"Blinded by Vision"
Seeing God's will more clearly
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Text: Acts 9:1-15
Making mistakes is a significant part of being a human being - so is repeating them! It seems, as humans, we often do something that is not in our best interests, yet we have this propensity to repeat our errors without questioning ourselves. Sometimes, even the most intelligent, best educated or most religious of us make the same mistakes repeatedly. We rely very heavily on our acumen, education and even, at times, our self-imposed piety. Yet we still do the wrong things over and over again.
There is a wonderful story told by people in Northern Canada about two Nimrods who went up North to hunt elk. They brought down six beasts, but then they had a problem. How would they get the elk back home? They decided to fly them back on the small plane they had rented.
When the pilot saw six elk, he said, “I'm sorry, but you can only bring four elk on the plane.” The hunters insisted on taking all of them, and the pilot warned them that it would overload the plane. But the hunters were adamant and said, “Now, look, we were here this time last year, and we brought back six elk. We were in a plane with the same horsepower, same wing span and the same amount of room as this very plane. We see no reason why you cannot do it.”
So the pilot finally succumbed to their pleading, and put two passengers and six elk on the same plane. As predicted, hundreds of metres into the air, the plane couldn't take all the excess weight. Within a matter of minutes it started to swerve, and then crashed. Fortunately, everyone survived. The hunters got out, and one said, “I wonder where we are? We're in the wilderness.”
The other replied, “Oh, we're about two miles from where we crashed this time last year.”
A statement about western wisdom, huh?!
Sometimes we just don't learn from our mistakes. We keep making them over and over again, oblivious that we are doing silly things. Nowhere is that more poignant than in Paul's story from the Book of Acts. Here we have a classic example of someone who, in a sense, was blinded by his own intellect, religiosity and culture. Simply appealing to the mind, wisdom or even faith is sometimes not enough. A total turnaround is needed; a complete change of mind, life and perspective. That is exactly what happened with the Apostle Paul.
Saul, as he was called before this incident, was without a doubt one of the most important figures in the early church. Last week we looked at Peter, and there is no denying his importance. But it was because of Paul's ministry that the Gospel was taken to the outermost parts of the world. It was the influence of Paul, formerly Saul of Tarsus, that made the Christian faith what it is, and what it has been.
So what happened to Paul? Why this conversion, and what is its significance for our lives? There are three accounts of this story in the Bible. Paul's conversion to Christianity is described in Acts 9, and Paul reiterates it before Agrippa in Acts 26. In one of his letters to the Galatians, Paul explains again how he came to be a follower of Jesus Christ.
While there is some dissimilarity between these accounts, the message is the same: Saul of Tarsus was a deeply religious and devout man; a lover of God with a passion for his faith. After Jesus' resurrection, his followers were commonly called “People of the Way.” This group was an anathema to Saul. They undermined everything he believed in. In fact, they went as far as blasphemy and sedition.
Being very devout and committed to God's cause, Saul was passionately involved in suppressing them. He had them arrested and was present at Stephen's stoning. He didn't just do this in Jerusalem. He heard that followers of “The Way” had fled 140 miles north to the city of Damascus. He decided to travel there to find them and bring them back to Jerusalem to be tried. On the way, he encountered Jesus.
Saul had fellow travelers, but he was on his own at this moment. Most scholars agree he was accompanied by guards from the Sanhedrin, the religious police. Being a Pharisee, he couldn't be close to them; he would have to be at a distance. An amazing light from the sky blinded Saul, and he heard a voice say, “Why are you persecuting me?” It was the presence of the Risen Christ. Unable to see, he went to Straight Street in Damascus where a man called Ananias took care of him - but that is for another day!
That incredible moment on the road changed Saul's life. But why is it significant and what does it really mean? Light is both a physical and spiritual reality. Saul was on his way to persecute people when he was blinded by this bright light. It must have been terrifying.
A number of years ago, I visited some friends who had a cottage on the Atlantic Ocean in Langebaan, South Africa. Some of you might recall a story I told about it involving a snake - that was about three or four years ago. Well, during the same week's vacation - it was the vacation from hell - my friends warned me that it is far, far hotter than you realize on the Atlantic Ocean. They said not to be deceived by the winds and cool water; it is very dangerous.
But hey, I knew all those kinds of things. So I went to the beach and forgot my shirt and my water. I just went swimming, laid on the beach by a lagoon and, after an hour-and-a-half, had the most peculiar experience I have had in the whole of my life. I must have got sun-stroke. If you've ever had it and been overcome by the heat, you know just how disorienting and terrifying it is. For a few minutes, it was so intense that I couldn't see. Even though people tried to get me to go back to the house, I just wanted to lie on the beach. I had lost all my energy. Not only was I dehydrated and immobilized, I couldn't see. Instead, I saw all kinds of strange mirages. It was the weirdest experience of my life! It was very dangerous.
When I couldn't see - even though it was just for a moment - it was a terrifying experience. I cannot imagine what it must have been like for Saul on the road to Damascus to be simply be going along doing what he thought was God's work, then suddenly be struck blind. But, whatever happened to him, it struck him in a way that affected him not just physically, but also spiritually. It changed him profoundly, and Saul became the Apostle Paul.
You see, Paul was relying on his own sight and his own perception of reality. He had become the centre of his own world. Jesus appeared to him and became a new centre for him. Only when he was truly blinded did he understand the error of his ways, and see in a new way.
We tend to think that people don't change. We assume people are genetically programmed in a certain way, and that you just are what you are. It is predestined - a form of fatalism. The story of Paul's conversion is an anathema to our world. We don't even like to talk about this notion of conversion. I don't like to talk about it in the sense of Paul being converted from Judaism to Christianity - I don't like that language.
It wasn't as if Paul exchanged one religion for another. He had an encounter with the living Christ and the God whom he had worshipped all along, but he saw God in a new way. Paul had to be transformed, and I don't believe that as human beings we are predestined- pre-coded - to go along life to some inevitable end. I do believe that God intervenes in our lives, and that there are moments when we need to change. When we do, like Paul, it is a powerful thing.
Maxie Dunham, in a wonderful work on the Book of Galatians, tells a true story from the days many years ago when there were problems in Biafra. The Red Cross found something unusual. There was a very straightforward letter in a bag. It simply said, “We the undersigned, who have been called by Christ, are giving these gifts in the hope that they may be used to help others.”
When they opened the bag, there were all these white sheets that had been torn into many pieces to be used as bandages. The letter was signed by members of the Ku Klux Klan, and these bandages had been their robes. As Dunham says, this is one of the great ironies of all time: sheets worn in racial hatred were now bandaging up wounded blacks and Africans because of Christ. A new centre!
Paul was blinded for a purpose. He was transformed from being the Christians' adversary to being their advocate. What a profound change! The Apostle Paul took the message of the God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah and Moses, and through the grace of the Risen Messiah, took the message of God's covenantal love into the world. Through the power of the Risen Christ, Paul, who once persecuted the “People of the Way,” led them to take the gospel and the good news of God's redemption to the world. Paul now saw everything in a new light. Though he had been blinded, it was for a purpose.
I think this week we've all been deeply disturbed by what happened on the campus of Virginia Tech. I don't think there is any one of us who has not been moved, horrified, saddened and pained by what we've observed. I think for those who work or study on university campuses, it is particularly poignant. But for everyone, it is deeply distressing.
I have had a number of letters, e-mails and phone calls as a result of it. Some have been deeply touching, and some have been deeply disturbing. One said,
Reverend Stirling, I hope that this Sunday you are going to tell us where you think the young man who shot those people is going to be in eternity. I want you to assure us that he is going to Hell! I want you - never mind this nonsense about forgiveness and grace - to tell us, where is he going to go? What is going to happen?
I haven't responded. I am letting this sermon do it instead. My answer is that I don't know where people end up. It might be news, but I am not God! I don't know peoples' eternal destinations. Thank goodness I don't have to judge, because I can't even judge myself properly, let alone someone else!
So what do I know? And what can we say? We can say this: though we cannot bring those young people back, though we cannot put our hands up and stand in the way of a murderous and sick young man, we can do certain things. We should ensure that life is richer, safer and more secure for others. We should value life in all its forms. We should seek to be vigilant to protect the innocent. We should observe the disturbed and find help for them. Those things we can do. We can pray for those who died. Although some media scoffed at the idea of such prayers, I don't. I still believe prayer is effective. Whatever form it takes, let God in God's self-righteousness judge us according to his knowledge and his standards - not ours! We can see things with new eyes, and appreciate what we have.
A friend in South Africa, a theologian, said one of the problems we have as human beings is that sometimes we cannot discern between pin pricks and crucifixions. We get caught up in a few minor problems, things that are really not that important, and we focus on them - the pin pricks. We fail to see the crucifixions - the true suffering of others and the problems of society.
Maybe an event like this, if any good can come out of it, helps us see the world with the values that we hold dear and cherish them. To take the life that we have and make it better for someone. This, I believe, is essential. This is seeing things with God's eyes, not our own. Sometimes we are blinded by the shock of inhumanity. We are terrified by what we see, and the exploitation of it by some for their own aggrandizement. But let us not be blinded to the ultimate truths, for that would be being blinded for the wrong reasons.
The remarkable story of the Apostle Paul is that after three days, he regained his sight. This is both physical and spiritual, and it is no coincidence that it was three days. Regardless of whether his recovery actually happened over a three- day period, there is a parallel between the Resurrection of Jesus and the empty tomb, and Paul regaining his sight on the third day.
The Risen Christ transformed him, giving him a new vision. When his eyesight returned, he saw the very community he was going to persecute! When he got to the home of Ananias, he sat down with the people he was going to arrest three days before. Now, because of Christ, he was one with them. He was blinded, and given vision and purpose.
This last week, Reverend McMaster and I and a couple of members of the church were privileged to have breakfast with the Archbishop of Canterbury. We were in a small room, talking about important things in the life of the church. I wish it had gone on all day! But even in a relatively short period of time, he was asked a number of very poignant questions. One question he was asked, one dear to my heart, was what can we, as Christians living in the northern part of the world learn from those who live in the south? What can we glean from a place where the church is growing, as a culture in which it is perhaps declining?
The archbishop had a really interesting reply. He said,
One of the main differences is that for the people who live in the south, for the people who live on the edge of existence, faith and believing have consequences. It is not an ordinary faith; it is a passionate faith. It is a matter of life and death. It is a matter of life in all its fullness; not a compartmentalization, but a total and complete immersion in what it means to follow Christ.
This is one thing we can learn from them, he said: faith has consequences.
For the Apostle Paul, it had two consequences. One of them was that he ultimately suffered for his faith. The other was that the good news of God's love in Christ went to the whole world. Out of his blindness after being struck down on the road to Damascus, millions of people of many generations have come to love God and each other.
Now, I doubt very much that you are going to be blinded by a great light as you walk along the street today, and have some great conversion. By the way, if it happens, please let me know! But I doubt that very much! This I do know: every single day of our lives, when we walk with Christ, we see things in a new light. We see the needs of others, suffering and death, hope, forgiveness and truth in a new light. We see ourselves and what is in our hearts in a new light. But, most of all, we see it because of Jesus. May he walk with you! May you be blinded that you may have a vision of his will for your life. Amen.
This is a verbatim transcription of the original sermon.