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Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost
Light of Christ Anglican Church
The Rt. Rev. John Guernsey

Bishop, Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic

August 23, 2020


Testimonies - A Gift from God


Text: Galatians 1:11–24

I love testimonies. I love it when people share personal accounts of what God has done in their life. Testimonies build us up. Testimonies encourage us. They show us how God can work through the likes of you and me. They show us how God can use even the brokenness and failure and pain of our lives, how by his grace he can move us to new trust and obedience and fruitfulness. Testimonies are a gift from God.

In our New Testament reading this morning, we hear the Apostle Paul telling some of his own testimony of how he came to faith in Jesus Christ. It’s a tremendously important story. The Book of Acts recounts it three times: in Chapter 9 as it happens, and then as Paul gives his testimony in Chapter 22 and again in Chapter 26. And Paul makes mention of his testimony several times in his letters.

Here in Galatians, he shares part of the story of his dramatic conversion from an enemy of the Church to a preacher of the very Gospel he despised. Paul writes, “For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it.” In Acts 22, Paul gave more details about this. He said,

I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women, as the high priest and the whole council of elders can bear me witness. From them I received letters to the brothers, and I journeyed toward Damascus to take those also who were there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished.

But then God broke through. God changed his life. As he puts it here in Galatians, God,

who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles.

And so the oppressor became the faithful believer, and the Christians were amazed, saying, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” And the Church glorified God because of Paul.

It’s about as dramatic a testimony as you can get.

My friend, Bishop Bill Murdoch, has a lot in common with the Apostle Paul when it comes to conversion experiences. Bill was in high school and on the track team. He and a teammate were out on the baseball field, practicing throwing the javelin, one in the infield and the other in the outfield. After a number of throws back and forth, his buddy threw the javelin and in the wind it seemed to be coming toward Bill, so he ran away from it. But as he looked over his shoulder, the javelin seemed to follow him, so he shifted direction. But it still seemed to be coming right at him so he changed direction again. But then, before he could do anything else, the javelin struck him and went completely through his knee. Instantaneously, Bill had a vision of Jesus on the Cross, and he was converted to Christ before he hit the ground.

Have you had a Damascus Road experience like that? Me, either. And yet the Apostle Paul tells us that his Damascus Road conversion should be seen as a model for all believers, an example for us all.

In his First Letter to Timothy, Paul says that this conversion of his was not an exception, but an example for us and for all believers. In 1 Timothy Chapter 1, beginning at verse 15, Paul writes:

Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.

When Paul says that his conversion was to be an example, he means that our coming to Christ and our life in Christ are to be like his. So do we have to be converted in blinding light and audible voice? Is that what Paul meant?

My father always said somewhat wistfully that he’d never been on the Damascus Road—his coming to faith hadn’t felt like a lightning strike…or a javelin strike. Most of us haven’t had that sort of conversion experience. In fact, some of us were raised by Christian parents and can’t even remember a time when we didn’t know and follow Jesus, and we’re apt to wonder if we have much of a testimony to share at all. On one level, it seems like our story has nothing in common with Paul’s. Are people like us somehow lacking if we didn’t experience all that?

Not at all!

Paul makes clear that his conversion wasn’t to be seen as so out of the ordinary as to be irrelevant. Quite the opposite. His conversion was a model for all of us who come to Christ. Not that everyone is expected to have his sort of dramatic encounter in coming to faith. Of course not. But Paul makes clear that his conversion is nevertheless an example, a paradigm, a pattern for us. His experience can show us more of how God was at work as we came to faith and how he is at work as he draws others to himself, as well, and we see that in four ways.

Paul’s conversion is an example for us because:

1. it came through God’s revelation, not human wisdom;

2. it was unexpected;

3. it was based on God’s call and election; and

4. it happened so that he might share the Gospel with others.

…It came through God’s revelation, not human wisdom;

…it was unexpected;

…it was based on God’s call and election; and

…it happened so that he might share the Gospel with others.

And so, first, Paul’s conversion is an example for us because it came through God’s revelation, not human wisdom.

Paul begins many of his letters by saying he had been called by God. He didn’t appoint himself. In his Letter to the Galatians, he begins by identifying himself as “an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father.”

He then goes on to make clear that the Gospel he preaches is divine in origin; it came directly from the Lord. He writes:

For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

Paul didn’t make this stuff up. It wasn’t his idea.

That’s what Jesus said to Peter in our Gospel reading, as well. When Peter declared to Jesus, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered him, “…flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” In other words, Peter, you didn’t work this out on your own. You didn’t just decide what you wanted to believe. God showed it to you. God revealed it to you.

Our conversions are most likely to have had human intermediaries—someone or many someones who witnessed to us and told us the good news and then they or others nurtured us in the faith and taught us the truth of the Scriptures.

But our faith is nevertheless every bit as based on divine revelation as was Paul’s. We know the truth because God has revealed it to us. We didn’t figure it out. We didn’t just decide what feels right to us. We know the truth because God has revealed it to us: in his Word written in the Bible, and supremely in the Word made flesh in Jesus Christ.

But how different is the message of our culture: that we are to choose whatever truth we believe works for us.

If you follow the trends in our culture and its view of authority in matters of faith, you may have come across a growing movement called “Yoism.” Yoism is a religion of sorts, invented 15 years ago by a Massachusetts psychologist.

Yoism abhors the idea of wisdom from God passed down by religious authorities. Instead, Yoism’s holy text, the Book of Yo, evolves online, written by its many followers in much the same way that Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, is written and then changed by anyone who wishes to claim a different truth. Followers of Yoism assert this is collective wisdom. My father would have called it “pooled ignorance.”

Yoism seems to epitomize 21st century attitudes towards truth: it is inclusive, it is open to change, it is whatever you or I or we together think it ought to be.

Dan Kriegman, Yoism’s founder, makes it clear that if a teaching of Yoism offends someone, then it will be changed. He said to the Los Angeles Times, “I don’t think anyone has ever complained about something that didn’t lead to some revision or clarification in the Book of Yo...Every aware, conscious, sentient spirit is divine and has direct access to truth…There is no authority.”

You get the point. But it is this approach to faith that is the problem in so much of the American Church today. All too often we bring our own notions of truth to our reading of the Bible; we select what conforms to our beliefs and we filter out or explain away whatever offends our sensibilities.

But we must live under God and under his Word revealed to us in the Bible. We must yield to the Bible’s authority over our beliefs, our morals, our actions, because it is true. It is the Word of God—it is not our own word. It is not merely a human word, which we can ignore or change to suit our pre-determined convictions.

Do you see the inconsistency of saying: I accept this belief as true because Jesus teaches it in the Bible, but I reject this other belief even though Jesus also teaches it in the Bible. I accept what the Bible teaches about God being loving, but I reject what the Bible teaches about God’s judgment. A Christian can’t do that. A Christian submits to God and his truth. God gets to decide what is right and what is true and he reveals it to us. Our job is to read Scripture and to pray and to seek the counsel of mature Christians in order to understand God’s truth. Our job is not to decide what beliefs I’m comfortable with.

God has revealed the truth to us. And that revealed truth was the basis for Paul’s conversion, and ours.

Second, Paul’s conversion is an example for us because it was unexpected.

It was unexpected in the sense of unlikely. Paul was not attracted to Jesus or the church or the Gospel. He was a violent persecutor of the faith, and as unlikely a prospective convert as we could imagine.

I have been so moved by the surprising story of Abby Johnson. Abby Johnson was the Executive Director of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Texas and was named Planned Parenthood’s national employee of the year. She herself had had two abortions and she was a staunch defender of abortion rights. Abby is not medically trained, but one day the clinic’s nurse was away and Abby was needed to hold the sonogram wand to guide the doctor who was performing an abortion. Her experience of watching the baby being aborted was so disturbing that she was undone. Within a week, she walked out of her clinic, past the faithful Christians who day after day had been praying for her, and she went to the Coalition for Life office. In tears, she walked in and to their utter surprise, said, “I want out.”

Abby has gone on to a national leadership role in the pro-life movement, and the story of her exit from Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry is powerfully told in her book and a movie, wonderfully entitled, “un-Planned.” If you haven’t seen it or read it, I strongly recommend that you do.

Abby Johnson and the Apostle Paul teach us an important lesson: don’t stop praying for someone who seems far away from God and the Gospel. Don’t fail to witness to someone because they even seem hostile to Christianity.

But Paul’s conversion was also unexpected in the sense of sudden.

One moment he was plotting the death of Christians, and the next he was face down in Syrian road dust at the feet of Jesus.

At the 1998 Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops, the very liberal Bishop Jack Spong condescendingly said that he wasn’t going to be dictated to by the African bishops, since, he said, African Anglicans were superstitious and barely “one step removed from animism,” meaning the worship of the spirits in trees and rocks and such. It was an incredibly insensitive and ignorant remark. In fact, ten times as many Nigerian bishops had Ph.D.’s from Western universities as American bishops did. But Archbishop Kolini of Rwanda famously replied, “Let’s see, animism, Jesus. How many steps does it take? We call that conversion.”

I don’t know about you, but when I’ve been insufferable and God is just about to move me to repentance, I don’t look like I’m about to repent. I look—and am—just as angry or obnoxious as ever. But then, God in his mercy breaks through and, in a moment, moves me to turn back toward him and toward the one I’ve hurt.

Don’t ever write someone off as uninterested in the things of God. Don’t decide for someone else that they don’t want to hear about Christ so I don’t need to embarrass myself or waste my time telling them. Pour out your heart for them in prayer and the Lord will bring you to see them and love them as he does.

Conversions are so often unexpected, because everybody is just one step from the Kingdom of God.

Third, Paul’s conversion is an example for us because it was based on God’s call and election.

He said to the Galatians, God “who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me…”

God “set me apart before I was born.” When something happens before you were born, you know it wasn’t because of anything you did. Paul knew that his conversion was merely a response to God’s plan and God’s initiative.

As Jesus says to his disciples, “You did not choose me, but I chose you.” (John 15:16)

Paul says he too was chosen, he was called. He was called by God’s grace, not by his own merit. He did not deserve God’s call by his moral qualities, or by an admirable performance, or by his inherent ability and potential. No, he was set apart by God’s infinite wisdom and election; he was called by God’s decision and God’s unmerited favor.

Paul’s sinful past was no disqualifier, and neither is ours. No matter what the Lord is calling you to be and do in him, your past sins and failures don’t get you off the hook.

Our past disobedience does not excuse us from the call of God.

Our past incompetence does not excuse us from the call of God.

Like Paul, our life in Christ rests on God’s choice, God’s call, God’s grace. No credit to us.

And last, Paul’s conversion is an example for us because it happened so that he might share the Gospel with others.

Paul says, “God…was pleased to reveal his Son to me in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles…”

He doesn’t say that his conversion happened just so he would be with Jesus when he died—though of course he would—but that his conversion was for the benefit of those who would believe through him.

Our conversion is not just for us, not just for our sins, but that through our witness others may be saved. The old motto of the Salvation Army gets it right: “Saved to Serve.”

Paul’s conversion came

…through God’s revelation, not human wisdom;

…it was unexpected;

…it was based on God’s call and election; and

…it happened so that he might share the Gospel with others.

That’s the truth of Paul’s coming to Christ and ours. And it is the Good News we have to share with a world full of lost and hurting people.

The story goes that a young man applied for a job as an usher at a multiplex theater in a big mall. In the interview, the manager asked him, “As an usher, what would you do in case a fire breaks out?”

The young guy answered, “Oh, don’t worry about me. I’d get out okay.”

That’s just like us! “What will you do when you face the Lord on the Day of Judgment?” “Oh, don’t worry about me. I know Jesus. I’ll be okay.”

But we’re ushers! It isn’t enough just to get ourselves to safety. We are responsible for helping others find the way.

If you know the love and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, then you have been entrusted with the incomparable treasure of the Gospel. You are a steward of the message of salvation. And just as one day we will be called to account before God for how we have handled our money, so we will be called to account for how we have handled the Gospel. Did we hoard it? Did we hide it away, thinking somehow it was ours to keep? Or did we share it? Did we introduce our friends to our friend, Jesus?

Whatever our spiritual journey, whether we are still considering the claims of Christ or if we’ve walked with him for many years, Paul’s story encourages us. God was at work in him in mysterious ways he did not at first understand, and God is at work in us. He chooses us, he reveals himself to us, he forgives us and makes us new. That’s the truth of Paul’s conversion and ours. And it’s the Good News we have to share with a world that needs him so much.

Amen.

©2020 Rt. Rev. John A.M. Guernsey

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