ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
June 17, 2022
A lot of folks would describe Saul’s (later Paul’s) experience along the Damascus Road as a conversion. It makes sense! He started his journey as a follower of Jesus at that moment, so it must have been a conversion. But Saul/Paul never saw himself as anything but a Jew. He was a Jew who followed Jesus. Please understand that this is not the same as modern-day Messianic Judaism. Saul did not convert, but was enlightened. He did not change religions, but found a new way of seeing the old. In Philippians 3, Paul described himself as a Jew in every way a person might describe him/herself as a Jew. What changed in Saul’s life was an encounter with the Resurrected Jesus. I do not believe it was an encounter with Jesus in his physical state of resurrection, but however it was, the experience was transformative. It became a new set of lenses through which he saw everything, and saw everything differently. I am not suggesting Judaism was wrong or bad, but something forever changed within Saul/Paul. This is a helpful example for me, as there have been many moments of transformation when what I previously knew may not have been wrong or bad, but in light of a new experience, I could no longer see things as I once saw them. My concern today is that we have produced a generation of so-called Christians who see the world no differently than anyone else. I recall Donna and I flying to Guatemala for the first time to meet our child. I thought I had a pretty good sense of what that moment would be like. When that child was placed in my hands for the first time, life changed in ways I never could have previously imagined. I saw the world differently, and so should those who have experienced rebirth through the love of Christ.
Holy God, may your love forever change the way I see the world, interact with it, and choose to humbly serve it. Amen.
