One of the thrilling facets of my ministry is that I minister at St. Paul's. Paul has been my biblical mentor for many years, partly because he was a "tentmaker" (self-supporting) and partly because of his dramatic change in both theology and lifestyle.

Most of you know I have been a "tentmaker" most of my life; I have worked as an educator, a businessman, and in several other capacities.

In the past 40 years I have changed my theology and lifestyle dramatically, and traumatically! I am much more a fundamentalist than I ever was before my "conversion." And I am much more a liberal than I ever was before.

Easter is a call to counterculture. The resurrection of Jesus made available the power to change. Genuinely change.

A pastoral counselor was asked, "What have you learned in 30 years of listening to people and their problems?"

"I have learned that people almost never change."

Maybe you have heard the joke: "How many Christians does it take to change a light bulb?"

"Change?" Christians, change?

Change is a serious challenge for most of us. We don't like to be challenged by anything new or different. That's human nature.

But change is what it's all about, moving from here to there. Progress is inherently a way of change. I think there is no place where change is resisted more than by religious people, in church. And maybe there is nowhere that change is more relevant and more necessary.

Most of us can remember when our homes and cars were not air-conditioned. And most of us would not be willing to go back to sleeping on the lawn in the summer now, would we?

Nor would we be satisfied with black-and-white TV, or dial telephones, or living without cell phones and computers and microwave ovens . . .

But when it comes to religion, faith, what we believe, how we worship, change makes us nervous! I can't tell you how many times I have heard, "We've never done it that way before." Or "I was taught such-and-such in confirmation class." Or "I grew up with the Apostles' Creed." Or "Why don't we stick to the good old hymns?"

I think the most tragic facet of that mindset is that by refusing to consider new things, we deprive ourselves of the rewarding, exciting spiritual growth which is available thru openness to the Holy Spirit's leading.

Today I hope to challenge you!

Our reading from Acts today is a fascinating story. Our introduction to Saul was at the execution of Stephen. He seems to have been sort of a coat check. He obviously felt the call of God that day, a call to eradicate the sect of "The Way."

With a burning passion, a genuine sense of mission, he set out to purify the church, the chosen people of God. There were several sects among the Jews, the most conspicuous of which was a new sect known as The Way, or Christianity.

The son of a Jewish family in Tarsus, a rabbi knowledgeable in Hellenistic culture, Saul was also a Pharisee, one of the upright, educated, careful students of Jewish law, who insisted on strict obedience to it.

Followers of Jesus were spreading word of the Resurrection all thru the Mediterranean world. Saul was livid. How could these uneducated, misguided peasants talk about Jesus, who had been crucified, as the Messiah? He had died on a cross, and the law stated very plainly that anyone hung on a tree was accursed by God. (Deuteronomy 21:23)

Saul had obviously been given carte blanche to purge the heretics. So he asked the high priest for letters of introduction to the synagogues in Damascus, so he could arrest Christians and maybe bring them back to Jerusalem to be punished.

Actually, we learn from historical records that the high priest had no jurisdiction over synagogues in Damascus. So Saul may have just had Christians arrested, flogged and expelled from the synagogue. Three times in his letters he mentions this. He himself later experienced the same kind of treatment, you remember.

We are in the Easter season, the season to center on the Resurrection. The risen Christ turns people around. With Saul/Paul, confronting Jesus happened dramatically and suddenly.

Saul was not a sinner needing to be made clean. Saul was one of the cleanest men in town, but he was about to discover that no one can merit God's approbation by his own cleanliness! No one can be true to himself, or to God; no one can reach ultimate success or personal satisfaction if he disdains growth, change.

Saul must have been perceived as a pillar in the community, at least in the religious community. He knew right from wrong. He had "the truth," was educated in the law by Gamaliel, was intelligent and zealous to honor God.

At the same time, he must have been restless, spiritually restless. Why was he so intent on stifling those who proclaimed a different message? What was there about them and their message which unsettled him and set him about the task to eliminate them? Were they heretics, or blasphemers?

Sometimes those who protest the most are those who fear the most, who are basically unsure of themselves, those who are afraid of growth, of change.

Now . . . let's travel to Damascus, on the "road to Damascus." As we journey along we see a man who is obviously in trouble. Whether he has had a sunstroke, an epileptic seizure, or whether, as he claimed, he actually saw Jesus, or whether he finally saw how life all fits together, doesn't matter so much as that whatever happened, Saul discerned the presence of God.

And most significantly, he knew it was the presence of God. To him it was a miracle. A miracle is any event in which we discern the presence of God.

The time had come for the tiny young movement of Christ-followers to break out into the Gentile world. The time was ripe. The old pagan religions were losing their appeal, their hold on the people. People had a universal language, koine Greek. They were sophisticated. All roads led to Rome, and thanks to Pax Romana (peace of Rome), travel flowed freely.

Then upon the scene came Saul. He was Jewish, a Pharisee, a member of the tribe of Benjamin, conversant with Greek culture, which permeated the world. And he was a Roman citizen.

Talk about credentials! What a profile! What a preparation for the work God was to set before him, to take the message of Jesus to the Gentile world!

But before he could perform that mighty task, he had to make some changes. He had to be born again. He had to be converted. He had to bury the old man, Saul, and make room for a new man, Paul. In his case, the change came in a blinding flash of light, a violent explosion of enlightenment. Suddenly, Saul became Paul, a Pharisee who knew all the answers became a blind man needing direction.

It is interesting to me that Jesus did not condemn Saul. He simply made himself known to him, identified his Being and gave direction for a new way of life, a new ministry.

That, dear saints, is the crux of my sermon today. We need to be open to the Holy Spirit's leading, whether it comes as a blinding flash of insight, or whether it comes over a period of time.

Saul was committed to his ministry, but was open to new light, new truth. To prepare him for his new approach to ministry, Saul was given three visions: first he saw the risen Jesus, second, he saw Ananias coming to call on him, and third, as the scales fell from his eyes, he saw Jesus to be the Christ, the Messiah.

The first vision encouraged him to continue to his original destination, but with a new agenda. The second prepared him to be open to a new paradigm, a new way to see God's plan and his people. The third led him into a completely new career.

We can't begin to understand the consternation of the Jews. They tho't they knew this man. Then, all of a sudden he changed. His life took on a whole new trajectory. Identities have a way of changing their character when the risen Jesus is involved. Ananias, reluctant to meet him, later called him "Brother Saul"!

Peter had to deal with his denial of Jesus. Thomas had to deal with his doubt. But Saul had to deal with an entire way of life. Think what that meant to his social status.

To say Saul converted from Judaism to Christianity might be a little anachronistic, inaccurate. He continued to consider himself a Jew, even a Pharisee (Philippians 3:4). Saul's Damascus Road experience did not bring him to a new commitment to serve God, but a new way.

Unlike others who persecuted Christians out of jealousy (Acts 5:17), Saul did so from a motive of righteous indignation. He was protecting the "chosen people" of God from what he considered a dangerous heresy, indeed blasphemy. They were worthy of death.

Having emphasized the challenge of change, let me say that change does not always come as an instantaneous enlightenment. In fact, I am somewhat suspicious of emotional conversions. They often reflect immaturity, lack of serious study and consideration.

For Saul it was a theophany, a dramatic, name-swapping, identifiable point in time in which his life was forever changed. Not so for everyone. We need to remember that for those whose conversion experience happens over a period of time, that is not an indication that they are second-class citizens in the Kingdom.

One of the great 20th century men of God was Dwight L. Moody, who spent his life making altar calls, calling people to walk down the sawdust trail. Yet he left us no extended account of his conversion. His application for membership in a Boston church was rejected because of the vagueness of his beliefs.

But shortly after that something apparently happened. All he could seem to remember was, "I thought the old sun shone a good deal brighter than it ever had before. It seemed to me I was in love with all creation."

John Newton left home as a boy to become a sailor. Soon he was kidnapped and forced into the Royal Navy of England. He tried to escape, but failed. He was severely punished, became bitter and rebellious. He became an arrogant atheist, made fun of religion. He became a slave trader. Then, on a trip delivering a load of African human beings to England, his ship was caught in a violent storm.

Tragedy and fear have a wonderful way of forcing one to consider the more important matters of life. Newton made it to England, but decided that only God could have saved him and his ship.

It didn't happen in a blinding light, like Saul, but John Newton confronted Jesus, became converted, married, and became a minister to proclaim the message he had so vociferously derided.

He wrote of his new experience in the hymn we will sing to close our worship this morning, Amazing Grace.

Another shining example of a complete change in direction is Nelson Mandela. Once a Cuban-trained terrorist, he is now a dedicated Christian. If you have never seen it, you might like to borrow the video, The Long Walk of Nelson Mandella. It is in my office.

In a recent book on the life of Billy Graham, William Martin credits Graham's success to his consistently preaching "the transforming power of a second chance."

Billy Graham says that at 16 he attended a tent meeting at which an evangelist "had an almost embarrassing way of describing your sins." Almost sounds like Billy Graham himself, later in his ministry, doesn't it? I haven't read the book. Maybe there is an explanation.

We have all watched Billy Graham crusades where people are urged to walk down "the sawdust trail" and give their lives to Jesus. I have great admiration and respect for Billy Graham. However, I wonder how many of those people really change their way of life?

Someone said if you think "Just As I Am" has at least 54 stanzas, you are a Baptist! Or you are a regular at Billy Graham evangelistic meetings. Or maybe both. That, by the way, is not a criticism.

When Jesus said "You must be born again" he was not challenging us to change from Congregationalist to Baptist, nor from Presbyterian to Lutheran. His was a challenge to change a way of life which is me-centered to a way of life which is other-centered, Christ-centered. That kind of change is radical.

That kind of change involves going the second mile, doing twice what we are required to do. It involves a trust so radical that it defies logic.

Most human logic is either-or. Something is either black or it is white. It is either good or it is bad.

Is your mind made up? If a bed is made up, you can't get into it unless you first unmake it! Made-up beds may be pretty, but of what use? Made-up minds likewise may be alluring, but of what value?

Mickey Rooney is now in his ninth marriage. He and his present wife have been married 20 years. What changed? Why did his earlier marriages break apart, but his present marriage is successful? Here is his answer: "What changed? . . . twenty years ago I gave my life to Christ, warts, bruises and all. That has made all the difference."

One of the most exciting stories of change is the story behind Alcoholics Anonymous. Atheist Bill Wilson was a drunk. In 1934 he was in a New York hospital "drying out." He was desperate to change his life, to give up his addiction. But he was helpless. In a moment of terror, or prayer, or both, he cried out, "If there is a God, let him show himself. I'll do anything - anything."

Suddenly, he later reported, the light struck. The room was filled with a luminous presence which enveloped his entire being. He felt purged and free, ecstatically so. He struggled to dismiss the experience as hallucination.

It took a long time for him to admit he had been called to change his life. With the help of the Oxford Group, a religious fellowship, he made it. With Bob Smith, another alcoholic, and a physician, they founded A.A. We all know what a life-changing influence A.A. can be and has been in the lives of thousands.

Now let me tell you why this is such a burning issue for me. I spent about a quarter of a century teaching and preaching a rigid, black-and-white style of religion. I believed what I believed with all my heart. I still believe what I believed. The difference is that now, with Saul/Paul, my beliefs are centered in Jesus, not rules and regulations.

In every big move or change in life there must be detachment from certainties and securities to make room for new experiences and expressions of God's grace. That is called change, conversion!

True conversion is not a slight alteration of theology. It is going one way; stop; turn around; go the other way. In Saul's case it was a turn from legalism, certainty, exclusionism, triumphalism, to "lovelism" and openness, inclusiveness.

Saul - and Felix - knew all the answers. And everyone else better accept those answers. Paul - and Felix - was still committed to the way of truth and righteousness. But the old way gave in to The Way, Christ's way.

Webster defines conversion as "an experience associated with a definite and decisive adoption of a religious conviction." Maybe we also need to look at the secular, scientific definition: "altering or changing for more effective utilization."

Today I pray for the altering and changing of our lives, our attitudes, our very natures for more effective utilization by the Holy Spirit for the promotion of God's kingdom.

Let us pray . . .

God, for all the holy places where we see stars and wild flowers, where we touch leaves and sand, where we listen to the birds sing and the sound of sea shells, where we smell pine needles and flowers, where we feel the breeze and the velvet of roses, for all this we praise you.

Slow us down, Lord, and let us feel the ground, and love it better. Let us see each other with love and concern. Please, God, instill within our hearts an intensity of concern for your creation.

Maker of the universe, you created us from the earth to be persons, each with a name. You sent us Jesus, who knows us each by name.

Lord Jesus Christ, you are the light of the world. Fill our minds with your truth; fill our hearts with your love.