What's In It For Me?
Now, as you know I've just come back from holiday and when Ian and I go on holiday we have this annoying habit of spending more money than we should. This means when we come back home we are a little short. So, a question for you before I start the sermon - can anyone give me £500? What, no responses? How about this - are any of you short of money? Do any of you need a nice gift of £500? It's interesting isn't it that it's quite a different story if we are going to be given something rather than asked for something. Most of the time the question that's first and foremost in our minds is "what's in it for me?" Very rarely is our first consideration "what can I do for you?"
Imagine then, how poor Ananias felt when he realised that God was calling him to visit the house in Damascus where Saul was staying. He was less than enthusiastic about going into what could have been a trap - after all Saul was notorious as a persecutor of God's people. He could expect imprisonment and death from this encounter; he must be mistaken in thinking that God would call him to go there - after all what was in this for him?
Saul - Persecutor of God's People
The story, in Acts, of the conversion of St Paul is one of the most well known ones in the New Testament. We are struck time and time again about how this man who was persecuting the people of God could be turned around by a powerful vision of Jesus into the church's most vibrant apostle. What we forget when we read this story is the courage of Ananias, the poor Christian who is charged with going to see Saul, to pray for him and to introduce him to the Christian faith. Ananias, rather than Saul is the hero of the hour. The contribution he makes to the Church is out of all proportion to the fleeting mention he gets in the text. Ananias was willing to say "yes" to God and, as a result, Saul was allowed to join the Church and helped spread it so far. We know lots about Saul. He was a rabbi, possibly a Pharisee. He was angry at this new sect of Judaism which followed Jesus, and he was present at the murder of the first Christian martyr - Stephen. He was busy travelling up and down the coast between Jerusalem and Damascus to encourage the Jewish communities to persecute the Church. He was feared, and Ananias' "yes" changed everything.
A Reluctant "Yes"
I find it difficult to say "yes" to God the first time round. Sometimes I am more like Jonah - who fled in the opposite direction to where God was calling him - than Ananias. But if you look closely at the passage we heard read to us today, there are some signs of hope for the rest of us. For Ananias didn't bring himself to say yes at once or easily. His initial reaction was to say "no"! When he heard that Saul was heading for Damascus, it seems that he decided to do precisely what most of us would have done, namely lie low and keep quiet. He knew as well as anyone what type of man this Saul was and was well aware that he had come to Damascus with the sole aim of destroying the Church there. Saul spelt trouble. When Ananias first heard God calling him to visit Saul, he remonstrated with God, reminding God of Saul's reputation - just in case this had slipped God's mind!
Eventually Ananias said "yes" to God. I can only imagine what he must have been thinking as he made his way to Straight Street to see this Saul who was staying at the house of a man called Judas. He must have been full of fear and doubt - after all leopards tend not to change their spots. Would it be possible that this Saul could have really changed? It would have been very easy for Ananias to dismiss the voice of God as autosuggestion, a figment of his imagination, brought on by panic at the news that Saul would be in town. But he didn't do these things, instead he had the courage to believe, even when what God was saying seemed impossible; the courage to keep on listening, even when he didn't much like what he was hearing.
This saying "yes" to God rather looses its power with hindsight - we know the end of the story. Yet Ananias didn't at this point. He knew that Saul had inflicted untold misery on countless individuals, committing them to prison, persecuting and destroying without compunction, yet here was God announcing that this same Saul had been chosen to be the instrument of God's sovereign purpose. Only, apparently, Saul was not the same person; he had changed, been transformed by the grace of God. Would you have believed that? More important, could you have believed that? Would you have been able to overcome the fear, resentment, suspicion and anger that would have inevitably burned within you? Ananias did. Though he couldn't understand how it was possible, or square it with what he knew of Saul, he didn't argue but said yes to God's purpose.
Yes to God and to Saul
The crunch point for Ananias must have come when he reached the house and knocked on the door. This was the point where faith had to show itself in action rather than words. It doesn't take much, after all, to accept something if it makes no practical difference to us either way. On the other hand, if we have to stake our life on what we believe, it's a different proposition altogether and that is what was being asked of Ananias. If he'd got things wrong about Saul, the notion of his conversion an empty delusion, then the chances were, should he go knocking on his door, that he wouldn't live to tell the tale. Reasons to put it off, to test God's call, would not have been hard to find, but Ananias believed God wanted him to go, so he went. Once more he said "yes" to God. But he also says "yes" to Saul. He prays for Saul and offered him help and healing. Ananias didn't just believe God could change Saul - he believed that God had changed Saul.
Saying Yes To God Ourselves
Are we ready to listen and obey God's challenges or do we thrust them aside? Are we ready to accept God's purpose rather than our own, or do we measure the world by our own measures rather than God's? Are we ready to act upon our faith, or is it all simply talk? Are we ready to reach out to others in loving acceptance, believing that God has the power to change lives, or are there those who deep down we consider beyond God's grace? I cannot say what God might ask of you, anymore than I know what God may ask of me, but I know for certain that God will ask something of all of us. Remember then, when you struggle to say "yes" to God the story of Ananias and consider the fact that if he had not possessed the faith and courage to respond as he did, there might never have been a story of Saul who became Paul, and, therefore, possibly never the story of our faith either. Ananias was ready to say "yes" to God. Are we?
Prayer:
Loving
God,
There are times in our lives when you call us to tasks that seem beyond
us,
tasks that we would rather avoid.
We hear your voice but feel unable
to meet the challenge,
our natural inclination to run away.
Remind us that
when you ask to do something,
you give us the strength to do it.
Give us
courage, then, to respond when you call,
knowing that however things may
seem,
you are always able to transform them in ways beyond our
expectations.
Through Jesus, our Lord,
Amen.
Meditation of
Ananias
(post-Communion reflection)
Let's
be honest, I was terrified,
absolutely terrified.
We'd been trying to
avoid him,
hiding away for dear life,
our hearts trembling as we waited
for the thud of footsteps
that would spell the end.
So you can
imagine,
when I felt this sudden urge to see him,
I thought I was dreaming
-
either that or off my head!
Saul! The very name sent shivers down our
spines -
avowed enemy of the Church,
persecutor of all who followed
Christ,
determined to wipe out every last believer.
That's why he'd come
to Damascus,
to drag us back in irons,
and he would have shown no
mercy,
we all knew that.
Yet somehow I couldn't get that voice out of my
head:
'Go and see him!'
I tried to fight it,
told myself it was a trick
of the mind,
but it was no good;
I knew God was calling me.
So I
went,
and found him,
and discovered that Jesus had found him
first.
This sermon was first preached in the Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester. Click here for further information.