“A Second Chance at Hope”
Acts 9:1-6
NUCC Traditional
10 April 2016
We begin this week confronted by Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus –
possibly a familiar story which Paul told over and over again. When the great light
blinded him and a voice asked, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" Saul didn’t
know who was speaking to him and asked, "Who are you, Lord?" Christ had an answer
for him, "I am Jesus, and you are persecuting me ..." Indeed he was on a 150 mile
mission from Jerusalem to Damascus as one of the first religious terrorists. His job: find
and arrest any people who claimed to believe in Christ and take them back to
Jerusalem for trial and, perhaps, execution. A few words changed all of that: "I am
Jesus ...Get up now and go into the city, and you will be told what you have to do." Then
and there, when the Lord revealed himself to Saul - even before his sight was restored he became a believer, and, ultimately, an ardent preacher, theologian, and missionary.
His life, so different, that he did not even keep the name Saul, but rather changed it to
Paul.
Saul's conversion is important to us because we are always wanting detailed
accounts of the journey of those people who have become great or famous. They
always fascinate us. We avidly consume all the minute specifics we can find about
them, sometimes even stooping to seek out tidbits of gossip. We are titillated by the
trivial.
Think about it. There are entire industries based on our voyeuristic need to know.
Don’t believe me? Just go to a local grocery store and stand in line to and look at the
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magazine racks. Almost all of it, is some sort of view into the life of the “rich and
famous” or the formerly “rich and famous.”
Insatiable is our appetite for singularities in noteworthy people. So, since we
know how vastly important Saul is to our Christian faith, we latch onto Luke's accounts
with ready interest. Let me remind you that this is the first of three accounts of the
conversion of Saul (Acts 9, 22, and 26). Only an event of greatest import would ever
cause Luke, who is usually known for his brevity and concision, to repeat it so often.
Do you remember Michael Vick? Michael Dwayne Vick was born on June 26,
1980. Vick played college football at Virginia Tech, where as a freshman he placed third
in the Heisman Trophy balloting. He left after his sophomore year to enter the NFL and
was drafted first overall by the Atlanta Falcons in the 2001 NFL draft. He became the
first African-American quarterback to be selected first overall in an NFL draft. In six
seasons with the Falcons, he gained wide popularity for his performance on the field,
and led the Falcons to the playoffs twice. Vick ranks second among quarterbacks in
career rushing yards.
In April 2007, Vick was implicated in an illegal interstate dogfighting ring that had
operated over five years. In August 2007, he pleaded guilty to federal felony charges
and served 21 months in prison, followed by two months in home confinement.
Op-Ed columnist Michael Gerson of the Washington Post wrote this about
Michael Vick and second chances:
“Preventing crime and reducing recidivism are among the most difficult social policy
challenges. Gains come slowly and tend to be incremental. But such efforts are also the
practical demonstration of a defining national principle: While human beings are capable
of great horrors that merit justice, they do not become trash to be thrown away. Even
the least sympathetic -- heroin addicts and jailed criminals and gang members -- remain
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part of the American community, the human community. And their very lack of sympathy
tests our commitment to that ideal.”
So, todayt I want to ask you a simple question: Do you want to be remembered
for the worst thing that you have ever done? What is it in us, as Americans that is so
vindictive? Because in the end, we don’t withhold people from a second chance, we
withhold hope from a second chance. We are withholding hope that we can change. We
are withholding hope that we can be redeemed. We are withholding hope that we can
be better in the future than he was in the past.
This is the kind of second chance that God gave the Apostle Paul. We so often
forget that before he was an apostle, Paul was actually Saul, one of the greatest known
threats to the early Christian church. In fact, Saul was such a threat to Christians that
when God orders Ananias to go and lay hands on Saul, he hesitates and says that he
has heard about the damage that Saul has done. But when Saul encountered Jesus on
the road to Damascus on that fateful day, his life was changed forever. His very soul
was changed. Simply put – on the road to Damascus, Saul got a second chance.
Isn’t that what the season of Easter is all about for people of faith? The hope that
this year can be different? That we can be different? That we can get a second chance
at life? A second chance at love? A second chance at hope?
Dr. A.J. Cronin was a great Christian physician in England. One night, he
assigned a young nurse to a little boy who had been brought to the hospital suffering
from diphtheria, and was given only a slight chance to live. A tube was inserted into the
boy's throat to help him breathe. It was the nurse's job to systematically clean the tube.
As the nurse sat beside the boy's bed, she accidentally dozed off. She awakened to find
that the tube had become blocked. Instead of following instructions, she was
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immobilized by panic. Hysterically she called the doctor from his home. By the time he
got to the boy, he was dead. Dr. Cronin was angry beyond expression. That night Dr.
Cronin went to his office and wrote his recommendation to the board demanding the
immediate expulsion of the nurse. He called her in and read it, his voice trembling with
anger. She stood there in pitiful silence, a tall, thin, gawky Welsh girl. She nearly fainted
with shame and remorse. "Well," asked Dr. Cronin in a harsh voice, "have you nothing
to say for yourself?" There was more silence. Then she uttered this pitiful plea..."Please
give me another chance." Dr. Cronin sent her away. But he could not sleep that night.
He kept hearing some words from the dark distance: "Forgive us our trespasses." The
next morning Dr. Cronin went to his desk and tore up the report. In the years that
followed he watched as this slim, nervous girl became the head of a large hospital and
one of the more honored nurses in England.
Hear the good news of our faith: God is yearning to give each of us a second
chance, a third chance, a fourth chance, and a hundredth chance. Actually, today, let us
leave here mindful that we follow in the way of the God who does not even count the
chances that we have been given. Thanks be to God for that promise. Amen.
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