Friday of the Third Week of Easter
In this year of peaceful discipleship, it's important to think about how to respond to our enemies - or at least to people with whom we find ourselves utterly at odds. Today's scriptures help us to rethink how we respond to our enemies, or even just those with whom we have serious disagreements.
Today's reading from the Acts of the Apostles (9:1-20) is that poignant story of Saul's conversion. The passage gives us a sense of just how angry and vengeful Saul is toward these new-fangled Christians, and how much he thinks they are abusing God's law. He's willing to travel to search out Christians in any synagogues and drag them back to Jerusalem in chains.
The synagogue in this story is important. The presence of synagogues in both today's Gospel and Acts readings should remind us how closely connected Christianity and Judaism really are. We forget that fact sometimes - especially these days, when Christians are mostly Gentiles, not descended from the ancient Israelites.
Note that Jesus is preaching about the Eucharist and his Body and Blood from the synagogue in Capernaum (John 6:52-59). Of course Saul would have seen this kind of preaching as utterly blasphemous, along with all the similar kinds of claims Christians are making in synagogues following Jesus' resurrection. In saying these words about his Body and Blood, Jesus has completely retold the central, most important story in Jewish scripture - the story of God saving the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. That story is enshrined in one of the most holy Jewish holidays each year - the Passover.
From a Christian perspective, God saving the Israelites goes right along with God saving all of humanity in Jesus' death on the cross. The two events show us who God is: God is with us. God cares for us. God saves. From a Jewish perspective though, the Christian re-narration calls into question truth about God and what is made known to us in scriptures. No wonder Paul's on a rampage.
These are two opposing narratives - both about God, both grounded in scripture. There seems to be no way forward. I suspect most of us experience something like this kind of impasse in our own lives in some small way.
The great thing is that today's scriptures give us a word from God here, regardless of what side we find ourselves on. If we find ourselves in a situation like Saul's where we are angry and justifiably outraged, I think our task is to respond in faith as Saul does. Saul is bewildered by being blinded - but he doesn't just give up and go home, or deny that the voice of God has spoken to him. Instead, he obeys that voice, and goes to the house of the people he disagrees with. Similarly, Ananias - one of the persecuted - also listens to the voice of God. He opens his heart to the possibility that enemies can be converted.
Neither one of them might have listened to God. It is entirely possible that, once converted, Saul might have decided his vision was all a hoax. It is also entirely possible that Ananias might have reneged on his own decision to help Saul.
What brings the two enemies together is their willingness not only to listen to God in the moment of intense conversation and response. What also brings them together is their persistence. The point is not only the miracle, but the way they live their lives together beyond the miracle in their newfound relationship and faith in each other, through God.
In other words, their daily interactions over the next several weeks and even years is what helps create the space for Saul to become Paul, and for Christianity to be carried to so many people all over the Mediterranean Sea.
Today, let us think of the daily persistence our relationships with others require - especially in our disagreements, and relationships with enemies.
- Jana M. Bennett