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PERICOPE STUDY
CENTER FOR THEOLOGY, LRC
The Conversion of St. Paul - January 25,
2004
The First Lesson: Acts 9:1-22
1 Jacques Ellul wrote that the turning point in the history of the west came in the dream-vision of St. Paul to "come over to Macedonia and help us." As he heeded that summons, the Last Apostle Untimely Born took the nascent faith north and west, rather than east - to where it would have had a collision (or a collusion) with mystery cults and the great eastern religions. As it was, the Way went to Greece and Rome, sites of intellectual and political empires but repositories of pale pantheons that commanded scant allegiance, albeit blatant anthropomorphic admiration. In the west there were no "dominant" religions that set by rite or piety the way of life, virtually devoid of either fervor or devotion. Rome was as generous as to its tolerance as it was insistent, now and again, on subscription to religious "orthodoxy" as a mark of patriotic allegiance. Whatever else one believed did not matter to them. It was Christian exclusivism and refusal to include that allegiance in their faithfulness that attracted Roman ire and occasional murderous persecution.
2 Ellul might well have rewound his vision to the conversion of Saul, as it was God's mandated "necessary precondition" to all of Paul's work, before and after the Macedonia summons. By all accounts, St. Paul was the best-educated among the apostles, and, just as likely, the most privileged, as to social standing. Fishermen, a tax collector, a self-styled zealot, even an Israelite in whom there was no guile - but, in the main, simple folk of modest means. And all of them Galileans or Judeans. No one from the diaspora, saving Paul. Not every Jewish family of the diaspora claimed Roman citizenship, a status likely purchased rather than inherited or achieved. Not every Jewish family of the diaspora (Tarsus) could afford to send its sons to Jerusalem to study … and Saul was himself a student of the Pharisee rabbi Gamaliel, he of "counsel of Gamaliel" fame. [To the Sanhedrin he said, regarding the status of the message that Jesus is both Messiah and Risen Lord, on the occasion of the chastisement of Peter and John: "So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone; for if this plan or this undertaking is of men, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!" (Acts 5:38-40)]
3 Saul did not share his teacher's caution or neutrality about the new movement, but was active as consenting observer at Stephen's stoning (8:1) and in the persecution of the church in Jerusalem that occurred in the its aftermath: He "laid waste the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison." (8:3)
4 Luke's narrative continues in the 8th chapter with the incident of Simon Magus, and the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch in his encounter with the apostle Philip. Then to the climax of young Saul's life: "But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem." The letters, apparently, were granted. It happened as he "approached Damascus" - the blinding light, the voice, the declaration: "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting; but rise and enter the city, and you will be told wheat you are to do." It is little wonder that Ananias of Damascus (not to be confused with the unfortunately dishonest Ananias, husband of the equally dishonest Sapphira) was reluctant to heed the Lord's vision instruction to go and lay hands on Saul that he might regain his sight. Saul's reputation had preceded him.
5 The cautious Ananias overcame his misgivings on the command of the Lord, and went to the house on Straight (orqos!) Street and laid hands on the blind activist … and immediately "something like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized, took food and was strengthened. Quickly - perhaps that very day - he was in the Damascus synagogues, not looking for followers of Jesus but proclaiming Jesus as "the Son of God," increasing daily in the strength of his proclamation. Amazing! The Risen Lord had wrought another miracle!
6 The Saul story - he subsequently went by the Greek form of the name, Paulus - is a turning point for the nascent church. By Luke's account, and from the evidence of his correspondence, he is one of the "three certifiable geniuses" Iris Murdoch claimed were present and active at the start of the movement. So far from contravening the kerygma otherwise proclaimed, Paul gave expression to the content and power of God's grace made manifest in Christ as none other could. And he did it by God's inspiration, his own abilities (native and honed), and an enormous amount of courage - also, no doubt, God-given. He considered himself "crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me ad gave himself for me." (Gal. 2:20) It is to the center of his message that the Epistle lesson for the day gives voice:
The Epistle Lesson: Galatians 1:11-24.
7 To the Galatians "so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel" (1:6), St. Paul vigorously asserts both his credentials to proclaim and the singularity of the gospel that he taught ("not that there is another gospel, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ" 1:7). The circumstance is reflective of the resilience of legalism, as to the law, which was one of the twin theological polarities possible as extremities in reception of the gospel. The other, of course, was libertinism.
The Gospel Lesson: Luke 21:10-19
8 The warnings of Jesus were spoken at the door of the temple, just on the heels of his observation concerning the poor widow whose two copper coins were "all the living that she had." What he observes as to earthquakes, famines and pestilences constitute great signs of the coming eschaton. But his warnings to his disciples present there aptly describe what he later, in the vision to Ananias in Damascus, observes of the yet-unrepentant Saul: "Go (and restore his sight), for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name."
JLY - 01.20.04
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