Acts 9:1-22

The Conversion of St. Paul, 25. January 2004
Sermon on Acts 9:1-22 (Revised Common Lectionary) by Luke Bouman

Acts 9:1 Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus , suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, „Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?“ 5 He asked, „Who are you, Lord?“ The reply came, „I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 6 But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.“ 7 The men who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. 8 Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus . 9 For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank. 10 Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, „Ananias.“ He answered, „Here I am, Lord.“ 11 The Lord said to him, „Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment he is praying, 12 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.“ 13 But Ananias answered, „Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem ; 14 and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.“ 15 But the Lord said to him, „Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel ; 16 I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.“ 17 So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, „Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.“ 18 And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored. Then he got up and was baptized, 19 and after taking some food, he regained his strength. For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus , 20 and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, „He is the Son of God.“ 21 All who heard him were amazed and said, „Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem among those who invoked this name? And has he not come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?“ 22 Saul became increasingly more powerful and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Messiah.

What’s in a name?

Names are powerful things. Being able to name something gives you a certain amount of power over it. This has been true for centuries, and certainly has found its way into our culture today in any number of ways.

The young boy, new in a school, comes home to parents and reports that kids are picking on him. But the parents and teacher are helpless to do anything about it until the child can learn the names of those guilty. Being able to name your assailant is part of the process of getting justice. A young mom tries to calm her child, fearful and trembling in her arms. Helping the child to name her fears is part and parcel of a parent’s task in such moments.

Modern science fiction and fantasy novels carry such themes as well, as they explore the depths of the human psyche. In Ursula K. LeGuin’s “Earthsea” novels, several times the hero attempts to “name the enemy” only to discover it is his own fear. It is no coincidence that in the Harry Potter books, few people will speak the name “Lord Voldemort.” Those that do, like Harry, seem less vulnerable to his evil powers. Certainly in these days post 9/11, naming our fears has been the key to calming our lives.

There is something about “naming” things out there that bring them to a human level. In fact, we invent names for things in order to tame them, or else give ourselves the illusion that we have tamed them. People also have gotten a lot of power and prestige by attaching themselves to the names of powerful people. We drop names in order to make ourselves feel, for a moment, more important. We invoke names of others when we want to add weight to the things that we say.

No doubt about it, names are a powerful thing. Certainly, the giving of a name can have a profound effect on a child’s life thereafter. Some names have innate power in our culture. Other names denote plain or mundane attributes. What we name something or someone will inhabit their psyche and place in the world for the rest of their lives. Certainly this is why certain names have dropped off of our cultures list of most popular. You don’t hear of too many children named Ezra or Ruth these days, though at one time they were much more popular.

The Name of God

Certainly the people of Israel knew that the name of God was important. One of the Ten Commandments is dedicated to the sanctity of the Name of God. This commandment was taken so seriously that the Hebrew Scriptures were written in such a way that %&%* , the four letter name of God, was carefully punctuated so that the reader would say The LORD rather than the actual name of God. God’s name had power that must not be abused. To guard against this abuse, God’s name became something that was not used at all.

Our lessons for this Feast Day of the Name of Jesus make it clear that something extraordinary is being said, theologically, when Jesus is named. It isn’t only that Jesus name has meaning. (Jesus comes from Yeshua, or Joshua, and means “God is my salvation.”) It is that Jesus is named at all that is striking. It reminds us how committed God is to us, to our existence, that God would choose to become human, vulnerable, one of us (see also Phil. 2:5-11).

This is not a distant God, who is so other that we cannot look at God’s face, lest we die. This is not a terrible God who strikes only fear in the hearts of humans. This is God loving us at face value and allowing us to know a name, a face, a life lived among us. This is God expressing divinity within the confines of what it means to be human, withing the limits of our existence. When God chooses a name, God is choosing to limit how we see and how we understand who God is.

This is indeed a frightening proposition to some who would keep God distant and other. I was at a conference of religious dialogue many years ago, where theologians from major world religions were talking about God and salvation from a variety of perspectives. At this conference an Islamic young woman took issue with the Judeo-Christian understanding of a God who “rested” on the seventh day of creation, saying that a God that needs to rest can’t possibly be God. In answer to her question, one of the Lutheran theologians simply offered that God does not rest because God needs a break, but rather because God knows that we need to rest.

In a similar way, God does not choose to be named because of God’s need to have a human face. Rather, God chooses to be named because we need to know God face to face, to have contact with God’s love from within our existence. God chooses to be vulnerable, not because God can somehow be contained, but rather so that we might see the limits of our existence not as something to resist, but rather as something that God also knows and has hallowed.

Naming grace

What God in Jesus allows us to do is see the face of God and know the mind of God. Despite attempts by those who would ignore the commandment and use God’s name to consolidate their power and prestige, God gives us a name to call upon, Jesus, that is the very name of self giving love and grace in the world. Our lesson from Philippians today offers us a glimpse of what that means. We see the name of Jesus connected with the emptying of self, the giving of self, even to the point of death on the cross.

Certainly having Jesus in human form gave the illusion that we might have power over God. Humanity was able to grab hold of Jesus and use our ultimate power to hang him on a cross. But this did not ultimately provide for any power over God’s love or serving purpose. The cross undoes the power of death over Jesus and through Jesus, over us.
When we invoke the name of Jesus, it is always connected to the cross. It is here, paradoxically where Jesus is most human, most vulnerable, that God’s name becomes most powerful. At the same time as God is limited by the use of the name, we also discover something new about what it means to be God in the world. For in choosing to be the crucified one, God has rendered all other names, all other powers, all other claims upon our lives penultimate. The name of Jesus now speaks for all humanity who live within the shadow of death. The name of Jesus is now stamped as the servant sign of the cross upon the forehead of every one of the Baptized. The name of Jesus we now bear into the world as we too become vulnerable and weak on behalf of those who suffer from poverty and injustice. We discover a God that is impossibly more complex than just the one who takes on humanity, who allows that we might call on a name.

In naming Jesus, we also claim the power over sin and death that only he bears into the world. By clinging to the name of Jesus, we cling to that name that transforms our existence and gives it hope, joy, and meaning beyond ourselves. By placing our hope in Jesus, we are rejecting the names and the hopes that lead us only to dead ends and despair. For no other name will do. This is the only one that makes the world whole again.

Rev. Dr. Luke Bouman
Tree of Life Lutheran Church,
Conroe, Texas
lbouman@treeoflifelutheran.org