The Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul the Apostle
25 January 2009
A Sermon Preached by the Rev’d Dr Andrew C. Blume
O God, who, by the preaching of thine apostle Paul, hast caused the light of the Gospel o shine throughout the world: Grant, we beseech thee, that we, having his wonderful conversion in remembrance, may show forth our thankfulness unto thee for the same by following the holy doctrine which he taught; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Acts 26:9-21
Psalm 67
Galatians 1:11-24
Matthew 16:16-21
Today we celebrate the feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul the Apostle. Now,
in my sermon last week, I made passing reference to the day as the “so-called”
conversion of Saint Paul. More about this in a minute. I just didn’t want you to think I
had forgotten.
As I have told you before, Paul was never one of my favourite saints and his
epistles did not really capture my imagination until just a few years ago. For saints, give
me a Peter, who denied Jesus at that vital moment, showed his humanity and fallibility,
and was still that one upon whom Christ built his church. For New Testament books,
give me the directness of Mark or the erudition of Matthew or the sophistication of
Luke any day; give me the poetry and imagery of John. When I thought of Paul, all I
imagined was Paul droning on about faith and justification and sin and law; and I just
saw his writings as the basis upon which was built so much Christian anti-Judaism and
so much Protestant smugness.
I have also told you that my perception of Saint Paul was changed radically a
few years ago when I was introduced to the scholarship of the late Swedish Lutheran
Bishop Krister Stendahl and his followers.(1) I was given a whole different way of
understanding Paul and his mission and ministry and, my eyes were opened and I saw
clearly just what it was that God in Christ was doing in Saint Paul. I discovered a Saint
Paul who was not converted in the sense that we think of the term—as from one
religion to another—but who was given a new mission by his God, the God of Israel, to
be the apostle to the Gentiles and incorporate all the other peoples of the world as
people of God. And this is what I meant when I referred to the “so-called” conversion
of Saint Paul.
In the letter to the Galatians, Paul tells his readers of his career as a zealous
persecutor of Jesus’ followers and that he “advanced in Judaism beyond many of my
own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.”
Here Paul is proudly telling his readers of his excellence and faithfulness as a Jew
(something we see him do again and again in the Epistles, especially in Romans) and
that he carried out his work against the Church as part of his life’s vocation. This is the
crucial point, that he considered his work against the Church part of his vocation as a
faithful Jew. It is with this in mind that we read, “But when he who had set me apart
before I was born, and had called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son
to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles.”
Here Paul is talking about receiving another call, a different call than the one he
had previously been given. Paul does not talk of a conversion from one religion to
another. Rather, Paul talks of God, his God, the God of Israel, revealing his Son to
him, so that he might have a new mission, a mission “to preach among the Gentiles.”
Not only does he talk of his God revealing something special to him, but he does so
using the same language as Jeremiah and Isaiah use when describing their own call.
Paul, whom Luther wrongly believed to be racked by sin and guilt, has the hubris, has
the nerve, has the temerity to speak of himself in the same terms as two of the greatest
prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures. Paul compares himself to Isaiah and Jeremiah and
tells his readers, tells the people of Galatia that he, an excellent and skilled Jew, has
been called by the God of Israel, to show the Gentiles, all the non-Jewish people of the
known world, how they might enter into a relationship with his God, how they might
become people of God. Whereas before Christ came, only the Jewish people had access
to a relationship with the God who was the creator and author of all things. Now, in
Jesus Christ, all the world might be reconciled to his God, not through the Law (the
covenental relationship under which the Jews have their relationship with God), but
rather through grace, through the faith of Jesus Christ.
Paul’s encounter with God was not a conversion in the sense that he woke up
one day a Jew and went to bed that night a Christian. Paul heard himself called by God
to a new mission, to a new ministry in the very same way in which other prophets had
been called before him. Paul listened to where his God was calling him and shifted the
focus of his work from persecuting the Church (an institution he had hitherto
understood as counter to the work of God) to spreading the Church throughout the
world precisely because his God, the God of Israel was acting in Jesus Christ and in the
Church to increase his reign, increase his reach, enfold the whole world in his work of
redeeming love.
This feast, therefore, is not about celebrating someone’s conversion. It is about
celebrating Paul’s prophetic call to a new ministry. It is about celebrating that Paul was
so open and receptive to God that he was able to hear God calling him out of one
ministry into one whose purpose was the exact opposite of the one he had been doing.
In much the same way as Mary at the Annunciation, as Joseph and Shepherds when
they heard the words of the Angel, as the Magi when they saw the star, Paul trusted the
words that he heard, Paul was able to listen and to respond, Paul was flexible and
trusting and able to give himself over to the new work that God has given him to do.
Two weeks ago we celebrated the Baptism of our Lord and learned that by
adoption and grace we are changed in Baptism into brothers and sisters in Christ, that
we join a new and wonderful family. Last week we celebrated the Confession of Saint
Peter and the work of the church, that family of the baptised who are Christ’s body at
work in the world, incarnating in the present moment the love of God. This week, as
we commemorate the prophetic calling of Saint Paul the Apostle, we celebrate the
reality that God calls each of us, out of our diverse lives, to the work of ministry. Each
of us is called to a life of service to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Good News of
his life death and resurrection that changes lives and that assists God in his work of
ever expanding love. Like Paul, each of us has skills and experience. Each of us is
called to go forth into the world and, in whatever work we do, wherever our talents
and gifts lead us, live lives that strengthen the Body of Christ and cooperate with God
as ministers of love.
But how do we hear the call? How do we know that the call is real? This, my
friends, is the hard work of discernment that we do in community. This is why we
gather as a community to share the stories of Jesus’ life and ministry and of his saving
deeds, and share in the meal in which Jesus makes himself present with us. We gather
in community so we may learn to be open to God’s call, so we may be transformed into
the Body of Christ, so we may learn about and experience God’s omnipresent and
transformative love. The work we do together in community trains us to have hearts
and minds open to hearing this call when it comes and to be flexible enough to
respond generously.
Andrew C. Blume+
New York City
The Ordination of Florence Li-Tim Oi, 24 January 2009
1. Krister Stendahl, “Paul Among Jews and Gentiles,” in Paul Among Jews and Gentiles and Other Essays (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1976), 1-77. See also Stanley K. Stowers, A Rereading of Romans: Justice, Jews, and Gentiles (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1994) and John G. Gager, Reinventing Paul (Oxford: University Press, 2000).
©2009 Andrew Charles Blume