Turned Around – Encountering the Risen Christ

Acts 9:1-6

April 22, 2007

[Acts 9:1] Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest

[Acts 9:2] 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.

[Acts 9:3] Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.

[Acts 9:4] He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"

[Acts 9:5] He asked, "Who are you, Lord?" The reply came, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

[Acts 9:6] But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do."

Recall the context. Saul – as he was known. Was an excellent student. From some sort of middle- upper middle class family. Had travelled from Tarsus on the Southeastern Mediterranean coast of Italy to Jerusalem. Pharisee schooled in the law by the renowned Jewish teacher Gamaliel.

This idea was over. Movement. Excitement. Power in this Jesus, messiah pretender.

Give it its due. It will die out eventually. Saul’s teacher, Gamaliel had advised the leadership council in Jerusalem after a couple of the disciples

"Fellow Israelites, consider carefully what you propose to do to these men.

[Acts 5:36] For some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him; but he was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and disappeared.

[Acts 5:37] After him Judas the Galilean rose up at the time of the census and got people to follow him; he also perished, and all who followed him were scattered.

[Acts 5:38] So in the present case, I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone; because if this plan or this undertaking is of human origin, it will fail;

[Acts 5:39] but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them--in that case you may even be found fighting against God!" They were convinced by him,

[Acts 5:40] and when they had called in the apostles, they had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.

Yet the movement continued to grow. It was not dying out. It seemed to continue to become even more offensive to the commitments that Saul held. It cannot be of God.

He saw the emerging movement of Jesus’ followers as a real threat to God as Saul understood. He was present at the stoning of the first Christian martyr.

Saul was so wound up about this new sect that he asked for letters of authority from officials in Jerusalem to go to arrest believers in Damascus. On his way there the story of this morning takes place.

His job as he saw it was to rid the world of the remnants of the Way, the Christian movement.

The crucifixion was supposed to do that.

But somehow these crazy people did not get the message. Jesus was dead.

But there on the road to Damascus Saul encounters the risen Christ and he begins to realize that this movement is not about to die. He is.

I want to go back again to an understanding of the crucifixion and resurrection that I closed with on Easter Sunday morning.

I imagine the Christ story as a question and answer this way:

God put the question to the world in Christ Jesus: Will you accept and receive, will you embrace the love and presence and peace I have to offer?

The world answered with the crucifixion.

God’s reply is: I am going to love you anyway. I am going to transform that very act of rebellion and rejection of me into your salvation. I want to rewrite every death story into a resurrection real life story.

Listen, says God: my story, your story, our story together, is not about retaliation, condemnation, getting ahead, or dominating others. It’s not about getting your own way or about shrinking back from the dreams of your true heart. It’s about living out my real life story.

Our story together is the real life story that takes us beyond "yes, but" to embrace the therefore of God’s blessing and goodness in faith, hope, and love. We embrace the life that Christ opens up before us as we encounter the risen Christ in our life together.

Paul lives out this dialogue in his own life.

Of course, Saul was not literally involved in the crucifixion. He was involved in stamping out the movement that followed.

God’s reply to this is to kill Saul without killing him. God transforms Saul into Paul. God transforms Saul in a way that he experiences as a kind of death.

Paul says, I died. Now it is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

Paul’s encounter with the risen Christ is a new beginning.

The power of the Holy Spirit takes hold of Paul and he can begin to open up to the gift of new life that is set before him.

I almost have to think of it as a kind of humiliation. Everything is taken from him. He must be led. He is no longer in charge.

How do we encounter the risen Christ?

Paul had passion. Dramatic story. The more off the rails one’s life is, the more dramatic the conversion might be.

I want to suggest what may be a less dramatic approach of faith that can lead us into encountering the risen Christ and living out God’s real life story in our own lives.

Christianity emphasizes faith a great deal. I think that’s good. I have nothing against faith. I’ve preached on it and I hope I’ve done my part to encourage it.

But we need to remind ourselves from time to time what faith is and what it is not. Faith is trust and confidence. Faith is an attitude of the heart more than a certainty in the mind.

In fact, I would say that sometimes our faith is most admirable and appreciated by God when our belief is most unsure. When I manage to do what God expects of me even in the moments when I have my doubts, that is when my faith is working at its best.

To be persons of faith is not to think we have all the answers, have removed every doubt, have become so sure that we have no uncertainties left. No. To be persons of faith is to be people of trust in God even when the storms of doubt assail. When our minds raise questions, when our circumstances bring the suspicion that maybe God is absent, that is when our faith most clearly comes into play.

I don’t know about you, but I start to feel distant from people of brittle certainty. That isn’t my experience. Brittle certainty is not necessarily faith -- it may be founded on fear.

Actually faith is like courage. People with great courage are not people who are not afraid. People who never feel afraid don’t need to be courageous. Courageous people are those who in the face of fear go ahead and do the right thing anyway. People of faith are not people who do not doubt, they are people who persist in their walk with God despite their uncertainties.

For me the Christian life is one of experimentation and adventure. I don’t just take all this religion stuff for granted, and I’ve been at this long enough to know that what I think I understand and am comfortable with one day, may become an item of question the next.

Some people think that there is a difference between religion and science in the extent to which science deals with experiments and proof and religion does not. Sometimes people believe that the experimental method is the trademark and province of the natural sciences, but this is misleading.

To experiment is to purposefully and conscientiously try something and take careful heed of the results. One can do this in matters of the spiritual life.

This morning I’d like to give a few examples of some areas of experimentation you might want to consider in order to encounter the risen Christ. They are not all for everyone, but there’s probably at least one in here for everyone. Don’t spend too much time thinking about which one is meant for your neighbor or someone in your family:

Experiment with giving up a bad habit.

• What holds you back? Not necessarily evil in itself, but it distracts you from your real task. Maybe drink. Maybe soap operas. May be golf. Computer games. CNN. Shopping or Bingo.
• Makes you unhappy with yourself. Takes you away from others.
• Experiment with giving it up for a while. Just an experiment. Notice how your life changes. Experiment a little while longer.

Experiment with prayer.

• Try developing a more intentional prayer life as an experiment.
• Take time purposefully during the day to be in touch with God.
• Don’t say I’m going to do this for the rest of my life. Just an experiment. People get discouraged.
• Don’t have time? Try giving up one of those bad habits.
• Have difficulty giving up the bad habit? Try prayer.
• See what works for you. Writing. Speaking. Silence. Written prayers of others. Singing.
• Experiment.

Experiment with giving stuff away.

• Many of us have a hard time getting over our materialism and our attachment to our possessions.
• One way to begin to test out their grip on us is to give stuff away. See how it feels.
• Try giving money more money away.
• If it doesn’t give you more sanity and balance you can always stop doing it.

Experiment with holding still so that people can love you.

• Sometimes it’s hard to slow down enough to experience the love of others.
• Receive acts of kindness, compliments, attention with grace, humility and appreciation.
• Remember it’s just an experiment. Just try it for a period of time.

Experiment with forgiveness.

• Receiving and giving

Experiment with confession.

• Not everything! Not all at once.
• Burdens.
• Ordinary situations to admit wrong.
• Humility

Experiment with more consistent worship attendance.

• I don’t want to look at anyone. Just as an experiment. See what happens.

Experiment with speaking of Christ and the effect of Christ on your life.

• Of course, if Christ has had no effect there is nothing to talk about. (Go to number 2)
• Appropriate as personal conversation in particular settings.

Experiment with doing a simple perhaps even anonymous kindness for your neighbor.

Experiment with getting involved with one of our holy boldness/beyond these walls ministries. You’re very likely to encounter the presence of the risen Christ there.

For parents and spouses: experiment with listening more carefully to what your kids or your spouse are saying about their lives. Just as an experiment. Experiment with asking more interested questions to help them tell their stories.

For children: experiment with doing as you are told the first time. Don’t wait for mom or dad to say it twice or three times.

This means that we will take risks. We may start too big and try to go too fast -- we may be too ambitious. We may misjudge people or misperceive situations. We may get in over our heads. Experiments may go wrong.

But we may also come to find ourselves in closer and closer proximity to the risen Christ and like being there.

God is not asking us to live lives according to God’s way to deceive us or trick us .These are ways that God seeks to love us, provide for our happiness, not to restrict us or keep us from the fun of life.

They are ways to experiment with God’s love.

But don’t just take my word for it. Experiment. Try it out. Ask questions. There are resources available. You can even ask your pastors for help and guidance. We don’t get born -- or born again -- knowing this stuff.

You might even get some clues by coming to the workshop this week. God is trying to work WITH the kinds of people we have been created to be and sometimes we can be confused or distracted. This will be a time to focus on who God has made us to be and find experiments to undertake to encounter the risen Christ.

Whether we are dramatically off the rails like Saul, or need to experiment with some new holy habits, our experiments may be different, but our results will agree that Christ is risen and the risen Christ calls us into abundant life.

As the lady used to say in the commercial on TV:

Try it, you’ll like it!

Thanks be to God. Amen.