Acts
9:1-6, (7-20)Psalm 30
Revelation 5:11-14
John 21:1-19
During Easter season we hear lessons
from Acts of the Apostles in place of the Old Testament lesson. Acts is generally accepted as being the
second part of Luke’s gospel. You’ll
recall that Luke was written by a gentile for a gentile audience. Acts is the story of the early days of the
church – the work of Jesus’ apostles Peter and John, Barnabas who was chosen to
replace Judas, Stephen and one other. Today’s lesson from Acts is known as the story
of the Conversion of St. Paul – a Pharisee with a passion for faith of Israel
who actively persecutes Jesus’ followers until he becomes one of them.
The members of the church are
suspicious of him. Even a vision of God
ordering him to visit Paul and lay hands upon him is insufficient to silence
questions from Ananias about the wisdom of such a mission. In the vision God answers, "Go, for he
is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and
before the people of Israel.” The first
part of that response must have come as a surprise to at least some of Jesus’
followers. The gospels portray Jesus
himself saying that his mission is to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel. In the story of the woman who
asks him to heal her daughter, Jesus replies initially that the gentiles are
not the ones to whom his message is directed.
She eventually changes his mind, but not everyone’s. The book of Acts recounts leaders of the
church wrestling with the question of who can and can’t be a member of the
church. The question was – do you have
to be a Jew first? Or can a gentile pass
from polytheism and no knowledge of the law of Moses directly into the
community of Jesus’ followers? There
will always be differences of opinion about what constitutes legitimate,
faithful religious practice. For the
last few years our own church has been pondering the question of whether or not
a person must be baptized in order to receive Communion. Right now in West Missouri you must, but
there are churches in other dioceses that invite all persons, regardless of
baptism to received Communion. In the
first century leaders of the Jerusalem church
thought you did have to be a Jew by
birth or a full convert in order to be a member of the church. In Ephesus or Corinth, in the churches
founded by Paul, the apostle to the gentiles, you did not.
In the early 21st century,
the church faces an environment that some people say is closer to the 1st
century than the 20th. Last
October, a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center showed that 19.6% of
Americans claim no religious affiliation – an increase of nearly 5% over the
previous poll in 2007. 70% of that
unaffiliated group say that they believe in God and many of them pray, meditate
and undertake other practices associated with religion. Three-quarters of the group have been
affiliated with an organized religion in the past. Their top three reasons for letting it go are
that they see it as being too concerned with money and power, too concerned
with rules and too involved in politics.
70% of that unaffiliated group were born after 1980.
A popular definition of religion – one
that is likely close to that held by many of these unaffiliated Americans is:
an institution that has organized matters pertaining to belief and derives its
authority from external sources such as creeds and persons who are accorded
authority such as members of the clergy.
For many of the unaffiliated religion
is defined in contrast to spiritualty. You’ve heard the expression “I’m spiritual
but not religious.” In that context, the
definition of spirituality is something like: an experience that connects one with a deeper
sense of self and of the divine wherein authority is validated through internal
sources, the sense that what one has experienced is true. If this sounds familiar, it’s because it’s
the language of mysticism, the original Evangelicals and Paul, the apostle to
the gentiles.
Historically the interplay between spirituality
and the institutional aspects of religion has been an ebb and flow. During their times of relative ascendancy we
benefit from its positive aspects: the
historical grounding, orderly processes and skilled leadership of institutional
religion and the energy, fluidity and wide circle of leadership characteristic
of spirituality that is relatively unhindered by institutional religion. We also cope with their respective down sides: the stagnation, hypocrisy, self-centeredness
and authoritarian culture of organized religion and the unregulated and
sometimes harmful charismatic leadership and lack of core convictions
associated with spirituality without institutional order.
We’re emerging from a century in which
institutional religion was dominant.
Power frequently produces the seeds of its own decay. With organized religion we observed it in the last
three decades with wrangling over human sexuality, child abuse scandals and the
mix of conservative politics and religion that reached fever pitch after
September 11, 2001.
Paul’s experience in today’s gospel
lesson shows us a middle way through the ebb and flow of spirituality and
institutional religion. His vision on
the Damascus road is one of profound wonder.
He moves from the immediate impact of it to a time of solitary prayer
and fasting during which he remains blind.
In this radically solitary state of being he is left alone with God to
reflect upon his experience and come to his own decision about its validity and
meaning . After a time he emerges from
solitude. It is important to note that
he rejoins with world and enters the community of Jesus’ followers through
ritual, the laying on of hands by Ananias.
Ancient tradition and practice ascribe meaning to that action. In the church we offer it to those who desire
healing. We use it as the church’s
response to the adult affirmation of baptismal vows in Confirmation and to set
persons apart for mission through Holy Orders.
Although no one knows the full meaning
of it at the time, when Ananias lays hands on Paul they enact through ritual
all three of these momentous transitions.
Ritual has the power to unite the tradition and practice of the
institution with the spiritual experience of the individual believer.
Paul was a real person. There are no original copies of his letters,
but other contemporary evidence allows us to date them. The earliest of them that we have was written
and sent to the church he founded with his colleague Silas at Thessaloniki two
decades after Jesus’ death. In the
context of the first century, Paul represents the fluidity, risk taking and
openness of unhindered spirituality defined in contrast to the church’s nascent
institutional center at Jerusalem. But the ideas he developed in his letters are
foundational to the most central teachings and traditions of the church.
The Episcopal Church and our own
parish are in a position to reach out to the many people who now identify
themselves as unaffiliated with religion.
Many of them express admiration for the church’s care for persons in
need; many would like to have a part in the kind of mission centered community that
grows out of religious belief. We need
always to be looking for ways to connect with people whose lives could be made
better by the church and who could make the church better by their presence. That includes listening to what people have
to say about their own experience of religion and spirituality and inviting
them to visit when you have an opportunity.
There are times when the most
authentic expression of faith lies not in reverence for tradition but in taking
risks, opening the circle of leadership and extending community beyond old
boundaries. I believe that like Paul, we
live in such a time.
No comments:
Post a Comment