conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

today's sermon

Acts 9:1-20 Ps. 30. John 21:1-19

Who did he see? Was it just the light or did Saul see something particular. There has been a lot of talk throughout the ages about Saul?s vision on the road to Damascus.

He saw the Light of God.
He fell and hit his head and saw that flash of light.
He was epileptic and had a seizure on his journey.

Many of us want to know what it is that Saul saw. I am more interested in what Saul did not see. Because, you understand, Saul was killing followers of the way. He was persecuting the followers of Jesus. He only saw law-breakers. He only saw those who opposed authority. He only saw those he would not or could not understand. He did not know whom it was he persecuted.

Saul could not understand until, on the road to Damascus, the Lord Jesus revealed to Saul that he was blind and could not see. It is not enough that Saul was struck blind. It was that Jesus made Saul understand that he was already blind to the truth. He was blind to the truth of the risen Christ.

We have a similar tale at the shore of the Tiberian Sea, the Sea of Galilee. The disciples are sitting around. They do not know who they are. They even have seen the Risen Lord twice before, and yet they still do not yet know who it is they are or what it is that they are to do. So, they sit.

They sit, staring at one another.
?So, what do you wanna do, Nathan??
?I dunno, John. What do you wanna do??

Peter speaks up. ?I think I?ll go fishing.?

No one else has a better idea, so they join him.

We just heard the story. They catch nothing until someone they do not recognize tells them to try it another way. ?Throw your nets on the other side of the boat and see what happens.? They do and what do you know? They catch 153 fish.

Then they recognize the Lord. Then Peter gets dressed and swims in to shore and in his excitement, leaves the rest of the guys to bring it all in.

Still they struggle with their belief. Jesus said to them, ?Come and have breakfast.? Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, ?Who are you?? because they knew it was the Lord. 13Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. 14This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

Why is it so hard to see Jesus in this story? Here we have a profound encounter with the risen Lord, and yet they still question. They knew and yet they wanted assurance.

Are they still blind? Is there something that they are unwilling to see?

Return to Saul.

I was speaking to a friend this weekend. We were trying to unearth Saul?s problem. What was it that made him blind? What made him so hateful and frustrated to the point that killing seemed like the most likely solution? In our magnanimous way of going about things, we decided that Saul did not know how to trust?well, at least he did not trust anyone but himself.

When you're blind to the world like Saul, you have learn to trust someone besides yourself in order to see. So, maybe trust was the starting place for Saul. Maybe that was the start for Saul, as much as the flash of light and the voice of Jesus in his ear. 5He asked, ?Who are you, Lord?? The reply came, ?I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 6But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.? From here on, Saul endeavored to trust God. He became Paul, a follower of Christ. He was never perfect, but he followed nonetheless.

Paul?s trust took him from being a persecutor to being a disciple. Discipleship is an act of trust.

So, for me, these questions follow?Is this, maybe, why we so often choose not to see Christ? Is it because the idea of trust, is so terrifying? I know that for me, that appears be part of it.

I am blind to the reality of the risen Lord when:
? I do not trust Christ?s power to work in my life
? I do not trust Christ?s power to reclaim me as His own
? I do not trust Christ?s power to reconcile the world to himself.

I wonder if we are afraid. We are either afraid or overwhelmed or busy or something. Or, perhaps it is all of the above.

We only see what little light we can bear to see and the rest, we are blind to. We choose this blindness somehow.

I know I do. Some of you may have heard about the ex-NFL football player, Pat Tillman, who enlisted in the Army after September 11th. I saw an article in the paper about it a couple of days ago and found myself moved by the story of his bravery and courage. Then I stopped myself. Please understand that his story is about bravery and courage, but I stopped short because I realized I had not once experienced this kind of reaction within myself upon hearing of the death of any other soldier, Coalition or Iraqi, or of any other civilian death. I was blind to the reality.

It was my love for football and celebrity that encouraged my reaction as much as anything else. I have been blind to the other casualties. I have been too busy, too consumed with my work, too frightened of the immensity of the entire situation to respond. I have become cynical and frustrated. I have refused to see God at work in any of this and I have refused to realize how all of this is a sign of our human fallen-ness, our sin. I have chosen blindness rather than the truth, the truth of Christ?s love for the whole world.

Iraqi casualties
8918? 10769

Coalition casualties for the month of April
118| US: 115 | UK: 0 | Other: 3

The idea of baring one's soul and trusting God should seem natural, but somehow it is not for Saul or Paul for that matter. It is not for our friends the disciples by the Sea of Galilee. It is not for me. We try to hide, to protect ourselves, to remain blind. We do not like the vulnerability. Why is that? Where does this vulnerability lead us?

What is it that we are blind to?
What is it that we dare not see?
Is there a blindness we choose?

Trust can lead us into very painful places. That is the problem, I think. It leads to the cross.

But what does the cross bring? There is joy in the promise of the risen Lord. Without the cross there is no resurrection. Through the cross and in the resurrection, there is light and glory and joy enough that Saul became Paul. There is light and glory and joy enough that Peter, once again, left all to follow Christ.

It is Truth, but we are both fallen and redeemed. The world... other people... you and me, we are fallen. Thus, we struggle to trust. Nonetheless, the call is the same.

Let?s return to the Gospel.

15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ?Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?? He said to him, ?Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.? Jesus said to him, ?Feed my lambs.? 16A second time he said to him, ?Simon son of John, do you love me?? He said to him, ?Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.? Jesus said to him, ?Tend my sheep.? 17He said to him the third time, ?Simon son of John, do you love me?? Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, ?Do you love me?? And he said to him, ?Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.? Jesus said to him, ?Feed my sheep. 18Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.? 19(He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, ?Follow me.?

Sisters and brothers, trust is a tricky balance. It is vulnerability, it brings great joy, and it can be terrifying. Sometimes, we would rather be blind.

But our call is to see the Risen Lord, to believe in His promise, and to go about the work of the kingdom, feeding his sheep, his lambs, living into the Kingdom of God, for that is what it is to trust in the Lord.

It changes persecutors into pastors.
It changes fishermen into apostles.
It causes wars to cease, turning swords into plowshares.
It changes us all into His children, so that we may love and serve all the world.

Posted by tripp at April 25, 2004 08:13 AM