What did you want to be when you grew up? Apparently, when I was 4, I wanted to be the Pope. Later on I wanted to be a prima ballerina, a teacher, a librarian, a fashion designer, a brick layer. I had eclectic tastes.
Today we are celebrating the conversion of Paul the apostle (Acts 9:1-22). The great evangelist, letter writer and martyr. If he had been asked as a child what he wanted to be when he grew up the answer would not have been any of those descriptions. In fact in the reading we heard from the book of Acts he was someone who was full of threats against Christians. He was on his way to get permission from the synagogue to bind the believers up. Certainly not someone who would become a martyr or evangelist for Jesus.
When I think of Paul I always think of him as having been a bright and rising star. He was clever, he was committed and he was even zealous. The word zealous can be described as being passionate about a cause. Saul was passionate for God and for his beliefs.
I could imagine him being one of the names you would want to watch. I can picture young women desperate to make a good and pleasing marriage with someone so important. Today he might have been someone you want to meet, someone impressive and just imagine being found with someone like Saul walking around Jerusalem, you would have gained respect.
Of course that was all to change. Life turned around. The man who could only do right in the eyes of the leaders of his faith completely turned against what he was meant to be doing. Saul, was on his way to persecute Christians, and then he had an amazing moment where he was blinded and heard the voice of Jesus. He completely turned around, he wasn’t going to persecute the followers of Jesus as he became one himself.
Talk about a complete change. This is because he had come to know that God had come amongst us. He knew that Jesus was worth knowing and so he was still as zealous as he had ever been. However, he now understood that his zeal had been a little misplaced or confused.
The Jewish form of his name was Saul, but, because he ended up preaching to gentiles, the Greek form of his name, which is Paul became the name that was used by the early Church, and of course now, by us.
The events that led to his conversion were certainly surprising. A complete change in what he believed. Rather than thinking of Jesus as an imposter trying to get people to follow Him, Paul came to know that Jesus was God. Not only, this but that Paul needed to change and he wanted to share the good news of Jesus with others.
The first hymn this morning was Amazing Grace. I love this hymn it reminds us that God saved us on the cross. I also love the fact that it is all so simple. Jesus died for us, so we could know Him and the promise of life everlasting.
In the Psalm (67), we asked God to bless us, to make His face shine upon us. The whole reason was so that we would make His name known. We can do this just by being like Him. By loving, by telling others about Him.
I absolutely love books. One of my favourite books is called, “what's so amazing about Grace.” In this book there are stories of a number of people who have experienced and practised grace to one another. It really is a great book. One of my favourite parts, which I know I have said before, but it’s great and worth repeating, is actually in the blurb on the back. It says, ‘there is nothing we can do to make God love us less and nothing we can do to make God love us more.’
I remember that I used to spend so much time trying to please God that I forgot that the cross and forgiveness was not to make me feel guilty but to make me feel free. Those words made me have a sudden, ‘well obviously’ realisation. Jesus didn't die to make us work hard to find and please Him. We could almost change the words in the hymn Amazing Grace, ‘I once was lost but now am found’ to, ‘I once was lost but now am free’.
Paul had been zealous for God, always trying to make sure that he kept to the laws he had known. When he became zealous for God amongst us, Jesus, he would not stop preaching about Him.
Talk about a turn around. Thanks to what happened to Paul the good news about Jesus spread throughout the Roman empire. Paul encouraged the first Christians through letters. We have those letters and we use them today, asking God to speak to us through them.
Now, I don’t imagine that any of us are guilty of having persecuted other believers in the past. However, we aren’t all perfect, sorry, I don’t mean to offend anyone by saying that. The thing is that none of us are perfect but with God we have an incredible strength. None of us is the finished article, that will only happen in heaven. However, in the meantime we can try to bring heaven to earth by the way we live and the ways that we seek to be more like God.
Maybe rather than what did we want to be when we grew up, we can think of who we are now as God’s followers. As we do this we would do well to remember that God loves us and all He really wants is that we will seek to be more like Him day by day. Also, there really is nothing we can do to make God loves us more and nothing we can do to make God love us less. After all, God always loved Paul even when he was persecuting the Christians. AMEN
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