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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. (Amen.)
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
On this morning that earlier forecasts of extreme winter-weather prompted Pilgrim’s leaders to cancel our usual every-Sunday Divine Service and have this virtual-only Matins Service, I want to start out with a little Hot Chocolate—no, not the heated drink consisting of cocoa powder, warm milk or water, and a sweetener that we call “hot chocolate”, but the British soul band named “Hot Chocolate”. You do not have to be very old to know Hot Chocolate’s 19‑75 hit Rhythm and Blues song titled “You Sexy Thing”, as the song subsequently was used in television commercials for Burger King sandwiches and for Pantene’s Pro‑V conditioner, not to mention the song’s featuring prominently in a Hollywood movie. The song’s first and often‑repeated line “I believe in miracles” relates to the singer’s self‑described “heavenly” transformation from being on his own and lonely to being with someone and in ecstasy. In today’s First Reading for the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, not humans’ erotic love but God’s self‑sacrificial love in Christ is behind the truly‑heavenly transformation of the Pharisee Saul, one of the “Way’s”, or “Christianity’s”, chief op‑ponents, to the Apostle Paul, one of Christianity’s chief pro‑ponents. His transformation is no more or less miraculous than our transformations. In fact, to paraphrase Hot Chocolate, we might say that “Each of us believes because of a miracle”. (Confer and compare Brockman, CPR 36:1, pp.69-71.)
Today’s First Reading is the Divinely‑inspired St. Luke’s narrative account of St. Paul’s conversion from the book of Acts. Acts later also records St. Paul himself twice re‑telling accounts of his conversion (Acts 22:3-21; 26:9-20), and, in his own “epistles”, or “letters”, St. Paul also refers to his conversion, as we heard in today’s Second Reading (Galatians 1:11-24). In that Second Reading, St. Paul briefly contrasts his former life in Judaism, how he persecuted the Church of God violently and tried to destroy it, with his latter life in Christianity, for which life God had set him apart before he was born and to which life God called him by grace. So, we should think also of God the Father’s involvement in St. Paul’s conversion, even though the First Reading does not mention God the Father but describes Jesus, the Son of God’s, appearing to Saul on the road to Damascus and refers to Saul’s being filled with the Holy Spirit at the hand of Ananias.
Multiple Scriptural accounts of St. Paul’s conversion from His encountering the resurrected Jesus Christ have not stopped others from speculating that something like sunspots, or seizures, or psychosis were behind what happened to Saul, though none of such alternate explanations account for all of the details that we heard. Rather than those alternate explanations, the holy God appeared to an unholy man, who fell to the ground and was blinded in order to serve God’s purposes. Despite Saul’s religious upbringing, theological education, and vocation as a Pharisee, he did not truly know the God he claimed to serve, Who had revealed Himself in Jesus. Later, St. Paul described himself as, “the chief of sinners”, as we sang of ourselves in the Office Hymn (Lutheran Service Book 611; confer 1 Timothy 1:15 KJV, ASV). Truly, by nature, you and I are no better than Saul. We also by nature are ignorant of God and opposed to Him, spiritually dead in our trespasses and sins, and deserving of both death here and now and torment in hell for eternity, apart from our being enabled by God to repent as Saul did, as perhaps is evident by his fasting and praying in Damascus.
The Church Year’s current season of Epiphany emphasizes God’s revealing Himself in the human flesh of the man Jesus, and Jesus’s appearance to Saul on the road to Damascus is arguably the greatest revelation of the Son of God in the man Jesus during what we call His state of exaltation, after His burial, when the man Jesus fully and always uses the Divine attributes or powers communicated to Him by the Son of God on account of their Personal Union. My making such proclamation is not essentially different than Saul’s proclaiming in the synagogues of Damascus that Jesus is the Son of God and Saul’s proving to the Jews living there that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah the long‑promised Savior. So also the Lord identified Himself to Saul as “Jesus”, which name refers to the Lord’s saving His people as from their sins (Matthew 1:21). Out of God’s great self‑sacrificial love for even our fallen humanity, Jesus took our sins to the cross and there died as our substitute, in our place, the death that we deserved, and He was resurrected on the third day. When we turn in sorrow from our sins and trust God to forgive our sins by grace for Jesus’s sake, then God does forgive us: God forgives our sinful natures and all our actual sins, whatever our actual sins might be.
God forgives us through His chosen instruments: through men like Ananias and St. Paul, preaching His Gospel to groups such as this group, even groups gathered virtually via Jitsi, and administering His Gospel to individuals with water in Holy Baptism, with touch in Holy Absolution, and with bread that is the Body of Christ given for us and wine that is the Blood of Christ shed for us in the Holy Supper. Even what then-Senator Al Gore called the “information superhighway” can be, as it were, our road to Damascus! Through God’s Word and Sacraments God works the miracles of our conversions, just as God worked the miracle of Saul’s conversion. The means of our miraculous conversions may be more humble than with Saul, but our 180‑degree turn is no less dramatic than his. Truly, “Each of us believes because of a miracle”.
Today’s Collect of the Day will pray that God, Who turned the heart of him who persecuted the Church and by His preaching caused the light of the Gospel to shine throughout the world, would grant us ever both to rejoice in the saving light of the Gospel and, following the example of the apostle Paul, to spread the light of the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Of course, we spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth both together as part of this congregation and the Church‑at‑large and individually according to our vocations. The one Holy Spirit leads us all to repent and believe and gives us different gifts in order for us to serve our families, congregation, and other communities (Ephesians 4:4; 1 Corinthians 12:4). And, not we, but the Holy Spirit convinces those to whom we speak. If they reject the message spoken by us, they reject not us but the One Who sent us (for example, Luke 10:16). And, such rejection can lead to our suffering for the sake of God’s Name, as rejection led to St. Paul’s suffering, but we can rejoice in our suffering and know that our suffering eventually will come to an end. As Jesus describes in today’s Third Reading (Matthew 19:27-30), everyone who has left houses, or family, or lands for His Name’s sake will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.
Maybe on this cold morning the “hot chocolate” that you might desire most was not the “Hot Chocolate” with which I began. But, God’s being willing, you have come to appreciate my paraphrase of Hot Chocolate, that “Each of us believes because of a miracle”. With faith in Christ, we have peace and joy already now, and we will experience that peace and joy most-fully on the Last Day. As we prayed in the Additional Psalm (Psalm 67:1-7; antiphon: v.5), God is gracious to us and blesses us and makes His face shine upon us (confer Numbers 6:22-27), so that His way may be known on earth, His saving power among all nations.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Amen.)
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +