On the Way to Wonder

Acts 10:23-48

The apostle Peter and friends have traveled up the coast from Joppa to Caesarea to meet with Cornelius and all his family and friends who have gathered in Cornelius’ home.  Peter acknowledges the uniqueness of the situation that he a Jew is going into a Gentile home and breaking tradition.  Peter goes on to say,

         “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but      accepts from every nation the one who f ears him and does what is    right.”

Peter continues giving a brief summary of who Jesus is , ending with the resurrection and that Jesus will be the one to “judge the living and the dead.”  The Holy Spirit astonishes everyone present by giving the gift of tongues, just like Pentecost to Gentiles who are not circumcised!  These new believers are then baptized but something astronomical has happened.

         I think it was about my fortieth birthday and I was in Kenya.  I got up and went to wash my face and held up the face cloth.  The whole center of the cloth was worn out and just the square fringe hung in my fingers.  I lamented.  Surely the God of the universe could provide me, someone trying so hard to “be good,” with a facecloth.  It was a silly woe-is-me moment but revealed my sense of entitlement.  I went about my day.  At lunch we ate on the porch and I came inside for something.  On the dining room table was a big box as someone had gone to the post office.  Inside was a set of towels for everyone in our family, complete with towel and face cloth!  I suddenly realized!  The issue was not the face cloth.  This experience spoke to me of a God that was so much bigger and caring than I had realized.  I had been feeling so self centered but somehow God had been working outside the box to make all the events of the day come together.  Peter suddenly realized.  What?  God was bigger than the boxes he had put God in and was working in ways to God’s glory.  The story of faith is bigger than me.

         Perhaps you have had an experience that made you suddenly “realize” and experience God in a more profound way.  God is working in the Corneliuses, the Sauls and all those in the net of those relationships.  Thank you Lord that you are active far above my ability to anticipate.

Acts 10:9-22

Yesterday’s reading introduced a “foreigner,” a Roman Centurion, Cornelius, into Luke’s account of how the church and faith grew.  Cornelius is devote and God fearing, seeking truth.  In a vision he is instructed to send for Peter who is 30 miles south on the coast at Joppa.  Luke is letting us see a major moment, a major shift in spiritual development.

         Peter is going about life as normal but since it is lunchtime and he is hungry, he waits while the meal is prepared as he is the guest.  Life as normal, right!  Luke tells us Peter fell into a trance.  Perhaps we would say, he drifted off into deep thought and reflection.  We do this when we are deeply pondering something, perhaps a family crisis, perhaps a wayward child, perhaps an upcoming speaking engagement.  Our mind strays.  Peter had a vision about eating food that he knew was prohibited to Jews.  In the vision God tells him to eat and Peter protests.  Peter is interacting with God about what feels like an instruction!  In Peter’s vision, God is approachable!  God responds, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”  Now that is a little vague at its best.  We know the end of the story and how dietary laws have evolved but Peter did not.  He did not have all the cooking TV shows we have that challenge our sense of what is appropriate to eat or even what items are appropriate to combine together  Peter has been presented with information “outside the box.”  He must figure out how to interpret the vision.

         I would suggest that spiritual growth sometimes occurs like this.  Our mind wanders and engages with something seemingly different and outside the box of our faith understanding and we are challenged to rethink our basic understanding.  Sickness often challenges us with the question of why good people suffer.  War challenges us as I hear people reflecting, “What did we do to deserve to be attacked?”  Accidents force us to regroup.

         Peter did not understand and was pondering when the messengers from Cornelius appear at the door.  Often we don’t understand immediately but as the question lingers in our thinking, gradually God may unfold a situation that forces a growth in our understanding and in our relationship with God and with others.  When those questions challenge us, may we not close our thinking but hang in there with the discovery process.  Spiritual growth may be a sudden insight but often it is an unfolding process that requires us to live into the insight.  Blessings as you work with your challenges today.

Acts 10

Enter stage right, Cornelius, a Roman centurion stationed at Caesarea on the coast.  Cornelius is not a disciple like Peter, not a Roman Jew Pharisee like Saul, but a genuine Gentile.  He is not a believer but what today we would call a “seeker.”  He and his family are devout, God-fearing, and generous to the needy.  Sometimes we tend to think that people who differ from our beliefs must be bad or insensitive to God.  We somehow think “the other” is evil.  Cornelius presents a challenge on several fronts to the early believers.   

         Cornelius initiates contact, not Peter.  One afternoon, walking through the poor area in our city in Kenya with my students, a lady called to me and asked, “When are you going to visit me?”  She must have seen us walking by weekly for visitation but we did not know her but she called to us.  We went to her house and sat down.  She said, “I am a Muslim and my husband is a Christian.  What is the difference?”  That is the only time something like that happened to me so point blank. She was seeking.  Cornelius was seeking truth also.  Cornelius had a vision while praying and sends trusted people to find Peter.  God was changing the existing paradigm.

         Secondly Cornelius was not a Jew and Jews were not to visit in Gentile homes.  Peter had to make a decision about how he thought he should behave.  Sometimes we fall into habits of how we think “faith” should be done.  When confronted with uncomfortable situations, we have to evaluate how we will engage with the “the other.”

         Spiritual growth often involves being aware of God working in ways we do not expect and in places we are not looking.  Sister Act 1 and 2 creates a movie about a nightclub singer who hides in a convent under witness protection and contextualizes songs from the 60s and makes them into worship songs. I always find it charming.  The love we associate with dating suddenly becomes applicable to nuns and their faith.  We call it contextualization. 

         The question, I think, from our reflection today is to ask the Holy Spirit if there are ways in which I have fallen into a rut and expect God to work in certain ways?  My prayer is for eyes that are open to see God working in others and in ways that could open up sharing faith with them.  Cornelius was willing to reach out to Peter but would Peter – or I – respond?  Blessings.       

Acts 9:32-43

Luke ends Chapter 9 of Acts by switching back to Peter who is visiting Lydda, a small town possibly known as Lod today, outside Tel Aviv.  Peter too is doing deeds that attract attention and draw attention to the power and potential of this new dynamic.  Consistent, good reputations are being built by the apostles in the face of persecution.  Remember that there was no written Bible at the time and so visiting and encouraging people who were under persecution was important. 

         Peter meets Aeneas who is paralyzed and tells him he is healed by Jesus.  The man believes and walks.  Meanwhile a woman, Dorcas, also called Tabitha, has died in Joppa near by and Peter is called.  He goes and prays over her and she arises.  Dorcas is one of the original female deaconesses.  I suppose we could debate the authenticity of these events but I doubt that would resolve the underlying message that faith in Jesus has power to heal and is a growing, credible group of believers.

         We have hospitals full of people who would love for Peter to walk in and proclaim them healed but alas God does not seem to be mine to order around.  Nor does healing seem to be dependent on the size of my faith. My husband reminds me that we must choose faith by “management” or by “mystery.”   God does not always seem to work on my time schedule nor according to my honest prayers.  People die and bad things happen to good people.  My consistent faith in the face of evil is important and builds a reputation. 

         So what do I take away from these incidents?  God does have answers to prayers that I cannot imagine or anticipate.  Faith is not about what might happen but in a God who cares and can make my burden work out in surprising ways.  God uses people like Peter and like you and me to answer prayers as we are sensitive to his leading.  The followers were being forced to go to new places because of the persecution and so sometimes when things seem to be going wrong, perhaps God is positioning us to use us.  These ideas give me hope when I am feeling paralyzed like Aeneas or grieving like Dorcas’ friends.  God cares and God can!  Blessings as we embrace in the mystery.

First Reading: Genesis 18:1-10a

¹The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. ²He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. ³He said, “My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. ⁴Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. ⁵Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” ⁶And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.” ⁷Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. ⁸Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.
 ⁹They said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he said, “There, in the tent.” ^10aThen one said, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.”

Psalm: Psalm 15

 ¹Lord, who may dwell in your tabernacle?
  Who may abide upon your holy hill?
 ²Those who lead a blameless life and do what is right,
  who speak the truth from their heart; 
 ³they do not slander with the tongue, they do no evil to their friends;
  they do not cast discredit upon a neighbor.
 ⁴In their sight the wicked are rejected, but they honor those         who fear the Lord.  They have sworn upon their health and do                    not take back their word.
 ⁵They do not give their money in hope of gain, nor do they take bribes   against the innocent.  Those who do these things shall never        be overthrown.

Second Reading: Colossians 1:15-28

¹⁵[Christ Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation;¹⁶for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. ¹⁹For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.
 ²¹And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, ²²he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him—²³provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. I, Paul, became a servant of this gospel.
 ²⁴I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. ²⁵I became its servant according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, ²⁶the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints. ²⁷To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. ²⁸It is he whom we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

Gospel: Luke 10:38-42

³⁸Now as [Jesus and his disciples] went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. ³⁹She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. ⁴⁰But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” ⁴¹But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; ⁴²there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”

CHILDREN’S SERMON

         What are some of the things you enjoyed at birthday parties when you were a child or that you enjoy now?  (Group share)

Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, my Rock and my Redeemer.

SERMON

True confessions!  I have a sister who is two years and one day younger than me.  My birthday was on the 11^th and she was born on the 12^th.  We had birthdays together.  My mother dressed us like twins, perhaps in different colors of the same dress for she was a blonde with long straight hair to her waist and I was a brunette with short curly hair, during an era when long blonde hair was the surfer look. Did I mention how jealous I always was and I had a bad case of comparison-itis. I could play the “Woe is Me” song for hours convincing myself and everyone else that my parents loved my gifted, beautiful, flawless sister more than me.  Now I have children and am hopefully more mature.  But I bring my life to the text today. I desperately want to defend responsible Martha whom I feel often gets a bad rap and put in contrast to Mary.  Maybe you identify with Mary. And perhaps you too struggle with a sister or a sibling or a friend or a colleague.  You can name the person who challenges your sense of self worth and the value of your life.  Our culture plays the game, comparing presidential leadership styles, debating which country is “great-er” and of course all our athletic comparison of teams.  So let us see what this text brings to our hearts and souls today.  Are Mary and Martha competing or complementing?

         First let’s make sure we see our reading in its context.  We are on the journey of Pentecost.  We are reflecting on who our God is but also who we are to our God.  We are going through a three week series of Luke 10 for our texts.  After challenging us in Luke 9 to stay focused on God’s task for us and not on distractions of life, Luke opens with the followers being sent to surrounding towns by twos to prepare the way for Jesus.  We are sent people.  Last week we pondered the Good Samaritan parable and who is our neighbors and whom we might be sent to.  Luke follows this with Mary and Martha, two sisters living out their relationship with Jesus in very different ways.  They welcome Jesus into their home, the place they live.  They are an example of the receivers of those sent.

Welcome

         Our text opens with Martha welcoming Jesus into her home.  We do not know if she was a widow hence having a home nor do we hear about brother Lazarus at this point.  Her sister Mary, possibly younger, was present.  This home is going to become an important launching point for Jesus and his disciples when he is in the Jerusalem area.  It is in this home that Jesus spends his last week.  It was as close to “home base” in the gospels as any place Jesus visited.  In the Gospel of John we learn that at one point, Martha’s brother Lazarus became sick and died. We are told, “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. (John 11:5)” Jesus loved Martha.

         Welcoming guests is a big thing.  In Kenya you would be required to kill a goat.  At the last Supper it is noteworthy that the welcoming ritual of washing feet was assumed by Jesus.  Perhaps we would take a guest’s coat to hang up or lay on a bed.  Offering drinks is almost mandatory.  And don’t forget to have nice music playing in the background!  A Kenyan friend visited the United States and returned with tales about us funny Americans.  We could drive up to a machine and money came out (an ATM).  We could drive up to a window and food was handed out (McDonalds).  He was taken into restaurants and told to choose what he wanted to eat.  In Kenya you eat what the hostess serves!  He never ate in an American home on his trip but always in restaurants.  Does that tell us something about the social pressure that Martha may have been feeling by inviting Jesus into her home?  And I would guess it was Jesus & Co she welcomed.

         In the next sentence after we read that Martha opened her home to Jesus, we read that Mary, her sister, is sitting at Jesus’ feet listening.  We know this scene.  While I put the finishing touches on the food, my husband might be host to the company.  The Master of Ceremonies handles the upfront official, public presence at the gathering but there is always someone in charge of the kitchen, the DJ, the mechanics.  Welcoming is complicated. 

         If we think about it, there are stories in the Bible of welcoming gone wrong.  A guest takes a spot at the table that belongs to a more important person and has to be asked to move.  There is a story about a guy who arrived at the feast dressed wrong and got thrown out.  Elisha blinds the army and leads them to Samaria where their eyes are opened in the presence of the enemy.  A welcoming feast was prepared.  There was one story when a delegation from King David was suspected of being spies and their beards are shorn and clothing cut off.  I suspect we all want to hear when we are welcomed into heaven, “Well done thou good and faithful servant, enter into your Father’s delight.”  Welcoming is mechanics and welcoming is relationship.  Welcoming done right makes people feel loved, and welcoming done poorly can destroy relationship. 

         Perhaps we might take a moment to reflect on how we make people feel welcome at Bethany.  We might consider if we think that welcoming is really the usher’s job.  We might reflect on coming to church on a day when everything is wrong in our life and if we feel we have to put on the brave face before entering.  I am very aware now of entering with a husband coping with Parkinson’s Disease and who can barely walk so arriving a few minutes late, I feel, creates an awkward moment for all.  I will choose YouTube church where my shortcomings are not visible.  May we always be aware of welcoming as an important aspect of relationship.

         From this text and from Acts we see the church grow and develop organizational structure around welcoming – around Word and Service.  We welcome people into the social relationships of church and its ministries and we welcome people into spiritual relationship with God.  We designate roles like Pastor and Diaconal, kitchen ministries and music ministries, youth and adult ministries, and perhaps outreach and educational.  I would suggest that ultimately the question is not that people have different gifts, talents and arenas of service but whether we see these arenas as competing or complementary.

Distracted

         Our text shares that Martha is “distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.”  I think a case could be made that Mary was distracted also.  If an important person like the Bishop or a celebrity were to visit our church or home today, our attention would be drawn to that visitor and we would be positioning ourselves for a good view or at least so we could listen.  I am guilty as charged.  A US President visited Minneapolis at an old school five blocks from our house.  We drove around for an hour trying to figure out how to get past all the security protocol just so we could catch a glimpse of an important person in our neighborhood.  We were defeated. But Mary succeeded and broke protocol and placed herself at the feet of Jesus to listen.          

         So being distracted may not be wrong but the more real question is where the distraction is leading us.  Martha is not rejoicing in her arena of service but is drawn into comparing herself with Mary.  She complains to Jesus, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.”  Ooops, mouth in motion.  Jesus does not speak to her about her welcoming him but about the things that are distracting her and bringing worry.  Again we hear Jesus saying, “Focus!”

         The evil one would have us focus on trivial issues.  Our eyes may be distracted by the large, popular church with lots of programs.  We may think the choir gets too much praise and not the kitchen crew that worked so hard.  We won’t mention the snarky personal gossips that eat a church up.  I think Jesus is challenging us to not look at how another is doing the job given them but to ask ourselves if we are serving God with all our heart, all our strength, and all our might and are we loving our neighbor as ourselves.  Are we worrying about God’s glory or our glory?  Pride, get thou behind me!  God is an audience of one we play to.

Choices

         “Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”  We have choices.  This is not an issue of right or wrong.  This is not an issue of Jesus loving one sister more than the other.  Each sister made a choice how to welcome their visitor.  John tells us that Mary was the sister who poured perfume over Jesus and wiped him with her hair.  We often categorize Mary as the “artistic” and Martha as the “pragmatic” sister but each is gifted differently and each chooses how to live out her gift in relationship to God.  We are all part of one body and we complement each other so that God is glorified.

         By grace we are saved, not by the works we do.  God does not love the pastor more than the little old person who can no longer serve or sing or usher.   All are cherished.  The lost lamb was as important as the 99.  The balloons, the cake, the games, the presents and the guest of honor are all part of the wonderfulness of a birthday party.

         So our text today asks us three important questions to chew on around our lunch tables. 

• How are we welcoming God into our lives and welcoming others into relationship with God this week? 
• What is distracting us from feeling his love and approval? 
• And finally what choices am I making this week?  Are they drawing me into worry or are they bringing me closer to a God who loves and enjoys me as I am?

There is need of only one thing.

choose the better part,

which will not be taken away from you.

And the people of God said “AMEN!”

Acts 9

Today’s song is a new-to-me song that really ministered to me this week.  I was headed to an encounter I dreaded and had all sorts of memories weighing me down.  This song came on the radio.  What I read on the history of the song is that the Canadian author wrote the song as he spends hours on tour while his wife is at home with their four children, the youngest of which has a health challenge.  This week we looked at the conversion of Saul who is to become known as the apostle Paul.  He carried the heavy weight of law being trained as a Pharisee, the heavy weight of anger and hatred for the disinformation he felt the early believers were spreading, and then after his conversion experience, the heavy weight of knowing he had been wrong.  Those three days of blindness, of fasting and prayer, must have involved so much weariness of soul.  I turn on the news and the unending debate about our world, our economy, Jan 6, congress etc etc etc leave me feeling so weary.  This song picks up that weariness and reminds us we are not alone and down days are not forever.  We are not alone. Blessings as you listen.

Acts 9:20-31

²⁵ but his disciples took him by night

and let him down through an opening in the wall,

lowering him in a basket.

Saul has had a conversion from persecuting early believers in Jesus to becoming a follower.  He could not be quiet but immediately began talking about his change of faith.  Saul was a known person.  Saul was known for his hatred but also for his training as a Pharisee.  He knew what he was talking about.  So as we can imagine feathers got ruffled.  Often television evangelists present Christianity as a “try it, you’ll like it” experience.  Faith can lead to health, wealth, and prosperity – or perhaps popularity.  In Saul’s case, the persecutor became the persecuted!  Not every body was ready to jump on Saul’s band wagon and believe the change was genuine.  Soon plans were being made to kill Saul.  His friends had to get him out of Damascus.  They lowered him down through a hole in the wall – in a basket.  Saul who entered Damascus on a horse with a crew of guards left at night, secretly being hidden in a basket.

         Pictures are drawn about this scene and various sorts of baskets are used.  I’ve seen Saul sitting in a large fruit basket more like a platter.  I’ve seen him peeking out of a laundry basket.  The basket is what conceals and carries Saul to safety.  So what are the baskets in our lives that protect us from danger and persecution?  We are taught as children to say when we are taunted and teased, “Sticks and stones may hurt my bones but words will never harm me.”  As we get older, we quickly learn that words hurt.  We remember cutting remarks, unwanted labels, and jeering with pain.  Saul did nothing wrong but in his young enthusiasm he offended people.

         I note that Saul’s friends, his followers, protected him.  Friends put him in a basket, a bubble of their love, and helped him escape.  Perhaps a question today is to reflect if I am a friend who is true when the times get rough or am I a fair-weather friend?  Do I join the crowd to spread gossip or do I defend my friends?  Saul goes to Jerusalem and people there too are dubious of his conversion.  But Barnabas, the encourager, the man from the end of chapter 4 who sold his field to help the new believes again steps up to encourage a young believer Saul and takes Saul’s side before the leadership in Jerusalem.  Saul finds a haven of friendship with Barnabas but again creates enemies.  This time he has to flee back to his home town, Tarsus. 

         Saul is having a rough time as a new believer.  Somehow we think that because we are at peace with God, life should be easy and God should prepare the way for us but often that is not true. Troubles do not mean we are wrong nor that God does not love us and care. Saul is learning to talk about his faith and to preach.  Ponder some of the lessons you many have learned in hard times and ponder who were the people that let you down in a basket to protect you.  Thank God for those lessons and those friends.                       

Acts 9:15-19

Ananias, “the messenger of yesterday,” a believer in Damascus and one of the people Saul was coming to eliminate, is sent by God to talk with Saul. Saul was blinded by the bright light when encountering God.  Saul has heard God’s voice and for three days has been praying and fasting.  I am guessing he has thought long and hard about what he has studied so diligently through the years, how he has put it together, and how he had been so wrong.

         Isaac Newton, similarly, home from Cambridge because of ann outbreak of plague, about 1765, saw an apple fall from a tree and pondered why down and not up or side-wards.  He came up with the law of gravity.  Saul has sat and pondered the events of his life for three days.  It was not an apple but a man, Ananias, who walks in and tells Saul that God has sent him and it makes a huge difference. 

         Ananias addresses Saul as “Brother Saul.”  Wow.  After pondering the errors of his ways for three days, one of the people he came to persecute addresses him as “brother.”  Saul is not by himself but is already recognized as part of a family.  We call it the family of God.

         When we realize we have been going the wrong way and have made grievous mistakes, how do we become restored?  Forgiveness may help us deal with guilt and shame but restoration to relationship is another type of healing.  Think of words that could be used to soothe your soul, e.g. “friend,” “companion,” “beloved,” or even “no big deal.”  Each has a different flavor and stirs up a different emotion.  Ananias opens conversation with Saul, “brother.”  That is a warm word full of acceptance.

         Perhaps spend a few moments pondering what term you would like to be called by someone you have offended.  How could that person show you that not only are you forgiven but you are now also in relationship?  Is there someone to whom you could offer the same grace?  I’m sure it was hard for Ananias to make that first move but the result was that scales fell off Saul’s eyes, he could see again, he was baptized, and he became a great preacher and defender of the faith.  We know nothing more about Ananias except this one deed of obedience, offering relationship to Saul.  A small act of kindness defined Ananias and defined the trajectory of Christianity and defines us!  You may never know the ripple effect of a small act of kindness.  Blessings.

Acts 9: 10-19

Have you ever been asked to do something that felt impossible.  I was such a fearling as a child that the doctor told my parents to give me a coping skill like swimming.  I can still remember in my six year old memory, the instructor asking who would climb the high dive and jump.  I was determined to please and climbed that ladder to show my mother I could be brave.  But when I got to the top, it looked twice as high from above as it did from below.  I couldn’t do it and had to back down that ladder in disgrace .  I have never forgot that defeat.

         Luke tells of Saul, the great persecutor of those new believers – chasing them down, imprisoning them, and ordering the death of families. God stepped into this out of control situation by an out of control person.  God appears to Saul as a bright light that blinded Saul and spoke with him.  Three days later God speaks to Ananias in a dream and tells him to go to Saul.

¹³ But Ananias answered, ‘Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem; 

¹⁴ and here he has authority from the chief priests

to bind all who invoke your name.’

         As we seek to understand spiritual growth, I first note that many stories in the Bible involve God asking a person to do what seems illogical.  Moses is asked to return to Egypt where he is wanted for murder, to lead the Israelites to the Promised Land.  “But Lord…”  Samuel a young boy under the care of Eli in the Temple is approached to carry a message to the aging priest.  A youth speaking to an elder!  Ananias, an elder believer in Damascus where Saul is headed to root out disinformation spreaders, is told in a vision to go to Saul.  “But Lord…”

     Blind obedience to senseless orders does not seem to be God’s way.  God seems to welcome discussion with his creation.  Abraham bargains with God over the destruction of Gomorrah and Moses interacting with God at the burning bush are similar recording of discussions about God’s instructions.  In fact Moses draws a line in the sand with God, “If you don’t go with me, I won’t go!”

         As much as we sing about “trust and obey for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey”.  We talk about obedience but stories like Ananias convince me that our God is not a dictator but welcomes interaction.  Ananias does eventually obey God and trust that God has a bigger, better picture about the future but he also feels free to interact with God.

         Perhaps there is an area where you are struggling with obedience.  Prayer is important.  Cross referencing in Scripture to make sure you are following a principle and not a whim of some guru or of the moment helps.  Talking with friends and seeking their help to pray with you is good.  God’s ways are not the ways of the world and our will is challenged often by faith.  Hang in there.  God love an honest interaction.  Don’t shine him on or make him into some dictator.  He longs to walk you on a good path.

Acts 9:1-19

“Worldview shift” is the anthropological term that explains when a person has an experience that challenges him or her and causes the person to understand their world in a whole new way.  We are following Saul as he goes armed with letters of permission to arrest and send to jail any man, woman or child that professes to be a follower of Jesus.  Saul is out of control.  The victims feel like their world is out of control.  At this point Saul has an experience with the Holy. 

         Now 2000 years later, I am not in a position to critique his explanation.  He claims he saw a bright light, heard a voice, and believed the Holy identified itself as Jesus and Saul suddenly realizes he has been dead wrong. His persecuting of followers of Jesus is really persecuting God.  Anthropologists call it a worldview shift.  We call it conversion as Saul responds.  Youth might call it a “mountain top experience.”  Suddenly Saul sees life differently.  He realizes Jesus is risen and he becomes a follower.

         Perhaps of note is that Saul is blind for three days and he prays and fasts.  He takes time to process his spiritual experience.  God sends Ananias to speak with Saul and Saul’s vision is returned.  Talking over our experiences with others, elders in the faith are important feedback.  Another way of saying it is to test the spirits.  Drugs bring ecstatic experiences too and that does not mean it is from God.

         Spiritual growth can be a slow, gradual understanding of this relationship with God, kinda like dating.  As we read Scripture or as we meet with a fellowship, we grow in the depth of our love for God and our willingness to do life as He reveals to us.  Or, there can be sudden enlightening  moments when we are sure we have been in the presence of the Holy.

         Saul’s conversion story may sound a bit weird but it does give hope for God can and does interact with his creation and often appears in desperate situations, walking with us and guiding us.  We may even be wrong and God can step in.  Fasting, prayer and fellowship are all important aspects of growth.

         So how does Saul’s conversion challenge you today.  Perhaps we have a deep longing for a closer relationship.  Perhaps we feel out of control and need God to reign us in.  Perhaps evil is knocking on our door and we need the courage to face it.  Take time to bring these concerns in prayer and perhaps pray together with a friend about it today.  Blessings!