept it for the first time today, you can signal your acceptance by gathering around this table with us.  If you turn to Christ for the 1,041st time, you can signal it by gathering around this table with us.  Repent.  Turn.  Not toward something unnatural but toward home.  Away from kicking against the goads because that’s hard.

Someone has compared turning toward God to walking out into an oncoming tide.  The water sucks at the sand around your feet.  The waves hit your legs, your chest.  It gets harder and harder to make any headway.  Until you surrender to those waves.  Lie back and let them carry you toward shore.  Toward home.  Toward the place where a sign hangs that says “You Are Forgiven.  You Belong Here.  Welcome Home.”  May we feel so welcomed this morning as we come to this table.

Amen