Sermon on Acts 9:1-6 and Revelation 5:11-end
Originally given 01 May 2022 at St. Margaret's Church, Coventry
Both of today's readings are rather unbelievable. In the Acts reading, we hear about the conversion of Saul, who became Paul, after he had a vision of Jesus Christ. In the Revelation reading, we hear about a vision of angels and creatures crying out. I generally avoid preaching on Revelation, because, to put it bluntly, I don't really understand a single word of it. It's filled with allusion and metaphor, and I'm not convinced I'm quite holy enough to truly grasp its meaning. So for today, I'll stick to our reading from Acts, the conversion of Saul.
Saul was…let's say, not a very nice man to Christians. He was zealous in his beliefs, and good at his job, the job of persecuting Christians. In his letter to the Philippians, we read that he was 'a Hebrew of Hebrews', following all the laws and requirements of the Jewish faith. And perhaps it was his devoted passion to being a Hebrew that drove him to so brutally persecute Christian men and women. Or maybe, he feared the freedom that the Christian faith offered. Freedom from the constraints of the rules and regulations of his faith. People either hate what they do not understand, or they hate what they fear in themselves. So maybe Saul was desperate to follow 'the Way', but was punishing himself for these feelings by punishing others. Was Saul obsessed with enforcing a plethora of Pharisaic rules? Or was he desperate to follow the one law Jesus gave: Love God and love each other? Just some food for thought, but I'll let you decide for yourselves.
There are a few nuggets from today's passage that I'd like to take a closer look at. For one, there are verses that allow us to understand a bit more about the early Christian faith. Secondly, as we read about the conversion of Saul, we can also discover more about the people who are called to follow Christ. People like Saul, but also people like you and me.
In the second verse, when Paul is asking for letters to synagogues in Damascus, he wants information on both men and women, in order to take both men and women as prisoners and to punish them for their faith. This might seem insignificant, but when we read it in the context of the time and location, it truly is a statement on the foundations of the Christian faith. In the Roman Empire, women were, at best, second-class citizens. They did not hold any position of power or public leadership. All of those roles went to men. So for Saul to want to persecute women equally with men, it shows that women were considered full members of the Christian community. In this Roman culture which did not accept women into important societal roles, Christianity was truly subversive in allowing women to not only join in, but also lead the movement. Just as Jesus welcomed women to his table, women were also welcomed to be active members of the early Christian faith. Once again, it is easily overlooked in a cursory reading, but women were vital to the early Church, and without the support and leadership of these women, the Church would not have survived. I do sometimes wonder if we have forgotten this crucial aspect of our faith history. But that's a sermon for another day.
In verse three, it says 'a light from heaven flashed around' Saul. If we were to continue reading to verses 9 and 18, we would discover that Saul was struck blind after this event and then when Ananias was called by Christ to restore Saul's sight, it was 'like scales fell from Saul's eyes.' This experience gives us some insight into who Christ is. Christ is light and truth. Although Saul was literally blind and unable to see, it could be argued that he was also metaphorically unable to see. Saul was unable to see the Light of Jesus Christ, until he was blinded by it. He was unable to see the truth of Jesus Christ, the truth that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the one who came to free all people, Jew and Gentile. I wonder what we can learn from Saul's blindness. What truths are we not able to see for ourselves? Who are we persecuting? Either by our thoughts, or words, or deeds, how are we individually and collectively as a society obscuring the Light of Christ?
These questions might feel challenging, and I think they should. As we've already seen, the Christian faith is a subversive one, so surely we should be asking challenging questions of ourselves and the world we live in. And though such questions might be uncomfortable, they can help us find the truth. The truth of our faith, the truth of who we are, and the truth of who we can become. I don't think many of us have murdered Christians in a previous life like Saul did, but we have all contributed in some way to harming others. So if we answer the questions of who we are harming and how we are harming them, then we can bring ourselves to turn away from that harm and turn toward the love of Christ. Jesus taught us the one law: Love God and love others. And then Jesus gave us a model of how to do this, showing us that nobody is beyond the love of God, even the Christian-persecuter Saul. Saul, who became Paul, and turned to Christ, leaving behind the shackles of hate. Saul, who only saw Christ fully when he was blinded by him. If Christ called someone like Saul to such an extraordinary position, then imagine what Christ might be calling each of us to if we only lose our shackles.
And we all have the opportunity to lose our own shackles. Jesus Christ calls every one of us to invite him into our hearts. To see the light and truth of his love. To be blinded and open our eyes anew. Open our eyes to loving God and loving each other. We can all have a road to Damascus experience simply by saying 'yes' to Jesus, saying 'yes' to loving God, saying 'yes' to loving each other. We can let the scales of hate, indifference, apathy, self-loathing fall from our eyes, and create God's kingdom here on earth with love, care, passion, and acceptance for every single person.
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