WHAT’S YOUR MISSION ON STRAIGHT STREET?
Text: Acts 9:1 - 20
But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.”
The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.”
But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.”
But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; and taking food, he was strengthened. For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.”
Do you believe that God has a mission for you? Are you listening when God calls you to that mission? Or, do you have some reservations about that mission? Are your reservations about self-preservation and maintaining the status quo or both? Or, are your reservations about what God is calling you to do because you have already placed a period where God has placed a comma? In looking at today’s scripture, think about what you would do if you were Ananias.
As for placing periods where God has placed commas, consider this next story. It is called Mouse Story and at one time it was going virtual on the internet.
Mouse Story .
A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package.
"What food might this contain?" The mouse wondered - he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap. Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning. "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"
The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it."
The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The pig sympathized, but said, "I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers."
The mouse turned to the cow and said, "There is a mouse trap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose."
So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap-- alone. That very night a sound was heard throughout the house -- like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey.
The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital and she returned home with a fever.
Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient.
But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig..
The farmer's wife did not get well; she died. So many people came for her funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.
The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.
So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn't concern you, remember -- when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.
We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another.
Do we sometimes think of some people the same we do as a snake? Do we think of some people as they were a leopard and say to ourselves “a person can change but leopard cannot change his spots”?
If this story in today’s text tells us anything it tell us to never underestimate what God can do!
THE OLD SAUL DIED
At this point in his life how would you have compared Saul to his past?
1) Saul’s militant past: Some might have thought of Saul as some sort of thug working for some sort of moffia! Listen to Paul in his own words before King Agrippa in Acts 26:9 “ …. in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme, and in raging fury against them I persecuted them even to foreign cities” (Act 26:10-11 ESV).
2) A former enemy of the church: “For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it (Galatians 1: 13 ESV).
3) A recipient of mercy: “… though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief ( I Timothy 1:13 ESV).
What was it that fired Paul up so badly?
1) St. Stephen: In Acts 7 Saul was among those who were angered by Stephen and his finger pointing at their at their contempt and that of their ancestors.
2) Condemning contempt: Summing up his speech in his own words St. Stephen said, “ “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it” (Act 7:51-53 ESV).
3) Stoning of St. Stephen:
Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul (Act 7:58 ESV). As we know the story does not end there.
SAUL’S REDEMPTION
Are the redeemed supposed to be lone-rangers?
1) Redemption: Saul’s eyes were later opened because of God’s intervention through Jesus Christ. Unless God acted to reconcile Saul to the community he sought to destroy he would always be on the outside looking in.
2) Potential: God did not want to just redeem Saul, He saw what Saul could become. The reason that Paul was changed is because he was drawn by God’s Holy Spirit.
Have you ever put a period where God put a comma?
1) Echoes: Remember that Saul was given sanctuary while he was blind for three days and then he was ministered to by Ananias who God sent to Straight Street then baptized and filled by God’s life giving Spirit? Does that ring a bell in our memories and about the resurrection of Jesus Christ and how we are baptized into the new life thta Jesus gives to us?
2) Forgiveness like Jesus: There are always going to be those who oppose the reconciliation of former enemies to the Body of Christ! Do we put a period where God put a comma?
3) Opposition: Let me ask you this: Do you think others opposed welcoming Saul into the community after his past life of persecuting Christians? Do we put a period where God put a comma?
4) God’s Spirit or our flesh?: If God draws someone who has confessed, repented and been redeemed to join the Body of Christ can we honestly say they don’t belong? Which one is at work in those episodes of resistance our flesh or God’s Spirit? What is born of the flesh will die but what is born of God’s Spirit will have eternal life! Do we put a period where God put a comma? Is it possible for us to act like we have scales still on our eyes when we cannot resist the movement of God’s Spirit in salvation?
Though we are not Ananias, we have to remember God sends us to our Straight Streets for mission? Are we ready when God sends us or do we put a period where God has put a comma?
We know that God did great things through Saul who later became known as God’s missionary to the Gentiles. Are we open to the great things that God wants to to through us? There is the story of a girl who answered and alter call during a revival. She went to the altar to pray. The evangelist went to pray with her as she explained to him the call she felt God gave her to be a missionary. The evangelist asked “What did you tell God, yes or no?” When God called Ananias to his mission what did he say? Remember that all in the story at the beginning about the mouse? Everyone’s thought that the mouse’s problems did not concern them until they found out otherwise. The point was humorous in that story but it is for real in our story. God called us to respond to the commas where others respond with a period. God has called you to your mission on your “Straight Street” just like God called Ananias. Will we tell God “Here I am send me” or “no”?
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
