Conversion of Saul

Eric Lemonholm

October 2, 2011

Proper 22A – with alternate Scripture for Conversion of Saul 2

First Reading Saul to Paul            Acts 9:10-22
Psalm Psalm 80:7-15

Second Reading Philippians 3:4b-14

Gospel Matthew 21:33-46

 

Last week we had a confirmation retreat at Tabor Lutheran Church, where we watched the movie Nacho Libre. 

Oddly enough, it’s a movie about Christian vocation.

In one awkward scene, a Mexican Catholic monk named Ignacio, or Nacho, played by Jack Black, goes to the home of a dying old man.  The man’s wife lets Nacho in, and he sees that the man is asleep in his chair, but Nacho thinks he has died. 

He puts coins on his eyes, covers his face with a doily, and prays, “Dear Father, please accept this man into your kingdom.”

Then he turns to the man’s wife, and says, “Thank you for coming here today.  This man lived a good life.  He had a wonderful woman, a lush garden, and… [at this point, Nacho looks frantically around the room] a collection of Russian nesting dolls.  May he rest in peace.”

Then, of course, the man wakes up and gives Nacho quite a scare!

 

After seeing that movie with the confirmands, I kept thinking of that scene.  Then, I heard Tom Long speak at our synod leader’s conference about funerals this week, and I realized that Nacho essentially preached a typical modern funeral sermon in miniature.

After a prayer, he thanked the congregation for being there – in this case, the congregation was only the man’s wife.

Then, Nacho summarized what little he knew about the man’s life, especially what made him unique or odd – like his collection of Russian nesting dolls.

Finally he said, “May he rest in peace.”

The problem with that scene (apart from the fact that the dying man is still alive) is that there is no community of faith in the room to gather together and perform the funeral.

Traditionally, funerals were communal events to gather around a loved one who has died, prepare their body for burial or cremation, and accompany our loved one on the last stage of their earthly journey.

Christian funerals recognize that the deceased is a baptized child of God, a follower of Jesus’ Way, an inheritor of God’s promise of salvation in Jesus the Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Although it is good in a funeral service to share stories about our loved ones who have died, it is even better to share the good news of forgiveness and new life in Christ.

In fact, lately I have experienced situations where the deceased did not wish to have a funeral, because they did not want a big production made about them.

They recognized that we have made funerals too much about the life story of the individual, and less about the good news of God’s promises made in the waters of baptism.

 

Last week, we heard about how the risen Jesus had encountered the Pharisee named Saul on the road to Damascus.

Saul was an extremist, on a quest to go from Jerusalem to Damascus to arrest and even kill followers of Jesus, when Jesus met him on the road and asked, “Saul, why do you persecute me?’

Saul asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’

‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.  But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.’

 

Saul has a dramatic spiritual experience of Jesus as Lord.

That experience shakes Saul to his core.

For three days, Saul is blind, and he neither eats nor drinks during that time.

Finally, Jesus sends a disciple named Ananias to Saul.

(He’s not the Ananias who was struck dead with his wife Sapphira for withholding their offering to the church.)

The risen Lord Jesus tells Ananias, ‘Go, for [Saul] 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.’

Like the tenants who kill the vineyard owner’s son, Saul has caused a lot of suffering among the followers of Jesus.

Now, he is going to suffer for Jesus’ sake, as he brings the good news of Jesus to both Jews and Gentiles, to common people and kings.

Ananias goes to Saul, calls him ‘brother,’ lays his hands on him, restores his sight, and baptizes him, washing his sin away in the name of the Triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Saul is filled with the Holy Spirit.

He spends time with the disciples in Damascus, and in no time he is proclaiming Jesus in the synagogues of the city, saying Jesus “is the Son of God.”

It is an amazing conversion, a transformation from extremist to extreme faith in Jesus.

Saul’s life is never the same again, and the whole history of the church is changed forever.

 

In case you did not know, when Saul begins to spread the message of Jesus around the Roman Empire, he will go by the Roman form of his name: Paul (Acts 13:9).

You may have heard of St. Paul!

The whole second half of the book of Acts will focus on his ministry.

Almost a third of the New Testament consists of letters bearing Paul’s name.

The violent extremist becomes a nonviolent evangelist, who brings the good news to Jews and Gentiles alike.

He will indeed willingly suffer for Jesus’ name.

He will devote his whole life to sharing the good news of Jesus.

 

Saul is transformed by his encounter with Jesus on the road.

Where have you encountered Jesus?

Where has Jesus met you?

Maybe you haven’t had an experience as dramatic as Saul’s.

 

But know this, that Jesus is calling you, too.

Jesus is calling you to follow him.

Jesus is calling you to a change of heart.

Jesus is calling you to turn from sin to repentance, from fear to courage, from death to life.

Jesus is calling you to devote yourself to his service.

Jesus is calling you away from extremism to extreme faith in God.

Jesus is calling you to see every person in the world as a child of God, a person who needs to hear and experience the good news of God’s mercy in Jesus Christ.

You are a temple of the Holy Spirit, a baptized child of God, an inheritor with Jesus of God’s kingdom.

 

I don’t know what they’re going to say at my funeral (which I hope is a long way off), but there’s really nothing more that needs to be said than that: Eric was a baptized child of God, a forgiven sinner and a saint by the grace, love and mercy of God!

What more is there?

Amen?  Amen!

 

A prayer by Horton Davies:

Our God, whose Son is the light of the world,
in his penetrating light we acknowledge our darkness,
in his constant grace, our careless love;
in his generous giving, our sordid grasping;
in his equal justice, our dire prejudice;
in his fortitude, our fearful failure;
in his inclusive love, our deep divisions;
in his pure sacrifice, our soiling sins.
But in his Cross is our forgiveness,
and in his resurrection our enduring hope.
The pardon and the promise now we claim,
in penitence and faith, through Jesus Christ our Lord.^[i]

Amen.