August 06, 2023 | Rev. Loren McGrail
SCRIPTURE Acts 9:1-9 (NSRVue)
Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 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. Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” The men who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. 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. For three days he was without sight and neither ate nor drank.
CONTEMPORARY READING Excerpt from Freeing Jesus p. 96-97 by Diana Butler Bass
And it was not just the rich young man who asked Jesus how to be saved. All sorts of people in the gospels got saved before Jesus died on the cross. When Jesus healed, they experienced savus, God’s salvation. They followed him. Lives were changed, transformed. Disciples did give up riches and goods that they might have eternal life. Tax collectors abandoned their jobs and surrendered their social standing to eat with him. Children, slaves, soldiers, peasants, fishermen, farmers, prisoners, the sick, the blind, the lame---when they encountered Jesus, they found salvation, the wholeness, the healing, the oneness with /God that had only been the stuff of longing. Every miracle, every act of hospitality, all the bread broken, and wine served, everything that Jesus did saved people long before Rome arrested and murdered him.
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