Scene 1:
Saul: (Sigh)
You see, I had everything figured out, before that fateful
day, on my way to Damascus.
I believed that there was an answer to any question under
the sun within my rigorous, zealous, version of the Jewish tradition—it was all
found in the Law of God. This certainty was worth defending, even with torture,
violence, and murder.
You hear me, right? Certainty was worth violence.
For example, God help me, there were these disturbances,
first Peter and John in the Temple, then later… Stephen… and his trial…
Disturbances by those so called “Followers of the Way” who
believed Jesus—this crucified man—was the Messiah, the Blessed One of God. I
knew that couldn’t be true, after all it is written in Deuteronomy 21:23: “All
who die upon a tree are cursed.” (Deut. 21:23) So I was certain that
Jesus couldn’t be God’s Blessed One, for he died accursed. I believed that the
Way must be destroyed by all means necessary!
So, I went hunting heretics. After we bundled Stephen up and
stoned him to death, they scattered, and I followed where I could, forcing them
to renounce Jesus—imprisonment, torture, execution—whatever I needed to do, I
did, for the sake of clarity and certainty.
Then I heard gossip—intel—suggesting some Followers of the
Way had set up shop at a synagogues in Damascus. So I rushed there to drag them
back to Jerusalem.
And, along the road, I was imagining the throne of God—a
common mystical practice for some of the devout… and then it was there. Heaven!
Heaven slashed down to earth—a frightening Holy light. On the throne though—the
King, the one enthroned in heaven… asked me the strangest of questions.
Jesus: Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?
Saul: Who are you?
Jesus: I am Jesus, who you are persecuting. Get up,
go into Damascus, and you’ll be told your fate.
Saul: So, here’s the thing you need to know… while
all that was going on, that vision of heaven that took away my vision, my
traveling companions… my bruit squad… were petrified, for they heard the voice
of Jesus too!
Then blinded by the vision of Jesus as the Heavenly Messiah
seated on the heavenly throne, my goons turned into my nursemaids. For three
days, I could neither eat nor drink.
Scene 2:
Ananias: I’d heard about him, Saul the Zealot. He had a
reputation as a fierce man—an Asian Jew, he was far enough from Jerusalem to
have a bit of a chip on his shoulder about it. He was hyper aware of gentile
culture, a despiser of it… even as that culture was the water he swam in… he
would not bend to any rule or make any compromise, even as he was fluent in Greek
and Roman affluence.
I’d even heard rumors he was coming our way… I’d heard
rumors, then I heard something so much more.
Jesus: Ananias!
Ananias: Henenni! You see, that’s what you say
when confronted with a supernatural force… Henenni! Here I am. Here I am,
Lord.
Jesus: Get up, go to Straight Street. Go to Jude’s
house and ask for a man from Tarsus, his name is Saul…
Ananias: Oh no!
Jesus: You’ll see him praying. He has seen in a
vision a man named Ananias…
Ananias: Oh no… that’s me.
Jesus: Yes… yes it is… Saul has seen you coming and
laying hands on him and healing his blindness.
Ananias: Well… Lord. I’ve heard about Saul, of Tarsus…
A lot of people talk about Saul of Tarsus…
they talk about how he is persecuting your Holy Ones, your Disciples, in
Jerusalem… and how he’s coming here frothing mad, waving paperwork from the
chief priests back in Jerusalem. He wants to tie us up and drag us back there
to do to us what was done to poor Stephen. Anyone who calls on your name, Lord,
is captured. If I say “Jesus is Lord” is done for.
Jesus: Ananias, just go… Saul is the one I’ve chosen
to carry my name before foreigners and rulers—and to his own people as well. I
am also going to show him how he must suffer for my names sake.
Ananias: With that I skedaddled, to Straight Street and
found Jude’s house, ducked in, found that persecutor, and laid hands on him.
Scene 3:
Annanias: Brother Saul, Jesus—who appeared to you on
the road as you were coming here—the Lord, sent me to you, so that you can see
again and receive the Holy Spirit.
Saul: And just like that these things, like scales,
fell from my eyes. I could again see. The first sight, this man, clearly
terrified of me. Yet he helped me up and baptized me! He gave me food, and my
weakness left me.
Community, baptism, meal… and with that I was sent to tell
people the good news: Jesus is Lord!
Scene 4:
Annanias: With that he was off and running. Preaching
in Synagogues and in the street, to zealots and Pharisees, philosophers,
sailors, and kings.
He even changed his name to make himself more relatable to Greek
Speakers… did you know Saul means something like Prancer in Greek…
Paul’s ministry to non-Jews, to a Pagan world, honed the
Gospel message.
The Blessed One’s resurrection is the beginning of a new
world—all the divisions and rules of the past were captive to Sin and Death,
even the blessed Law that gave Paul so much certainty—infected by death’s perilous
power.
But now, all the powers that enslave us—every category that
causes us to act against the Spirit of God—are overcome by Christ—truly it is a
new day, a new age, a new world. All those slave contracts of the old world are
replaced with adoption papers—Through Christ we are all God’s Children!
He set up these small communities across present day Turkey
and Greece, who strove to live reconciled lives together in the Spirit,
redeeming all the Powers of the old age in preparation for and as a foretaste
of the complete unfolding of the New Age of Christ. It is here and it is coming
soon!
Amen!
