Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
While I was in England, I got to
hear Andrew White, the Vicar of St. George’s in Baghdad, speak. It was an
eye-opening event. He told the stories of those affected by the recent attacks
by ISIS. One man felt pain in believing he had betrayed “his Jesus” by giving
in to ISIS’s demands for his family to convert to Islam. White also gave a
heart wrenching account of children who were killed because they refused to
deny their Lord Jesus to the ISIS soldiers.
Jesus’ warning in the Gospel today
is clearly still poignant for us. There are those in the world who hate those
who confess their faith in Jesus, and are willing to kill them for their
beliefs.
But there is still hope, in spite
of the pain and suffering going on around the world. And we see that hope
clearly in the example of St. Paul and his conversion, which we celebrate here
today.
In Acts, we have heard the story of
Paul giving an account to King Agrippa about his call to the faith of the Way.
He began, like the soldiers of ISIS, as a man trying to turn the early
Christians away from their faith, and ordering the deaths of those who would
not turn away from Jesus.
But in the midst of the suffering
Paul caused, God was in control and had a plan. He turned the destruction Paul
wrought into a new hope and witness to God. And He did so in the most dramatic
way possible, through the revelation through light and sound from Heaven.
In the Gospel, Jesus tells us not
to worry, because whatever may befall us, the Spirit of God is with us, to lead
us, to guide us, to speak through us. He is there with us to help us proclaim
His love for the world in the death of His Son, Jesus Christ, and he is there
to help transform suffering, whether that transformation is through the words
we proclaim or something as powerful as a voice and a light from heaven.
This isn’t to say that there won’t
be hardships for us along the way. Jesus warns us that there will be. But we
can take comfort because He is there with us to guide and be present in the
trials we face. And only He can transform sorrow into joy in His saving Grace,
as we see in the conversion of St. Paul.
And so for Christ’s presence and
the hope we have in the change from violence to repentance in Paul’s
conversion, we can say “Thanks be to God!”