[Machine transcription]
Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, the text for this morning is the epistle, or the first reading, from the book of Acts. You may be seated. Hear again this phrase from the hymn we just sang, that in these gray and latter days there may be those whose life is praise. Each life a high doxology to Father, Son, and unto thee.
Brothers and sisters, you and I have been plugged into a very long procession. This procession has been going on before we were ever knit together in our mother’s womb. This procession has begun with Christ. He was the one who denied himself first. He leads this procession as one who has taken up his cross first. He is the very beginning of this procession, for he was the one who became obedient to the Father’s will and not his own, obedient even unto the point of death.
And this procession has been going on. We have just been plugged into it via baptism. And along this procession, he leads you. Now he leads you along this procession to deny yourself. He doesn’t lead you to deny a certain sin or a certain fault or shortcoming. He doesn’t lead you to deny yourself what you think you need to deny. He leads you to deny all of you, all of yourself, because you bear his name. It was placed upon your forehead and upon your heart. It was given to you at your baptism, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That’s whose name you bear. And he leads you in this procession to take up your cross. Not to take up the cross that you choose to take up. Not to take up something that you choose and decide upon that fits your lifestyle or person. He always calls you to take up a cross not of your own choosing. Amen.
Because you bear the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit when you were baptized. And the way that this procession goes, this way is not the way that we choose as his bride. We have all kinds of ideas of how things should be done. Just ask any of us and we’ll tell you. And especially within the local church, we have lots of ideas of how things should be done. Just ask the question at any voters meeting and you’ll find out. God leads us down his path that he chooses, which always is not what we choose. Because we bear the name of Jesus, that he leads us in that procession down that way.
Now God used Paul. In fact, if you remember the text, he told Ananias, Paul is his chosen instrument, vessel, servant. How God decided to use Paul as his chosen instrument when he was such a burr in God’s saddle, if that’s even possible as a metaphor, because of what he did prior to that day on the road to Damascus. Paul was really a vessel of Satan and a darn good one because he ensured that the tradition of his fathers would be followed. Right? He was there when Stephen, the first Christian martyr, was put to death. He held the cloaks of all those so that they could get a really good wind-up on their stones that they threw at him, crushing him.
And now he gets the letters of approval from the chief priests in Jerusalem that he can go to this backwater town of Damascus. No, that was a pretty main town in that region, to go there to all the synagogues, and to root out all those who followed the way, who bear the name Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Oh, he was a vessel of Satan, par excellence. He even refers to himself as being so in that second reading this morning, where he referred to himself as being a Jew of Jews, an Israelite of all Israelites, exceeding those who are his age and his understanding of the law.
And yet God crushed Saul. Jesus obliterated him on that road to Damascus in the great way that Luke records it. He opened his eyes, but he could not see. Just as Jesus had proclaimed to the Jews in the Gospels, those of you who claim to see remain blind. Only those who admit and confess that they are blind can really see. And so it is with Saul. And what happens after he stands up? He who is sent by Satan to do that which he was supposed to do now is led by the hand into Damascus because he could not see.
Having arrived in Damascus, he began to think. You know about that, don’t you? That time before you go to sleep, there are some of you who are like that, who when you lay down, your mind is still on full throttle. And you ruminate and you think, you contemplate, you reflect, you second-guess. You’re angry at yourself. You’re angry at someone else. You’re sorting through all kinds of things. That’s exactly what Saul was doing for three days, contemplating God’s power in his life. What did it mean? What was his future? What would happen to him? Would he regain his sight or not? Until God finally revealed himself through a vision to Paul and said that there would be some man named Ananias who would come to him and bring his sight back.
But Paul said in the second reading, did you hear what he said? When he who had set me apart before I was born… and who called me by his grace. Can’t judge a book by its cover, can you? Though Paul looked and acted as a vessel of Satan, God changed it, didn’t he? Before Paul was even born, God had that already in his plan. Amen.
Just as before you were born, regardless of the family into which you were born, regardless of who your mama is or your daddy, God set you apart and called you by that grace of your baptism, putting you in this procession to march along with all the martyrs and Christians who’ve preceded us and all who will follow us.
Now comes Ananias. We don’t always focus on him. God does something in Paul’s life that he is very, very predictable. He is very predictable. You were not brought to faith by some amazing, miraculous conversion experience on the road to Damascus. God used somebody in your life. God used somebody to baptize you and to teach you or to teach you and baptize you, regardless of the order. Both were done, and it was done by somebody else other than yourself. You were led just like Paul was led. Your eyes were opened just like Paul’s were opened. By somebody else.
So God uses the same method and means through Ananias. Who was Ananias asking to be used by God? No. Was he jumping up and down saying he wanted to be the one who could proclaim, “I’m the one who tamed the tiger Saul. I baptized him”? No, he didn’t. It scared the bejeebers out of him. Like any time when God calls you to take a cross upon yourself, it’s scary. Any time when God calls you to deny yourself, it’s frightening. Any time God reminds you the way in which you have been marching toward heaven and not the way of this world, it does unnerve us. Why else would God have said to Ananias, “I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name”?
Those were the last words of God to Ananias. Frightened, Ananias tries to discuss this with God, not necessarily meaning that he wasn’t going to do it, but let’s be honest, he was saying, “Lord, are you sure you know what you’re doing? Why me? Why me?” That is exactly what Satan wants you to ask when God calls you to take up those crosses, when God calls you to deny yourself, when God calls you to get back in line in this marching procession toward heaven and leave what’s behind, this world and all that is attached to it as what is beyond you, past you, behind you, and go up and onward.
Toward where your home is and toward where real life is found and toward where substantive stuff is fed you. When Ananias comes and sees Saul, the first two words out of his mouth are the most profound. When Ananias sees Saul, the first two words that Saul hears in his ears from the man named Ananias are, “Brother Saul.” That’s not saying it in any other way than this. Saul, you are no longer outside of the family. You are in the family. You are my brother.
We are brothers in the faith. We may share different backgrounds and we may share different places from which God called us out of darkness into light, but we share the same birth at the font where we were born again of water and the Spirit. It gets rid of skin, ethnicity, language, eye color, height, size, education, and anything else you and I wish to allow Satan to divide us, and it rends it asunder. When Ananias tells Saul those two words, “Brother Saul,” it is the same exact impact on Saul as if Ananias had said, “In the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
Because Saul is now being acknowledged as a part of the way, as being one who bears the same name that Ananias bears. And then all that Ananias was told to do, lay his hands on him and I’ll do the rest. And God did. He healed him of his sight. And what else did God do through someone else to Paul? He was baptized, just like you were baptized. Right? This is Saul’s conversion. But the word that Ananias was given, “I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”
God did not set Paul aside and say, “Listen, Paul, you’ve got a rough future ahead of you. You’re gonna be shipwrecked, bit by serpents. You’re gonna be beat the tar out of. You’re gonna be thrown in jail. There’s gonna be a lot of hassle and flack. You’re gonna have death threats on you. So just buck up and be ready for it.” That would have scared the bejeebers out of Paul, wouldn’t it have? But did it all happen? Yes. Do you and I know really what God has called us to do? No, we sure don’t.
We get little revelations at times, and we think we see it, and then God puts a brand new thing for us where we have to deny ourselves again in a different way. Where we have to see what is important in this world centers around these things. And nothing outside of these walls is as important as what we’re fed in these walls. That the things of this world are behind us, and the things that matter are before us.
If you’ve never read C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, read them. But for a quick read that goes along with what we’re talking about this morning, read the last book called The Last Battle. In that book, when the children are moving toward heaven, they keep moving onward and upward, forward and up. And everything that is a part of the past, that is that which is dying, that is that which is behind them, is this world. Leave it. Leave it. And they keep moving forward.
That’s the procession that you and I have been plugged into, that Paul was plugged into. The dimensions of which and the profundity of which we have no clue. But we know we’ve been plugged into it now. And you know that God is calling you to deny yourself, to take up your cross and follow him. It’s true.
And if we have to suffer for his name, he will do the same thing to you as he did to Paul. He sustained him. In the last chapters of 2 Corinthians, Paul talks about his struggles. It’s the most clear of Paul’s humanity where he says, “I prayed to the Lord to deliver this thorn in my flesh,” and God didn’t. That was what God had called Paul to endure. And Paul prayed and prayed, and God answered and said, “Paul, listen up. My power is made perfect in your weakness. My grace is sufficient for you.”
Just as it was sufficient for Paul when he was shipwrecked, beat up, tried to be murdered, and finally was martyred with his head severed in Rome, so you and I, this procession in which we have been plugged in because of our baptism, God will sustain us in the same way.
Why? You bear his name. Why? And he, as a faithful Father, never turns his back on his babies and his bride, the church.
In the name of him whose grace is sufficient for you and who has called you, Jesus. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
