Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
Original Manuscript:
We wouldn't celebrate the conversion of Paul if there wasn't a reason for him to convert, if there wasn't some reason, some need, for him to change. It's not that Paul wasn't religious; he very much was that. It's not that Paul couldn't follow rules; he was one of the best there was at that. The issue with Paul before his conversion is that he was too wrapped up in duty.
That might seem to be an unusual thing to say. That often seems to be what church is about: duty. We are to perform our duty to God and show up at least once a week. We even speak of duty directly in the Rite I Eucharistic Prayer, starting right before the Sanctus, the "Holy, Holy, Holy".
The problem with duty, though, is we can make an idol of it. We can follow duty as our god so closely that we forget to listen to what our actual God is saying.
That is precisely what happened to Paul. He was so focused on his duty, that he failed to pay attention. His duty was to keep his religion pure from those who would corrupt it. His duty was to bring liars and heretics from destroying the faith by wiping them out according to the law.
The problem is that in holding on to his duty to the old, Paul failed to see how God was acting anew. He failed to see how God was fulfilling the prophecies of old. He didn't keep his eyes and ears open to how God was acting in the world.
All the whole, God was trying to reach him. And God wanted to reach Paul so thoroughly, that He shouted so loud that Paul could not but hear Him. He got Paul's attention so thoroughly that Paul could do nothing but listen.
And thank God for Paul, and for us, that He did. Without Paul, we wouldn't be where we are as Christians today. After all, a sizable chunk of the New Testament was written by him. And we here at this church certainly wouldn't bear his name.
We all want to be good and faithful servants of God. We all want to do what is right and good in our lives. So it is easy for us to fall prey, like Paul, to making our duty into a false idol. The problem with that is it makes us lazy. It makes us stop listening to God. It keeps us from hearing Him.
Like Paul, we have a choice. Do we want to simply give homage to our duty, doing no more and no less as duty requires of us? Or do we want to be stronger in our faith? Do we instead want to be constantly listening to what God is saying to us? Do we want ourselves to be constantly shifted, finding ourselves gravitating towards God's ways instead of our own? Will we choose to serve duty, or will we, like Paul, move our minds forward to instead choose to listen and serve God?