April 14, 2013
A Transformative Journey
- Acts 9:1-6
- Rev Ruth Chadwick Moore
I wasn’t struck by lightning and I didn’t fall to the ground, but I do think I would have had to sit down if I hadn’t been in my car. The call came on my cell phone as I was driving down Allisonville Rd. It was late June and the caller was Rev. Jean Smith from the Lilly Endowment. She was calling to let me know that I had been accepted into the 2012 Clergy Renewal Program and that my grant application for sabbatical had been accepted and funded. Actually what I should say is that Rev. Smith told me that our grant application had been funded, because the Clergy Renewal Program is for Indiana congregations – not just the pastors themselves.
I cried after I got the news. I did. I just burst into tears after I hung up the phone. I had pretty much convinced myself that I wouldn’t receive the grant – after all there are hundreds of applications and only 20 or so of them are funded. And, except for my marriage to dear Mark and the blessing of our three children, this opportunity is the best thing that has ever happened to me! Just receiving the grant has already changed my life and who knows how the experiences of these next fourteen weeks will transform things. Because of this grant I am going to get to go on journeys I never would have had the time or the money to do on my own.
Listen to what other ministers have said about their sabbatical experiences. “It was a spiritual experience – one that leaves me permanently affected and marked. I can never have that taken away from me. It has changed who I am.” “The renewal program was life-changing. It will give shape to the next 10 years of my ministry at the church and in the community. It has enlarged my vision and renewed my call and commitment.” Ministers who receive the blessing of a renewal grant, or as we describe it here at Northminster – a sabbatical time away – get to go on a journey that can transform their lives. And a transformative journey can’t help but remind me of Paul’s journey to Damascus.
I wouldn’t describe receiving the sabbatical grant as a conversionary experience, but I would call it a transformative one. As soon as I received the news I was transformed – I was excited, I got to plan experiences with my family and I now had something wonderful to work toward and look forward to. And that’s what we have in today’s passage of Saul’s conversionary experience on the Road to Damascus. Not only does Saul become a Christian after his encounter with Jesus, his whole life is transformed and he begins to journey in a very different direction.
Saul had been a violent persecutor of Christians or followers of the Way. He was present at the stoning of the disciple Stephen and he had Christians arrested and imprisoned. The 1st verse of today’s passage says that Paul was still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.
All of that changed when Saul encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus. His perspective changed dramatically. From that point on, Saul stopped persecuting Christians and began to actively work for the church. Paul’s journey left him with a new perspective, a new outlook and a new set of values. I wonder how my perspectives will be changed with my trips to the United Kingdom and to North Carolina. I wonder how our perspectives on life and faith will be changed when we study Celtic Christianity – me in Ireland and you here in an adult education classes. I wonder how our relationships with God and each other will change when we participate in a contemplative retreat – me at St. Meinrad and you at the Benedictine Center in Beech Grove. I wonder how our relationship with food and with healthy eating will change as we participate in cooking classes – me at home and you at Northminster on Wednesday nights in May.
Once Saul met Jesus on the road to Damascus his life’s purpose was completely transformed. He started his journey wanting to destroy Jesus’ followers and ended up proclaiming Jesus as the Son of God. And then Jesus said to Saul: “Get up and enter the city and you will be told what you are to do.” From this time forward, Saul would be guided by Christ’s purpose and will for his life.
When most of us talk about our faith journeys we don’t have a powerful conversion experience like Saul’s to share with others. Maybe we even get a little defensive about that and say, “Even though I have never had a Damascus Road experience, I still believe God has been at work in my life.” I think most of us believe that God has a purpose and a will for our lives – it just may not be shown to us as radically as a lightning strike. Maybe our blinding light has been a friend who confronted us, or a partner who told us the truth, or a child who heroically told it like it is.
So my question is, “Was God involved in that life changing experience?” Where was God in your conversion experience? Is God in the business of changing lives? Where and how has God transformed your life? Sometimes it is only when we look back at what has happened in our lives that we can identify the hand of God upon our lives. From the advantage of hindsight we can see the Spirit at work. Because it’s not the honest friend or the heroic child that actually turns us around or transforms us. It is a light that turns on within us – and it is our willingness to take the risk of seeing things in a new way that makes the transformation or turnaround possible.
The main character in Saul’s conversion story – the main character in any conversion story – is God. God is the light that turns on within and it is God who changes and transforms lives. The one thing that is clear about Saul’s Damascus Road experience is the power of God to turn him from being someone “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord” to someone who “proclaimed Jesus” so that “all who heard him were amazed” (vv.20-21).
There is no one religious experience that fits all of us. What happened to Saul was dramatic and had a significant impact on the future of the church. Our job is to remain open to what God is doing in and around us – to be aware of how God is working in our lives – to be looking for and participating in moments of transformation. That is what I am hoping my sabbatical time will be – time to look for and participate in moments of transformation.
The roads I am traveling during this sabbatical time away will put me outside my comfort zone, they will force me to slow down, they will force me to be still and listen to God, and they will increase my vulnerability quotient as I travel to new places and depend on new friends, teachers and traveling companions. And I think one of the biggest tasks of this time away will be to remain open to what God is doing in, around and through me.
As we remember and celebrate the Damascus Road experience for Saul, I hope we can all celebrate the road ahead of us during this time of renewal and transformation for all of us. This is a time to be grateful to God for the variety of transformational experiences that will enrich this community of faith. I hope you will take advantage of the opportunities offered for congregational participation. I also hope you will support and step up your volunteer efforts to help Teri, our Parish Associate Barbara Sloop and our interns during these next few months.
I love all of you, I like most of you, and I will miss you while I am gone. Take good care of each other and stay well. I will keep you in my prayers and ask that you keep me in your prayers as well. And may God bless our journeys of transformation.
References:
Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 2, Third Sunday of Easter.
Sermons.com, “Transforming Love,” by Douglas Deuel.