The Spirit Awakens

Scripture: Acts 9:1-18

               Several years ago, I was invited to the University of Indianapolis to speak at the Student Leadership Academy. This program was a partnership between the university and the Indiana Conference to help young people discover how they can best make a difference in the world.  It turned out that one of the students knew me.  When I was in seminary I served part time at Epworth UMC in Indianapolis as the youth minister, and she was a child in the church.  When I went on to a full-time appointment after graduation, she was seven.  When I came to speak, she was fifteen and one of the teens attending.  When it was my turn to speak, I began by introducing myself.  As part of the introduction, I started to say, “Perhaps the thing I am best known for” and I did not get to finish the sentence, because this girl who I had not seen for half her life shouted out “Star Wars.” 

​Now that is not what I was going to say, but maybe she is right.  Star Wars is probably something have associated with me for most of life at this point.  It is a somewhat earned reputation.  I really do love all things Star Wars.  The reason why is actually very similar to one of the reasons why I love the Bible so much.  In both instances, I am captivated by the story.  With Star Wars I lose myself in a galaxy far, far away, and in the Bible, I find myself in an epic story of a God who loves us too much to give up on us.  I am entertained by stories of space wizards with laser swords and star fighters, but I am transformed by a story of a King who died for me, but the grave could not hold him.  For very different reasons I love the story of Star Wars and the story of the Bible, but every now and then those two stories intersect, and themes are the same.   This morning’s scripture is one of those places where the two stories I love so much intersect. 

The first part of the book of Acts goes to great lengths to establish Saul as the villain of the story.  The book of Acts starts off with the community of Jesus followers growing, but it also has growing tensions with the Jewish religious leaders.  These clashes keep getting more and more volatile until they finally spill into violence with the stoning of Stephen. Saul was complicit in the murder of the first martyr as Acts 7:58 records, “Meanwhile the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.” 

From this point a general persecution breaks out among the church in Jerusalem, and Acts tells us that Saul was at the forefront of this, he sought to destroy the church, and had many people arrested.  Saul was not finished yet, because by time we get to this morning’s scripture it records “Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples.”  Saul is the bad guy in the story, he is the ultimate villain seeking to destroy the church once and for all.   Yet, this morning’s scripture throws a curveball.  Saul, the enemy of Christ, comes to follow Christ.   The villain is redeemed.  This morning’s scripture records the conversion of Saul, and the book of Acts begins to shift from focusing on Peter and the other disciples to focusing on Saul-now called Paul- and how God uses him to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth. 

This morning’s scripture intersects strongly with Star Wars, because in Star Wars the bad guy, the ultimate villain, is Darth Vader.  He very much looks the part: clad all in black, with a red lightsaber, and menacing breathing.   Despite being the bad guy, at the end of Return of the Jedi, when all seems lost for the good guys, Darth Vader turns back to the light.  He is redeemed.   One of the major themes of Star Wars, one of the major storytelling morals it seeks to communicate is that no one is beyond redemption.  In Star Wars, if Darth Vader can turn back to the light, then it’s not too late for anyone.   That is the same point of this morning’s scripture.  If Saul can come to know Jesus, if God can use the person who persecuted the church to share the good news with the gentiles, then there is no one beyond forgiveness and God can use anyone.   This morning’s scripture is proof that when the Spirit moves, it can awaken even the most hardened of hearts.  When the Spirit awakens in the life of someone, then there is nothing that can separate them from the love of God.  

 This is good news!  This is good news for everyone, but it is especially good news for two specific groups of people.  The first are people who think they have somehow angered God past the point of no return.  While these people may not articulate it as such, they believe that because of their actions they have blown their chance with God.  Often feeling this way keeps people away from church.  Over the years there have been times when someone visits the church I am serving for some reason, and they will make a joke like “I am surprised the walls haven’t fallen down” or “don’t stand too close pastor, the lightning bolt might still be coming.”   I know they are trying to joke around and lighten the mood, but often those jokes come from a place of deep hurt.   There are too many people who believe that something they have done is unforgiveable.  They believe they have messed up, and God is done with them.  

This is simply not true.   There is nothing we can do to make God love us any less.   If there is anyone that deserved to have God make an example of them, it is Saul.   Yet, not only does Saul receive forgiveness, but Jesus also seeks him out.  Jesus meets him where he is at and then arranges for Ananias to care for him.  If Saul, the persecutor of Christ, can be forgiven then there is nothing we can do that can not be forgiven. No one is beyond redemption.   This is the absolute beauty of grace, and the scandal of the cross.  No one, absolutely no one, is beyond forgiveness. There are no exceptions, Jesus died to redeem everyone and cancel out every sin  It does not matter how far one gets from God, it does not matter how many years have passed, it does not matter how big the gulf may seem.  Forgiveness, redemption, and reconciliation with our creator is only one step away.  It only takes turning back to God. 

 The second group of people who most need the good news of this morning’s scripture are people who have been made to feel like that God never wanted them.   This one infuriates me.   It makes me angry because they have been misled by people claiming to follow Jesus.  There are too many people today who have been told by those inside the church that they have no place here.   That this is not for them.  Before he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, this is the very attitude that Saul had.  Saul believed the first Jesus followers were outside the love of God.  He believed that God’s love was not for them, that they were heretics who deserved death.    There is an uncomfortable number of people spread across churches today who have too much in common with pre-conversion Paul.  I know this because there are too many horror stories out there about how people have been hurt by the church.   There are too many people who have been told that they are incompatible with the gospel of Christ, and there are too many people who have been told that just existing as themselves is wrong. 

               Again, this is all simply not true.  Anyone can come to know the all surpassing love of God, and when the Spirit awakens in someone we do not get to sit in judgement and tell them that they are wrong because they do not check all our boxes.  We did not have to meet a certain threshold of good actions before God would accept us.   If that is true for us, then that is true for anyone else.  We should not expect other people to have conform to a standard that we create to be accepted.  The good news that we believe, the good news that we are supposed to proclaim is that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  There are no asterisks or exceptions to that good news.  God sent Jesus because God’s love was for everyone.  There are no outsiders to God’s love. 

               The happy ending of the original Star Wars trilogy is that the good guys win, and Darth Vader is redeemed back the light.  The good news of this morning’s scripture is the same.  No one is beyond redemption, and God’s love is for everyone.   Paul himself wrote as much. Years after his conversion experience in this morning’s scripture, and after multiple missionary trips to share Jesus far and wide, Paul wrote a letter to the church in Rome.  In his letter to the Romans, Paul wrote about God’s love.  Paul was not writing about this in theory, he was writing from a place of experience.  He was writing from the perspective of a person’s who life completely changed when Jesus met him on the road to Damascus.  He was writing from the perspective of a person who had deeply wronged Jesus, but still experienced grace and forgiveness.  He was writing from the perspective a person to whom the Spirit had awakened the true nature of God’s love.   In Romans 8:38-39, Paul wrote these words, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angles nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Friends, may we take this scripture to heart.  If you are here today and you are honestly a little surprised the walls haven’t fallen in yet, then may you know you have nothing to worry about.  Whatever you have done, If you ask  then God will forgive you.   If you have ever been made to feel that God does not want you, then I am so sorry that someone misled you.  God’s love, the grace and new life offered through the death and resurrection is for everyone, and that includes you.  There are no outsides to God’s love, and there is grace enough for everyone. 

If you do consider yourself a follower of Jesus, if you do believe that you are redeemed by grace the may take the scripture to heart as well, and may we live in such a way that communicates to everyone that nothing will separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.   Ananias gives us a good example in this morning’s scripture.  He knew who Paul was, but he was obedient to Christ and accepted Paul anyway.  May we also be quick to accept others, no matter who they are.  Like Ananias was for Paul, may we be quick to accept, quick to offer grace, and quick to invite the Holy Spirit to awaken in their lives. 

One of the core messages of Star Wars is that no one is beyond redemption.  That same message is central to this morning’s scripture, and it is one of the primary truths that all of scripture communicates to us.  May we not be silent, but may we proclaim that good news.  Through how we treat others, through how we invite others, and through how we accept others may our lives testify that we believe there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God.   May we believe that there are no outsiders to God’s love and mean it. In this morning’s scripture Paul turns away from the wrong he was doing and turns to Jesus, the son of God.  May we be willing to tell everyone that if they too repent and believe the gospel, then the Lord will be with you always.