"More Changes"

That change begins on the road to Damascus. It does not seem likely. Saul is intent on finding followers of the Way and arresting them.

[1] “Road To Damascus” Statue of St. Paul at Bab Kisan (Chapel of St. Paul) in Damascus, Syria

Acts 9:1-20

May 4, 2025

Dr. Todd R. Wright

Last week, with the help of Luke, I told you the story of the growing boldness of Peter and the other disciples as they shared the gospel, even under threat of imprisonment!

It was a nice, Disney-style, PG story: the threat is overcome without anyone getting hurt!

This week’s selection has Luke telling a grimmer tale.

Saul is introduced as a dangerous opponent of the Way, convinced he is doing God’s work and not afraid to use violence. He was there when they stoned Stephan to death. That very day a severe persecution began, and the church was scattered. Saul joined in, ravaging the church.

His zeal is captured by poet Tania Runyan:

“Saul, you thug, who once dragged believers through the streets,

flinging them from their beds so hard their arms popped from their sockets ...”[2]

His reaction is directly proportional to the growing success of the spread of the gospel.

As evidence, our passage follows on the heels of the baptism of an Ethiopian eunuch.

That story follows stories of bold sermons, and healings, and mass conversions!

No wonder writer Spencer Reece says, “Acts is the biography of the Holy Spirit, tracking the story of how the faith spread with bread and spit and letters.”[3]

Saul-renamed-Paul will write many of those letters, but much will have to change first.

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That change begins on the road to Damascus.

It does not seem likely. Saul is intent on finding followers of the Way and arresting them.

One scholar writes,

“’The Way’ is a powerful metaphor for Christian identity. Instead of being identified by a set of beliefs, these faithful communities were known by their character in the world. Christian faith was a way of life and one that impelled individuals and communities to leave the safe confines of home and church to walk on the road God had set out. ‘The Way’ suggests that faith is a living, active way of life.”[4]

Of course, Saul doesn’t believe any of that. He is not concerned about their character or their courage. He is convinced that they have been taken in by a hoax and are straying from the true version of Judaism. He believes that his life’s work is to correct, to purify, to testify to the real truth!

But on the road, something happens that changes his life forever.

A light from heaven flashed, he fell to the ground, and a voice called him by name, asking, “Why do you persecute me?”

It left the quick-witted Saul flustered.

He asked who was speaking, and Jesus answered that Saul was persecuting the risen Lord himself with each person dragged off in chains!

Can you imagine? In that moment Saul’s confident march forward was halted, he experienced the impossible; and God confronted him personally in a less than gentile manner.

It was like Moses and the burning bush – he too was stopped, dazzled, confronted. But Saul didn’t feel like he was on holy ground. He was blind and crawling around in the dirt, hoping to survive.

The men with him took him by the hand and led him into the city like a toddler.

It must have been humiliating.

But, as Doug Bratt observes, “He becomes like the kind of young child whom Jesus insists is alone prepared for entrance into God’s kingdom.”[5]

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There, in the city, Saul spent three days neither eating nor drinking.

Tania Runyon again captures the moment as only poets can do:

“Lips blistered with fevered prayer,

You reach into the darkness, trembling from the exhaustion of reliving the scene.

[God] loves to appear in the lonely, dank rooms of the faithful:

Noah, Abraham, Mary, [Joseph], all sweating out their dreams of God.”

Maybe you’ve spent three days wrestling with God, so you know what he was going through.

Maybe it felt like all that had been rock-solid had turned to water and you were drowning.

Maybe you longed for a little light in the darkness.

Maybe you found yourself lost without a compass and prayed for a North Star.

All I know is that three days can seem like a lifetime of waiting.

But it leaves you ready, desperately ready, for whatever is next.

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Anaias is what is next. He is sent by God.

Heidi Peterson describes him this way:

“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. [So he] delivered the message that God had entrusted to him.”[6]

It was not an easy message. Oh the words were not complicated, but …

it is not easy to overcome your well-founded fears.

It is not easy to call an enemy, “Brother” and mean it.

It is not easy to bring blessing when you’d rather skip being compassionate and Christ-like.

Still, Ananias carried the message from God, embodied it even.

Saul was baptized “Paul”, and they ate together. Perhaps it was a communion meal.

It would have been fitting if it was, for none of us deserve that grace

and all of us are invited to the table by someone else,

and it is there that God meets all our needs, even the ones we did not know we had.

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So it was that two worlds collided because two people heard voices and took them seriously.

God brought them together. God changed their minds. God used them to change the world.

For all the people involved it was a moment they would never forget.

For God it was an average Tuesday.

May we be changed. Amen

[1] “Road To Damascus” Statue of St. Paul at Bab Kisan (Chapel of St. Paul) in Damascus, Syria

[2] Here and below, from her poem “Ananias of Damascus” in the Christian Century, 10/3/12

[3] From Acts: poems

[4] From Eric Barreto’s reflections on the text for workingpreacher.org, 4/10/16

[5] From his reflections on the text for cepreaching.org, 4/10/16

[6] From “Saving Saul” for the Christian Century, 4/11/01