Conversion of St Paul
Mt. 19 v 27
25^th January 2009

‘Ask not what America can do for you, but what you can do for America’. I have heard these words spoken by President Kennedy at his inauguration so many times over the last week, and I soon as I read this passage I thought I could hear Jesus saying to us today – Don’t ask what following God will do for you but ask what you can do for God.

Without a doubt the light of Epiphany shines on a truth accepted by Christians, people of other faiths and non-believers: and that is that a person who spends his or her life dedicated to a good cause rises above the ordinary and at many times is considered a hero. As Christians we would describe it as listening and responding to the voice of God.

And, of course, perhaps no one responded more dramatically than St Paul, whose conversion on the road to Damascus we celebrate today.

In the reading from Acts we heard how Saul of Tarsus, the feared persecutor of Christians, on his way to persecute more Christians was stopped in his tracks on the road to Damascus, how he had a powerful vision of Christ calling him and as a result became one of the Church’s early leaders.

Perhaps one of the most important things to remember about Paul is that he was a devout Jew, he really believed he was obeying God, he knew the Jewish scriptures and because he knew them so well he could justify his views. For it was written in Deuteronomy that anyone who was crucified was under God’s curse. So Paul knew he must be right - Jesus must be a false prophet leading people away from God, it said so in the Bible.

But suddenly, out of the blue, as he neared Damascus he was blinded by a strong light, so powerful that he was sent falling to the ground. And interestingly enough, it was because he was so devout a Jew that he knew that it could only be God, but then he heard a voice saying ‘I am Jesus who you are persecuting, now get up, go into Damascus, and you will be told what you must do’.

And the message to Paul was that Jesus was his son, and not only that, he also had to understand that God is the Father of all who turn to him, it is an inclusive faith, it is not a faith you have to be born into. Anyone who truly turns to Christ, follow in his footsteps is part of the Christian family.

Without a doubt God does work in the hearts of people, and perhaps sometimes like with Saul, the most unlikely people. I started this sermon by quoting the words of John Kennedy, but if we only need go back a few years to the time when nine children in Little Rock were being banned from attending a school because they were black. In the southern states segregation was a bad as in South Africa, the southern black Americans thought they had very little future and like Martin Luther King many gave their lives in the struggle for equality.

I wonder whether Martin Luther King, when he made his ‘I have a dream speech’ could have foreseen a black American President in 2009. There were certainly many with tears in their eyes at the inauguration, some who had been at Little Rock, at the riots in Arkansas, could recall what happened.

And on a more local note I wonder how many people in Bletchingley, some forty years ago, knew what an impact their curate, Desmond Tutu, would have on the history of the world. For he too was called to listen to God’s voice to follow his words and to work to end segregation and injustice in South Africa.

And one of the great tragedies of fifty years ago is that many of the white people who were so opposed to integration were Christian, like Saul they believed they were following God; they too could find a phrase in the Bible which they probably sincerely believed justified their views. But they were wrong.

If we look at the Gospel reading I don’t think those who worked to end apartheid, or who have worked to end other forms of discrimination did it expect a reward from God. I think all they were responding to God’s voice just as Paul, just as the disciples had done.

Peter’s question to Jesus in the Gospel might seem rather strange. But perhaps they were in need of Christ’s reassurance that they had indeed tried to follow him, that they have made the right choice. For as we know they had, in fact, left everything to follow Jesus. While they had not perhaps always understood, they had still sacrificed everything to follow him.

The stories of response to a call from God can be found all around us.

God calls not just the obvious leaders but anyone to listen. At a time like this when the world seems dark, we see the suffering in Gaza, Iraq, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe; people fearful for their livelihoods as the talk of world recession increases we need to be more and more aware of the Epiphany light shining on us. We need to trust in God, to know that his presence is ever with us, that all we have to do is listen to his voice.

We desperately need the light of Epiphany, the revelation that shines upon people who respond to a call from God, regardless of their background , when their words and their actions bring light, they are all blessed by God regardless of who they are.

I think last Tuesday the world did feel more positive, if only for a while, that was a day everyone was listening, yearning for words which would bring hope, bring peace and understanding.

Despite what the media are saying the world has seen worse than what is happening now, there have always been wars and I have lived through many recessions and we are still here, life still swings between our being told we have never had it so good and being told all is lost, life will be altered for ever.

But through all these changes one thing is constant and we don’t have to pay money for it; it is God’s love for us. Life is far more than moving house, buying new cars, having more clothes than we can ever wear. Life is asking what we can do for God. Asking how we can change things for the better, how we can help people to find their spiritual self, particularly those on the fringe of the church, to help them learn to understand who God is, what Jesus did for us, how following Jesus can change lives.

The Disciples did not know just how their lives would change when they responded to the call of Jesus, when he promised to make them fishers of humanity. They responded to his call because the man of God who

was calling them possessed the light of Epiphany in his person. They knew instantly that he was from God, and they said, yes.

Later Saul did the same, and through the centuries countless thousands of people have responded to Jesus calling them. Those nine teenagers in Little Rock did their bit, Desmond Tutu left the peaceful Surrey countryside to return to his homeland and he did and is still doing his bit. We pray that God will give President Obama the strength and support he will need to keep his promises both for what he will do in America and in the wider world, that he will truly strive to work for peace and reconciliation, and we pray also that each day we ourselves will ask not ‘what then will there be for us’ but that the light of Epiphany may shine upon us in such a way that we see, we recognize, we hear, and we respond to God when we too are called by name. Amen.