There are a couple of things going on which make this story fitting for today:

The first is the image of light.  “Suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him,” we read of Paul (and if you haven’t heard “I Saw the Light” by Hank Williams, I recommend it). We have just come through the season of Advent, which in many ways was filled with images of light.  Literally with our candles and Christmas lights and Jesus, the light of the world, and our bearing the light and passing the light to one another and seeing all things in the light of Christ.

As we begin a new year and the idea of getting back into a routine is in play for many (if not all) of us, we have this truth in our story of a life in Christ being a life interrupted.  I mean this in the best possible way.  The interruption of the grace of Jesus being made known to us, which means that life in Christ, or life as those belonging to the Way, is never simply a matter of routine or “same old same old.”  We’re not simply going in circles.  We’re following the Way, and while we are on the way, God has the infinite capacity to surprise and delight us.  Every day. 

We have the opportunity today to hear the risen and ascended Christ call our name!  We have the opportunity to call on his name right back in response.  It may be for the first time, and we pray, “Jesus, I belong to you.  Help me to see by your light.”  It might be the first time in a while, and we may pray “Jesus I belong to you, I want to see again by your light.”  It may be something we pray regularly, and we say, “Jesus, I belong to you.  Help me to keep on seeing by your light.”  No matter where we are as we hear the story today, we’re hearing the story.  We’re here.  It’s a good place to be.

This is one of those stories we may have read many times and have heard preached many times.   It’s one of the most famous stories outside of the  Gospels in the NT.  Luke tells it three times in Acts.  It’s a story that is known to some extent in the larger culture, where we may hear talk of people having a “road to Damascus experience.”

What’s going on here?  We are looking at the story of a life transformed.  The story of a life turned around 180 degrees. This is a story about conversion and a story of Saul’s call.  In a way, Saul’s conversion and call speak to every follower of Jesus.  A transformation of heart – that centre of our being involving mind, thought, emotion, will.  A transformation of purpose – a call to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and your neighbour as yourself.  A call to be light and salt.  A call to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with the God to whom I belong. 

At the same time, it’s Paul’s story.  Saul breathed threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.  We remember him from Stephen’s story when he was introduced.  Paul was given a specific call to bring God’s name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel.  This is how NT Wright has described Paul’s role in the story of God:

“If the death and resurrection of Jesus is the hinge on which the great door of history swung open at last, the conversion of Saul of Tarsus was the moment when all the ancient promises of God gathered themselves up, rolled themselves into a ball, and came hurtling through that open door and into the wide world beyond.”  We’ll see this played out in the rest of the book of Acts.

Having said this, it’s important to note that life on the Way as followers of the Way is not about comparing ourselves to one another.  When it comes to our call, service to God is not about status but about being faithful in the ways that God calls us to serve.  When it comes to how we come to be following Jesus, it’s not about comparing ourselves to one another in the kingdom of God.  There was a time in my life when I felt badly that I didn’t have such a dramatic conversion story, and I am sure some of you gathered here today have had an experience similar to mine.  Raised in a Christian home. Raised in the church since your earliest memories. Growing up this way, you hear stories about conversions to Christianity that were truly 180-degree turns.  People who put the “turn” in “turn away from” into metanoia (into repentance). If you’re at all like me, you might have felt a little bit less than, a little bit cheated out of a good conversion story. You might have heard songs like “I Saw the Light” and longed for such a dramatic thing to have been part of your story.  If you’re also like me, you might have wandered off the path a little bit and then had your own mini-Road-to-Damascus moment when you came back. Of course, a life of unstinting devotion and unwavering faithfulness to God from as far back as one can remember is not something to be rued at all – it’s something to give thanks to God for.

In the story of Acts, chapter 9 marks a continued widening of the good news of Jesus being made known.  The good news has gone out from Jerusalem as a result of the persecution the church faced there.  It has gone to Samaria. Before Advent, we heard the story of Philip and the eunuch.   Now we have the re-entry into the story of the young man at whose feet the crowd who killed Stephen laid their coats. The man whom Luke tells us approved of their killing Stephen.  The man who was still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, and who decided that it would be a good idea to take the persecution show on the road, as it were, to look for followers of the Way, and bring them back bound to Jerusalem. Men and women. Followers of the Way. Saul is on the way to Damascus.

“Now as we 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, who do you persecute me?’”  (9:3-4)

This is Saul’s story, but there are truths here that are of great significance to each and every one of us; no matter what our story is, whether or not we are a follower of Christ, no matter what our faith story is.  The first is that no one is beyond the grace of God. The grace of God comes indeed to meet us. The grace of God met Saul while he was God’s enemy.  He’ll pick this up in his writing, of course. “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”  (Eph 2:13)  You who were far off have been brought near. “For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.” (Rom 5:10)  What does this have to say in terms of what we think of people who we are told are our enemies?  Look at how God treats enemies. What does this have to say to us in terms of the qualifications that we may feel we need to come before God?  I have a friend who tells me that he doesn’t feel that he’s worthy enough to come to church.  This is how people may feel, maybe because we’re not getting this message out in an effective way (of course, it might only be an excuse). The only qualification we need to come before God is a recognition of our need for God.  Here was a man who was at least complicit in murder.  This is where his zeal for his faith had led him.  There is an Irish saying my father used to use, and it meant it wasn’t such a big deal if someone dropped something or I broke something as I went tearing through the house, or what have you.  He used to say, “It’s not the killing of man.”  In Paul’s case, it was the killing of a man.  Men.  Women.  There is nothing in our past that God cannot turn for good.  Broken relationships.  Addiction.  Health issues.  Criminality.  An overly zealous religious upbringing that left us missing something fundamental about the love of God.  No faith upbringing at all.  There is nothing in our past that keeps us from the grace of God when we are confronted with the grace of God.

And this is the second thing. To be met by Christ is to be met by someone outside of ourselves. Saul’s encounter with Christ did not come about because of Saul’s own doing. We must always be aware of the role that God plays in our coming to faith.  We have not come to Christ solely because of our intellectual capacity or piety.  We don’t shun intellect or piety by any means -  they may well be factors in our coming to Christ, and hopefully are factors in our ongoing understanding of Christ. The point is, let’s not get self-righteous or too self-congratulatory about what got us here.  What we see here in the story of Saul of Tarsus is a man who is confronted by the initiative of God – the risen Christ – the one in whom all the promises of God are “Yes” and when we are confronted by the truth of the risen Christ the good and fitting and proper response is to give our “Yes” to God’s “Yes” to us.

Yes?

While we are met with something beyond ourselves, there is an intensely personal aspect to conversion. Note that the people surrounding Saul can tell there is something going on, but they’re not sure what.  This encounter is acutely personal. The call is acutely personal. God calls out his name – “Saul, Saul…”  How can we hear this and not hear the echo that sounds through the ages and think of the names of those whom God has called and hear “Moses! Moses!” and “Jacob, Jacob” and “Samuel! Samuel!” and… Hearing God’s call on our lives and coming to an ever increasing realization that we are Christ’s handiwork created in Jesus Christ for good works which God has prepared in advance for us to do (Eph 2:10).  No matter how unlikely or unexpected that might seem. God preparing much more than we might have perhaps expected perhaps. God using the most unexpected people in the most unexpected ways.

Thirdly, the importance of coming to an ever-growing realization of our need for God and our need to know God.  For Saul, it would have been quite easy to rest on his laurels. Religious credentials impeccable.  A Pharisee.  Son of a Pharisee.  Trained under Gamaliel. Roman citizenship and all the rights thereof, which were afforded him.  From Tarsus.  No backwater town.  A city that was right up there with the cities of its day – Athens,  Alexandria.  At the end of the scene, Paul is helpless.  He had intended to lead followers of the Way to Jerusalem – bound, helpless.  Paul is ironically led to Damascus.  Led by the hand.  His eyes open, but he is unable to see.  This was surely the beginning of Saul’s realization that he would write about so eloquently to the people of Philippi.  Saul’s recognition of his need for God. How often does it come about that we need to be at the limit of our own resources to know what it means to depend on God?  To realize our need to be led. Paul had confidence in things of the world to spare. Those religious credentials we spoke about earlier. That background. That upbringing. “Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” (Phil 3:8)   “Who are you, Lord?” Is what Saul asked, and that became the goal of Paul’s life.  To know Christ and Christ’s love.  He prayed for his friends that they might grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge.  As William Willimon put it, one never becomes so wise or adept at faith that conversion stops or one is immune from divine surprises. Conversion keeps on happening, the turning continues within the community.”

Which brings us to our final truth today.  We are We can’t leave this story without talking about  Ananias; without talking about what Saul was called into. Saul was called into the community. It would not have been an easy proposition for him to suddenly insert himself into a community of Christ followers whom he had so recently been bent on destroying. Ananias gets the call. Ananias says, “Here I am, Lord.” The good answer.  Ananias notes the unlikeliness of the situation to God. “I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem….”  But the Lord said to him, “Go…”  Just go.

As happens so often in Luke and Acts, two people who have had visions get together and their understanding of God is strengthened because of it. Ananias goes and enters the house on Straight Street and lays his hands on Saul and looks at what he says. 

“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 (as Jesus calls us to do), and after taking some food, he regained his strength.”

Same old, same old, never again.  Welcome to the family. Even such a one as this.  Even such a one as I. Same old same old, never again.  Welcome to the family because we’re called to do this together. Welcome to the table because we’re called to share life together on this Way.  Pray this prayer with me as we start the year – “We belong to you, Lord.  Help us to see in the light of Jesus.”

Amen