The wooden ship was heavy with its cargo. The waves and the wind tossed the English trading vessel, the Greyhound, to and fro on the waves, and below decks, the great bundles of wool and crates of beeswax for candles slid back and forth in the hold. Waves began to crash over the deck of the ship, and it began to take on water, a dangerous thing for trading vessels in the 1700s. John Newton, an English trader, cried out to God, pleading with the Master of the Waves for relief from the storm, for salvation from the danger of death for himself and his fellow crewmates. Newton made it through the storm, by God’s grace, and later, looking back, he would point to that moment in the middle of that raging storm as the beginning of his change, the beginning of his conversion, the beginning of his new sight, his new way of seeing the world through God’s eyes.
The world seemed almost on fire. There was a light shining out of every leaf on every tree, a light not from the sun, but from within. The sky was so bright, the songs of the birds seemed so beautiful, even the grass seemed holy, and for the young man sitting there on a bench by a lake, it seemed like for the first time that God was real, a powerful and radiant Presence in his heart, and with new eyes he glimpsed how God sees the world: full of life, full of beauty, full of promise, full of possibilities.
Louise was the pillar of her church. She taught Sunday School, made the best quilts for the church bazaar, and never failed to read her Bible daily. She knew God’s Word, knew right from wrong, and knew sin when she saw it. But she wasn’t sure what she saw when the man walked in her church that Sunday morning. He was dressed in leather and in chains, his big black boots making lots of noise as he entered the sanctuary. “Oh, Lord” she prayed, “what is a man like this doing in my church? Does he mean us harm?” As she watched, the man went to the altar, knelt down and first began to pray, then began to weep. Louise felt compelled to get up and place a hand on his big shoulder, and in that moment, she saw this big, frightening, rough man as a fellow human being, hurting, in need of love and acceptance, a person in need of God’s care and her kindness.
Conversion. Turning from an old way to a new way, changing the way we see the world. The history of the church, the history of faith, maybe even your history is filled with stories of people who are converted – who see with new eyes and change the direction of their life. The thing about these stories is that they aren’t all the same – they are as different and diverse as the people who tell them. The reading for this morning is probably a familiar one – and if your Bible is like mine, it has the heading: The Conversion of Saul. This is a story of one the great apostles, one of the most influential Christian thinkers, the author of most of the New Testament – and how he came to faith in Jesus Christ. Saul was a Pharisee, a Jewish scholar who was filled with passion and zeal for his belief in God. He was so zealous, in fact, that he set out to destroy the early church. While his teacher Gamaliel, who we learned about last week, urged that the young movement of Christ-followers be left alone, Saul took a different approach. These Believers in the Way, as they were called, these Christians, were dangerous, challenging the authority of the Temple and teaching twisted things about their master, Jesus. Saul felt that his faith in God and his trust in God’s laws demanded that he fight back against this wayward group – and when Stephen, the first believer to die for his faith is stoned to death, it is Saul who holds the coats of the folks throwing the rocks. But beyond just being on the sidelines, Saul becomes an energetic pursuer of Christians, hunting them down, men and women alike, and hauling them off to jail, where they might face the same fate as Stephen. Saul isn’t content to crack down on the church in Jerusalem, and sets his sights 30 miles up the road to Damascus, where more disciples of Jesus had begun to set up shop. He is full of passion and energy to put a stop to this dangerous group, and the writer of Acts tells us he was “breathing threats and murder” when he receives letters from the high priest in Jerusalem authorizing him to arrest and bind any Christians he finds in Damascus and haul them back to the council for trial. For the church, Saul is dangerous, but he is not evil. Saul is not a thief, not a swindler, not a criminal – he felt that he was doing God’s work, defending the faith, preserving the traditions of God’s people.
But as he goes up the road from Jerusalem to Damascus, something happens. A light surrounds him, and he falls to the ground and a voice calls to him: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Saul asks: “Who are you?” And the voice replies: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” Saul is blinded by this experience, and even though his eyes are open, he can’t even see to continue walking down the road, and instead of striding triumphantly into Damascus, ready to arrest the disciples of Jesus, he needs the help of his companions to even find his way into the city. Saul, a zealous man, find himself travelling down a new path because of the intervention of Jesus. Saul is converted from his old ways and becomes a new person in Christ.
But the story doesn’t end here. While Saul is being led into Damascus, the Lord is still at work, affecting another sort of conversion. A faithful disciple named Ananias receives a vision, in which Jesus tells him to go to a certain house on Straight Street and to lay his hands on a man named Saul of Tarsus. Ananias is not so sure this is a good idea: “Lord,” he says, “I have heard about this man, and about how he has done awful things to your saints. The reason he is even here is to arrest all of us!” But Jesus persists: “Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel.” So Ananias goes and does what the Lord asks of him, placing his hands on Saul, and immediately something like scales fall from his eyes, and he is able to see. He gets up, and is baptized, and begins to eat again and regain his strength.
When we think about the conversion of Saul, we remember the blinding light and the voice of Jesus calling to him. And we remember the great deeds of faith that he does as Paul, a new person completely changed from his old ways of breathing threats and murder against the church. But his conversion, his life change, his ability to see, both physically and spiritually, is tied up in the conversion of Ananias. Jesus interrupted Saul’s plans by shining the light of God, but it is Ananias who needs to be convinced that this Saul is really going to change. Ananias could have remained distant and fearful, could have been too caught up in Saul’s past to see what God would do with his future. Ananias had to be willing to see Saul the way God saw him – as a powerful instrument, a gifted person whose skills and talents would be used to share the good news of Jesus Christ throughout the world. Ananias is a believer, a disciple of Jesus, and his conversion is not about coming to faith in Christ for the first time. His conversion involves seeing past his fear and the things that Saul has done, and opening his eyes to the possibility of change, the possibility that God can do a new thing for the world by doing a new thing for a person.
And because Ananias is willing, because he listens to the voice of Christ, because he acts to lay his hands on this perpetrator of great harm against the church, the full conversion of Saul becomes possible. The story of Saul is the story of a person whose plans are halted on a roadside, but also the story of a man who is forgiven, blessed, and shown another chance in a house on a street called Straight. Without Ananias, Saul would just have been stopped from persecuting the church, blinded by the light, but would not have become the great apostle Paul, the great planter of churches and explainer of the gospel.
Conversion – there are as many stories of how God changes lives as there are changed lives. Each person has a different story to tell – some of us have dramatic stories of blinding lights and visions. Others of us have stories that are much quieter, of how we came gradually to understand the truth of God’s love for even us, of how our eyes were opened slowly over time to the way God sees the world. Some of us find new sight in a flash and some have our vision deepened over time. But the important thing to remember in all of these stories is that God is able to meet us where we are, is able to find us and to use us, no matter what our past. God is able to reach us, with a bright flash or a quiet whisper and to give us new eyes to see the world the way God sees it – worth working to save, filled with beauty and potential even when it seems darkest and most hopeless. And this is the common thread to all stories of conversion – not necessarily that a person had a dramatic experience, but that they saw the world through God’s eyes and were willing to live life in a new way because of what they saw. Saul goes from breathing threats and murder to being a completely devoted disciple of Jesus Christ, sharing the gospel passionately and creatively throughout the ancient world. Ananias goes from being mistrustful of an enemy to laying his hands and blessing his enemy so that he might receive sight and become an brother in Christ.
And God is still at work, calling to you and to me, working with us and in spite of us to help us see the world as God sees it. Just as Louise felt an urge from the Holy Spirit to go and reach out her hand to the man so different from her, just as the young man on that bench saw the beauty of God’s creation even in the tiniest thing, even as John Newton felt a need to change his life, God is still at work in our lives, calling us to see even more fully the potential in each person, the value of each created thing, the love God has for all of us. Because Louise stretched out her hand, the biker found a new home and a loving community of faith, and invited his friends to join him. Because that young man had his eyes opened to the brilliance of God’s light, he decided to dedicate his life to sharing the message of God’s love as through a lifetime of service. Because John Newton felt the movement of God’s hand even as his boat was tossed on that storm, he rejected his life trading goods like wool and wax for human slaves in Africa, became an Anglican priest, and began to write hymns. You may not know all of them, but just about everyone knows his most famous hymn: Amazing Grace. Because John Newton felt the presence of God, his life was changed, and he in turn penned a hymn beloved by billions of people the world over. As we sing these beloved and familiar words, listen to them in a new way. Give thanks to God for the way God is able to use all of us, even when we are lost – and to give us new direction and new purpose. It is never too late to open your eyes and your heart and your mind to the light of God. If you feel you are in special need this day to come and pray, to come to the altar and have a special moment with God, you are invited and welcome to come as we sing this rich song of praise. God’s grace is indeed amazing, and whether you are an enemy of the church, or just lost in the world, God wants to show you what can be possible in the future. And thanks be to God for that.
