Conversion of St. Paul                             Acts 9:1-22                                      1/25/04

                                                 Have You Had A Conversion?

Have you ever had someone ask if you are "saved"? I usually feel a good deal of annoyance when I hear that question. In the first place, it’s none of the questioner’s business. In the second place, to me, implied if not actually stated in the question, is the belief that "I" must do something to be saved. In fact, the first question is nearly always followed by a second question, "Have you accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior?" What the person is getting at and what as a Lutheran I find so objectionable, is the idea that the person to be saved must make a "decision for Christ" - must choose to believe.

Of course, we Lutherans,following the teachings of St. Paul, know that we can’t do anything to be saved, not even decide to believe in Jesus. God has already saved us through the death and resurrection of His Son. Furthermore, even our belief in Jesus comes through the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Thus, the answer to the person who asks, "Are you saved?" is a resounding "YES". We can even go a step further, as Art Anderson does, and give our baptismal date.

Conversion, on the other hand, is a process, and if someone asked if or when we were converted the answer could be, "I’m still being converted."

Based on the conversion of St. Paul, there are three points of conversion. In the first, Paul had to experience a conversion of his hearing. Paul had been hearing of Jesus and seeing the faith of Jesus’ followers for a long time. He was even present when Stephen became the first Christian martyr. In his raids on Christian homes, Paul surely heard Christians witness about Christ. But, if was only after he heard Jesus speak from heaven that his hearing was converted so that he could perceive the truth.

Most, perhaps all, of us have been hearing about Jesus practically from birth. I believe I can safely say that even if there was a time in our lives when we lost interest in church, none of us ever actively opposed the practice of the Christian faith.

But, even if familiarity does not breed contempt, it can breed indifference or apathy. We may hear the beginning of the reading of the Gospel and think, "Oh that old story again," and then let our minds wander. We may in fact, only give full attention back to the service when the assisting minister says, "Go in peace. Serve the Lord." The Gospel, the worship service and the whole of God’s action in the world and in our lives may just seem so time-worn and over-familiar to us, that we question the relevance of it all.

If that happens, at some point in our conversion process, we like Paul, may need a conversion of thinking. As I said, Paul surely knew about Jesus, and as a dedicated Pharisee he certainly knew of God’s promise to send the Messiah. So, why was he persecuting Christians? It wasn’t because they claimed to be following the Messiah, nor was it because the followers of "The Way" seemed to be unorthodox Jews. There had been and continued to be many who called themselves the Messiah and each had his own followers. Furthermore, there were any number of branches of Judaism and Christianity started out as just one more branch. Paul and others fanatical Jews were not persecuting members of these groups.

No, what Paul and the other religious hard-liners found so offensive about this branch of Judaism, some called Christianity, was its insistence on welcoming sinners. The Judaism of Paul required repentance and a totally changed life. It required adherence to all kinds of purity laws and good works before a person could be accepted by God.

A religion that taught salvation by grace, that God loves people no matter how bad they are, and that God extends His covenant relationship to them freely without any works had to be offensive to a man raised to believe that what he did was more important than what God had done. Therefore, Paul needed a conversion of his thinking. And as we study his life and writings we see indications that he may have needed this conversion of thinking at other points in his new life in Christ as well.

In my previous congregation I had a gentleman I dearly loved. He as a regular at Sunday morning Bible class, a faithful worshiper, took part in my Tuesday lesson discussion group and served God in many ways. But, Jim and I regularly butted heads. This faithful Christian just could not accept the idea that we are saved by grace alone. I lost count of the times I explained this central doctrine of our faith to Jim, only to hear him say, "But pastor, God expects me to lived a good life and obey the Commandments in order to go to heaven."

Thankfully, God is as patient with the conversion of Jim’s thinking, and your thinking and my thinking, as He was of Paul’s. He works through books we read, especially Scripture, and through the Ananiases He sends to us, in order to continue the conversion of our thinking throughout our lives.

But again, like Paul, we don’t have to wait until our hearing and thinking have been perfectly and finally converted to experience the conversion of our actions.

Paul was taught by Ananias and spent several days with the disciples in Damascus according to the lesson from Acts. But even during this time he practiced his new faith by speaking to his old colleagues and to others at the synagogue. He now used the gifts of intellect and speech God had given him to proclaim Christ.

No one needs a degree from a seminary or even to pass a test on their knowledge of Scripture and doctrine to experience a conversion of action. God has given each Christian gifts necessary to witness to others. No one needs to be able to describe the inner workings of the Trinity, explain how Christ is present in, with and under the bread and wine, or even how we are saved by grace alone before he/she can proclaim the Good News. Any and every Christian can share the love of God in Christ with others. And here is more good news for us. Every time we live out our faith in word or act, we allow God to further His conversion of our faith and life. Somehow, acting on and speaking of what we are learning reinforces that learning for us and therefore deepens our conversion.

We may find what we were taught so long ago to be old and time-worn. We may even envy people who make a so-called "decision for Christ" in adult life because they seem so alive in their faith and so excited about it. We don’t need to though. We need only ask ourselves the question, "Have you had a conversion" and then open yourselves to the experience again. Amen.