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The conversion of Saint Paul
SERMON – 10.15am, Emmanuel Church, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
Sunday 25th January 2009
Revd. Canon David Pickering
There's a real change of tone between the opening and closing words of this morning's first reading.
In Acts 9. 1 we see Paul, or Saul as he was then, full wroth and furry
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,
Then in 9.20 & 22 he is a completely changed character.
He was with the disciples in Damascus, and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, 'He is the Son of God.' . . . . . . Saul became increasingly more powerful and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Messiah.
What a contrast!
Breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord,
becomes saying, 'He is the Son of God.' and proving that Jesus was the Messiah.
What a transformation! What a conversion!
If I was to be asked which hymn I have sung the most over the past forty years in the ordained ministry, it would be close thing between three, none of which is a particular favourite.
They are; Abide with me; The Lord's my shepherd – set to Crimond or Amazing grace, which was our Communion Hymn last Sunday.
For most of my parochial ministry I would have on average two funerals a week, and one of more of these three hymns would be sung at least once a week.
But just a note of reassurance, I was comforted when Matt assured me that you are all so young and fit, it's doubtful whether I'll have any funerals while I'm at Emmanuel.
'Amazing Grace' was written by the Revd John Newton, (1725 – 1807). While he was vicar of Olney in Buckinghamshire he produced the Olney Hymns of 1779 – one of the first Anglican hymn books
He also wrote those well loved hymns; Glorious things of thee are spoken and How sweet the name of Jesus sounds.
But all this was in later life.
As a younger man, having been born of a naval family, he made his money from the slave trade as the captain of a slave transporters ship.
By his own confession, he had spent his money as "an infidel and libertine."
Once in a storm, when he felt his ship was sinking and all would be lost, he found himself crying out, 'Lord have mercy on us!' Later as the storm subsided he reflected that his cry for mercy had been heard and God's grace had saved him. To quote the words of his famous hymn, "Thro' many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come; 'tis grace has bro't me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home."
After studying Latin, Hebrew, Greek and Syriac, he was ordained in 1764.
'Amazing Grace' describes something of Newton's spiritual journey,
I once was lost, but now and found,
Was blind but now I see.
This also reflects St Paul's conversion many centuries before.
In Galatians 1, 13 –16. Today's Second reading Paul writes;-.
13 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.
14 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.
15 But when God, who had set me apart before I was born
and called me through his grace, was pleased
16 to reveal his Son to me,
so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles,
I did not confer with any human being.
For Paul like Newton could say that is was, "Amazing grace . . .that saved a wretch like me."
Both Paul and Newton probably needed a conversion experience from their former life.
Over the years scholars have tried to understand what really happened to Paul on the road to Damascus.
In one sense it was not a conversion experience.
By conversion we usually mean a change from one religion to another. But at this stage Christianity was not a distinct religion in the modern sense but a sect within contemporary Judaism. For some time, until they were kicked out, the early Christians continued to worship in the synagogue.
However, it is a conversion in the strict biblical sense that is a complete change of direction.
For some people conversion is a whole new direction to their lives, for others it is just a variation, or diversion from the present path.
When I was a young curate at St Philip's Chaddesden in Derby there was a teenage girl who taught in the Sunday School.
In my inexperience I tried to persuade her to be confirmed.
But somehow Anglicanism didn't suit her and she decided to become a Methodist. Was this a conversion or just a progressive stage in her spiritual journey.
In the recent biography of Archbishop Rowan Williams, Rowan's Rule, there's a description of his early Christian life of being brought up in the Presbyterian Church of Wales, the Church of his parents, and then under the influence of a devout and faithful priest he gradually found his way into the Anglican Church in Wales.
Hardly a dramatic conversion experience, but certainly a key move along his spiritual and ecclesiastical journey.
For St Paul things were a bit more dramatic.
My own rational goes something like this.
Paul obviously knew a lot about this new movement of the followers of Jesus, and was no doubt disturbed or even threatened by it. Riding slowly along the road to Damascus, alone with his own thoughts, it all suddenly clicked with him. This Jesus was after all the promised Messiah. Being a well educated person he had to accept what all along he had been trying to deny. And as they say the rest is history, and some would say with out the conversion of Paul the Christian Church may never have got off the ground.
But what do we make of conversion?
I have always felt a little uncomfortable when asked, 'Have I been converted?'
I have never had a full blown conversion experience that has made a dramatic change to my life.
But there have been moments when something new has clicked and become a reality.
I do recognise and respect that for some people there has been a critical or even dramatic conversion event or experience in their spiritual journey. There may well be some here in this congregation who have been graced with a dramatic or critical conversion experience.
But I don't believe this is necessary for everyone.
Yet conversion is and has to be a reality for the Christian.
Like St Paul we all need to move on in our understanding and experience of God.
Life moves on through the years, and if God is the key element and motivation of our lives our relationship with him must move on.
In a few weeks time we begin the season of Lent.
This is a time to take stock of where we are with God; how and where does he fit into our lives? Has he been pushed to one side a bit by so called more urgent and pressing things on our agenda?
Perhaps some more thoughts on this as we get nearer to Lent.
Conversion for Paul and John Newton was about putting their wayward past behind them.
In similar vein we all have many things to be put behind us; every fault, every failing, every lack of full humanity.
And it is by God's grace that they can remain behind us.
In today's world it is not very acceptable to say that we got something wrong.
In the modern world there seems to be an obsession, that we have got to be right all the time. There is no room for failure.
But it is ok to get it something wrong.
We so often need to be convinced that when we go wrong, we can be and we are forgiven by the love of God.
God is waiting to forgive us. It's also OK to leave our moral, sinful, call them what you like, failings behind us, because God in his love wants to forgive them.
He always wants to restore us to our true humanity;
the way of human life he created in the first place and restored in Jesus. One of my favourite ways in which this is expressed are in wonderful words of the Collect for the First Sunday of Christmas, which sadly often gets missed out by other festivities.
Almighty God,
who wonderfully created us in your own image
and yet more wonderfully restored us
through your Son Jesus Christ.
God's amazing grace is a restorative grace.
He wants us to know his restoring grace, so that we can sing those words from another of John Newton's hymns, How sweet the name of Jesus sounds;
Jesus! my Shepherd, Saviour, Friend,
My Prophet, Priest and King:
My Lord, my life, my Way, my End,
Accept the praise I bring.
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