A Tale of Two Conversions

Prayer: Wow! Thanks! Help!

Holy Trinity, forever one, whose nature is community; source of all sharing, in whom we love, and meet, and know our neighbour: life in all its fullness, making all things new - be among us now as we open our lives to you.

Acts as a account of the Spirit’s continued action after Ascension & Pentecost.

Disrupting the old order of things. Interrupting lives. Of religious insiders and outsiders.

A story that is continuous with the OT story of God at work in ancient Israel, in the presence of the God in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

Context… Saul is first introduced in Acts 7 as a "shadowy presence” (Jennings)

Conversion of Saul from killing as righteous act. Guilt deserving death existed, but no one righteous enough to deliver the punishment. (From “old order to new order”)

Acts 7:54–8:2

This is finally a moment of transition for Luke’s narrative, a transition registered in lament and seen in two men passing by each other, Stephen and Saul. Stephen found his way to love. Saul was yet to find his way.

Skipping over the story of God chasing after the eunuch. (What does it mean that God doesn’t only welcome those who chase after God, but also goes out to find people…?)

God as disrupter and interrupter. Status quo. Old order.

Saul of Tarsus headed for Damascus (Syria).

Acts 9:1–9

No one is more dangerous than one with the power to take life and who already has mind and sight set on those who are a threat to a safe future

Characters & big events:

Saul of Tarsus - who we will come to know as the Apostle Paul - a “closed circle”

“the Damascus road” moment - which has become a shorthand for a life-changing moment, including moments of conversion; “the closed circle broken open by God”

But there is a second story of interruption and disruption in our text today.

Ananias of Damascus is also going to find himself called and reoriented.

And so… as we listen to what is likely a familiar story, may the Spirit of God speak to us through these words from Acts chapter 9.

As Gordon comes, will you stand for the reading?

Acts 9:1–21 CEB

1 Meanwhile, Saul was still spewing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest, 2 seeking letters to the synagogues in Damascus. If he found persons who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, these letters would authorize him to take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. 3 During the journey, as he approached Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven encircled him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice asking him, “Saul, Saul, why are you harassing me?” 5 Saul asked, “Who are you, Lord?” “I am Jesus, whom you are harassing,” came the reply. 6 “Now get up and enter the city. You will be told what you must do.” 7 Those traveling with him stood there speechless; they heard the voice but saw no one. 8 After they picked Saul up from the ground, he opened his eyes but he couldn’t see. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. 9 For three days he was blind and neither ate nor drank anything. 10 In Damascus there was a certain disciple named Ananias. The Lord spoke to him in a vision, “Ananias!” He answered, “Yes, Lord.” 11 The Lord instructed him, “Go to Judas’ house on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul. He is praying. 12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias enter and put his hands on him to restore his sight.” 13 Ananias countered, “Lord, I have heard many reports about this man. People say he has done horrible things to your holy people in Jerusalem. 14 He’s here with authority from the chief priests to arrest everyone who calls on your name.” 15 The Lord replied, “Go! This man is the agent I have chosen to carry my name before Gentiles, kings, and Israelites. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name’s sake.” 17 Ananias went to the house. He placed his hands on Saul and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord sent me—Jesus, who appeared to you on the way as you were coming here. He sent me so that you could see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 Instantly, flakes fell from Saul’s eyes and he could see again. He got up and was baptized. 19 After eating, he regained his strength. He stayed with the disciples in Damascus for several days. 20 Right away, he began to preach about Jesus in the synagogues. “He is God’s Son,” he declared. 21 Everyone who heard him was baffled. They questioned each other, “Isn’t he the one who was wreaking havoc among those in Jerusalem who called on this name? Hadn’t he come here to take those same people as prisoners to the chief priests?”

Two encounters.

Two conversions.

Two men interrupted by God.

Saul of Tarsus and Ananias of Damascus.

So let’s look at each of these encounters.

And then let’s explore where there might be points of connection for us today.

Saul

Background - Saul is someone who is “following God” who is seeking to be faithful to his understanding of who God is and what God requires. Saul is not going to be called to turn away from following God, but to embrace a new experience of God that brings about a new understanding.

God interrupts Saul - by surprise.

Saul asks a question. “Who are you, Lord?”

Jesus responds with a question.

Saul recognizes Jesus as Lord. “turns from the abstract Lord to the concrete Jesus” - think of where in Matthew, we hear Jesus teach saying, “You have heard that it was said…but I say to you...”

Jennings:

Acts 9:1–9

Saul turns from defending the name of the Lord to serving Jesus, and for this he will soon suffer. He has crossed that line that separates this faith from all others. He has heard the voice of a crucified God. There is a stark truth here in this conversion so poignant that we sometimes ignore its abiding effect on us. Saul experienced the Lord Jesus. He encountered him, and this made Saul vulnerable. Experiencing the Lord Jesus makes us vulnerable. It is impossible to sufficiently explain an experience of the Lord, to make it a winning argument, or to present it as irrefutable justification for one’s life choices. We must not run from this vulnerability supposing that we can overcome it by denying experience its place in witness or juxtaposing something called reason as over against it as a separate way of giving testimony

Saul is blinded - for a purpose. Saul has been interrupted and reoriented. But his experience of Jesus has left him vulnerable and in need. Who will help him? Luke leaves this scene hanging… but don’t worry, we’ll come back. First, the Damascus disciple Ananias.

Ananias

Background - Ananias is a disciple of Jesus who has been embraced into the Story of God…

God interrupts Ananias - with a vision

Ananias responds honestly. “I have heard of this man...” and it’s NOT GOOD.

Acts 9:10–19a

The Lord has commanded, and Ananias has heard. Saul waits in blindness, praying and fasting, hoping for a future, and Ananias the disciple must go to him in order that Saul may see again. Ananias, however, knows a truth about Saul, an indisputable truth. Saul is a killer of disciples. So now a disciple must face a decision. Do I act on a truth about someone, a truth that may put me in danger, or do I follow the word of the Lord and touch this dangerous person? Luke does not tell us whether Ananias was afraid of Saul but only that he was honest with God. We must not run past his honesty with God. He reminds God that Saul is a killer, and God in turn calls Saul his vessel who will carry the name of Jesus. God sees us differently no doubt, but the question always for disciples is, Can we see with God

God affirms the call - I know who Saul is - and I know who Saul will become. Go to him. (Trust Me even if you can’t trust Saul.)

And Ananias “acts in faith, touching and believing in the power of God to heal and transform” Saul … who he calls “brother.”

Something like scales fall from Paul’s eyes. He can see once again. Ananias disappears into the background. Saul is baptized, fed and strengthened. “Saul embodies a great inexplicable reversal.”

Notice a couple of things:

1. Saul’s name is not changed in this story. However, the way in which Ananias thinks of Saul is changed radically. From enemy to brother.

2. Also, conversion is not necessarily a one-time event. Even Paul as we will come to know him, who has this dramatic “Damascus Road” experience actually experiences a series of events that reorient him. His “conversion” isn’t a one and done kind of event. He reorients to Jesus and that will become an ongoing process for the rest of his life.

Repentance is a turning, a reorienting (to Jesus) and a changing of one’s mind - not in a “just think differently” sort of reductionist way, or in a actions don’t matter as much as thoughts and intentions. But in a transformed by the renewing of your minds… how we think WILL be demonstrated by our actions much of the time. And so we don’t only think of changing our outward actions, but also our inward thoughts. And, that is done by changing our trajectory.

Jesus is our orienting point. We want to head towards Him. So we must look at Him. Which sometimes just means lifting our eyes to the horizon. Other times, when we lift our eyes, we realize that Jesus is no longer on the horizon and so we will have to turn… potentially 180 degrees.

3. When Jesus speaks to Saul on the Damascus road… “Why are you harassing Me?” - think about who it is that Saul has been harrassing. Who has Saul been persecuting? Who has Saul been spewing murderous threats about?

It is Trinity Sunday after all…

Not only is the identity of Yahweh, the God Saul has been serving for his whole life joined to the identity of Jesus. Which is staggering enough. But these Jesus’ followers are truly the “Body of Christ” now animated by the Holy Spirit to be the hands and feet of Jesus even as Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father. The risen and ascended Jesus is still present and active on earth… and so Saul harassing any of these people is a direct attack on Jesus Himself. Not according to the people, to the victims, but to Jesus Himself.

This means that if we are hurting Jesus’ body, we are hurting Jesus Himself. (a warning)

But it also means that when we are hurting, harrassed, persecuted… we are not bearing that on our own. Jesus is present in that place. With us.

So I wonder where you have noticed resonance in this story?

Have you, like Paul, encountered a Jesus who interrupts and reorients you?

Has your ongoing repentance and reorientation stalled out? Are you zealous for someone Jesus is asking you to pause and reconsider?

Have you, like Ananias, heard God’s call and questioned God? Or maybe you haven’t even been honest with God yet, you are just carrying on as though you haven’t heard the call.

Is there someone you are being invited to approach “as a sibling” but who you cannot imagine viewing in such terms? They are dangerous, or other, or “them” in some way that feels insurmountable?

Or maybe you’ve heard something I haven’t named at all.

Where are you in this narrative?