Sermon-The Conversion of Paul

Conversion of St. Paul, by Roy Ruiz Clayton 

A sermon given during Holy Communion at St Olave Hart Street on Sunday 25th January 2025 (Year A) The Conversion of Paul – based on readings from Galatians 1.11-16a & Matthew 19.27-30

We know Paul – as he was called after his conversion – better than most figures of the ancient world. Through his letters we hear one side (his side) of arguments, frustrations and encouragement addressed to the churches he helped to found across the Mediterranean.

The written record of his life which survives was not composed as a semi-detached historical treatise or a polished theological paper. His letters are deeply personal. Written to real people. And to support his teaching and guidance to them, he draws on his own lived experience – his regrets, the suffering and hardship he felt, his affections, the emotional and spiritual conflicts he wrestled with – sometimes with a flash of cutting irony, sarcasm and humour thrown in.

In some ways there are parallels between the record of Paul’s life left behind in text – and that of one of our better-known parishioners, Samuel Pepys, whose diary gives us an immediate, personal window into his world.

Paul’s writing offers a fascinating glimpse not only into the time in which he lived, but the life of someone actively striving to work out what it means to live as a disciple of Christ. Seeking answers to the questions which we all ask. Who Jesus is, who I am in the light of Christ’s revelation and – who we are - as a community of faith.

These are big questions – which Paul reflected upon deeply – but which he seems to have written about often while under pressure, on the go, travelling miles across land and sea and as response to the life experience of others. Much of his writing reacts to controversies, conflicts and arguments that bubbled up as the first members of our church found they had different views on how to live with and love each other faithfully and according to the teaching and example of Jesus amidst a complex, multi-cultural world dominated by the powerful forces of trade and empire.

Not everything Paul writes may be comfortable to our ears. Some of what he seems to say about the role of women, slavery, about sexual ethics, lands uncomfortably with many in our time and culture today.

We can only speculate if Paul had been aware that his letters would end up forming part of the bible. But whatever he may or may not have imagined, the church has received them as scripture – and the fact that they account for nearly a quarter of the New Testament means Paul’s influence on our Christian faith cannot be overstated.

And his conversion to it - which the church celebrates today – is central to everything he wrote. That at the root of our faith is a personal encounter with the risen Christ – and that when we embrace this relationship fully, our lives – and our relationships with each other and the world - are radically changed.

And in Paul’s case, that is something of an understatement.

Many scholars believe that he had been brought up as a student of a Rabbi thought to have been tolerant towards the first Christians. But at some point, Paul came to reject that stance, viewing followers of Christ as traitors to the Jewish faith; acting against the traditions and teaching of the scriptures; in which amongst other things, anyone who dies on a tree is cursed by God. How then could a man crucified on a tree be the Jewish Messiah? Paul, by his own admission, began violently persecuting members of the early church.

His conversion is 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 his persecution. 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 these descriptions of Paul’s conversion were not written by him. When he describes the event in his own words - such as in his letter to the church in Galatia in our first reading - his language is noticeably less “Hollywood.” He doesn’t use the word ‘conversion’ nor refer to the ‘road to Damascus.’

He simply says that God was pleased to reveal his Son to him.

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, for instance, 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 often made to sound more dramatic! Perhaps this might be one way to explain the difference in the accounts of Paul’s conversion in the scriptures? In his surviving letters he certainly does not downplay the consequence of his conversion; his transformative personal relationship with Christ is central to the teaching and guidance he offered to all those who later sought counsel from him.

In which, Paul draws on his Jewish heritage and education, the teachings of the prophets and the covenant God had made with his people. While in his letter Paul refers to his ‘earlier life in Judaism’ - he clearly did not abandon all that he had known and turn into a new person over-night.

The revelation of Jesus Christ to Paul meant he came to see himself, his faith and his traditions in a new light. From then on, he recognises Jesus to be the Messiah - the anointed - the one who saved the world.

When told in his own words, Paul’s conversion is no less dramatic than those we read in the Book of Acts – but rather than blinding lights and voices from heaven, the impact of the experience is described in the way his whole world-view is reshaped. Everything he has experienced, everything he has been taught up until that point - everything he is - is redefined. 

Paul describes the account of his own conversion not in terms of what he did. But what God had already done. His conversion was, he explains, an outworking of God’s amazing grace. A moment that was known – planned – by God, before Paul had even been born. Before he rejected the teaching of his liberal Rabbi. Before he started persecuting the first followers of Christ. Before his trip along the road to Damascus. Before he began preaching the Good News of Christ to the Gentiles.

The conversion of Paul – what the Collect (the prayer at the start of the service) describes as his ‘wonderful’ conversion) reminds us that God’s purposes are beyond any single culture, language or tradition. And his own account of it reminds us all – whether we are newly baptised, beginning to explore our faith or have been struggling to work out what being a disciple of Christ means for years – that God sees us before we see ourselves. That conversion is not about what we have or haven’t done, but what God has already accomplished through our saviour, Jesus Christ.

So what next? In our gospel reading, Peter asks Jesus precisely that. “Look”, he says, “we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?”

A question that reveals more than perhaps Peter intended. It shows us that conversion is not the end of a story, but the beginning of one worth telling. Not a single moment in time but a journey, riven with difficulties and costs but also hope.

Peter and the other disciples had already begun to understand who Jesus is, at least on a subconscious level. They felt moved by his call – enough to give up their livelihoods to follow him. Now they ask who they are in light of that calling?

Jesus answers Peter by focussing beyond the present, to the coming Kingdom. A future – God’s future – in which the structures of power, status and security are overturned. A world in which success is not measured by what we acquire or control. Where the first are last and the last are first.

It's the future Paul glimpsed. The vision that turned his life from persecutor to proselytiser.

In this season of Epiphany, we too are encouraged to ask who we are – individually, and as a community of faith – in the light of Christ’s revelation among us. Today as we celebrate the conversion of Paul we remember that when the light of Christ shines on our lives we see things differently. God’s truth is revealed. What needs to change is exposed. A path forward is opened.

We celebrate the conversion of Paul not only as an event in time, but a reminder of God’s continuing work in us. May we, like Paul, allow Christ to redefine who we are. And may we, like Peter, follow in the footsteps of Christ, not knowing every step of the way ahead but trusting in the God who calls us — now and into the future he is bringing into being.

Amen.

Image: Conversion of St. Paul, by Roy Ruiz Clayton