Chapel Homily: March 11, 2025

Acts 9:1-22

I so appreciate singing worship songs. The lyrics give us language that we're probably not capable of coming up with on our own. About praise, hope, worship, lament. And those words and melodies stay with us.

With gratitude to the band, they allowed me to choose two songs for today that seemed to fit the text. The first was "Goodness of God," which we just sang. For today, as we meet the Apostle Paul, I think the lyrics speak to his life.

With my life laid down, I'm surrendered now
I give You everything
'Cause Your goodness is running after me

Paul surrendered to Jesus, who pursued him and appointed him.

Side note and by the way, Janice has requested that song for her memorial service.

We'll close our time today singing a song by Fernando Ortega called, "Give Me Jesus." It's an aspirational song for me. I wish I were a better model for what is sung.

After my ashes are spread on the Whitworth baseball field, Janice has instructions that his song is to be played at MY memorial service. I've requested that she take some of the life insurance money she's gonna score at my passing and use it to fly Fernando to Spokane and play a free concert for the Whitworth community. So, if you someday see a poster for a Fernando Ortega Concert at Whitworth, please attend. You will be blessed. And odds are, I will not be in attendance.

Okay, enough of that commercial for McQuilkin Family memorial services. "Please come. You're gonna love the music!"

Saul of Tarsus was not a man to sing "Give Me Jesus." The Apostle Paul would have.

[Opening minute of the song played here]

"You can have all this world
Give me Jesus"

I sat in this chapel when Professor Jerry Sittser often taught on the Life of Christ. He asked this rhetorical question: After witnessing Jesus' crucifixion and death, the disciples changed from fearful and bewildered people to men who would proclaim the resurrected Jesus and die a martyr's death. They went from this to that. What would cause them to do that? Jerry's answer: "Something happened." And that something was an encounter, coming face-to-face with the risen Jesus.

What turned Saul from a persecutor to a preacher? What would cause him to proclaim what he did for the rest of his life Something happened. An encounter with Jesus.

A little background on Saul/Paul

Paul is a familiar figure.

Saul was a person of faith. He had worshipped the God of Israel all his life. He was a praying person. He checked the boxes of being a respectable Jew – the right tribe, the right training, the proper rites and practices.

We know he approved of Stephen's death. He stood there while it happened. And then he set out to destroy the church. He went house to house, dragging people from their homes because of their faith in Christ.

And then we meet him on the Road to Damascus. There's a flash of light. Jesus speaks to him. Saul is forever changed.

Paul then spends his life encouraging others to explore this thing that he had come to believe.

Spoiler alert: I've never had a Damascus Road kind of experience. Maybe, or likely, you haven't either. But I'm confident that now and over the years ahead, you and I can all look back on our lives and realize where we encountered God, where Jesus broke in, where maybe some purpose for our lives was revealed, and where our lives were changed.

Text: Acts 9:1-22 (buckle up; it's long)

9 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 holy people 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 proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to 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 Messiah."

There are a bunch of things we could focus on from this text—God acts; Jesus calls us; we are brought into relationship with Jesus; we are appointed as witnesses and ministers to the gospel; we are to respond and follow that call, whatever it might be or wherever it might lead; we are new creations in Christ; be attentive to the transformative moments in our lives; God uses unlikely characters like us for his divine purposes; the cast of characters who play a supportive role in biblical events are important people.

Today, I want us to look at two small items on that list: First, to be open and attentive to Jesus speaking into your life. Second, for having the habit, developing a cadence, of being reflective about your journey of faith. To make time to dwell on your life and to think about those moments when you can see where God was at work, maybe when you least expected it or didn't see it at the time.

Testimonial

For the first 30 minutes of every meeting of the President's Cabinet, someone offers a devotional and then we offer prayers for this community of people. We take 20-minute turns answering a particular question. We've talked about our personal faith journeys, spiritual mentors and models in our lives, Scripture verses that have meant something to us and why. We're now sharing about what we see when we look back at our lives, significant moments in our walk with Jesus.

They might be awakenings, terrific hardships, or maybe pivot points in our lives. These are moments when God might have been moving us from something to something else; when we came to realize something about Jesus; maybe it's an example of when a person was there for us at just the right moment.

Bear with me as I make this testimonial. When I was 16, I attended Okanagan Baseball Camp. Unbeknownst to me, the camp was owned and run by a group of Christian coaches. Every night, they put out an invitation to a chapel service. Not interested. The final night of camp, my best friend, Scott Anderson, asked me whether I was going to go to chapel with him. I said, "Forget it. These guys are just cramming religion down our throats." Scott replied, with intensity. "Do what you want. I'm saved." "Well," I thought, "that wasn't exactly winsome evangelism." I went to chapel, where I was presented with the good news of Jesus, and my response was, "I know this to be true. Jesus, take my life." Scott Anderson was my sort of 16-year-old Ananias, and an impolite one at that. He helped the scales fall from my eyes to reveal the saving grace of Jesus. I love Scott Anderson for saying what he did to me. However, I do not recommend the tone he took with me.

At the end of the day, I'll have a bit of a tilt to my right. I'll be a bit achy in my right shoulder joint. That is courtesy of a lifetime ago, a split second of a bad dive into a base that tore up my shoulder. The one high-level athletic talent I had evaporated with structural shredding. Top shoulder surgeon at the University of Washington could not make whole. Well, I had a bit of a shift of personal identity and value, and something of a spiritual crisis over the weeks and months that followed.

Not fun. The margins of my college Bible were filled with handwritten notes of sadness and some anger. That injury prompted a series of personal redirections—can't do this but can do that; doors opened and closed; which led to a job opportunity at Whitworth. Absolutely never would have happened except for that injury. Today, I brush my teeth, see that 6-inch zipper on my shoulder, pop a couple of ibuprofen, know what became from that moment and can say, "I'll take the trade."

So, students, please allow me to ask you these questions on your openness and attentiveness to what God might have in store for you:

1. How might you make room for God to come in as He chooses? Oswald Chambers answered that question this way: "Do not look for God to come in a particular way, but do look for Him to come in. Make room for him to come in. He may break in at any moment. Keep your life so constantly in touch with God, through prayer and Scripture, that His surprising power can break in at any moment." Make room for God.
2. Can you make time for reflection? I'll bet you can. It's a worthwhile thing to do throughout our entire lives. To pause and consider where you see God's fingerprints where maybe you hadn't seen them before. Journal it. Talk with discerning friends. Carve out that time.
3. And for our community: By the leading of the Holy Spirit, attentive to that still small voice, how might we be available for one another. Maybe as an Ananias, you might help someone have the scales fall from their eyes? Maybe as a Barnabas, Paul's companion in faith, an encourager, a supporter. Don't we all need a Barnabas? I sure do.

Saul had an encounter with Jesus. His life was transformed. He later wrote that he counted everything as rubbish compared to knowing Jesus. On that road to Damascus, something happened. And the lyrics to Paul's life were never the same.

May we all live into the life and testimony of Paul. Each of you—called by Jesus into a personal, overpowering relationship with Him. To be a witness to His saving grace, with lives that sing, "Give me Jesus." Amen.

Benediction

Go from this place with the assurance that God's goodness is running after you. There's nothing the world can offer more valuable than Jesus.

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.