Turn-Around!

Reading: Acts 9.1-20
One of the regular attractions in side-show alley for many years is the merry-go-round. Unlike some rides, it doesn't "go anywhere" - just round and round. The "octopus" does that too, but it is more complex and gives bigger thrills.

In Ayr, we have quite a number of "roundabaouts". They slow cars down at intersections and help to sort out the traffic. I have seen a car go round and round a roundabout a couple of times for fun, but that's not their purpose. We may have done that accidentally ourselves when we missed a turn-out.

Today we aren't talking about merry-go-rounds or roundabouts, but about "turn-arounds". Sometimes politicians will promise one thing to catch our votes, but, when they gain power, they find some reason why it can't be done. What a turn-around!

Conversion

Not all turn-arounds are bad. Our Christian word for a good turn-around is "conversion". That's the point at which we turn from our own way to God's way.

It is helpful to talk about conversion as a two-fold turn. Part of it we call "repentance". That's the turn from sin. The other part is "faith". That's the turn to God - receiving his forgiveness and living under his Lordship.

Steve was telling me this week that the rain that falls on the front of his parent's house at Eungella flows out into the Pioneer River. What falls on the back of the house ends up in the Burdekin.

The Great Divide - so we learnt at school - isn't always a range. It certainly is at Toowoomba, but isn't very marked between Alpha and Jericho. Yet in both cases the Great Divide marks whether water will flow into the Pacific Ocean or will head west - whether into the Murray-Darling system or towards Lake Eyre.

For a person who has "kicked over the traces", "gone off the rails" or in some other way strongly resisted the call of God, conversion will be typically dramatic - like the range at Toowoomba.

For a person brought up in a Christian home and receiving spiritual training without resentment, conversion will be gentle - almost imperceptible but definite. There may be no obvious point of conversion - no "day" to which a person can point. Yet it is clear that their life is "flowing" God's way.

There is no stereotype for conversion. Don't envy the person who can quote day and hour. Rejoice with them! The question isn't when? or how?, but is our life "flowing" God's way? We don't have to have been a "vilest sinner" to know that we are trusting Christ alone as our Saviour and Lord.

On the Damascus Road

Saul was a young man who came down from Tarsus in the north to study under the great Jewish teacher, Gamaliel. He hadn't ever seen Jesus, but was strongly opposed to all who were followers of Jesus' "Way". He saw the stoning of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, and approved - "the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul" (Acts 7.58; 8.1).

Today's reading begins with him "still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples" (9.1). He was determined to eliminate this Jesus movement -"the Way", they called them - and went to the high priest to get letters to the synagogues in Damascus enlisting their support to bring any of the "Way" people back as prisoners to Jerusalem.

But while he was on the way, something happened that led to his complete turn-around. "As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?' 'Who are you, Lord?' Saul asked. 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting, he replied. Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do'." (Acts 9.3-6) Paul was blind and needed help to get into Damascus. For three days he didn't eat or drink.

Ananias was a disciple in Damascus. He saw a vision in which the Lord was asking him to go and lay hands on Saul to restore his sight. Ananias was afraid. Surely, Lord, you know how he has harmed your people in Jerusalem. And now he hs come here to Damascus with authority to arrest "all who call on your name". Lord, I think you've made a mistake!

"Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name" (vv. 15-16).

It seemed such an unlikely and dangerous task, but the Lord said, "Go!", and Ananias went. "Brother Saul, the Lord - Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here - has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit" (v. 17).

Saul had undergone a complete turn-around. "At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.… Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ" (vv. 20,22).

We know him as the apostle Paul. He was one of the first Christian missionaries. Thirteen of the letters he wrote to churches and individuals are in the New Testament. What a turn-around!

The Risen Christ

We recall Thomas. He wanted evidence that Jesus really was alive. When he had the evidence, he said, "My Lord and my God!" (Jn 20.28).

It was like that for Saul. He was completely against the followers of the Way because he believed that Jesus was a fraud and that, after the crucifixion, he had stayed dead. The knowledge that Jesus is alive made all the difference. During those three days of blindness, he would have done a great deal of thinking and praying. He already had all the Biblical foundations. The resurrection fitted all the pieces into place - Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

Twice later in Acts we hear Paul telling the story of his turn-around all over again (22.1-21 before the crowd in Jerusalem and 26.2-23 before King Agrippa).

The learned people of Athens were intrigued to hear Paul's "foreign gods" - he "was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection" (17.19). The Greek word for "resurrection" is anastasis, a feminine noun - the name of a goddess, perhaps?

But no - "[God] he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead" (v. 31). Jesus Christ is risen! He is alive from the dead!

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul records several of Jesus' resurrection appearances - "and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born" (1 Cor. 15.8). That was so important to Paul - "I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect" (vv. 9-10).

Jesus is risen! What does that mean for us? It is more than a kind of ho-hum bit of history. It is more than an exciting bit of celebration - a bright point in a mundane year. It is downright revolutionary, a turn-around point that changes the perspective of all our life. Paul wrote, "By the grace of God I am what I am". What changes of life and direction do we allow the grace of God to bring about in us? God is ready - are we?


© Peter J. Blackburn, Ayr Uniting Church, 25 April 2004
Except where otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the New International Version, © International Bible Society, 1984.

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