An excellent homily was preached at the opening Eucharist of our Diocesan Clergy Day this morning.

It was preached by The Rev. Dr. Canon Richard LeSeur, Rector of St. George’s Cadboro Bay. He graciously sent me his notes which I have posted below.

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Conversion of St. Paul : January 25, 2012

So let’s think for a few minutes about  . .the conversion of St. Paul

and the God who seeks to transform human life

and do so in the name of the Holy and Blessed One,

Creator, Saviour and Holy Spirit.

By the time Paul headed out under the towering stone fortifications of the Damascus Gate in the walled city of Jerusalem he was already about 40 years of age.

(from Acts 9) “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.”

He had gone to the High Priest and asked for letters to the synagogue at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them to Jerusalem  . . bound  . .

There is no evidence that he was carrying out an official policy; it was a personal choice. Indeed  . . it had become a personal vendetta  . . all consuming now as he embarked on the seven to eight day journey north . .

Jerome Murphy O’Connor of the E’Cole Biblique ( the French archaeological institute in Jerusalem )says that by that point, Paul had been in Jerusalem for about 20 years.

Twenty years earlier he had arrived in Jerusalem at the age of 19 or 20, a recent graduate in rhetoric from the University of Tarsus, as an observant Jew who sought to immerse himself in the roots of his Judaism – his identity to live in an authentically Jewish world.

In Philippians he explains that he became a Pharisee  (Phil 3:5)… He couldn’t become a priest … he was not of the house of Levi. He didn’t have the social standing of the Sadducees. Pharisaism  was virtually his only option, and they were pleased to accept recruits

Already as an observant Jew:

  • he had been raised in the tradition of the 613 percepts of the Law
  • He would have understood that observance as Jew mean compromise was not possible – that one could not opt to observe merely a selection of the laws – It was all or nothing

As he grew into the life of the Pharisees he succeeded at it immensely.

By his own hand .. in the letter to the Galatians, he describes how  . .  in the first half of his life, he had advanced in Judaism beyond many Jews his own age -

“so extremely zealous was I for the tradition of my fathers…. “blameless”   “even . .  in observation of the laws”

And he poured himself out for it all.  And you do that for 20 years  . . you give your life to that….

And then something new begins to erupt in the Temple precincts:

claiming the arrival of the Messiah
the outpouring of the Holy Spirit
that begins to spread like wildfire

The Acts of the Apostles gives a vivid account of

  • the electrified proclamation to Jesus’ resurrection by his followers  . .  in the Temple
  • their faithfulness in prayer and worship
  • the rapid expansion of their numbers

And Paul becomes embroiled in the urgency to suppress this proclamation of Jesus as Messiah, because the present and future were clearly distinguished:

  • The present was guided by the Law of Moses – you observed it faithfully
  • The Messiah was the figure of the future who would one day inaugurate a new age where there would no longer be a need for the Law

The insistence of the disciples that Jesus was the Messiah claimed that the two phases of Jewish history were overlapping

  • the Messiah had appeared in the period of the Law
  • people whom the law had rejected as “sinners” – could be accepted
  • the outpouring of the Spirit – promised as something still in the future

The coexistence of the Law and the Messiah was impossible. Jews did not need two saviours.   They were either saved through the Law – or saved by the Messiah.

There was no doubt on which side Paul stood

  • He recounts to the Philippians – how I” became a persecutor of the church”
  • To the Galatians  .. how I “violently persecuted the church and trying to destroy it”
  • appears to have been present – or even presided – over the stoning of Stephen

Now he is headed off to Damascus to round up any others of this dangerous sect.

I guess the thing is anytime a person becomes so embittered  . . consumed, even seeking to cause harm, you know something else is being worked out, something deep is being threatened

I mean  – if you think of it… everything that Paul has given his life to is being challenged by the new movement.

Gamaliel is saying – ‘look if it’s not of God  . . don’t worry it will fade out’

But for Paul his whole “order” is being threatened, everything he has served  . . sustained. He has been faithful  . . observant  . . meticulous

He has served the Temple, served the institution, taught the traditions, restrained himself  . . harnessed himself  . . given his life !

So what happened as he gets outside the city  . .  on this eight day journey  . . as he gets beyond all the structures which have sustained and reinforced his role and identities – as he gets away from all the pressures, gets beyond all that  . . and the landscape opens up… perhaps another conversation begins to occur about what he’s becoming  . . what he’s doing  . . ? Tthings that have become part of his life now  . . maybe feel like a long way from where it all began

tired  . . and dry inside  . . . even as he also carries in his memory those he had caused to suffer, their words, their witness, their conviction . .

I’m not so sure God’s intervention happens without there being a readiness  . . in the human soul, something by which we have already been broken open  . .

Sometimes in life we have to ask:

What’s the conversation I am not having with myself?

And maybe that’s what starts happening for him – The divine encounter that comes for Paul  . . on that road becomes absolutely life- changing .. as we hear and will forever lie beyond our scrutiny.

To the Philippians he writes, “I was apprehended by Christ Jesus”  – 3:12 overtaken claimed  . .    and blinded,  blind – insofar  . . that he no longer can “see” the way ahead, neither can he go back to what was before  . .

He doesn’t know the way forward or back  . . blind

And he’s brought into the care of the Christian community in Damascus where he begins to work everything out again – for the second half of life.

Jung said the first half of life  . . is all about the task of establishing ourselves in the outer world of performance, achievement – success – making it. But the second half  . . is about the soul’s journey

There’s a theological College in – - England which – some years ago – approached one of Europe’s finest icon painters and asked if she would be willing to – paint a huge icon to appear at the front of their chapel. The artist agreed. She proposed the design of the Reigning Christ – holding in his arms the Book of Life.

But she said I want YOU – the college – to determine what the words will be that will appear on the outside of the book that Christ is holding.

So the College – turned the question to the students and invited them to propose texts. The students put their submissions in a box by the main office. And so – at the end of the week – at Friday chapel – the result was announced.

80% of the students selected the same text – 80% – Jesus words

“You did not choose me – but I chose you.”

Choose you  . . at the front of a chapel in a theological college

Sometimes  . . and at times when we are really ready  . .  we can hear that call again  . . strong and true and deep  . . and full of grace  . . afresh

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