Fourth Presbyterian Church: A Light in the City

May 1, 2022 | 10:00 a.m.

You Never Know . . . On Being Called

Lucy Forster-Smith
Senior Associate Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church

Psalm 30
Acts 9:1–19a

The journey of faith takes us down many roads. Yes, it is true. And today we join Saul, later called Paul, on the Damascus Road. Most of us know the story. It is likely one of the most familiar stories in the New Testament. That scoundrel, Saul, terrorizing the post-resurrection world with his right-wing violence. Yes, he was the prototype of a fundamentalist, defending his Pharisaic absolutes. The new movement within Judaism—those who called themselves people of the Way—were the ones who believed Jesus was God’s Messiah, that he had been raised from the dead. And Saul was out to snuff out this movement. He had a reputation as a force to be feared. He had stood by when the lovely disciple, Stephen, was tragically stoned in the village square by Saul’s cronies. In fact, he had heard the last words of Stephen, asking that God forgive the mad crowd as they did not know what they were doing.

Saul is on the road to Damascus, a commercial center about 135 miles from Jerusalem. The word was out that many of the Jewish communities were being infiltrated by this new movement of people of the Way. Saul was out to close it down. Saul, along with his posse of zealots, are on their own way. What Saul does not yet know is what Acts commentator Willie Jennings says: “The road to Damascus has changed. It is space now inhabited by the wayfaring Spirit of the Lord. Saul pursues, but he is being pursued.” Yes, it is about noon when it happens. Saul is bowled over by a blaze of light. He is knocked flat by the bolt. He then hears the voice, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” or “Why are you harming me?” Down on the ground, flattened by the power of nature, by the power of a blaze of light, by the demanding voice, the reckoning voice states that the only good answer to the question is to stop! When Saul finally pulls himself out of the shock, he finds his own voice and, like Moses with that burning bush, he addresses the voice: “Who are you, Lord?” And to Saul’s horror he hears, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”

Indeed, once Saul brushes himself off and realizes that the one addressing him is not going to finish him off but actually is calling him to join him, to plant a calling, a vocation in his heart, he never forgets it. In an instant, Saul finds his life changed. And, of course, the irony is that he is blinded for three days. Yes, for three days he must be guided to Damascus by those who were with him, his very confused coconspirators, who heard the voice but saw nothing. But from then on he knew, yes, he knew, his life was transformed by grace, sheer grace, freely given, a gift beyond telling. We leave him stumbling down the road with his companions guiding him to Damascus. Here, the focus shifts to a disciple in Damascus named Ananias.

As is so classic for Luke’s telling of God’s engagement with people, the word comes to Ananias in a vision. Like the word coming to Zechariah at the beginning of Luke’s Gospel, from an angel in the temple, so also Ananias is visited! We get no sense that Ananias is surprised or startled when the voice comes. Nope. When he is addressed by the Holy of Holies he simply answers, “Here I am, Lord.” But that is for starters, because the Lord’s request through the vision is one of those that results in an argument: The Lord says, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for this guy named Saul from Tarsus.” There are some other specifics that God tells him, but we can imagine they are blurry because Ananias can only be scratching his head and reaching for some way to defend himself. Ananias tries to shake some reason in the visioning voice: “Say what? No way. That dude has an enormous reputation. Yes, we all have heard of him. He is an evil man, wreaking havoc on your folks in Jerusalem. You can’t be serious!” But the Lord’s counter-voice shocks Ananias into action. Yes, when Jesus says “Go,” you get up off your duff and go. And the absolute stunner for Ananias is that the unrelenting Saul, the beyond imaginable Christian-baiter, was the one whom God had chosen as a container, a vessel, an instrument to bring the name of Jesus far and wide.

I suspect we can relate to Ananias. Sometimes the never knowing, the call, the disruption comes in asking us to go to those we assume will never, ever, ever be the instrument of God’s harmony in this world. And sometimes, yes actually often, the one who is the least likely candidate for the job is the one who is tapped. “The truth we know of a person or people must move to the background, and what we know of God’s desire for them must move to the foreground,” says Jennings (Willie Jennings, Acts: A Theological Commentary). How often are we asked to go to those whom we resist only to find a surprising encounter and an unlikely companion in faith? It can happen at home or work or on the golf course or in the gym. You simply never know where you will be called. And you never know whose heart God is softening for such a moment as this one. We all may be in for a huge surprise!

Yes, there are those among us who, like Saul, have been met by the voice of Christ. And that one may be us, when we have been in the far reaches of despair; when we have wounded another person so deeply we saw no way out; when we have found our hearts broken by loss or illness or chronic anxiety. Indeed, the power of God comes to some with the transforming and generous addressing—the bolt of lightning. It is clear that God employed a means of reaching Saul that was commensurate with his state of mind and heart. Saul’s fierce energies in persecuting enemies is now redirected to winning women and men to faith. And I also think this is true for most of us. God knows the way we will hear God’s call. Yes, for some it is the bolt of lightning, and for most of us, I suspect, it is more subtle—God joining us like God joined the disciples on another road, that road to Emmaus. And it is in hindsight that we awaken to the power of the risen Christ, wherever he meets us.

I think the point of this story is that you never know. You never know where the risen Christ will show up in your life. You never know how the power of God will take the meager morsel of your life and bring it forth with glory and grace. You never know when the light will shine forth from stars or horizons or lightning bolts. And you never know how God will call you to serve, to glorify, to heal, to listen, to wait—yes, to wait for the voice of God to filter into your heart in a way that is absolutely suited to who you are.

When thinking about Saul’s call and also Ananias’s call I thought of a friend of my spouse, Tom, and mine: Barry. Tom met Barry when Tom was a student prison chaplain in Philadelphia when we were in seminary. Barry had been in and out of detention centers and jails throughout his life, literally starting at age four when he stole some candy at a local corner store. He grew up in a very challenging family situation with thirteen siblings in Philadelphia, with deep poverty and little certainty, Barry said at many points in his life he felt more at home in prison than on the outside. But what is very amazing to me is that Barry experienced a calling when he was there, in prison. With the help of some others in jail and a friend on the outside who had taken Barry in when he was on parole, Barry felt a call to establish a prison pen pal program he called “In the Belly of the Whale Ministries, International.” This program allowed prisoners to connect with others in prison across the country and in Canada (thus the international part). Barry organized it and, through a church connection, got names of people who wanted to have a pen pal. It was clear that having contact with someone else who was incarcerated, in a setting that was similar and also dissimilar and also having “brothers in the Lord,” as Barry put it, was a step into fellowship and also a step away from deep and penetrating isolation. Of all places to hear a call from God, right there behind bars, a call came to Barry from God, he notes, to reach out—to touch and be touched and to see a glimmer of hope. Like Saul, many of the people Barry reached out to were people that seemed to be untouchables or beyond the scope of God’s grace. And yet, right there, trudging along the path of hopelessness or seeming to be beyond the reach of redemption, a light flashed, and the power of God brought vision and power to Barry—a calling, undeniably.

Yes, none of us ever know on which road or in what setting we might encounter the living Christ. You never know what God has in store for you! Jesus bolted into Saul’s life on that road, taking his resurrection to new ends, and Saul-turned-Paul was awakened daily by the Spirit of Christ. Yes, that the hound of heaven chases down the likes of us on whatever Damascus roads we walk, making us the new body of Christ—not a regular body but our hands and feet becoming Christ’s hands and feet.

We see this reality especially today as we ordain, install, and commission new officers here at Fourth Church. Today we also honor the amazing contributions of our volunteers, who serve us in manifold ways. In many ways, today is Christmas here at Fourth Church—yes, the season of gift giving and gift receiving. It is a season of bounty, a season of readiness, a season of generosity and of new life! Whether you are a youth deacon or elder or a seasoned traveler who has responded to the call of God through the voice of the Nominating Committee, you may feel ill-equipped for this calling. You may find yourself wondering if you heard wrong. Or you may just figure it is time and you are ready. But I can guarantee you of one thing: when God’s hand or call or awakening arise in your life and you are blinded by your own uncertainty or fear or simply feeling ill-prepared—an Ananias or an Anna or an Ari may show up and touch you deeply and certainly and scales that crusted over your eyes, your heart, your confidence will fall. In that moment you will see with vision that is clear, fulsome, awakening, and all set! And for that and much more we wait, we watch, and we know the power of Jesus, the resurrected Christ.

Thanks be to God! Amen.