Easter 3C Rev. Darrell Debowey Immanuel Lutheran Church, Springfield, IL April 14, 2013 Acts 9:1-22: 1 But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? 5 And he said, Who are you, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 6 But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do. 7 The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. 8 Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. 9 And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank. 10 Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Here I am, Lord. 11 And the Lord said to him, Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, 12 and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight. 13 But Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. 14 And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name. 15 But the Lord said to him, Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. 16 For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name. 17 So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. 18 And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; 19 and taking food, he was strengthened. For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. 20 And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, He is the Son of God. 21 And all who heard him were amazed and said, Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests? 22 But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ. Love Your Enemies Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Grace to you The text for today s message is from the reading from Acts, the 9th chapter. INTRODUCTION Page 1
Three times in the Gospels Jesus says, Love your enemies In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven (Matt. 5:44-45a). In Luke s Gospel, Jesus says, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you (Luke 6:27-28). And again in Luke s Gospel, But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for He is kind to the ungrateful and the evil (Luke 6:35). The Church has lots of enemies a never-ending supply. So that means you have lots of opportunity to love and to pray for enemies of the church like Bill Maher of HBO s Real Time, who weekly breathes out insults against the Christian faith. In 2011 he breathed out this insult: In today s Republican party there s a term for people who hate charity and love killing: Christian. That seems to be the attitude of Hollywood in general. But it isn t just Hollyweird. Many of you may be familiar with Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, who angrily denounced a shareholder at last month s shareholders meeting because the shareholder questioned the wisdom of Starbucks support for same-sex marriage in light of the effectiveness of a boycott by an pro-family organization. He told the shareholder, If you feel, respectfully, that you can get a higher return than the 38% you got last year, it s a free country. You can sell your shares in Starbucks and buy shares in another company. Thank you very much. Then there s Joel Stein, columnist for the Los Angeles Times, who wrote this for Starbucks: Heaven is totally overrated. It seems boring. Clouds, listening to people play the harp. It should be somewhere you can t wait to go, like a luxury hotel. Maybe blue skies and soft Page 2
music were enough to keep people in line in the 17th century, but Heaven has to step it up a bit. They re basically getting by because they only have to be better than Hell. The Church has many enemies as a Christian, you have many enemies. It s far easier to hate them than to love them; it s far easier to write them off than to pray for them. BUT TODAY, I WANT YOU TO CONSIDER THAT GOD WHO CHANGES ENEMIES INTO FRIENDS BY THE POWER OF HIS GOSPEL MAY HAVE A PURPOSE AND A PLAN FOR THE PEOPLE WE CALL ENEMIES. I. Saul and others go from enemies to friends. Take Saul, for instance. Here s a man who hated Christianity he hated Christians. He watched the coats of those who stoned Stephen to death. Luke writes in our text: 1 But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Saul thinks he s doing the right thing he wants to destroy this new religion and he does so with zeal. He s Bill Maher of his day. He s on his way to Damascus when he encounters the risen Christ. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? That should give a measure of comfort to Christians everywhere knowing that an attack on the Christians is actually an attack on Christ. Paul asks, Who are you, Lord? And Jesus says, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do. Having been struck blind, Saul is led to Damascus where he waits for three days. In Damascus, the Lord goes to Ananias and tells him to go to Saul and heal him of his blindness. Now, you can imagine Ananias reluctance. This is an enemy of Christianity he s Page 3
come to arrest Christians and take them back to Jerusalem. So, Ananias responds to Jesus call, Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. 14 And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name. But what does Jesus say about this enemy of the faith: Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. 16 For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name. And so he does the Lord s bidding. And Saul is healed and baptized, and immediately, Luke writes, Paul begins preaching Jesus as the Son of God in the synagogues. In fact, the people are stunned by the change in Paul: Isn t this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests? Who would have ever thought that the great Pharisee Saul a zealous enemy of the Church, would become the great Apostle Paul, the man Jesus would use to establish churches throughout the Gentile world. There s probably no greater enemy of Christianity in our modern world than practitioners of Islam, yet Al-Jazeerah, the Arabic news channel, reported at the end of last year in an interview with Sheikh Ahmad Al Katani, the president of The Companions Lighthouse for the Science of Islamic Law in Libya, that 6 million Muslims convert to Christianity in Africa each year. Stunned, the interviewer interrupted the cleric, Hold on! Let me clarify. Do we have six million converting from Islam to Christianity? But the cleric repeated his assertion by saying Every year a tragedy has happened. In Russia, 2 million Muslims have converted to Christianity, while just 2500 Christians have converted to Islam. Page 4
In 2008, Christianity Today published a survey of 750 Muslims who converted to Christianity. There were five predominant reasons for their conversion: 1) The lifestyle of Christians. Former Muslims cited the love that Christians exhibited in their relationships with non-christians and their treatment of women as equals. 2) The power of God in answered prayers and healing. Experiences of God s supernatural work especially important to folk Muslims who have a characteristic concern for power and blessings increased after their conversions, according to the survey. Often dreams about Jesus were reported. 3) Dissatisfaction with the type of Islam they had experienced. Many expressed dissatisfaction with the Qur an, emphasizing God's punishment over his love. Others cited Islamic militancy and the failure of Islamic law to transform society. 4) The spiritual truth in the Bible. Muslims are generally taught that the Torah, Psalms, and the Gospels are from God, but that they became corrupted. These Christian converts said, however, that the truth of God found in Scripture became compelling for them and key to their understanding of God s character. 5) Biblical teachings about the love of God. In the Qur an, God s love is conditional, but God's love for all people was especially eye-opening for Muslims. These converts were moved by the love expressed through the life and teachings of Jesus. The next step for many Muslims was to become part of a fellowship of loving Christians. II. The Gospel changes us from enemies to friends. Enemies of the Church abound like the Muslims, like Bill Maher and the majority of Hollywood, like many in corporate and political America. But Jesus calls on us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us because we don t know what kinds of plans and Page 5
purposes God has even for those who are our enemies today. After all, look at the plan and purpose He had for each one of you. It s kind of hard to understand, especially if you ve been a Christian your whole life, but each and every one of you started out as an enemy of God. You were conceived and born in sin dead in your trespasses enemies of God. But God didn t write you off. He sent His Son to die for you while you were still lost in your sins. He gave you the Holy Spirit to convert you from enemy to friend. The apostle writes in Romans (5:10), For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. And in Colossians (1:21-22), And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. God had a plan and a purpose for each one of you long before you were baptized, long before you were even born God had a plan for you. You may not be a great apostle like St. Paul, but God has used you in ways you may never fully understand or appreciate until you get to heaven. That s why we love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us because God loved us while we were yet His enemies. And Jesus prays for us even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins. And as God has a plan and purpose for us, even while we were His enemies, so He may very likely have a plan and a purpose for those we call enemies today. Conclusion: There is the famous account of Monica, the mother of St. Augustine. Augustine is perhaps Page 6
the greatest mind in the history of Christianity. Yet, before he became a Christian, Augustine was a self-proclaimed pagan and lazy slob. Yet his mother prayed for him for seventeen years she prayed for his conversion. And finally she was able to live long enough to see him baptized by the St. Ambrose, the great bishop of Milan. And Augustine Himself went on to become Bishop of the church in Hippo, where He wrote against false teachers and helped Christians to better understand the grace of God. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you because one day God may make them His people and your friends. In Jesus Name. Amen! Christ is Risen! Page 7