It was a rather awkward and humbling moment when I sat down in a coffee room outside of a library with a minister just completing his doctorate on the work he did in ministry. It was more especially a philosophical reflection of ministering in the place he came from. It was awkward because you could feel his grief and fear. It was a moment of potential exultation, finishing a doctorate he had been working on for many years, but it was the end of one journey and the beginning of another. The minister was from Syria. You could see from the bags under his eyes and the stress lines on his face that this was not an easy time, for he knew that he would have to return to his country of origin, and probably take on another ministry.
We compared notes about ministry. He was very eager to know about the congregation that I served, in what he thinks is one of the great countries of the world, Canada. I bragged a bit! I told him how gorgeous the stained glass windows are, and that not long ago we celebrated our church’s hundredth anniversary, about our magnificent Casavant organ, I went on and on. He looked quite impressed. As he talked about his congregation things turned to a very different realm. He said, “The congregation that I am going to is one that is continually in a state of flux. I actually will not know month-to-month who my congregation will be, for some of them will have to flee, some of them might be killed, some of them might be just too frightened to gather in a public place.”
I asked him about the history of his church, and he said, “I don’t really know the one I am going to, but I do know the one where I was baptized.” He said that it was a very beautiful little church right in the heart of Damascus.
So, I said, “Well how old is your church then?”
He said, “Well, it is believed that it was originally a Byzantine church and erected in the fifth century.” Fifteen hundred years old!
I asked, “Where is this church?”
He replied, “You’ve probably never heard of it. It is St. Ananias Church on Straight Street in the heart of Damascus. It is a street that is in three different parts historically: the first part is where most of the traffic goes, and then on either side of it are bazaars and places where people sell their wares. Straight Street is a well known one by the Bab Shaqri – the eastern gate of Damascus. That is where I was baptized. I am not going back there. That is not the church where I am going to serve. It is still intact, but that is the place where Ananias supposedly lived.”
I must admit that at that point, I had nothing more to say!
It brought back the power of history. It made the Bible live and relevant. To think that a person ministering today was baptized in the home of Ananias! Well, it just broke my heart, for that encounter that took place two thousand years ago at the home of Ananias shows you just how powerful and important that moment was in the whole of Christian history. It was at the home of Ananias that Saul of Tarsus met the Church of Jesus Christ. It was the great game changer! Christianity up until that point or the Christian faith for about thirty years after the Resurrection of Jesus had spread rather slowly. Clearly, it had already reached Damascus. It was in Lebanon and southern Syria, but nevertheless, it was a small group. It was as if, to use the analogy of a ball game, that a ball game had taken place and the game had been won: Jesus was raised from the dead, the triumphant and victorious moment. Everyone who was with him at the stadium was applauding and following the great One who made this victory possible. But it was with Saul of Tarsus and Ananias of Damascus that what happened in that ball park spread to the rest of the world.
And, what happened in the ball park was absolutely critical. News of that game had to spread, and it had to spread to the outermost parts of the world. Saul of Tarsus and Ananias of Damascus were party to all of this. It was the great game changer! I think this is interesting that this minister said to me, “Had it not been for Saul of Tarsus meeting Ananias, I wouldn’t be here and I wouldn’t be a believer.” It is true to say that it is that very point of connection I have and that we have with him, for had it not been for Saul of Tarsus and Ananias of Damascus, you and I would not be here. The great game changer is that what transpired between Saul of Tarsus and Ananias has come to the whole world, to you and me.
How are we to understand this? Well, in a short fashion, the story of Paul is one of great profundity. Paul, as we know him now, then Saul of Tarsus, was a Roman citizen and a zealous Jew. He was attached to the likes of Gamaliel in Jerusalem. He was a fervent believer that followers of what was known then as the “The Way” were actually leading people astray into a way that did not conform with what he believed was God’s will and God’s purpose and God’s covenant. Paul stepped out to remove any sign of people of “The Way”. We are told in the Book of Acts that he was at the execution of Stephen, the first Christian martyr. But that wasn’t enough! Paul wanted to go to Damascus because there were followers of Jesus of Nazareth meeting in the synagogues, so they still maintained their Jewish connections in Damascus, and he wanted them removed. On the way to Damascus, a city about 140 miles from Jerusalem and a five day walk, Saul along with members of the Temple guard are going to get the followers and imprison them back in Jerusalem. But something miraculous happens!
You can’t say it was a natural phenomenon, because if that were the case, the Temple guards would have experienced exactly the same thing, and we are told they didn’t. Somehow, on that road to Damascus, Jesus of Nazareth comes up to Saul of Tarsus, and he asks him this incredible question: “Why are you persecuting me?” Note the language! Jesus is the Risen Christ! Jesus has come to him in a vision, in the present. He has changed him. But you will notice that it is followers of Jesus that Paul was going to persecute. Jesus identifies himself in a personal way with his persecutors. “Why do you persecute me?” In persecuting the followers of Jesus, as far as Jesus is concerned, they are persecuting him. Why? By removing the Christian community and by eliminating the followers of “The Way” they are making sure that the Word of what Christ had done would never spread. This was a critical moment, this encounter with Jesus, it changed him, and he is obedient. He goes to Straight Street, to the home of a man called Judas, but not Judas Iscariot, one of the earliest believers, who probably like all the others worshipped in the synagogue, and Paul finds himself there left bereft and blind and frightened, not knowing what will happen next.
Enter Ananias, who we are told is a disciple, but we don’t know anything more about him. Ananias is called by God to go to the home of Judas on Straight Street, to meet Saul of Tarsus. Now, this is akin, said the minister from Damascus to me, of him being asked to go to the home of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the head of ISIS! It is like going to your enemy. The name, Saul of Tarsus and his reputation for what he had done in Jerusalem was terrifying the followers of Jesus, the followers of “The Way”. Ananias didn’t want to go there. You can appreciate how intense this must have been. But Ananias, with the greatest of courage and obedience, does as the Lord calls upon him to do. He goes there, and he speaks immortal words, words that have resounded for two thousand years. What does he say to Saul? “Brother Saul”. This man who was going to persecute him, he calls “brother”. In that one act, Ananias changes human history. David Suchet, the great actor who plays the Agatha Christie character, Poirot on television and who was here last year, has done a wonderful documentary on the Apostle Paul. He says, “The amazing thing about the Apostle Paul is that had it not been for Ananias and that encounter with him, calling him “brother” what would have happened? What would have happened to the Christian faith? Why is it the great game changer?
It is the great game changer because before the Apostle Paul’s great awakening on the road to Damascus, before Ananias called him brother and welcomed Saul of Tarsus into the fellowship, before that, everything had gone in a very linear way. By that I mean everything had gone in an historic way: the disciples had witnessed the life of Jesus, seen his miracles, heard his teachings, been at his trial, observed his crucifixion, and met with him at the Resurrection. But the Apostle Paul has everything done backwards, in reverse order! Paul is reached by the Risen Christ, and from there he has to learn about the meaning of the Cross, then develop a new appreciation of the life and the ministry of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul had already made his mind up about Jesus and rejected him, but now being encountered by Christ on the road to Damascus, Paul has to start from the Resurrection. If you look at all of Paul’s teachings, it is very clear that he knows he has to learn more about the importance of the Resurrection. He says in Corinthians, “I want to know nothing except the Cross of Christ.” When you look at Paul’s life and ministry very rarely does he ever touch on any of the life events of Jesus. Why? Because he wasn’t there to observe them. What he encountered was the Risen Christ. Paul is us. This is the great game changer!
Paul is us. We are this side of the Resurrection. It has already occurred, and it is by the Resurrection that we look back at everything else in the life and the ministry of Jesus. That is why I reject the notion now being put forward by some that Paul created some sort of new religion, that he made up a new Christianity and that Christianity was Paul’s invention. What utter nonsense! Ananias was already a believer before Paul ever got on the scene; so, we are told, were some men and some women. Men and women were believers in Damascus before Paul ever broke on the scene. It was they and their ministrations to him that changed Paul. What makes Paul different, and what I think most people don’t grasp, is that Paul had to look at everything through the lens of the Resurrection rather than the life of Jesus leading up to the Resurrection.
I also reject the notion, and I don’t like the language that says that Paul was somehow converted. I am with the likes of Krister Stendahl and others who believe that right to his very death Paul was a Jew. When you look at Paul’s writings, there was never a moment when he ceased to be a Hebrew, never a moment when he ceased to believe that God’s covenant with Israel was irrevocable. Paul was not converted from one religion to another – that is sociological nonsense! Paul believed that in this encounter with Jesus of Nazareth he had met the Messiah, he had met the Lord, the One that was expected. For Paul, this was the fulfillment of the hopes and dreams of the people he belonged to. This wasn’t another God or another religious movement; rather for Paul, this was the fulfillment of his hopes and dreams and aspirations. Paul was not converted, but Paul was definitely changed, and the two are not synonymous.
Paul was changed because he had set out to persecute the Christians, and ended up becoming one of them. He had set out to destroy “The Way” and now he was the greatest proponent of “The Way”. But, don’t think it was just that one moment on the road to Damascus and the encounter with Jesus that changed Paul; it was a series of moments. Paul was blinded, he could not see. Can you imagine his sense of loneliness and fear? Put yourself in Paul’s position: you are now in the house of people that you had come to arrest. Can you imagine how humiliating it would be for this great scholar of the law to somehow now be in the presence of people from whom you have to learn the meaning of the Gospel and of The Way? In a time of prayer, we are told Paul prayed. After having this incredible experience, he knew that he had to seek the Lord’s guidance and grace. This was a vulnerable person. Yet, in his vulnerability and even in the sufferings that were to come, Luke draws it out, because he knows how the story evolves. He draws it out to suggest that this very person, who was blind and could not see, was the one who was going to spread the Good News of Jesus to the rest of the world. This was the great game changer!
It also shows the impact, the power of the Resurrection, to grasp a life and to make a difference. I was reading recently about the conversion, in this case a conversion of Blaise Pascal, the great seventeenth century mathematician and scholar who developed the first automated calculator and had a language named after him called: Pascal. This man was a great intellect: a scientist, a mathematician, a brilliant mind, a scholar of everything from Socrates to Maimonides. But he was also a man who, having been brought up in the Christian Church and faith and who read the Word of God, but didn’t really understand it, wasn’t really committed to it. He was like a lot of people. He grew up studying Christianity and had some nice ideas about it. It fit in with his world view until one day in November 1654, Pascal is riding over a bridge with his horses and something spooked them and they bolted, throwing Pascal off. Pascal, who had been very down on himself, very destructive, almost depressed, really felt this was the great game changer. Not only was he vulnerable after having been thrown, but that night he had an encounter with Jesus. He said that light flooded his room and a voice came to him, He recognized Christ and he recognized the Word of God.
From almost anybody else you would say this is incredulous, but from someone of such great scientific mind, so rational, it makes you think. He was so convinced that Christ came to him and changed him that for the rest of his days, inside his clothes he carried some words that were written. He said this, and this could be Saul of Tarsus, just listen to it!
God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob; none of the philosophers and the scholars! Joy! Joy! Joy! Tears of joy! This is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ, may I not fall from him forever! I will not forget your Word! Amen.
He had this sown inside his clothing for all his days. Eventually, three years later when he wrote his famous book, The Provincial Letters, the great Voltaire, himself a skeptic, said, “This is one of the greatest minds and writers in French history.”
Blaise Pascal had this encounter, but what is really interesting, and here is the Word for us, was after the conversion of Blaise Pascal he had a new appreciation and a new welcome by the Christian community. He had a “Saul of Tarsus moment” on the road to Damascus, but he had an “Ananias moment” with the Christian community, who accepted and taught him. From there, he learnt of Augustine and Calvin and of the Scriptures, and he grew in the faith, so-much-so that his science became less important and his walk of faith became more important. The incredible sense in which the Church acted like Ananias, it seems to me, is exactly the calling that we have. What is needed in the lives of believers and the faithful is that “Ananias moment” not just a “Paul on the road to Damascus” moment. A moment where those who believe in Christ are willing to say to a person like a Saul of Tarsus, “Brother Saul”.
I asked this new colleague in ministry from Damascus who he looks to as a role model in his current situation. He said, “You know, I look to an Andrew for my inspiration.”
I thought, “Oh my Gosh, he’s only known me twenty minutes! This is pretty remarkable!”
He reminded me, it wasn’t me; it was Canon Andrew White, the Rector of Baghdad. White is a remarkable human being. He is a man who worked in medicine before going into ministry, and was set up in the Middle East as a pastor in the City of Baghdad. He went through all the transitions that Baghdad has gone through. He is also a man who contracted Multiple Sclerosis. If you were to meet him, you would think that he is rather eccentric, and when you listen to him speak you wonder if he had too much to drink, but he hasn’t! He is a remarkable human being! He and his ministry believe so fervently in the power of reconciliation and that his job is not only to be a pastor to believers, but to encourage believers to be pastors to others. He was once asked what he would like to do to help make peace, and he said:
“Well actually, I sent a letter to the leaders of ISIS inviting them to come to my home for dinner. I thought it was a good thing – you know you can do a lot of good out there with a good meal! But, I got a letter back saying ‘Thank you very much. We very much appreciate the invitation, but if we came we would have to behead you.’ So, I thought, ‘I won’t invite them again!’”
He laughed it off, and in his typical Andrew way, said, “Well, that is the end of that, I guess! Let’s just keep trying. Let’s try and get people together. Let’s try and stop the violence.” Somehow, as a pastor, he believed that things needed to be done to protect his people, and he was heartbroken when Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said that he couldn’t stay there anymore, for there was a multiple, million pound bounty on his head for anyone who could killed him.
Andrew returned to the United Kingdom, but he is still going around the Middle East trying to heal the broken. Who is his great inspiration according to my friend from Damascus? Ananias! It is the love and the courage and the grace and the faith in Christ of Ananias that motivates Andrew White! It motivates people all over the world, and it will always motivate people of good faith who see in the ministry of Ananias something that helped change the world. Paul might be the great Apostle - and God bless him, he was - but Ananias with his grace and his obedience was the one who made it possible. Whatever you can do in your life, in whatever circumstance you find yourself in, let Christ use you as he used Ananias, and in so doing, be a game changer! Amen.