A poet once wrote these words about contemporary society, “If Chance [Randomness] is the Father of all flesh, then disaster is his rainbow in the sky, and when you hear, ‘State of Emergency,’ ‘Sniper Kills Ten!’ ‘Troops on Rampage.’ ‘Youth Go Looting,’ Bomb Blast School!’ It is but the sound of man worshipping his maker.”

          “If Chance [and not God] is the Father of all flesh, then disaster is his rainbow in the sky.”  The poet’s words are a somber start to the message today, but they are necessary words.  These words are necessary because they help us to put into context all that has gone on this past week and to prepare us to understand the message of hope offered in our Scripture today.

          This past week we saw headlines of eight officers shot in North Carolina, four dead, students protest in support of terrorists, barricade themselves in building, wars rage, thousands are dead, the list goes on. Is there something common to all these events?  Yes. Those involved are simply worshipping their maker, who is not God.  All these events are born by people whose mind and spirit are divided, wrong, inferior, and profoundly unhappy.

          Even those who did not participate in headline making news this past week but who were unfaithful in their marriage, abusive of their children, angry and hateful toward others, or simply leading others down the wrong path of life were worshipping their maker, who is certainly not God.  Those involved in these events outside of the headlines did so because they too have a mind and spirit that are divided, wrong, inferior, and profoundly unhappy.

          This is the same mind and spirit that we find in the man of our New Testament reading today.  A man named Saul.  Who was this man, Saul?

          Saul was born in approximately AD 5, about the same time as Jesus, in the city of Tarsus in Cilicia (in modern-day Turkey). He was born to Jewish parents who possessed Roman citizenship, a coveted privilege that their son would also possess. In about AD 10, Saul’s family moved to Jerusalem. Sometime between AD 15—20 Saul began his studies of the Hebrew Scriptures in the city of Jerusalem under Rabbi Gamaliel, one of the most celebrated and brilliant rabbis and teachers of Hebrew Scriptures in all of Israel’s history. Steep in the rich training of Rabbi Gamaliel, Saul became a Pharisee, a respected member of the religious community of Jerusalem.

          Shortly after Jesus commissioned his apostles to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth, Saul burst onto the scene.  He is presented in the Bible as a prosecuting attorney of the Jewish Sanhedrin moving crowds to stone Stephen to death and imprisoning other believers in Christ found in Jerusalem.  To the Jewish officials, Saul had become an effective weapon of persecution shouting threats of violence, imprisonment, and death against the early Christians.  The Bible says Saul was “breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples” (Acts 9:1a).  Now we might think that Luke’s description of Saul as issuing “murderous threats” might be done for some dramatic effect, but I think Luke was telling his readers something important about the mind and the spirit of Saul.

          Saul was a man who had studied the Hebrew scriptures diligently under one of the greatest rabbis in history.  Saul was a well-read man accustomed to the nuance of language and the art of speaking and reasoning with others to draw them into a deeper understanding of God.  And yet this same man was now seen as inciting crowds to stone people to death and issuing murderous threats to others.  There is no evidence Saul sought in any way to reason with the followers of Jesus of what Saul believed was their errors in understanding God.  Saul, with his years of thoughtful training in the Scriptures, had become a man capable only of physical violence and murderous threats of physical violence.  Saul had become a man who was divided.  The man of reason had become a man of violence.  Saul had become wrong, inferior, and profoundly unhappy.  Saul had become a man who was internally uncertain and had great darkness about him.  Saul had a deep unrest about himself and a contradiction within his soul.  Saul was no longer worshipping God.  Step by step, Saul had walked away from God until Saul no longer understood God or himself.

We like to think that somehow, we humans are so much different from our ancient ancestors, much more sophisticated and no easily led astray.  How we express ourselves today may be different, but we are more like our ancient ancestors than we are different from them.  If in us there is a deep unrest, a contradiction within our souls, a darkness about us, or an internal uncertainty as was the case of Saul, then our mind and spirit are struggling to worship God leading us to be divided, feeling inferior, and profoundly unhappy. 

          Paul pursued his persecution of Christians with greater zeal, acting as though if he could just work harder persecuting the church then his darkness and profound happiness would be resolved.  Nothing changed for Saul.  Doing more and more of the things that divide our spirit ever resolves the conflict within us.  Nothing can change until God intervenes.  In Saul’s case, God intervened in a dramatic way.  On his way to Damascus, God chose to strike Saul with a blinding light causing Saul to fall to the ground.  In the moment that followed, Saul heard from the heavens, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”  5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.  “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city [Damascus], and you will be told what you must do” (Acts 9:4b-6).  Saul who had become all about physical threats, intimidation, imprisonments, and even death was blinded by this encountered with Jesus. Everything about Saul’s physical life suddenly became weak and humbled.  Those with Saul guided Saul to a house in Damascus where Saul fasted. For three days, Saul did not eat or drink.

          Saul entered an experience not unlike that of Jonah, whom Saul would have studied diligently under his rabbi.  In Jonah’s case, Jonah knew what God wanted of him, but Jonah rebelled against God.  “17 Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights” (Acts 9:17).  During those three days and nights, Jonah fasted and had time to pray. During this time with God and God alone, God began stitching the dividedness within Jonah to bring unity. Jonah’s desire to walk away from God was resolved and in his healed state Jonah would walk with God.  After the three days, Jonah was released from the fish and began the mission to which God had called him.  Saul now blinded for three days and three nights had time to fast and pray.  Saul had time to consider Jesus’ question, “Why are you persecuting me? [And not worshipping me] in context to all that Saul knew from the Scriptures.  It was time for God to begin healing Saul.

          I believe too often we think that Jonah and Saul as well as others in our life could not be equipped to do what God wants them to do until God first breaks them down, so God can build them back up new.  I think too often we hold to the belief that unless someone hits rock bottom there is no opportunity for them to build their life back stronger.  That type of thinking is not true.  When my wife recently went to the Emergency Room for treatment, no one said, “Yes, I can see she is in need of healing but first go home and let her condition and symptoms hit rock bottom, then come back.” Neither the Emergency Room does not work that way, nor does God take people who are divided, wrong, inferior, and profoundly unhappy and break them further so that He can build them up.  God does not take people who are internally uncertain, having a great darkness about them and have a deep unrest and a conflicted soul and then cast then down so that they hit and break apart at rock bottom so He can build them up.  God heals are wounds, he does not first make them worse.  God binds up the brokenhearted, he does not first crush them.

          In the case of Jonah and Saul, God began healing them as they were.  In Saul’s case, God caused Saul to lay aside what Saul had been doing with physical violence and threats and to again pick up Saul’s love of God’s Word.  In bringing Scripture to mind again, God brought light to Saul’s thinking.  God was not dividing Saul.  God was bringing unity to Saul’s mind.  In bringing Scripture to mind again, God brought order into Saul’s soul.  God was not breaking Saul.  God was healing the Saul’s spirit.  God did this healing for Jonah and for Saul and God will likewise heal each of us.

          We would read about Saul that after three days of fasting, “17 Then Ananias went to the house [where and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, 19 and after taking some food, he regained his strength” (Acts 9:17-19a).   

          God moved in Saul’s life to heal him and to give him the blessing of the Holy Spirit.  The first thing Saul did then was to be baptized.  The division within Saul had been closed by the completed work of Christ and Saul could not imagine waiting one more moment for baptism.  Saul could not wait one more moment to express through baptism his love for Christ.  Luke then reported, “20 At once he [Saul] began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. 21 All those who heard him were astonished and asked, “Isn’t he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?” 22 Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah” (Acts 9:20-22).  Saul immediately set out to preach and to reason with fellow Jews that Jesus is the Son of God and that Saul set out to prove through the Hebrew Scriptures that Jesus was God’s promised Messiah.  Saul was now doing what he had been trained so many years to do, preach the word of God, and the people were amazed.

          What then do we make of Saul’s experience?  I think there are three things for us to consider.

First, most of us will never have the same conversion experience as Saul.  Most of us will not move from a life of physical violence and breathing murderous threats to being blinded by the light and then preaching the word of God three days later.  Saul’s experience was unique.  Most people who are now Christians have undergone a more gradual process of conversion. Regardless of the process, gradual or sudden, all share the same experience of moving from death to life, from chaos and dividedness, unto a life of order, unity, and light.  Saul who once breathed murderous threats received the Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit all believers receive.  Saul would say “22 The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23a). Saul’s words are great evidence that he had been healed by God.

Secondly, “when you hear, ‘State of Emergency,’ ‘Sniper Kills Ten!’ ‘Troops on Rampage.’ ‘Youth Go Looting,’ Bomb Blast School!’ It is but the sound of man worshipping his maker.”  Those who make headlines with violence and chaos do so because they, like Saul, do not have God in their life.  Those who do not make headlines but cause injury, pain, and hardship to others behind closed doors do not have God in their life.  When making headlines or not these people are profoundly unhappy, meanspirited because they are lost.  They are spiritually lost.  Missing from them is anything resembling the Spirit of “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23a).  They are lost in their own anger and hopelessness, and they will remain that way unless God’s intervening Spirit comes and heals them.  We should pray for them and recognize that we cannot heal them.  They must be healed by God.  And when we sense that healing is occurring, we should act like Ananias did for Saul and come to convey the grace of God upon them.

Lastly, even Christians can become lost in their own anger, tiredness, and hopelessness.  When we find ourselves in this state, and most of us will at some time experience a dividedness within us, we need to know that we are, in that moment, no longer worshipping our maker, God.  When we find the Spirit of “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control” is not within us, then we must stop.  We must stop and pray, “God heal me.  God heal the dividedness within me.  Bind up my broken heart.  Mend me. Restore your Spirit within me.” Friends, know that when we pray for restoration and healing, God will honor that prayer.  He has no desire to break us or cast us to rock bottom.  God will heal us and bring us to that place where we can once again worship Him as our maker.  Let us pray.