First Church

Let me take this issue a step farther. If the question comes from God and it is not a general question, but instead one that is to you and about you, then I would have to say that you did answer that question – even if you are still playing it safe with all your questions. I would say that when God addresses us, our heart does answer even if we don’t know exactly what all is being said. A few of you may have been knocked off a horse like Paul, though I suspect most hearts answered more quietly. And I would also say that because you are here today, you answered “Yes.” Even if you didn’t know what you were saying “Yes” to, your heart knew to whom you said it – to God.

Saul, who will later be called Paul, was still breathing violence when the Risen Lord first addressed him by asking him a question. In Chapter 8 of this thriller (and the Book of Acts is a thriller) Saul is engaged in maniacal persecution of the church. The Greek word used to describe his actions is also used in Psalm 80 to express savagery: “The boar from the forest ravages it.” Same word here for Saul. God’s question is a personal one – one asked to him and about him since the Lord calls him twice by name: “Saul, Saul” – the way you call out the name of your child when you find him engaged in some totally unacceptable behavior. “Saul, Saul.” “Why do you persecute me?” Saul answers that question with a question. “Who are you, Lord?” A peculiar question. He knows it’s the Lord, but he does not know who the Lord is. But just by responding by saying “Lord” we know his heart has already answered “Yes.”

When Saul gets the answer, he not only finds out that Jesus is Lord, but he also finds out that he’s not in charge of the plans for his life; in fact he will never again be the master of his own plan. Verse 6: “… you will be told what you are to do”. I suspect God had made gentler attempts to reach the man and to use him, but as he was so hell-bent on doing things his way, he needed to be thrown and blinded. Did God ever have to knock you off your path? The other disciples – they recognize and hear the Risen Christ in walks and talks and meals. How did it go with you? Maybe you’ve had both experiences; I have.

Jesus then sends Ananias on a mission to lay hands on Saul. So we see the need for the human touch, the human intercession to make all this real. But Jesus is not willing to just leave it in human hands; in fact, he’s keeping a very close eye on Saul. In the instructions he gives to Ananias, did you notice the attention he’s paying to Saul?

•    He knew the street where he lived: ‘Go into the street which is called Straight.’  
•    He knew the house where he resided, ‘Inquire at the house of Judas.’
•    He knew the place where he was from ‘look for a man of Tarsus.’
•    He knew his name: for a man ‘named Saul.’
•    And he knew what he was doing: “at this moment, he prays.” That’s the “Yes” in his heart.

Naturally, Ananias is concerned given what he knows, what all Christians know, about Saul. ‘But, but, but,’ he says. ‘But’ is another form of answering a question with a question. Christ then says of Saul, ‘he is my chosen instrument’ or in the King James Version, “he is a chosen vessel unto me” (Acts 9:15). What would you give to know that you were a chosen vessel of the Lord – that God needed you and had plans for your life?

Paul certainly was a chosen vessel; the rest of scripture records that, as does all of history since. And there we come to the real point and that is that Paul’s experience on the Road to Damascus, as compelling as is it in its own right, is only really worth re-telling – generation to generation – because of what he did afterwards, as a result of it. He didn’t just say “Yes” to God, he lived his “Yes.” The church-starting, Christianity-defining, world-altering life of Paul that followed is the testimony to the “Yes” he not only said in his heart (tell me who you are Lord), but the “Yes” he lived so passionately for Christ and His new creation, so newly born. On this day when we retell the story of his “Yes,” we must recall that the truly lasting and profound legacy of Paul is the stunning degree to which he drew our attention to Christ. That he did as no other has ever done. Thus said the Lord, “he is a chosen vessel unto me.”

I think there can be no denying that it is hard, very hard, to move from saying “Yes” in our heart to living that “Yes.” Most of the time, we are all a lot like my attorney friend – we want to ask more questions and gather more information before committing to a course of action for our faith. And that is so understandable to me because His gospel, for all its peace and promise, is red-hot and difficult to live. And it is harder still to live our “Yes” by drawing the attention not just to the issue at hand, but also to Christ – to point always to the One who is alive, transforming this world into the new creation. To point not just to the budget problems, but to the spirit of Christ that lived among us to overcome them. To look not just to the tragedy at Virginia Tech, but also to look to Christ who binds up the broken-hearted, who forgives the one breathing murder, and who gives resurrection to the dead. To point not only to the seemingly insoluble problems of this world, but to draw the world’s attention to the One who says, ‘I am calling you to a new and different way – to be a people of the Way.’ We cannot resist the “Yes” in our heart, but it is hard sometimes to look straight at Him, His gospel and His Way.

This struggle is expressed powerfully in a scene from that epic film Catherine the Great. Catherine is struggling with issues of faith and practice that she can’t reconcile and she goes to the Bishop who has become her confidant. He says to her, ‘Catherine, do you know how a pearl is made? A grain of sand finds its way into an oyster shell. The sand is very uncomfortable for the oyster and so over the years, it uses its saliva to coat the sand, making a jewel of great beauty that the world beholds.’ And then he says, ‘Now think of Christ as the grain of sand and the world as the oyster shell. The presence of Christ makes the world very uncomfortable and so we all, in our own way, try to hide him. But break open the pearl and there is the grain of sand – the eternal truth – the still there for all the world to see.’

When we can take not only the comfort but also the discomfort of Christ’s presence and live into its eternal truth, when we can handle not only the warmth but also the heat of the gospel and live into the new creation, when the “Yes” you answered in your heart becomes the “Yes” for a course of action for your life, when your words and your works draw attention to the Risen One, it may never be recorded in scripture like Paul’s. It may be never be in any fine bound book or even recorded in a journalist’s religion page or in our Landmark. But be assured it is recorded on earth and as it is in heaven, for as with Paul, Christ knows:

He knows where you live,
He knows where you have come from,
He knows your name,
He knows the plans for your life,
and it was He – the Risen One himself – who placed the question in your heart, for of you, too, he says, ‘you are a chosen vessel unto me.’
And he knows, that at this moment, we pray.

May we pray to be a people of His gospel and His Way. And, as people of His gospel, may we draw the world’s attention to Him.
Amen