Introduction:

The little themes that appear to run through lives are very strange. My life has been filled with a 'St. Paul's" theme. As a young person, one of my favorite Bible stories was about how God straightened out the life of Paul. Paul's conversion is an amazing story, and as we read the Book of Acts and Paul's letters, we're drawn to this intense but humble man whose life was transformed.

It wasn't until I was ordained that I realized that this day, January 25 is celebrated by churches all over the world as the festival of the Conversion of St. Paul. I was born on the festival of the 'Conversion of St. Paul' on a Sunday 51 years ago. In St. Paul. Oddly enough, of the 25 years I've been ordained, only four of those years were not serving some church named St. Paul's. This St. Paul thing seems pretty well entwined in my life for some reason.

I) Saul Thought He Was a Good Guy

As we read the story this morning of the Conversion of St. Paul, what can we learn of Saul, who would become 'Paul?' When we think of Saul, Saul was not a bad guy. Saul was a guy who was trying very, very, very hard to be a good guy. He was a Pharisee, the renewal sect, the committed sect of the Jewish people. These were the committed, most observant group. They prayed; they paid tithes; they were the most committed to the religious traditions of their people. They were the good ones, the ones who were completely sold out to following the God of Israel, they thought. They were the renewed people, who took their religion seriously, and really followed the Bible. When they began they were the best renewal group of the Jewish people. In fact, their Bible training would give Saul the education he would need to go on a write half the New Testment!

Saul's parents were probably very proud of him. He was trained by the best rabbis; had a brilliant mind, and was zealous for the God of Israel. He had a promising young career, and was entrusted with important projects beyond his years.

Saul thought, no, he knew he was doing everything right; he knew he was part of the best folks, he was the brightest and best. In that conviction, he set out to stamp out the early Christians. He knew he was right. But-- he was dead wrong. Saul's heart needed to be changed. The direction he had started had much good, but God had to adjust him. The Pharisees had started out as the most Biblical of the Jewish groups. The early Christians would share many of the basic beliefs. But the Pharisees rejected Jesus. Their traditions had made them resistant to hearing the Living Word of God. Saul needed conversion, a changing of his mind. God was leading a new way.

II) The Conversion of St. Paul's

You may have noticed that our sermon title isn't "The Conversion of St. Paul;" it's "The Conversion of St. Paul's." As I stand before you in the early days of 2004, we are at a turning point in the history of our congregation. Back in 1962-64 the congregation was in the same sort of position as today. Back then it became obvious that the freeway was about to take our old building. The congregation had to act. The options were to move to the suburbs, or somehow stay in the city. This building was sitting derelict, but sound. The congregation talked and prayed, and decided to stay in the city. The question was, "Where is a congregation needed more than here?"

In 1964 you marched here, and a new beginning came to St. Paul's. A risky decision was made; a dangerous decision was made. It would cost us dearly. Hundreds of members gradually did move to the suburbs. Many stayed, committed to each other and the city. And ever since then we've been doing ministry to desperately poor and chaotic individuals and families. We've looked inwards, gotten strength from each other, and ministered to many who passed through our neighborhood. These neighbors had very little strength to join a congregation or put down roots. We have ministered to our neighborhood, constantly aiming at moving targets.

We have also taken great comfort in the fact that St. Paul's is a faithful place. It's a safe place, where for 132 years God's Word has been faithfully preached and taught. St. Paul's is a place that's a haven for those who love God's Word and a safe place in the midst of a larger church grown cold and skeptical. Sometimes, in a world grown crazy, these stone walls have been a refuge from a hostile world of noisy voices. And a few years ago, these stone walls stopped bullets flying through a neighborhood turned to chaos.

Here's what I need to say. Our world is changing fast. As our numbers decrease due to the natural passing of time, our congregation continues to shrink. We're shrinking less than most, but we're barely holding our own. At exactly the same time, our neighborhood is changing, as part of one of the most vibrant bits of urban renewal in the nation. Minneapolis is leading the entire nation with people moving back downtown to live in a busy, artistically rich cosmopolitan environment. Tens of thousands of people are moving downtown, and they're moving in now all around us. These new neighbors are stable, young, multi-cultural and probably a bit different from us.

God has provided the funds for an Associate Pastor to reach out to these folks. God is bringing us resources to continue to boldly give leadership to the many students who are about to come to the city to learn to serve it. We are finding new allies and resources by partnering with the other St. Paul's- the Swedish congregation of the same name on the other side of Phillips. Henceforth we'll call them St. Paul's East.

We weren't expecting them to come to us, nor have we expected the rate at which God has been opening doors for our ministry.

But that's because God's day of march has come. God has prepared us, and we're movin' out!

But does he have to do more, first? Are we ready to change from being a bunch of people huddling behind three-foot stone walls, dodging bullets and heresy, to a people who go outside those walls to a new beginning? Are we truly ready for "The Conversion of St. Paul's?" Are we ready to change from doing ministry to a neighborhood to doing ministry with a neighborhood? Are we ready for people who will come from different backgrounds? Who don't know all the rules? Who act or dress or talk funny?

As we meet behind solid stone, are we ready now to open the doors? To go out the doors to the neighborhood? To your friends? To gather with new folks in Bible studies to make new friends, and invest your life in people you don't know? For the sake of Jesus?

Saul was doing all the stuff right that his teachers had always told him were the best things. Then Jesus got in the way. Are we ready for Jesus to get in the way here? We're the good guys- we say we're evangelical, out to reach the lost. But is that tradition or what we're doing today? Are we ready to reach outside our comfort level? Are we willing to give up some degree of control? Are we willing to lay down our lives so that God can use our church?

Whenever you're talking conversion, like that of Paul's, you're opening yourself up to what God wants. Sometimes that turns the world upside-down. Sometimes God takes that conversion and makes exactly what he wants of you. Are you open to that? Are you open for that for his church? Are you willing to follow where God opens the door, even if it's not the way we've always done it? Are you willing to see Jesus work, even if our building or our tradition get in the way? Is this our church or Jesus' church? Are you going to follow him, wherever he calls? Are you ready to have some real fun and be a part of God rebuilding his church?

As I pray and read my Bible, the "word" I keep hearing is that I am to continually call you to readiness; to call you to discipleship; to call you turn and think in a new way about a neighborhood which is now radically different from what it was even three years ago. Go out and try to find a drug dealer anywhere on this block. Look at the children and families going to the little store across the street. Look at the new buildings full of people on both sides of us.

In the next couple of years we will see more change around us than we've seen in the last 40. Are you open to reaching beyond these walls, far beyond your comfort zone, to do what God calls you to do? We will be seeing a new Associate Pastor; if the other St. Paul's contracts for staff from us, and sends us $75-80,000 to cover office and pastor costs, we may see two new Associate Pastors working out of this building, both through our office, serving both congregations. God is really, really up to something. He's right on the schedule he revealed to us over the past 15 years. This is going to be exciting!

I also want to call each of you to be individually involved in our Lenten "40 Days of Purpose" this year. I ask you, as your Pastor, to accept the invitation to join read the book and a small group Bible for those six weeks. These groups will meet throughout the week, in areas all over the cities. They'll be mixed groups of young and old, urban and suburban, and even mix St. Paul's East and West. It's a commitment of your time for six weeks. Are you ready to take on that discipline to learn, to grow and to stop and deeply consider God's purpose for your life?

Are you ready for the Conversion of St. Paul's, no matter where our Lord leads? Are you ready for the Conversion of St. Paul's, no matter of its cost to our comfort zone?

Saul took for granted that whatever he did was right, because tradition led him there. Then Jesus got in the way. Are you open to that?

Are you ready for the Conversion of St. Paul's? Are you willing to seek God's purpose for your life in this Body of Believers? Are you ready for God to act, or are we comfortable? Are we obedient like Ananias, reach out when it's beyond our comfort zone?

We've talked about these things before, but I don't think we get it yet This is not about somebody else doing a program. It's not about staff doing a new outreach. If St. Paul's is not converted, turned inside-out and re-created, to actually be evangelical, we will not be doing God's will. We have been turned inward too long. It's time to change our minds, to turn around, to experience God's best. The Conversion of St. Paul's begins with the conversion of you; a conversion of thinking, a conversion of our expectations of what God can do!

Invitation, Amen. January 25, 2004 - The Conversion of St. Paul

Acts 9:1-22

Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. He went to the high priest [2] and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. [3] As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. [4] He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"

[5] "Who are you, Lord?" Saul asked.

"I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," he replied. [6] "Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do."

[7] The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. [8] Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. [9] For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.

[10] In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, "Ananias!"

"Yes, Lord," he answered.

[11] The Lord told him, "Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. [12] In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight."

[13] "Lord," Ananias answered, "I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. [14] And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name."

[15] But the Lord said to Ananias, "Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. [16] I will show him how much he must suffer for my name."

[17] Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord--Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here--has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit." [18] Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, [19] and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. [20] At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. [21] All those who heard him were astonished and asked, "Isn't he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn't he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?" [22] Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ.

Galatians 1:11-24

I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. [12] I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

[13] For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. [14] I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. [15] But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased [16] to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, [17] nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus.

[18] Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter and stayed with him fifteen days. [19] I saw none of the other apostles--only James, the Lord's brother. [20] I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie. [21] Later I went to Syria and Cilicia. [22] I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. [23] They only heard the report: "The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy." [24] And they praised God because of me.

Luke 21:10-19

Then he said to them: "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. [11] There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.

[12] "But before all this, they will lay hands on you and persecute you. They will deliver you to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. [13] This will result in your being witnesses to them. [14] But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. [15] For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. [16] You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. [17] All men will hate you because of me. [18] But not a hair of your head will perish. [19] By standing firm you will gain life.