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| Paul on the road to Damascus - Peter Bellone |
Start:Stop at St Stephen Walbrook enables busy people to start their day by stopping to reflect. Ten minute reflections are repeated on the quarter hour, from 7.45am until 9.00am every Tuesday morning, beginning with a reading from scripture, followed by a reflection based on an event from this week in history, with space for silence and prayer. You can hear a recording of this week’s reflection at this link and read the script below.
Thank you for joining us for Start:Stop. This reflection will last under ten minutes and you are welcome to come and go as your schedule dictates. This week we consider two very different anniversaries. Often presented as pivotal moments in history that brought about an immediate transformation that changed the world, in both cases, beneath the bright lights and pizazz, we also find an alternative - but no less real - story. One of slow and steady progress towards lasting change.
Our bible reading is from St Paul’s letter to the Galatians, Chapter 1, verses 11-17.
Bible Reading - Galatians
1. 11-17
For I want you to know,
brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human
origin; for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but
I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
You have heard, no doubt,
of my earlier life in Judaism. I was violently persecuting the church of God
and was trying to destroy it. I advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people
of the same age, for I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors.
But when God, who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his
grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him among
the Gentiles, I did not confer with any human being, nor did I go up to
Jerusalem to those who were already apostles before me, but I went away at once
into Arabia, and afterwards I returned to Damascus.
Reflection
This week in 1984 during
the American Super Bowl, Apple unveiled its first personal computer to the
world, in an advert filmed just up the road in Hyde Park. Rows of men dressed
in grey were seen marching through a tunnel into a darkened room to sit
in-front of a huge screen, where a computerised face barks orders. A female
athlete bursts onto the scene in glorious technicolor and runs towards the
camera. She stops and throws a sledgehammer, shattering the screen into
smithereens. A deep voice declares: “On January 24, Apple Computer will
introduce Macintosh and you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like 1984.”
The advert was a creative
success - its director, Ridley Scott, went on to direct blockbuster
movies.
The intuitive operating
system of the Apple
Mac with its point and
click graphics, revolutionised not only the personal computing industry but our
relationship with technology - from the phones in our pocket to my washing
machine, just about everything we use today has a graphical interface.
The new product forced IBM (represented by the menacing Orwellian computer in
the advert) into some rapid product engineering of their own.
But, unlike the story
portrayed on the small screen, the Apple Mac was not an immediate smash hit.
Prohibitively expensive and with limited capabilities, the original model went
through a number of iterations over several years. The technology we carry in
our pocket is amazing - but it didn’t just appear overnight. As Jef Raskin,
credited with inventing the Mac - and former Apple CEO Steve Jobs explained
later - behind the bright lights and pizazz of Ridley Scott’s masterpiece there
was another story. One of decades of painstaking progress by hard working
engineers.
In the church, January
25th marks the Feast of the Conversion of St Paul - an event described three
times in Acts of the Apostles. In the most familiar account, we learn how Paul
encountered a blinding light followed by the sound of a voice from heaven that
interrupted his journey to Damascus, where he planned to continue persecuting
the followers of Jesus. Paul’s encounter with God is followed by his healing
and baptism by Ananias and a vision of the risen Jesus himself, who commissions
Paul as an Apostle to the Gentiles.
A “Road to Damascus
experience” has since become shorthand for a radical and immediate about-turn
in the way we live our lives.
But when Paul describes
the event in his own words - as in the example we have heard earlier from his
letter to the church in Galatia - his language is noticeably less “Hollywood”.
He doesn’t use the word ‘conversion’ nor refer to the ‘road to Damascus.’ After
his experience, he explains, he spoke to no-one.
Should we be concerned by
the apparent discrepancy?
When I recall meeting
people who have been through life-changing experiences - such as severe trauma
or illness - often the way they describe the event seems extremely modest. They
might explain its magnitude in terms of the lasting consequences - highlighting
a greater appreciation of the smaller things in life; a change in attitude or
perspective. It is when others tell their story that it is made to sound more
dramatic! Perhaps this might help to explain the difference in the accounts of
Paul’s conversion?
Paul’s experience did not
turn him into a Christian over-night. He did not abandon his Jewish teaching
and fundamental beliefs in God who created the world, in the teachings of the
prophets, or the covenant God had made with his people. His encounter with
the Risen Christ caused him to reassess his response to three important
questions:
Who am I?
Who is Jesus Christ? and;
How does Jesus Christ
transform who I am?
Questions, as his
surviving letters reveal, that he continued to ask himself - and others - for
the rest of his life.
So this week, as we
celebrate the Conversion of Paul - and give thanks for the amazing
transformations that have brought so much good to the world; let us also praise
those slowly ascending the cliff faces of these profound step-changes. May we
have the patience and courage to trust in the slow work of God as he transforms
us at his own speed.
Prayers
As we pray, the response
to each petition in this short litany is “transform us, Lord.”
That we may accept the
truth that everything that ‘has being’ wants ‘to become’.
Transform us, Lord.
That we may be truly
thankful for the growth that brings such fruitfulness to the world and those
who facilitate it.
Transform us, Lord.
That we may be granted
patience and courage when the speed of progress is not as fast as we had
hoped.
Transform us, Lord.
That in celebrating the
pinnacle of our achievement we do not forget to give thanks for all that
supports us below.
Transform us, Lord.
That we may have the
strength to endure instability and uncertainty in the process of change.
Transform us, Lord.
That we may learn to
accept that we are incomplete until our hearts rest in you.
Transform us, Lord.
That we may come to trust
in the slow work of God.
Transform us, Lord.
God, grant us the serenity
to accept the things we cannot change,
courage to change the things we can,
and wisdom to know the difference.
Amen
Links
The litany is inspired by
a prayer of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ.
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