1Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's
disciples. He went to the high priest 2and asked him for letters to the synagogues
in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners
to Jerusalem. 3As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed
around him. 4He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do
you persecute me?"
5"Who are you, Lord?" Saul asked.
"I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," he replied. 6"Now get
up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do."
7The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound
but did not see anyone. 8Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he
could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. 9For three days he was
blind, and did not eat or drink anything.
10In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in
a vision, "Ananias!" "Yes, Lord," he answered.
11The Lord told him, "Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask
for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12In a vision he has seen a man
named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight."
13"Lord," Ananias answered, "I have heard many reports about this man and
all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. 14And he has come here with authority
from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name."
15But the Lord said to Ananias, "Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry
my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. 16I will
show him how much he must suffer for my name."
17Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul,
he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so
that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit." 18Immediately, something
like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, 19and
after taking some food, he regained his strength.
Acts 9: 1-19 NIV
Saul, at this point in his life, is a religious fanatic, every bit as warped in his thinking as is an Osama
bin Laden, or an Eric Rudolph. Saul...a young man with fire in his eyes and blood on his hands...with a self-appointed
mission to stamp out this illegitimate, upstart religion, like a shark that has tasted blood, Saul bores in for yet another
kill. And then, in an instant, by a flash of light, Saul himself becomes the arrested one...the predator becomes the
prey, the hunter becomes the hunted. Through a blinding revelation, Saul of Tarsus becomes a new man, Paul the apostle of
Jesus Christ. Through his encounter with the risen Lord, Paul's orientation changes: he is under new management. Rather than
persecuting Christ, Paul begins to serve Christ. (from Under New Management)
Before my children were able to read they knew several stories by heart. The stories were picture book favorites that we
read to them again and again. When I dared to skip a page or change a word, they would protest, "Mom! That’s not what
it says. Read it right."
The conversion of Saul is such a story -- so familiar and pivotal that even those who have never read it often know it
by heart and take it to be the paradigm of religious conversion. In a surprising reversal, the person who had been the most
ardent antagonist of the young church became the church’s chief protagonist.
It was a surprising time. Sick people were being healed merely by a shadow passing over their bodies. Dead people were
getting a second chance at life. The gospel was being spoken even to gentiles. By the power of the Holy Spirit the church
was taking shape, bearing witness in farther and farther corners to the grace of God revealed in Jesus. Day by day the church
added to its numbers and became central to the lives of more and more people, including Saul.
Saul was building his career on the church. In the itinerant persecution of Christians he spared no effort to stifle the
spread of the gospel. Saul was schooled by Pharisee moderate Gamaliel, but Saul was driven to excel in his duty. He was a
worker who took the initiative and went far beyond the letter of his job description. Even before he entered the city of Damascus
he had procured papers for those he wanted to have murdered. He worked overtime. In choosing Saul -- "an instrument to bring
my name before gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel" -- God chose an intense personality bound to work overtime
at whatever mission he undertook. Saul knew his mission. But God knew Saul. God knew that Saul was confident, in charge and
not particularly curious about God. Capturing Saul’s attention required drama.
On a rainy Saturday I stood on the front porch of a Habitat for Humanity house with a man I had never met before. We were
volunteers who had come to unroll sod, plant bushes and sweep a driveway to make the front yard of a new house look more like
a home than a construction site. As we waited out the weather under the shelter of the porch roof he began talking. He observed
that, although its timing was inconvenient for the work we had planned, we sure needed the rain.
Then, not bothering with a segue, he went directly to his main concern and asked me if I was saved. When I told him that
I believed I was, he asked for the date, time and description of my conversion. It is for moments like these that I think
about making up my own version of the Saul-on-the-Road-to-Damascus story. But it wouldn’t be true. I was baptized as
an infant, raised in a faith tradition I was taught to love and respect, and gradually grew into the theological convictions
I strive to live. Every day the conversion continues as I am changed by human encounters, the natural world and countless
experiences that provide new insights into the nature of God.
My fellow Habitat volunteer was an outspoken pacifist, a good neighbor and a self-avowed Christian who knew with certainty
the moment Jesus called his name and entered his heart. He knew where he was, what he was doing, what he was wearing. He was
not impressed with my metaphor for the converted life. (If you consider a flower unfolding petal by petal over days, how can
you mark the precise moment at which the bud "converts" to being a flower?) It is no match for the spectacular and unmistakable
sound of the Lord’s voice from heaven. I doubted neither the man’s religious experience nor his claim that since
that moment his life had been infused with meaning. It was his easy dismissal of a conversion of a different sort that bothered
me.
The story of Saul’s conversion is not told as the normative faith experience -- it is the extraordinary one. Even
within the narrative of Saul’s conversion there is another model of the converted life.
Ananias was a convert to the faith, and a person who lived close to the divine. His relationship with God was conversational.
Unlike Saul, he had been growing in the knowledge of God over time, and when the Lord called his name he didn’t need
to ask, "Who are you?" The voice was a familiar one, and he responded as might a child who is being called by a parent from
another room. "Here I am." Unlike Saul, Ananias was not struck speechless, sightless and appetiteless. He talked back. Being
in dialogue with God was not something new to Ananias. He was practiced at it. When Saul spoke with Jesus, the power of the
experience immobilized him within the darkness of his own being for three days. Not Ananias. Ananias got up, went to the house
of Judas and delivered the message that God had entrusted to him.
God’s means are tailor-made. Saul’s traveling companions didn’t see the light because the call was not
for them. Some with subtler personalities than Saul’s, and some who are lifelong learners, come to know God by different
ways because it is not as difficult for God to get their attention. But the lasting mark of conversion is not one date circled
in red on the calendar, but the whole story of one’s life. In the end, Saul’s dramatic conversion on the road
to Damascus is worth telling only because of what he did afterwards. (from Saving Saul)
Think about it.
What do you believe motivated Saul in his zeal for persecuting Christians? Have you ever found yourself going in
the right directionfor the wron reason?
How can you tell when an idea that promises to be life changing isa true sign from God and not just a hallucination on
your own wishful thinking (especially when no one else sees what you are seeing)
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