Rev Bill

I have posted today’s sermon on my sermon blog. Based on Revelation 5:11-14 and Acts 9:1-20 it is titled: “A New Way”.

Here’s a portion of it:

Wow!
Can you imagine how confused Saul must have been?
He thought he had God all figured out!
He thought he knew what it meant to serve God!
He thought he knew what God wanted him to do.
He was a Jew – and not just a Jew but a leader of the Jews. He was from a well to do family and raised in the strictest of Jewish households. As a young man he had studied the law under Gamaliel – something akin to going to Harvard or Princeton or Oxford Law Schools in his day – for Gamaliel was the best teacher of the law that there was.
Saul had risen in the ranks of Jewish leaders and was now a Pharisee – and not just a Pharisee but one of the leading Pharisees.
If you asked him any question about the law he could give you an answer.
If you asked him anything about God or how God wanted people to live or what God wanted people to do he could give you an answer.
Yea – he thought he had God and religion and serving God all figured out.
And not only did he think he had it all figured out – he thought he was living the way God wanted him to live.
Surely God disapproved of this radical teacher – this Jesus – who had claimed to be God’s Son and reached out to folks like sinners and Gentiles!
Surely God wanted him and others to kill anyone who held to Jesus’ teachings – just like they had killed Jesus!
Surely God would reward him for approving of the stoning of one of Jesus’ followers named Stephen – and would now reward him for going to Damascus to arrest and bring to trial anyone who followed Jesus’ teachings!
But now everything was changed.
Everything was different.
Now he was rolling on the ground – blinded by a bright light – and hearing a voice asking him:
“Why do you persecute me?”
“What?” he must have thought —
“What do you mean – Lord?”
“Why do you persecute me?” – “Lord – I’m not persecuting you – I’m serving you – aren’t I?”
Then the thought may have flashed through Saul’s mind – just as the blinding light had flashed before his eyes just moments before –
What if I’m wrong about who God is and what God wants me to do and how God wants me to live?
What if I’m wrong about God wanting me to persecute the followers of Jesus?
What if I’m wrong about who God is – and what God wants me to do?
And he cried out:
“Who are you – Lord?
I thought I knew – but maybe I was wrong.
Who are you?
If you don’t want me to be doing what I’m doing — what do you want me to do?”

You can read the entire sermon here.

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