Third Sunday of Easter
Acts 9:1-20
4/22/2007
Rev. Philip A. BouknightMeanwhile 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?"
Acts 9:1-4Now 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; Acts 9:10-13
We have in our reading from Acts, a portrait of two lives. One is a murderer who is convinced that it is his duty to bring about a certain form of justice. He is deeply saturated in the culture of his day. His perception is warped. He believes he is justified in his actions and he is on a mission of persecution. God breaks into this man’s life through a vision. He Blinds him and opens his eyes so that he may see the error of his hatred. The other portrait is of a disciple; a follower of Jesus Christ. This man is bound to a duty that brings about a different form of justice and he is deeply saturated in a life that is counter cultural. God breaks into his life through a vision and sends him out on a mission of mercy. His eyes are opened to look beyond another man’s past so that he may become an instrument of God’s love. One man is forgiven and becomes an instrument. The other becomes an instrument and learns how to forgive.
Over the past week, our community has been rocked by the effects of one man’s mission of hatred. Our community lives in fear that there are others out there like him. It lives in sorrow for the lives he has taken and it lives with anger; possibly even hatred for the things he has done. Seung-Hui Cho was no modern day Saul, but his perception of the world was warped. He was deeply saturated in a culture where hatred and violence are commonplace and he set out on a mission to persecute and kill and for his part, he believed himself to be justified. His actions have wounded us, struck fear into our lives, and they have blinded us with anger and hatred. We have placed so much of our time and energy on blame and this blame is like scales that cover our eyes. We want to make someone responsible. Some pointed fingers at the university, saying that they could have done something about him. Others pointed fingers at his family, focusing on their foreignness, forgetting that this man was raised in this culture. He was formed by it, and he copied things that he had witnessed in it. Some pointed fingers at the devil and blamed his actions on a demon possession. All of these things are scales of one form or another. It is blindness confronting blindness. We could not have foreseen his actions. Neither can we repair the affects of those actions through blame. We are disciples and God is calling out to us as he did Ananias. Here we are. Do we say “Here we are?” He sends us on a mission to open our eyes and the eyes of others.
We cannot bring back the dead. We cannot take away the pain. We cannot remove the fear or the anger, because we are not God. We can announce the promise of God; that hatred and violence will one day cease and that evil has been conquered. We can announce God’s desire for every human being to turn to him. We can proclaim the kingdom of heaven, the forgiveness of sin, and the presence of God in our midst. When the world asks “Where was God in this tragedy?,” we can remind them that God did not cause such a thing to take place, but rather, God makes his presence known when such things take place. He is there in the support of local churches. He is there when this busy world stops, forgetting about its own needs and turns its attention to the needs of others. He is there in a woven banner sent from the survivors of Columbine. He is there in your prayers, your phone calls, your orange and maroon apparel, your pledges to the families and your pledge to yourself that you will not forget this day. In you, the arms of Christ are enfolding them as a mother enfolds a child who has just been hurt.
There can be no mistake that God is here in the midst of our pain. Just as we cannot place the blame of this action upon someone or something, we cannot take this memory and shove it aside into the gentle recesses of our brain where we place those things that we would rather not recall. To forget this day; to forget that a student in nearby Riner was apprehended for bringing a gun to school, to forget Columbine, the University of Texas, Kent State, or any other event where hatred reared its ugly head, is to forget that we as God’s people have an obligation to proclaim His love. To forget, would be the same as if Ananias had decided to stay at his home rather than go out into the city to meet one of those murderers, lay his hands on him and bring him to the sure knowledge of God’s love and forgiveness. Saul would not have become Paul.
Ananias did not have to travel far. He went to a familiar street, to a familiar house, to find a man who was praying, a man who was hurting and a man who would soon come to understand love and forgiveness through the people who accepted him and forgave him.
Theirs was not an easy task. It was very difficult and it was filled with anxiety. What if he should persecute us? What if he should decide that God and this vision wasn’t real? What if? God did break into his life and he used His people to teach this man a different culture.
Saul gradually became saturated in a lifestyle that was counter cultural. He was transformed and with his transformation complete, he was no longer Saul but Paul. There are people in our own town who are alone. They are mistreated, abused, depressed and left alone in misery. Reach out to them. Hear God’s call to get up and go to a familiar street, to a familiar house, lay hands on them, embrace them and tell them that they are not alone. God loves them, forgives them and has a purpose for them. Sometimes,
we do not have to leave our homes. There are people within our own families, who feel alone, rejected, depressed or forgotten. Embrace them. Lay your hands upon them. Love them and forgive them into a different culture.
Realize that you yourselves have allowed the culture to form you more than you have lived counter culturally. Take your children away from the television where violence and hatred is portrayed as normalcy, where the evening news is just another story of pain and sorrow just like the broadcast before and the broadcast before that. Rather, sit with them and teach them to love. Teach them to have relationships and to see life in a different way. Teach them that there are thousands of stories which, uplift the heart, that show us joy and gladness and that God is doing marvelous things today as He did yesterday and the day before that.
Take yourself away from the same influence which numbs you to the realities of this world. Be horrified at the presence of such violence in our own county. Become so saturated in your faith that you become counter cultural. Hear God’s call to be his instrument. Leave your home and lay your hands on those to whom you are sent. In the process, your eyes will be opened. You will see the power of love, the power of forgiveness and the glory of God. He can and will take those persons to whom you are sent, change them, love them, forgive them, and use them for His kingdom. It could be that the love you share and the name you proclaim would change that person forever. If Saul could become Paul, then they could be changed. If Ananias could look beyond his fear and possibly his hatred for Saul, then we can look beyond ours. We can be instruments of peace, instruments of love, instruments of forgiveness, and instruments of God.
May God open our eyes to see those who are in need of His life changing love. May he open our hands to embrace them with His love. May he open our hearts, drawing us from our saturation of this world to be saturated in His grace. May we be his disciples, receive his command, and go to the forgotten and the wounded laying our hands upon them and proclaiming His love. Then may we watch as these people are changed and the world is changed with them. God is calling our name and He is sending us on a mission. Let us respond by saying “Here I am” and “I will go.”
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