Acts 9:1-6, (7-20) – Saul’s light from heaven. "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"
Psalm 30 – For his anger is but for a moment; his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.Revelation 5:11-14– Angels at the throne: "Worthy is the Lamb…"
John 21:1-19 – Breakfast with Jesus. Jesus forgives Peter. ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’
Conversion
During the 50 days of Easter, I am writing my lectionary posts on the texts from Acts. This week we have Paul’s light from heaven, Acts 9. Verses 1-6 are appointed. Verses 7-20 are provided as an optional extension to the reading.
Paul was a Pharisee. He was a member of the Temple Guard. He was zealous to snuff out the cancer that was growing in the Jewish community. Acts 4 tells us there were already 5,000 "believers", just in Jerusalem. These believers were lax about the law, critical of the temple, accepting of Gentiles at their table, exalting of a crucified criminal, putting Israel at risk from Roman persecution for supporting a false Messiah, and blasphemous for proclaiming a human being as "Lord." (Michael Gorman, Apostle of the Crucified Lord.) Whether authorized, or on his own, Paul sets out to Damascus to deal the church a death blow. When he arrives, he has been quite undone.
It interests me that Luke’s three tellings of Paul’s conversion differ somewhat from Paul’s own telling in 2 Corinthians. In Acts you can find them here:
- Acts 9:1-20
- Acts 22:6-16
- Acts 26:12-18
The accounts are pretty close, but differ in a few details. In our passage those standing by hear the voice. In chapter 22, it says quite clearly that those around him could not hear the voice. In Acts 26 there is a commission not present in the other two accounts. No matter, the basics are all in place. There is a clear progression:
- Light
- Voice
- Blindness
- Ananias
- Sight
- Baptism
- Call
Paul’s own accounts are less detailed, and much more mystical. Paul claims Jesus appeared to him just like he did the original apostles (1 Corinthians 15:5-8). Jesus was alive, which meant God was going to fulfill the promise of the resurrection. On his way to destroy the church, Gorman says, Paul discovered that Jesus is alive, and Lord.
Based on the names of the public figures in Acts, and other historical markers in Paul’s letters, we know there is a narrow window of time here. If we hypothetically place the crucifixion at 33 A.D. and Paul’s execution between 62 and 64 A.D. (Nero?), we have a span of thirty years in which to place Paul’s three missionary journeys, four if you include his final trip to Rome. Of course, we have no account of Paul’s demise. It is a historical curiosity that one does not exist. Why does Luke leave us hanging? If Paul was tried and executed in Rome (the most likely scenario) then why doesn’t Luke tell us? (Clement seems to think Paul was martyred in Rome.) If Paul escaped execution and successfully launched his hoped-for mission to Spain, living to a ripe old age, sipping sangria on a beach in Barcelona, why doesn’t Luke tell us? We must assume he simply doesn’t know. If we presume Luke is writing in 90 A.D. the events in question have already taken place. It is possible that Paul got swept up in Nero’s persecution of Christians following his burning of Rome, which he blamed on them. Perhaps Paul ended up as one of Nero’s human party torches. More likely, scholars say, he was tried and executed in 62 A.D. before Rome burned.
All this is to say the conversion had to have happened pretty soon after the crucifixion and resurrection. Some have even suggested 34 A.D.
But is this a conversion? James Dunn (The Theology of Paul the Apostle) questions if we can call this a conversion at all. Has Paul left Judaism behind for a new religion, or does he understand himself as still a Jew? After all, Paul’s "conversion" doesn’t change his belief about God. The God who is revealed in Jesus is the same Creator God of Genesis, the same God of the Covenants. As a devout Jew, Paul said the Shema twice a day. I doubt that changed.
His conversion, however, is central to his theology. The gospel came to him "through revelation… when God chose to reveal his Son to me…" (Galatians 1:12, 16). For Paul, the hidden wisdom of God is revealed through the Spirit. A. N. Wilson (Paul: The Mind of the Apostle) reminds us that Paul was a mystic. He had had life-changing encounter with the risen Christ. Paul’s own description of his conversion in 2 Corinthians 12 reads much like an out-of-body experience. Paul admits he’s not sure himself.
There is also a significant shift in his attitude toward the law. Prior to his conversion Paul describes himself as being zealous for the law. One cannot read Paul’s letters without gaining a clear sense that Paul has a decisively negative attitude toward the law. The law increases sin. The law reigns in death. The power of sin is the law. "What shall we say? That the law is sin?" He concludes it is not, but you can tell he’s struggling with the idea. By the law shall no flesh be justified before God. It may not be sin, but it is impotent. We have been released from the law, having died to it. As a Pharisee, Paul was "set apart" for the law. Now he tells his churches, he is "set apart" for the gospel. Christ is the end of the law (Romans 10:4). The law is a ministry of death (2 Corinthians 3:6-9). Paul has died to the law in order that he might live to God. This is clearly a conversion of sorts. In fact this law/gospel dialectic may be the only way to understand Paul’s conversion.
Michael Gorman (Apostle of the Crucified Lord) says that Paul was born a Jew, lived as a Jew, and died a Jew. He was simply a Jew who encountered the once-crucified Jesus. Dunn concludes that this is not a conversion to a new religion, but a conversion to a new sect. It is not like a Hindu becoming a Buddhist. It is more like a Baptist fundamentalist becoming a Roman Catholic, or vice-versa. Paul remains a Jew, but he moves from being a Pharisee to a Nazarene.
With Paul’s conversion comes a very clear sense of call. God revealed "his Son to me in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles." (Galatians 1:15-16)
Perhaps this is a good time for the preacher to tell his or her call story. Few of us can claim to have had such a dramatic conversion experience, but we too have been called to what we are doing. How did that happen? In what ways has the risen Christ "shown up" in your life that drove you inexorably to the place where you now serve? Our people cannot begin to see the hand of God moving in their life, if we cannot articulate the ways in which God is moving in ours. Some homiletics professors shunned personal sermons. Granted, if every sermon is about me, something is wrong, but if Luke could tell Paul’s call story three times, and if Paul could mention it numerous times, comparing it to the call of Isaiah and the call of Jeremiah, certainly we can tell our story once in a while to show how God works in the lives of ordinary, flawed human beings.
When did you first sense God’s call to ministry? To what is God calling you today? How can you tell? In what ways is Jesus standing before you, calling you to feed his sheep?
Yours in Christ,
Michael Rinehart, Bishop
