Hope in the Face of Modern Persecution: The Conversion of St. Paul


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!”