What a day? The Feast of the Conversion of St Paul. Not his birthday (discuss), not the day of his martyrdom but the day when he quite literally ‘saw the light’. We don’t keep anyone else’s ‘conversion’ day do we? So ‘who does he think he is? Which Saint other than Mary and John the Baptist gets a double mention in the church calendar? What really is so special about this zealous Pharisee who changed his name from Saul to Paul once he had met Jesus – who attempted to ‘name-wash’ away his violent past through a slip of the pen he had used so often to condemn others?
He has always been a divisive character. Some people love him…others have question marks against his name. It has ever been thus. One of my tasks this week was to create a risk assessment for Paula’s placement with us as a student: that was a piece of cake compared to the risk assessment attached to this man Paul. I think we forget, we underestimate, what happened. He wasn’t just ‘mistaken’ in his defence of Judaism against the Christians, he was murderously. I mentioned that he was zealous – he’s described that way in the New Testament – but being zealous back then wasn’t just ‘coming across as a bit keen’: no, it meant Paul was prepared to fight and kill for his beliefs.
So when news reached the Christian community in Damascus that Saul was on his way to arrest followers of the Christian Way I’m sure everybody in the church prayed for an easy life and kept their heads down. If you were a Christian, you wouldn’t want to meet Saul back then: he had been at the death of Stephen hadn’t he…and they had stoned him to death.
And yet? And yet, after he had met with Jesus following that famous Damascus Road experience, he was a new man. He travelled, he preached, he suffered, he wrote. In our New Testament reading this morning the Lord told Ananias that ‘He would show Paul how much he must suffer for the sake of Christ’s name’. The place to read that is Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians. Paul lists what he went through to preach the gospel back then comparing his ministry to that of others:
I have had far greater labours, far more imprisonments, with countless floggings, and often (been) near death. Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked. And, besides other things, I am under daily pressure because of my anxiety for all the churches.
How many people do you know that have been involved in three shipwrecks…or been imprisoned often, flogged, left for dead, been stoned or had to flee for their lives to escape opponents. His was truly a remarkable and costly ministry.
But it very nearly didn’t happen. Just imagine being part of the Damascus church. Just picture the believers’ faces when Ananias (bless him) told them he had been called to minister to Saul and had indeed baptised him. Could you…would you have wanted to be in the same room as him? You might imagine that there might be some ‘trust issues’. Think of what needed to be considered. Think of the danger these first Christian were in if they got this call wrong, if Saul’s conversion was just a ‘flash in the pan’, if he returned home to Jerusalem and backslid into his old ways…with their names and their addresses neatly inscribed in his notebooks. How comfortable would you be as a Christian in the Middle East if a former member of ISIS wanted to come to your church?
Paul’s acceptance by the church took time. Those in Damascus presumably trusted their friend Ananias’ judgment, but back in Jerusalem where the persecution of Christians had begun there were considerable doubts for some years. In Acts chapter 9 we are even told that ‘some did not believe that he was a disciple’. And problems continued. We skim over the difficulties- some theological but some definitely personal – but there were stresses and strains around Paul being welcomed by the wider community of believers. His side of the story is in Galatians chapter 2. Luke gives us another view in Acts chapter 15. This new convert created waves everywhere he went.
But what did Jesus say? ‘By your fruits you will know them.’ And Paul’s ministry was incredibly fruitful. Christian communities founded across Asia Minor and into Greece. A press to move to Rome. The Christian message made accessible for non-Jews. He found the words without letting go of his Jewish inheritance.
Paul (or those who wrote using his name) accounts for the same number of pages in the bible as Isaiah or Jeremiah and my guess is that his words are read more often. Strip out his contribution and we lose the great hymn to love: ‘Love is patient, love is kind…these three abide: Faith, hope, love, but the greatest of these is love.’
Out goes ‘put on the armour of God and stand…’. Without him we would not have Philippians chapter 2: ‘Have the same mind within you as was in Christ Jesus, who did not think equality with God as a thing to be grasped, but humbled himself, even to death on the cross.’ No Paul, no vision of the body of Christ and us as members of it. No great account of what the resurrection might mean – ‘this perishable body must put on imperishability, this mortal body must put on immortality’. Without Paul there would be no letter to the Romans: a huge enterprise that knit Jewish and gentile Christians together and showed how God’s covenant promises to Israel and the nations were being fulfilled in Christ. We wouldn’t have my favourite chapter: Romans Chapter 8, and the suggestion that creation groans for the revealing of the children of God…that there is so much more ahead of us in God’s new creation.
Paul it is who gives us comfort, encouragement and strength to persevere, who grapples with what a Christian ethic might be within the family, the church and wider society. He it is who sets the direction of travel for the appointment and ministry of church leaders…and in the little letter to Philemon he even undermines the Roman institution of slavery.
Oh yes, he had failings. He couldn’t look beyond every cultural bias he inherited – but then nor can we.
And yet still…still this uncertainty about him. It’s there I think in the choice of Gospel reading today. The New Testament reading ‘Bigs’ Paul up. But in our Gospel we’re told
Many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.
Perhaps that’s the place to end. Because we can read these words (in the context of today’s feast) as a simple recognition that Paul wasn’t one of the 12 chosen by Jesus from the beginning, that he was the last of the apostles (he describes his calling to be an apostle as being like one ‘untimely born’) but that he was elevated to greatness. Or we can see this gospel as a way of reminding us not to lionise anyone (including Paul) too much.
We celebrate and recognise the ministry of one of the church’s greats but whilst realising that neither you nor I are expected to do what he did. Our ministry does not involve travelling the world or risking our lives to preach and teach. But the commitment, the wholehearted commitment shown by Paul is sought for in all of us: ‘For me to live is Christ, to die is gain’ he said. Paul had been captured by God’s love for him revealed in Jesus: there was nothing he would not do to serve Christ. That’s the example we are called to follow. And when you think about it: it’s what Ananias did when he took a deep breath and knocked on that door in Straight Street, Damascus. It’s what the church in that city did when Paul was brought to worship with them. It’s what Barnabas did when he enabled Paul to meet with the leaders of the Jerusalem church. And it’s what countless others did (Mark, Luke, Epaphras, Lydia, Sosthenes, Silas, Timothy, Prisca, Aquilla, Andronicus and Junia): it’s what all those who supported Paul’s ministry did. They served Christ with a grace that made space for Paul out of an appreciation of the grace that they had received from God…and the church flourished. God bless him and God bless us as we seek to serve with all our hearts, minds, souls and strength.