St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Wesley Chapel, FL
Preacher: The Rev. Adrienne R. Hymes
January 29, 2023
The Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle
Epistle: Galatians 1:11-24
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Conversion of the apostle Paul. In 2021, Paul was chosen as our patron saint, overwhelmingly, because he was the consummate church planter. But also because of his remarkable testimony of his conversion, from zealous persecutor to zealous apostle.
Without Paul’s powerful testimony, Paul could not have successfully appealed to such broad and ethnically-mixed populations. Church plants need to be able to tell their stories in order to effectively do the same.
In today’s passage in Acts, Saul, whom we know as Paul, told King Agrippa, with such vivid detail as a 3D movie, about his life-altering encounter with Jesus which we know as Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus. While Saul was enroute to hunt Jesus’ followers, the risen Christ intervened and stopped him in his tracks. The light that shone from heaven, brighter than the sun, caused Saul and his companions to fall to the ground. But Saul was the only human to hear Jesus’ voice speaking to him.
In the collision of the divine Christ and the human Saul—the cosmic and the earthly—Saul’s identity and purpose were forever changed. Saul became Paul. The once bringer of pain and death became the dynamic bearer of the liberating, life-giving Gospel message, preaching it for Jews and even more Gentiles.
Now, whether or not you love Paul, or he gets under your skin, there is no denying that his zeal for forming Gentile disciples to follow “the way” of Christ, was, by our measurement, successful. But why? Why was Paul able to replicate the formation of multiple faith communities? Paul was able to do such heavy lifting and focused work because he preached the Gospel Message—a message that, even when the hearers change, the message of the good news of God in Christ remains constant, just as the nature of Jesus, which is the nature of God, remains constant.
In the last verse of our epistle in Paul’s letter to the Galatians, Paul said of the people of the churches in Judea, who had never seen him, that they only heard it said, “The one who formerly was persecuting us is now proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy.”[1] And, Paul said, “And they glorified God because of me.”
Now, this final statement might sound arrogant, but it is Paul, so… But one thing we know about Paul is that he tells it plain. They glorified God, Paul said, because they had heard about his conversion. Paul’s conversion from hate and death, to love and life, forced people to listen.
Paul could not have successfully appealed to such broad and ethnically-mixed populations without his remarkable and compelling testimony of his conversion by hoarding his experience with the risen Christ. Paul had a remarkable and compelling story to tell, and it was critical to his planting of multiple churches.
If Paul’s extraordinary encounter with the risen Christ leaves you wondering if you have had your own “Road to Damascus” experience, and perhaps missed it; or wondering when yours is coming, I offer to you that by your faith, and even by the sheer wondering, you are already in the encounter with Christ because you are seeking him.
Like Paul, each of us, has testimonies of God powerfully moving through our own lives, that are not meant to be hoarded; they are meant to be shared as your personal witness to God’s presence in your life—testimonies that convert hearts of hate and death to love and life.
Episcopalians tend to freeze in fear when they hear the word evangelism. But, recall what Jesus said to the 12 disciples in our gospel passage in Matthew today. Jesus said, “…Do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for…it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.”[2]
Remember that you are God’s instrument of grace and mercy and that God will give you everything you need to fulfill his purposes. Sharing your testimony of your life in Christ with others requires courage, conviction, zeal and, yes, even a bit of necessary Pauline arrogance, so that, as Jesus’ disciple, you may be propelled forward with the expectation that you will be able to confidently say, “they glorified God because of me.”
As the church, which bears St. Paul’s name, we, too, have a remarkable and compelling story to tell. Your obedience and commitment to the will of God, is expressed through this shared endeavor of planting and growing a church. In the unrestricted sharing of our faith community’s remarkable story, may we look to our patron saint’s example of focusing on our purpose—to preach the unchanging gospel message, by word and deed, into a world of constant change; a world which is passing away.
As we move into yet another critical stage of our own development, this congregation must be faithful to God’s call, to be that heavenly light, that shines brighter than the sun in this world, and in this community of Wesley Chapel, “…So that all may turn,” as Jesus said, “…From darkness to light, and from the power of from Satan to God.[3]
St. Paul’s, we must be able to confidently say that we exist so that those beyond the four walls of this church, “…Glorified God because of this body of Christ.” As church planters, gathered in this holy space today, let us ground ourselves in Christ, and look to the example of our patron saint who, after his life of being an instrument of violent persecution and death, used his testimony of the risen Christ to bring the life-saving gospel message to the gentiles.
Let us reflect daily, and wrestle with, the inescapable question of identity and purpose: “How will God be glorified, for others, because of you?” Amen.
[1] Galatians 1:24
[2] Matthew 10:19-20
[3] Acts 26:18
