An account of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus

The First Lesson suggested by the Revised Common Lectionary for the Third Sunday of Easter is Acts 9:1-20.  It is the first account in Acts (there are three altogether) of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus.  Paul’s story is an intriguing one.  Set aside his writings for a moment (he composed more New Testament material than any writer except Luke), and we still find a man who led an interesting life.  (The church’s Feast Day commemorating this event occurs on January 25.  This reading observes a portion of the church’s liturgical cycle rather than the Common of the Saints.)

Paul was born a Roman citizen.  He was well-educated in the tradition of Pharisaic Judaism.  He apparently had some standing in the Judaic hierarchy as the priests granted his petition to be credentialed to apprehend and bind any practicing Christians he found in the synagogues of Damascus.  While on that journey, the events of this scripture lesson occurred.  Paul went on to be the major figure in Gentile Christianity through the formative years of the church.  His missionary journeys and literary career spread the gospel message from Ephesus to Rome and in many points in between.  Tradition holds that he was under arrest in Rome when the government sentenced him to death by beheading around 64 C.E.

The observation I would make here is that Paul did not undergo his conversion one day and leap to the forefront of Christian mission the next.  The scriptural accounts (Acts 9, 10 and Galatians 1 in particular) record Paul as taking some time for reflection and formulating his own understanding about faith before he entered the public arena with any gusto.  Three years after his conversion – a time that includes a desert sojourn in “Arabia,” perhaps visiting Mt. Sinai itself – Paul visits some of the apostles in Jerusalem.  He then goes about his missionary work and does not return to Jerusalem for fourteen years. 

What I mean to say is that Paul (a.) understood the need for preparation and clarity before he began his work; and (b.) he was wholly reliant on instruction by the Spirit of God in achieving this clarity.  There were _no_ New Testament scriptural texts available to him.  He wrote all of the earliest himself.  There were other voices to instruct him, but they were involved with the Jewish-Christian movement of Jerusalem and Judea.  It took a lot of work on Paul’s part to establish a beachhead in the Gentile mission field.  Peter’s vision of the unclean animals eventually led to some credibility of Gentile acceptance, but he was never involved in Gentile evangelistic work to the extent we find in the work of Paul.

Paul more than once found himself in tough situations.  The abuses – physical and spiritual – that he endured would have turned back many a strong person.  I think that it was his foundation, his deepening of faith between the time of his conversion and his active ministry, that enabled him to persevere.

In the modern church, we are quick to give new converts or new church members responsibility for which they are not prepared.  When they encounter obstacles – and they will – they are ill-equipped for their ordeal.  So, they get discouraged, they fall away from church endeavors, and sometimes they are lost to the faith altogether.

In the twenty-first century I am careful about recommending Paul as a personal example in some areas.  But, his model of preparation for gospel work is as valid today as it was for Paul almost twenty-one hundred years ago.