New Testament: Acts 9:1-20
More than 20 years ago, while still living in south Alabama, Amy and I completed a four-year lay education course known as Education for Ministry. First rolled out in the 1970s by the University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee, EfM takes participants through a sequential study of the Old and New Testaments, church history, and theology. Each session of our group’s time together also included opportunities for spiritual reflection during which we learned how to take everyday instances from life, tie them to scripture, and determine where God was present in those moments. There’s no degree or credit received for completion of EfM, but what one does get is a much deeper understanding of the many threads woven together to create the tapestry of our faith. (An interesting side note: of the dozen or so folks in our group, four of us were ultimately ordained to the priesthood.)
During one session the members of our class were asked to choose someone from the Bible with whom we closely identified. In a surprising moment – surprising especially to me – I didn’t pick someone with a significant reputation. The name I offered wasn’t Moses or Jeremiah or one of the disciples. I didn’t single out Abraham or David or Jonah. No, the name that came out of my mouth was Ananias.
I chose a person who appears in just nine verses out of the more than 31,000 found in the Old and New Testaments. For those who love calculations and math, that’s just under three-one hundredths of a percent. If the Bible were a large painting, Ananias is the tiniest of drops of paint in one bit of a corner of the canvas. But look at what Ananias did in just nine verses.
He listened. He obeyed. He went. He acted. In the conversion story of no less a person than Saul of Tarsus, Ananias was the instrument of God that made all things possible. In the words of scholar Joseph Fitzmyer, he was “mediator for the healing, baptism, and reception of Saul into the church.”[1] In an even more remarkable turn, he was one of those early followers of Jesus that Saul was persecuting and sending into captivity. “The Lord uses an opponent of Saul as an instrument in the latter’s conversion.”[2]
So let’s look at where we are at this moment. Saul the persecutor saw a vision of the risen Jesus and was blinded. Ananias, a member of the community being persecuted, was chosen to bring about Saul’s healing and new sight. We know Ananias had concerns from the outset. Lord, this guy’s evil and he goes after everyone who professes a belief in you. More deeply I hear a reluctance in Ananias: Lord, don’t ask me to help someone who only wants to hurt me. I’m not sure I want to do it. Tell me why I should. Then God responds. I hear you, Ananias, but Saul is the one I’ve picked. He’ll do great things in my name, but he’s going to suffer because of them – and he’s going to suffer for me. I’ll show him the way. Just trust me, and for now follow the way I’ve set for you.
Trust God, and follow the path that’s been set. Have faith. That’s been a recurring theme for the past several weeks: faith. Last week for instance it was Thomas and the conditions he placed on his faith about seeing the risen Jesus. We’ve also considered fear as a challenge to faith in our own lives. But today, in this scene with Ananias, I want to pull out something else – something perhaps even more challenging. It’s having faith in someone God’s selected to do work in the world even if it’s someone we don’t like.
Saul was likely the last person Ananias or indeed anyone else in the early Christian community thought would serve as the hands and feet of God in the world. Saul hounded them. Saul imprisoned them. As we saw with the martyrdom of Stephen, Saul stood by while they were murdered. To the average person Saul was the wrong person for any sort of ministry from God. At the outset Ananias didn’t seem to have faith in God’s choice. But for him and for us it’s important to remember that key point: it’s God’s choice.
Our ongoing discernment isn’t necessarily just about seeing those things to which God may be calling us. It may very well be seeing those things to which God may be calling others, those we like and perhaps those we don’t … those we respect and perhaps those we don’t. Just as no person is beyond God’s redemption, no person is beyond possessing value in doing the work of God in the world. Just as I said a few weeks ago that it’s not our job to determine who gets to go to heaven, it’s also not our job to determine who gets chosen to work for the kingdom here on earth. Ananias didn’t pick Saul, but God did – and while there may be someone we know we won’t pick, God very well may.
So here I circle back to where I started. In that EfM class more than two decades ago, why did I choose Ananias? At the time I thought it was because he was one who was open to hearing the voice of God. In hindsight I see that it was likely a very early sign of my own discernment which hadn’t started yet but one day would arrive. He wasn’t just someone who listened for God; he was someone who obeyed God. He obeyed God despite the risks. He obeyed God despite his reluctance. He obeyed God because of his faith. He obeyed God because God’s vision is wider, broader, and extends farther than his ever could.
May we always have the wisdom of Ananias to do likewise. May we listen and follow the direction of God, trusting in faith and remembering that God’s vision for us and for other will always be greater than our own.
Amen.
[1] Joseph A. Fitzmyer. The Acts of the Apostles, p. 421.
[2] Fitzmyer, p. 426.