April 18, 2010

 

Scripture:         Acts 9:1-6

 

Sermon:           “Who Better Than You?”

 

            Turning our hearts and minds now to the word of God, let us read together the scripture lesson for the day.  Turn with me to the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 9 where we will read together verses 1 through 20.  You can find that easily on page 171 of the New Testament in the pew Bible.  I had originally planned to use only the first six verses, but let’s go ahead and read the whole story here.

This is one of the most profound stories in the entire Bible.  Here we will encounter a guy that is by any account consumed with anger, hatred, and rage.  By the end of the story we will find him completely stunned and turning all of that passion into a greater purpose.

            This is the story of Saul on the road to Damascus.

            Saul, who will always remember by his new name, Paul, was on a mission to uproot the church at its very beginning.  He hated it.  Despised it.  Wanted to see it stopped at all costs.  No greater blasphemy could there be for this man than for people to proclaim that Jesus was the Messiah.  Saul was an especially devout man and everything about the followers of Jesus struck him as an affront to the faith that he cherished.

            What Saul would do is go to various synagogues and find people who believed in Jesus of Nazareth.  In the very beginning, you see, the followers of Jesus were not entirely separated from their roots in Judaism.  Many still associated with their local synagogues.  And once Saul found them, he would bind them up and see to it that they were put in prison.  Sometimes they were even put to death for blasphemy.  All of this was just as Saul desired.

            We will be reading Luke’s account of Saul’s encounter with Christ as it is written in the book of Acts.  But, Paul also wrote about it in Galatians.  This will give you an idea of how he saw himself before this day.  You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism.  I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it.  I advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age, for I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors.

            When we read the story in Acts, Luke has already introduced us to this man.  An especially important leader in the early church, Stephen, was being stoned to death for his faith in Jesus.  Saul was standing over the whole ugly scene giving his approval.

            Then it happened.  This is the word of the Lord…

 

           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.  Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.  He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”  He asked, “Who are you, Lord?”  The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.  But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.”  The men who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one.  Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.  For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

            Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias.  The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.”  He answered, “Here I am, Lord.”  The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul.  At this moment he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.”  But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.”  But the Lord said to him, “God, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”  So Ananias went and entered the house.  He laid his hands on Saul and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”  And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored.  Then he got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

            For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus, and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.”

 

     I want to tell you about a rather dark and complex man.  The first thing you should know about him is that he was a Nazi during World War II.  And maybe I don’t have to say a great deal more.  But, there is much more.

     Not only did this man choose to join the Nazi party, but he was very involved in the sort of espionage that was necessary for the Germans to overrun Poland and extend their murderous atrocities to unimaginable lengths.

     Nice guy, huh?

     Well, I’ve told you that he was a Nazi. And that is a fact.  But, the truth seems to be that this man was really only looking out for himself.  Many people became Nazis because it was the safe thing to do.  It was even profitable.

     And this guy that I’m talking about was really probably more selfish than murderous and racist.  He had a whole list of demons dancing around his soul at all times.  Here is how some people have described him.  He was a “cynical, greedy exploiter of slave workers during the Second World War, a black marketer, gambler…eternally on the lookout for profit, alcoholic playboy and shameless womanizer of the worst sort.”

Maybe you know the type.  He was one of those men whose marriage was never enough, whose job was never enough, whose bank account was never full enough, whose appetite for pleasure was never satisfied.  Throw in the bit about being a Nazi for good measure.  No one would confuse this man for a saint.

     Here’s the thing.  And I don’t want anyone here to miss this.  You know this man.  You know his name.  You see his name often when you step onto an elevator.  It’s right there under the buttons on the wall.  The Schindler Elevator Company.

     That’s right.  I’m talking about Oscar Schindler.  The same man that you know from Schindler’s List.  You know him because he managed to rescue somewhere close to 1,200 Jews from certain death in the Nazi concentration camps.  You know him because those who survived honor him as one of the few righteous Gentiles who risked their own lives to save others during the Holocaust.

     He pulled this off over several years by setting up factories that needed cheap labor.  The Nazis gave him some room to operate because, after all, they were profiting from it.  One of the factories made munitions for the German army.  Under the ruse of using Jewish labor to greatly reduce costs, Schindler was able to keep so many alive.

     And there were times when he was close to having it all come to an end.  Schindler was known to distract SS agents by giving them hefty bribes and generous portions of alcohol—things that he was actually very familiar with and fond of.  He was a scoundrel.

     That’s the strange thing.  Schindler, for all of the good that he accomplished in that dark, dark time, was a scoundrel.  He was crooked and corrupt and greedy and just full of flaws.  And if he wasn’t all of those things there is no way that he could have ever done it.  Who better to cheat the Nazi death machine than Oscar Schindler?

     Can you see that Oscar Schindler took all of that darkness in his soul, all of that ill-gotten experience of the world, all of that lying, cheating, and gambling, and saw that he could actually make something of it?  He could face himself with full honesty for he who had been and realize what a tremendous gift he could make of it to the world.  Who better than this guy to do what he did?

     That’s what strikes me about Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus.

     Here you’ve got this man that was really a bad guy.  Saul had a darkness in his soul as well.  His darkness was rage.  His darkness was hatred.  His darkness was self-righteousness, you know?

     Saul was one of those people that was just driven with a misguided passion.  And you really have to admire it in an odd way.  You have to admire it because Saul was relentless.  He had all kinds of energy.  He knew exactly what he believed and was willing to act on it.  Saul was to be feared.  Make no mistake about that.  But, he had a fire inside of him that most of us only dream of.

     I have this picture in my mind of Saul standing over poor Stephen’s body with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face.  People are hurling stones at Stephen because he’s got the audacity to proclaim that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah.  And Saul is just standing there watching.  He likes what he sees.  But, it only gives him an appetite for more.  That’s the kind of guy that Saul was.

     You remember what one of the disciples said about him?  I’ve heard about this man, Lord.  I’ve heard about all the evil he’s done.  This is a bad guy.  And he’s out to put us all in jail, or even kill us.

     But, do you know what Jesus saw?  Yeah, he’s a bad guy.  He’s a bad guy and he’s really headed down the wrong path.  But, just look at all of that passion, and all of that energy, and all of that emotion.  Boy, it sure would be nice to have one like him.

     Jesus didn’t just see Saul the persecutor.  Jesus saw potential.  If Saul could get all of that passionate vigor going for the church, he’d make an awfully powerful disciple.  Actually, what Jesus said is that Saul “is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel.”

     Think about it.  Who better that Saul of Tarsus to actually go to the ends of the known world?  Who had more energy?  Who had more passion?  Who had more drive?  You get that pointed in the right direction and you’ve really got something, don’t you?

     And that’s just what Jesus did.  Right there on the road to Damascus, Jesus got ‘ole Saul to start singing a different tune.

     But, I’ll tell you, the man wasn’t necessarily all that different than before.  You might say that he wasn’t such a bad guy anymore.  But, he wasn’t all that different.  He didn’t just quit being who he was.  He didn’t just completely change.  He got it all pointed in an entirely different direction.  Read some of his letters and you’ll see.  Paul was still red hot with passion.  It’s just that he could take all of who he was, all of who he had been, all that he had done right, all that he had done wrong, and begin to use it to actually minister to the brokenness of the world.

     Don’t miss that.

     Don’t miss that because I know that most of us think that we’ve got to make this neat and clean break with our past in order to be much good to the world.  We’re carrying around these incredible burdens of guilt for the things we’ve done and the people that we’ve been.  We’re carrying around this tremendous grief for the losses we’ve encountered.  We’ve got some pretty low opinions of ourselves for all of the ways that people have torn us down in our lives.  And we think that we’ve got to put it all behind us and become something completely different and new.

     Oh, no you don’t.

     That’s not what Jesus calls us to do.  That’s not the idea that Jesus had when he found us.  He saw us exactly for who we were and knew that he could use that for ministry.  Just get it pointed in the right direction, and all of that stuff we’re carrying around might actually come in handy.

     I asked a young woman several years ago to do something quite simple in a worship service.  I asked her to lead the congregation in a responsive reading at the beginning of the service and then lead the Lord’s Prayer.  Simple stuff.  She was horrified.

     She didn’t think that she of all people should stand in front of a church and act like she is all perfect and holy.  She was carrying around this incredible guilt for a decision that she had made ten years before to end a pregnancy.

     Do you know what Jesus says to that?  Who better than her to stand up in front of a congregation?  Who better than her to perhaps be available to another young woman facing the same situation in life?

     Do we get it?

     You’ve got quite a list of deep, dark secrets.  Who better than you to minister to another soul that lives in shame and fear for being discovered?

     You’ve wrestled with a bottle and lost more times than you’ve won.  Who better than you to walk with another that is losing their life to addiction?

     You’re heart is so broken from the loss of someone dear that you can hardly function some days without sobbing uncontrollably.  Who better than you to tell someone else that you know what they’re going through?

     I don’t know what all you’ve got that you think isn’t supposed to be here.  But, I’m telling you, it is supposed to be here.  Your past, however colorful, however troubled, however messed up you think it is—it’s supposed to be here.  Jesus looks at us and he says, “now there’s an instrument that I can use.  Who better than you to go for me?  Who better than you?”

 

 

Rev. David James Brown

Park Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)