Acts 9:1-31
Stephen, full of grace and power, began to preach the Gospel. And that was too much for those who hated grace and who wanted to keep all the power to themselves. So Stephen was arrested and sentenced to death. Am I right that Marsha Wenhold told you all about Stephen last Sunday in her sermon about the 6th chapter of Acts?
Though Stephen faced his death with courage and conviction, it must have been an incredible defeat to the first Christians. Here let me point out that the first Christians did not refer to themselves as a “church” but, instead, as belonging to what they called “The Way”. Stephen was the first deacon appointed by the apostles, and now he was dead, a victim of corrupt justice and mob violence. Those who were with Stephen in “The Way” were badly shaken by his death, and there was good reason for them to believe it would be getting worse.
When we gather for worship on Sunday there might be many things happening inside of our minds: happy to see our friends or relatives, eager to share prayers, excitement about mission, loving the music, but imagine if the biggest thing going on in each of our minds was fear, that at any moment the police would come crashing through the front door of the church to arrest every last one of us and haul us off to jail. That’s what was going on in the hearts and minds of those first Christians, fear that any moment Stephen’s fate would theirs, too.
I don’t like preaching about fear. But I bring it up because buried in the story of Stephen there is a tiny clue, a small detail, that something remarkable is about to happen, that will change the course of “The Way” and give them a solid hope for the future. And here it is: before Stephen’s accusers rush forward with stones in their hands to kill him a small detail is reported, that they hand their coats to a young man. They didn’t want Stephen’s blood to stain their coats, so they asked that young man to hold their coats until the bloody deed was done. We are told that “Saul” is the name of that young man, and at first he appears to be an innocent bystander.
But Saul was not an innocent bystander. Saul was also a member of the mob. Maybe not the leader of the mob, maybe just at the fringe, but he was there. He was a part of it. And the last verse in the story of Stephen says it all: Saul approved of what had been done in the murder of Stephen.
This past week a war criminal was arrested after 15 years of being on the run. Ratko Mladic, the commanding officer on the scene when Bosnian Serbs massacred 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in the town of Srebenica. Before the massacre, Mladic was filmed assuring the frightened families of that captured village that they would be treated well, but within a short time 8,000 boys and men were shot in the head one by one and dumped into a mass grave. Mladic was a key leader in a genocidal effort now referred to as “ethnic cleansing”, and it’s not surprising that he has been in hiding since that time because nearly the whole world would like to convict him as a war criminal because of what happened in Srebenica that day under his orders.
But Mladic did not operate alone, there were dozens, maybe hundreds, maybe thousands of others who joined in the evil deed. It will be Mladic on trial at the International Court of Justice in the Hague, but there are surely many others also guilty. Mladic was the leader, but there were many, many others.
In our story Saul was one of those men who stood by while evil was done. Saul didn’t order Stephen’s death, but he participated. He may not have thrown the stones that killed Stephen, but he was there, and he was a part of it. He approved of Stephen’s murder. Saul had blood on his hands.
So as chapter 9 unfolds, today’s Bible reading, we meet Saul again, not the young man holding the coats from chapter 6, but a now leader in the persecution of Christians. And what a chilling opening to the 9th chapter, “Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem”. He was eager to take his campaign of religious cleansing to a distant city, so that not one Christian would be left.
Now, as you heard when I read the story, on the road to Damascus something unexpected happens. Saul is on his way to Damascus breathing threats, but in this desperate moment the living God, our God, gets Saul’s attention, Saul listens, his life takes a new direction, and the shape of Christianity is forever changed.
But I want to skip ahead to later in the story, to focus on a Christian living in Damascus named Ananais. He was a leader of that small community of Christians in Damascus, and he had heard that Saul was on his way there. It took all of Ananais’ spiritual strength to keep that small, frightened group of Christian people from falling into despair because the infamous Saul was breathing threats and coming to get them.
If you were Ananais in Damascus how would you react if you heard a knock at your door and found Saul standing there? Of course, God had spoken to Ananais about this in advance, but when Saul arrived and was standing before him in his own doorway you can imagine that Ananais was frightened to the marrow, and preparing himself to die.
But the man standing before Ananais has changed in a way that is far beyond anything that anyone could have ever expected. There is Saul asking Ananais for help, and when his sight returns Saul asks to become a Christian!
Word got around and many of the Christians in Damascus completely disbelieved Saul. Quite reasonably, they considered it very likely that Saul was making up his story as a way to befriend Christians in order to arrest them. But Ananais and Saul himself keep telling the story, and soon it is widely accepted that this man who had been dedicated to arresting, torturing and killing Christians has become a follower of Jesus, a fellow adherent of The Way. As time goes on it is clear that Saul has a gift for reaching others with the message of Jesus Christ. He travels all across the Mediterranean world visiting cities and towns, meeting many skeptics, but when he departs new Christians are found there. Paul also has a gift for writing, and much of the New Testament is filled with the letters that Saul wrote to encourage Christians everywhere.
This story is all about conversion, the obvious one being the murderous Saul transformed into the Apostle Paul. But there are some other conversions to be found as we hear this story. There is also Ananais, of course, rightfully skeptical of Saul’s story, but finally hope wins out over fear and Saul is welcomed as a Christian. There is another conversion in the story, not so much in the story as it is the result of the story. Up until Saul all Christians were Jews. But with the force of Paul’s preaching soon anyone of any background is welcomed as a Christian. It is a huge step for the first Christians to follow Paul’s lead, but they do, and because of that we are here today. Finally, there is yet another conversion for us to identify from the story – yours! With Paul it was being thrown from his horse, being struck blind, and hearing the voice of Jesus. What is the story of your conversion? How did you come to be a Christian, who breathes not threats and violence but who breathes and hope and peace? How did God get your attention? How have you answered?
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