Acts 9:1-22 The God of the Second Chance Sermon preached October 13, 2013 Opening scene A man

lies sprawled in the dust of the rutted road to Damascus. He spits grit from his mouth and slowly pushes himself up to his knees. He blinks and tries to rub the dust from his eyes but to his horror sees nothing but blackness despite the blazing sunlight all around him. His name was Saul. An impressive young man, a rising young star. Born to a Jewish family that had earned all the rights of Roman citizenship. An elite education, studying under the great rabbi Gamaliel. A scholar of scripture, knowing the Word of God down to the smallest comma and apostrophe. A Pharisee, devoted to obeying the law of God down to the smallest minutia - washing your hands ritually before each meal, tithing your wealth, down to the herbs sprouting in your garden. And a defender of the faith of his fathers. Thats how we first encounter Saul, back in chapter seven in the story of the execution of Stephen, who died for his faith in the Lord Jesus. Saul stood there, supervising the operation, holding the cloaks of the men who stripped down to better hurl the stones that crushed Stephens body. Inspired by Stephens death, Saul becomes the leader of the stop-the-Christians movement. In chapter 8 Luke writes, Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house, dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison (8:3). And in our reading hes expanding his operating beyond Jerusalem, heading up to Damascus with a goon squad, official letters in hand, ready to kick down the doors of Christian homes and haul off to prison these upstart followers of this heretical Jesus movement that threatens the purity of his beloved faith. Some interpreters of the story have imagined Saul suffering from inner turmoil, doubting whether his mission was right. But there is not a hint of that in the story, no indication that Saul is laying awake at night, his conscience pricking him with doubts about his persecution of the church. No, this is a man convinced hes on Gods side, saving the faith of Israel from the infectious 1

pathogen of the Jesus movement. Its one thing to be sure of yourself - but add to that, youre sure that God is on your side and you, are on a mission from God. Saul and the muscle in his group are on the road to Damascus when a light so bright it scorches their retinas blazes from the sky, and he hears a voice from somewhere call his name, asking why are you persecuting me? Who are you, Saul asks and hears to his astonishment and terror, It is I, Jesus. And this smart, educated, self-assured man-on-a-mission, is left blind, speechless and helpless and has to be led around like a little child. And this, is the grace of a second chance, for Saul. But that grace, exposes that he is completely wrong. Can you imagine how shattering it is to find out that you have been totally, utterly, completely wrong? That you are working and striving for what you think is a good purpose, and in a blinding flash, you see that you are instead the cause of great evil? That you have been fighting against the Son of God himself? Amazing grace, how sweet the sound? Instead, confronting grace, how shattering it is. One of the objections I hear to the gospel is that its all too easy. You mean, someone can party like Charlie Sheen, chase women like George Clooney, cheat and lie and steal...and all I have to do at the end of their life is say to God, Im sorry and all is forgiven? Something like King Herod who says in one of Audens plays, I like committing sins. God likes forgiving them. Really the world is admirably arranged. Grace, some think, is like stepping into a warm bath and letting all your cares slip away...its like being sat down by a wise grandparent and told just how loved you are; grace, some think, is God with a wave of his hand dismissing the sordid record of sin and evil as if none of it ever mattered. Not in this story. The grace of God blasts into Sauls life and knocks him on his fanny, leaves him blind and helpless, the life he knew, lying shattered all around him. The grace, of getting knocked on your fanny. It happened to me. When I was younger, I had this arrogant streak, which youd never know now since Ive mastered the virtue of humility. Yes, back in those days, I thought I was pretty smart. So about thirty years ago, we were vacationing in Vermont with our friends from college 2

Dave and Sandy. Sandy is a wee little woman, barely five feet tall, with a kind and gentle spirit. We were sitting around a kitchen table, and we got to talking about theology. Now this was before I went to seminary and learned how much I didnt know, and I disagreed with something Sandy said. And like our dog Barney gets his toy bunny in his mouth and shakes it back and forth, I got ahold of Sandys deeply held, sincerely held, beliefs and began to demolish them. I was doing pretty well, I thought, arent I smart? - until suddenly, the chair I was sitting on which seemed pretty sturdy, it collapsed, and I thunked right down onto the floor. I took that as a sign from God, and shut up. Its grace to get knocked off your high horse and to be shown youre all wrong. But it hurts. Maybe some of us are feeling the shock of Gods grace. Maybe it happened when you raised your hand to a child, a spouse and in a flash you saw the history of your rage, how your children and spouse cower in your presence, fearing but not loving you; maybe it happened as the clock ticked towards midnight as you reviewed the mental video of another act of betrayal that promised fun but leaves you loathing yourself; maybe it happened through the courage of another who warned you that you are out of control and about to drive your life onto the rocks. And youre trying to deny it all and youre angry, maybe at the other person, maybe at yourself, confused, dont know what to do. If you recognize yourself in that, perhaps God is exercising the kind of grace, that knocks us on our fanny. I mean, if a person is charging in the wrong direction, absolutely convinced they are on the right path - you can try a gentle tap on the shoulder - but it may take a good linebacker hit to stop them and get their attention. And Ive noticed over the years that most conversions happen at one of two points in a persons life - either the person hits rock bottom and finds the hand of Jesus lifting them up; or Jesus comes crashing into a person who thinks shes on top of the world, and knocks her down into the dirt. Again, so he can lift her up. And if God is after you, then God will get you to that place. It is a fearsome thing to be pursued by Gods love, as Saul was. 3

I am reminded, sort of, the man who was flying from Pittsburgh to San Francisco. The flight attendant asked him, Would you like dinner? What are my choices? the man asked. Yes or no, she replied. When God has you in his sights, you dont have a lot of choices; for God doesnt really take no for an answer. Jesus Christ loves us enough, to tell us the truth about ourselves. And Jesus Christ loves us enough, to knock us down so he can lift us up. If youve been knocked on your fanny, the Lords hand is reaching for you right now, to lift you up and give you a whole new life. Because Gods confronting grace is not punishing grace. God shows merciful ingenuity, in the life of Saul. Jesus addresses Saul when the blinded man asks, Whos there?, saying It is I, Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Now that is odd - Jesus is resurrected from the dead, victor over sin and death, ascended to the right hand of God the Father - how could a mere man like Saul persecute the risen Lord Jesus? I believe Jesus felt Sauls persecution of Christians so deeply, it was as if he was suffering it himself. The Lord was suffering alongside his children, persecuted and jailed by Saul. This is a risen Jesus whos got a serious issue with Saul. The Lord had several options in dealing with the man. Easiest way would have been like the animation at the beginning of each episode of Monty Python, which ended with a great big foot coming out of the sky and squashing people below. The Lord could have squashed Saul like a particularly annoying bug and that would have been that - but Jesus is not in the demolition business - hes in the restoration business. He is the Lord of the second chance. So what the Lord does is take the chief persecutor of the church - and makes him into the chief missionary of the church. Now that is astonishing...like Jeff Foxworthy says, You cant make this stuff up! But praise God for dealing with us according to his merciful ingenuity and giving us second chances. This means no one - and I mean no one - is beyond the reach of Gods merciful ingenuity. Have you made a mess of your life? Have you left wreckage and carnage behind you? 4

Have you missed opportunities that stab you in the gut every time you think of them? Are you captive to a force of evil that keeps you in a life of degradation? Or perhaps like Paul, you are possessed by a sort of intellectual arrogance where you are quite satisfied, thank you very much, with how youve worked out your life, your relationship with God - but now cracks are appearing, hairline cracks that warn of larger ones to come, that warn of walls crashing down around you. If any of that is you, the Lord Jesus is ready to give you a whole new life. But - you may have to let go of the old one. But - you may have to admit, I was wrong. But, you may have to step into an unknown future where youre no longer maintaining the illusion of being in control. Well...as I wrote in the last newsletter, Christmas decorations are up in the stores. Pretty soon Advent will be here...crowded shopping malls...the smell of pine...Christmas parties...and the movie Its a Wonderful Life. You probably know the story. George Bailey never felt like he amounted to much in life. He had dreams of being an architect, of traveling the world. Instead he feels trapped running a puny Savings & Loan in his hometown. Then crisis hits; he is faced with unjust criminal charges. He plunges into despair and is about to jump off a bridge when his guardian angel Clarence shows up to show him the worth of his life. During the making of this movie, Jimmy Stewart said something happened to him that never happened in any other picture he made. In one scene, George Bailey, broke and in despair, sits in a little roadside restaurant. In the scene, Jimmy Stewart raises his eyes and following the script, pleads, God...God...dear Father in heaven, Im not a praying man, but if youre up there and you can hear me, show me the way. Im at the end of my rope. Show me the way, God... Stewart said, As I said those words, I felt the loneliness, the hopelessness of people who had nowhere to turn and my eyes filled with tears. I broke down sobbing. This was not planned at all, but the power of that prayer, the realization that our Father in heaven is there to help the hopeless, reduced me to tears.1 God is in his heaven, and he is always willing to help the hopeless. Even if like in Sauls case, they dont even know theyre hopeless! Do you see the wonder of this - that God even loves those who are his enemies, God reaches out to bring new life to the very ones who are opposing his purposes? If God is like that towards his enemies, how much more will he be towards us?

But heres another rub - God is merciful not only to us, but to the people we fear and hate, too. Think about Ananias in this story. Hes a Christ-follower in Damascus. The Lord appears to him and says go meet with this Saul fellow. Ananias seems to wonder if Jesus is aware of how lethal Saul is, tells the Lord that Saul is the persecutor-in-chief of the church. But the Lord tells him, Go! Saul is my chosen instrument to bring the gospel to the world. Ananias is stunned by this, by Jesus giving Saul a second chance. God seeks to make his enemies into friends. Sauls story is a microcosm of what God is doing in Christ; it gives us a glimpse into Gods heart - because God is trying to draw all people to himself, even those violently opposed to him. This is why C.S. Lewis, in his wonderful book The Great Divorce, speculates that God goes after people even in Hell to win them to his love. And this should tell us that there is nobody we should write off, no one we should give up on because they are too far gone. This is why the Lord tells us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute them - not because were supposed to be patsies, or because were supposed to be nice, smiling sweetly as our enemies pound us into the ground - its because God can spin them around like he did Saul and give them a whole new life. And remember, folks, we all started out in sin, all started out as enemies of God - Paul writes in Romans, For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life (Romans 5:10). Closing In March 1997, I went to Israel for two weeks. After I pried myself out of the incredibly small seat on the 747, unfolded my legs, we stumbled in a sleep-deprived daze toward our tour bus. We trundled out of Tel Aviv and headed up the coast to the ruins of the ancient city of Caesarea. Built by Herod the Great, the city served as the seat of government for those who ruled Palestine in Sauls time. When our bus pulled in to the ruins, our guide took us down to the beach, where I saw the Mediterranean for the first time. While we were looking at the sea, the guide reminded us that Caesarea was the seaport from where Paul sailed on his fourth and final missionary journey, on his way to Rome. It was near the end of his life, perhaps 35 years after his encounter with Jesus sent him sprawling face-first onto the Damascus Road and changed his life. He had sailed and 6

walked all over the Roman world, preaching the gospel, starting churches in a ministry that changed the world and is the reason you and I are here today. Near that spot on the beach where we sat Paul boarded a Roman ship bound for Rome, where he would soon die for his faith under Emperor Nero. And if God could do that with Saul, there is no telling what God can do, in his merciful ingenuity, in my life, and yours. For God truly is the God of the second chance. Amen. Endnotes 1. Dynamic Preaching, Oct/Nov/Dec 1998, p. 65.