Don Friesen
Last Sunday Greer and Fab did a dramatic reading and at one point in the reading Greer had a one-sided conversation with God. It was well done. It reminded me of Bill Cosby. While in high school my friend took me to the Saskatoon Public Library to listen to some long-playing records he had found records of comedy sketches by Woody Allen and Bill Cosby, and I especially remember Cosby's rendition of Noah receiving a call from God to build an ark. It went something like this:
("Noah: Right!" from Bill Cosby is A Very Funny Fellow, Right!)
I had never heard the story of Noah told like this in my church. The story was always told in a matter-of-fact way, capturing none of the absurdity and drama of the call.
Who's Calling? . . . . . . . . . . . . Jesus!
One day another biblical character got a rather dramatic call. His name was Saul and he was on his way to Damascus on a hunting expedition. His quarry was a community of believers called People of the Way. Their name sounds cult-ish, and that's just about what Saul thought of them. Saul was a very religious person, an ardent student of the Scriptures. The Scriptures foretold of a Messiah that would come some day to set things right, but this fringe group, the People of the Way who were often in the way believed that the Messiah had already come! They claimed that a fellow named Jesus a Nazarene, no less was the Messiah. The group was a nuisance, but it was growing. Saul had made a career out of routing out these heretics, a career that began when he was young and stood at the side of his mentors, proud to hold their coats while they stoned to death a young Christian leader named Stephen. (Acts 7:58)
Luke tells us that Saul was "breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord...." (Acts 9:1) Saul was an itinerant enforcer, travelling from place to place, persecuting Christians. And on one particular day he was on his way to Damascus to arrest a newly-discovered nest of Christians and haul them back to Jerusalem. He was armed with letters of authority from the Sanhedrin, and was set on fulfilling his religious and civic duty. It would have been a bad situation had not Jesus had words with Saul along the way!
Who's Calling? . . . . . . . . . . . . Saul!
But the Lord said to Ananias, "Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel...." (Acts 9:15) And so Ananias trudged down to Straight Street in Damascus to meet with Church Enemy #1, but when Ananias met him he addressed him, not as the murderer that he was, but as Brother Saul! (Acts 9:17) It's an astounding change in attitude and spirit.
Who's Calling? . . . . . . . . . . . . The Gentiles!
Saul, the antagonist of the young Christian church, became Paul, the church's chief protagonist. Acts tells us that when Ananias laid hands upon Saul, "something like scales fell from his eyes". (Acts 9:18) It's a wonderful image to convey the radical change in Paul's perception of things. His new eyes of faith took in a much broader spectrum than heretofore; it was like changing from a small lens focussed on one spot, to the widest of wide-angle lenses. The implications were enormous and astounding. "There is no longer Jew or Greek," said Paul. "There is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28) You "have clothed yourselves with the new self," Paul told the Colossians. "In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!" (Colossians 3:10-11) And to the Ephesians Jews and Gentiles alike Paul said, "For (Christ) is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility...." (Ephesians 2:14)
The Conversion of Saul Changed Everything!
Saul's encounter on the Damascus road is an amazing story, a story of tremendous change personal change and corporate change, and changes in fundamental perception. The story in Acts, chapter 9, is a pivotal story, for the changes set in motion shaped the church for the twenty centuries that followed.
Paul himself refers to his conversion in rather subdued tones (1 Corinthians 15:8; Galatians 1:16), but it was a complete change in direction and a change in identity so dramatic that he received a new name! The change in Paul, and among his fellow believers, was also so dramatic that it threatened those with vested interests in the old order of things. His conversion was not without cost. Sometimes Paul's ministry threatened economic interests. (Acts 16:16-22) Sometimes it threatened political interests, for if you were the Roman emperor, Paul's message challenged your claim to absolute power.
Who's Calling? . . . . . . . . . . . . A Bookworm Bishop?
The Christian gospel took Paul into some dangerous places, and that also has not changed over twenty centuries. For example, in 1970 a fairly ordinary man became a bishop in El Salvador. Within three years he became an archbishop, in San Salvador. He was, by all accounts, a quiet bookworm. He was also thought to be in the pocket of a repressive government; the Salvadoran leaders, in fact, welcomed his appointment. Here was a nice quiet lamb of God they could control. (story told by Frank Fisher)
His name was Oscar Romero, and the government took little note of him until this quiet lamb of God began to roar like a lion! Shortly after Romero became archbishop, the Salvadoran government began a campaign against the Catholic church's efforts to stand up for the poor of El Salvador. Business interests were alarmed at the sight of uneducated peasants concerning themselves with social issues in the name of Christianity! The campaign escalated into the torture and assassination of both priests and laity. Men and women vanished without trace or reason. Death squads roamed the countryside and soldiers attacked any protesters in the public square! Instead of retreating quietly to his library, the archbishop decided to stand with his people. He objected, publicly, to the killing of men and women who had "taken to the streets in orderly fashion to petition for justice and liberty".
There were, of course, those who sought change through violence, but Romero condemned all forms of violence. In March of 1980 he appealed to soldiers, telling them, "You ...are killing your own brothers. Any human order to kill must be subordinate to the law of God, which says, Thou shalt not kill'. No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God. ...the church cannot remain silent before such an abomination." The following day, as Romero finished his sermon and was about to preside over Holy Communion, he was shot!
In an interview just before his death, the archbishop said, "I have frequently been threatened with death. I must say that as a Christian, I do not believe in death, but in the resurrection. ...You can tell them, if they succeed in killing me, that I pardon them, and I bless those who may carry out the killing. But I wish that I could tell them that they are wasting their time. A bishop will die, but the church of God, which is the people, will never die."
Who Are You Calling, God? . . . . . . . . . . . . Me?
Most of us see our faith as a fairly ordinary and orderly matter. If our faith has to change at all, we prefer an orderly progression. If our walk of faith has to change direction, we prefer slight adjustments. If there is to be development in our faith, let it be in small increments. There is part of me that likes this view of faith. I am quick to suspect the flighty proposals of those whom Hans Kόng refers to as the "enthusiasts". But I cannot deny that every once in a while God works in a more dramatic fashion. God grabs us and turns us around! God gets the jump on us, and jerks around our ordinary and orderly lives. God is not always content to let us sit in peaceful anonymity.
God's call can be quite inconvenient. Saul of Tarsus didn't really want to hear from Jesus. Ananias didn't really want to hear from Saul. The Church in Jerusalem didn't really want to hear from Gentiles. Sometimes governments would rather not hear from Christians. But a God who would raise somebody from the dead, may be just the sort of God who is willing to shake us up! The God who raised Jesus to life may be the sort of God who is not content to let the church sleep to let the frozen chosen sleep all the way to the pearly gates!
Unless you have an unlisted number, God will call you. Few of us may have visions, but God finds ways to get the message across in a moment of prayer, in the words of a hymn, through the voice of a stranger, and in countless other ways. God may call you to do something dramatic, like Paul. God may call you to play a supporting role, like Ananias. Paul wrote, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief." (1 Timothy 1:15, KJV) If we learn anything at all from Paul's conversion and life, it is not to count anyone ourselves included as ineligible to receive God's call! God's strength and power can work in anyone! To God be the glory!
"Noah?"
"Yeah?""Noah!"
"Yeah, who is it?" "It's the Lord, Noah."
"... R - i - g - h - t ..." "Noah, I want you to build an ark. Go out and gather up every sort of animal, two by two, male and female, and bring them into the ark, because I'm going to destroy the world."
"... R - i - g - h - t ... Who is this really?"
The call actually came in the form of a flashing light from above and the loss of Saul's sight but the form of the call, while it sounds dramatic to us, would not have been a total surprise to Saul. Well-versed in Scripture and in his people's history, Saul would have recognized markings of a visitation from God. After all, God had appeared to Moses as a blazing fire, and to Ezekiel as a brilliant, flashing light. Luke, the author of the Book of Acts, is using traditional literary devices to signal that Saul is in the presence of God, so the surprise of this event is not in the visitation but in the conversation that follows. What puzzled Saul was the question God posed to him: "Why do you persecute me?" (Acts 9:4) Hello, Saul here. ... Who's calling, please? ... Jesus! ... No, really who is this? ...but I thought we got rid of you on Golgotha!
And then came the astounding reply: "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting." (9:5) What a shocker! Saul thought he was serving God by eliminating a group that threatened to subvert traditional faith and hope, but God identified Himself with Jesus! No wonder Saul arrived in Damascus in a rather sorry state! And with little instruction from Jesus except to look for a Christian named Ananias.Persecute you? Why, I'm serving you, God. I'm ridding your people of the Christian heresy! I'm... ...Who are you, Lord?!?
God told Saul to look for Ananias and he told Ananias to call on Saul, somewhere down on Straight Street. Ananias wasn't crazy about it! Saul came with quite a reputation. News of his nefarious deeds had travelled widely throughout the Roman Empire, through the network of synagogues and the more discreet meeting places of Christians, for the People of the Way were often forced to meet someplace out of the way. Every Christian was alert to this man's dangerous activities, and so, when God asked Ananias to search out Saul, we might paraphrase Ananias' response as: You want me to what?!? Ananias could hardly believe his ears! He said, "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." (Acts 9:13-14) One can't really blame Ananias for his reluctance. Ananias may well have lost some friends and family to the murderous activities of this man. This was highly irregular!Hello, Ananias here. ... Who's calling, please? ... Saul! ... Saul who? ...from Tarsus? Is this some kind of sick joke? No, really who is this? ... Saul... ...and you're blind? And you want me to lay hands on you so you can recover your sight! To tell you the truth, I prefer you blind!
In the course of the New Testament story the Church received some unwanted calls, the first-century equivalent of tele-marketing calls. There were some heated arguments among Christians as to who was eligible to join the church and who was ineligible! Christians had already shared the gospel in some out-of-the-way places, like Samaria (Acts 8:4-25), and with some unusual people, like the Ethiopian eunuch! (8:26-40) When Saul came on board, attention turned increasingly to people with the wrong DNA. Saul, now called Paul, became the main proponent and architect of the Christian mission to the Gentiles. And when things came to a head, and everyone was invited to a shake-down meeting (Acts 15) at headquarters in Jerusalem, it was, by and large, Paul's inclusive vision of the church that won the day. After that we just follow Paul around the Near Eastern world as he and his companions take the gospel to Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth, Ephesus, Macedonia, and, in the words of the New Testament, to the "very ends of the earth!" (Acts 1:8, PHL)Hello, Jerusalem Church Council. ... Who's calling, please? ... the Gentiles? ... What is this, a conference call? ... You speak for a group of Gentiles? ...and you want to take out membership in the church? ... What we need here is a reality check! You know, this all started with that Saul-Paul guy! I was opposed to that, you know! He was not my idea of a poster child for the church!
All quotations of Scripture, unless otherwise noted, are from the New Revised Standard Version.