“Two Conversions: A Sermon based on Acts 9:1-19”
Pastor Deb Troester, STHPC, October 13, 2024
This year is the 30th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide. Over the space of three months in 1994, some one million Tutsis were brutally murdered by their Hutu neighbors. Many were hacked to death by machetes, or hunted down and shot. You might remember the horrifying scenes from the movie “Hotel Rwanda.” The reality was doubtless even worse.
Earlier this year I heard a radio interview of a genocide survivor, Rochelle Mukantabana, who was 15 at the time. During the genocide, she hid in a swamp outside her village for weeks. Each day Hutu soldiers and militia came and killed everyone they could find. Rochelle lost her mother, four siblings and more than 50 members of her extended family. Yet today she lives in a village where survivors and perpetrators of the genocide live side by side. It is called a reconciliation village. Many such villages dot the countryside in Rwanda, an effort to make sure that such things never happen again.
While the leaders of the genocide received lengthy prison sentences, local perpetrators appeared before a traditional court, in a truth and reconciliation process. Here the perpetrators had the opportunity to confess their crimes, show remorse and ask for forgiveness in front of their community. When asked if she wasn’t afraid to live in such close proximity to people who 30 years ago tried to kill her and her family, Rochelle said, “No, I don't feel afraid…People live together peacefully. There's no more Hutu, no more Tutsi. We are all Rwandan.” Some people say they don’t believe in miracles, but this seems like a miracle to me.
Have you ever encountered someone who was determined to be right, no matter who they hurt? Saul of Tarsus was one such person. In our Bible reading, Saul isn’t committing genocide, but convinced that Jesus of Nazareth was a fraud, he went as far as Damascus, a week’s travel from Jerusalem, to hunt down Jesus’ followers and bring them back in chains, for imprisonment or execution. The Christians were afraid of him, with good reason.
As Saul traveled on the road to Damascus, with his evil plan in mind, suddenly a light from heaven blinded him. He fell to the ground. A voice cried out, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Saul asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The voice replied, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” Blinded by the light, he was led into the city. Thus, Saul, persecutor of Christians, became Paul the Apostle, who spread the gospel throughout Asia Minor and as far as Rome, where he perished as a martyr. Paul is credited with writing nearly one-fourth of the New Testament.
But before all this could happen, the Christian community had to accept and forgive him. Then, as now, It’s easy to label others but difficult to think that they might really change. Paul had been labeled an enemy of the faith. That’s where Ananias comes in. He is one of the unsung heroes of the Bible. If it had not been for his willingness to extend the hand of friendship to Paul, he might never have become the great leader of the early church that we know today. It is one thing to help a friend, but what about when God asks you to help an enemy?
Today we need more people like Ananias and Rochelle, people who are willing to risk being instruments of reconciliation; people who are willing to forgive and to believe that their neighbors can change. We need the peacemakers Jesus talked about in the Sermon on the Mount.
Just reading the headlines, or watching the news, we can’t escape hearing about the wars in the Middle East and in Ukraine, continuing violence in Cameroon and Sudan; a rise in Anti-Semitism, white “Christian” nationalism and various other hate groups. Friendships are broken and family members no longer speak to each other because of political differences. Yet we Christians are called to be the light of the world, the salt of the earth. Jesus taught, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who spitefully use you.” Maybe Ananias can help us learn how to love instead of hate: how to be a peacemaker.
How was Ananias able to reach out to someone he had regarded as an enemy? First, he was open to God’s leading; he was a person who prayed and who listened to God. When the Lord called to Ananias in a vision, he answered, ‘Here I am, Lord.’” Are we watching and listening for God’s voice? Are we available for God to use us? It’s difficult to be a peacemaker unless we make an effort to stay in communion with God. Those who are truly listening for God’s voice are most likely to hear what God is saying. I don’t mean literally hearing a voice, but somehow perceiving in our hearts what God wants us to do –the leading of the Holy Spirit. Because Ananias was looking and listening for how he might serve God, God gave him a mission: a mission of healing and reconciliation.
Ananias also had a forgiving spirit. He could have thought, “This is what Saul deserves for his evil deeds – being struck blind,” yet he goes to Saul to pray for his healing. He couldn’t have done this if he had not forgiven Saul from his heart. Ananias refused to harbor ill-will, despite everything Saul had done.
We live in a world that bears grudges, that doesn’t think it’s wrong to get back at someone for what they have done to us. The message that “It’s normal to want to get even” surrounds us. In popular movies and TV shows we see it constantly. Furiosa in Mad Max, Batman avenging his parents, and V in V for Vendetta, are all heroes out for revenge, and they are only a few examples. They are presented in such a way as to make us sympathize and even condone their actions, but in real life revenge doesn’t work out as well – witness the cycle of violence being carried out before our eyes in the Middle East right now. This bloodshed has gone on for nearly 70 years with no end in sight. On a smaller scale, anthropologist Jared Diamond tells of a blood feud in Papua New Guinea that began with a pig digging up someone's garden, and led to a clan war that lasted for three years and killed 29 people. Most of us have heard of the Hatfields and McCoys, two families who fought and killed each other for some 30 years back in the late 1800’s. Getting revenge seems to be part of human nature.
Yet, there have been times and places where people were able to stop the cycle of violence. Many were certain that the end of apartheid would bring a bloodbath in South Africa, but because of the wisdom of leaders like Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, peace prevailed. Similarly the efforts of political leaders John Hume and David Trimble put an end to the “troubles” of Northern Ireland, which killed over 3,500 people between 1969 and 1998. Although Hume and Trimble were on opposing sides in the conflict, they worked together for peace, for which they won the Nobel Prize. Real-life peacemaking is challenging, but it can be done.
Most of us will never be in a position to bring about peace in the international arena, but what about in our personal lives? We can be peacemakers in our families, workplaces, and communities. We can all show love and forgiveness. We can all avoid labeling people. We can believe that folks can change. We can reach out to those who are different from us, even to those who have wronged us. We can all be an Ananias so someone.
Father Greg Boyle of L.A., founder of the largest outreach to former gang members in the world, said, “Moral outrage can feel good. But it does nothing to heal our divided world.” He continues, “Where we say ‘these are good people and these are bad people’ – it’s not how God sees – God sees God’s people…If you’re demonizing anybody, if you’re otherizing anybody, if you’re relegating somebody to be outside the circle of compassion, all of these things are the opposite of how God sees…God’s dream come true is not that people worship God, but that we all be one.”
As Christians, let’s be willing to take the first step toward reconciliation. Remember the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” Let’s vow not to hate. Let’s be the first to offer a hand of peace and to listen to the other side, even if we don’t agree. Then, through dialogue and sharing our lives, we may come to understand them better and work toward reconciliation.
Ananias was available to God, he had a forgiving spirit, and he was willing to take the first step to build a relationship with someone who was an enemy. The result? His eyes were opened. Yes, Paul’s eyes were opened when he regained his sight, but Ananias’ eyes were opened, too. That’s why I titled this sermon “Two Conversions” – the conversion of Saul, and, in some sense, the conversion of Ananias. The most touching words in this story are when Ananias says, “Brother Saul.” Where Ananias had seen an enemy, he now saw a brother in Christ. There is a lot of healing in that word “brother.”
The power to see those who are different from us as our brothers and sisters is a power that can change the world. One of the most effective tools in the struggle to abolish slavery was a little drawing showing a slave bound in chains surrounded by the words, “Am I not a man and a brother?” When we see each other as the sisters and brothers God created us to be, the walls of prejudice and hatred will fall, and we can work together for a better world. We can walk together in peace. Who is God calling you to see as a brother or a sister today? Like Paul and Ananias, may our eyes be opened and may we, too, reach out our hands in healing and reconciliation. Amen.
©Deborah Troester 2024