• Acts of the Apostles 9: 1-6 (7-20)

Having written the stories of the spectacular experience of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and then Peter’s amazing transformation into a powerful witness of the gospel, Luke now writes about another total transformation– the conversion of Saul/Paul.  Known for his ferocious persecution of followers of “the Way,” Saul requests and receives authorization from the “high priest” to track the followers of Jesus down in Damascus.  On his journey there, “suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.”  He fell to the ground and heard a “voice” ask, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”  In response to Paul’s’ query about the identity of the voice, Saul is told that the voice belongs to Jesus, “whom you are persecuting.”  Get up, go to Damascus and “you will be told what to do.”  Saul’s traveling companions are “speechless” and Saul, although with eyes wide open, could see nothing “for three days.”  One of those followers in Damascus named Ananias hears the Lord call him and he faithfully responds, “Here I am Lord.”  He is told to go find Saul.  But Ananias is reluctant, because Saul’s fierce reputation has preceded him.  The Lord insists, “Go, for he is an instrument I have chosen….”  Ananias complies, finds Saul, lays hands on him, explains to Saul who sent him and why he is there and “immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored.”  Saul is baptized and is nurtured by the very community of believers whom he had set out to destroy!  Soon, “he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, ‘He is the Son of God.'”

• Psalm 30

On the occasion of “the dedication of the house,” the psalmist gives thanks to the Lord for having been rescued: “You drew me up,” he sings.  Robert Alter writes that the verb used here for ‘drawing up’ is the verb used for drawing water out of a deep well.  (The Book of Psalms, p. 102)  The psalmist testifies that he was rescued from “the Pit,” “from Sheol.”  This action of going down and rising up is analogous to those days of going to bed “weeping” but waking in the morning in “glad song.”  This experience of being rescued from turns a dirge into a dance tune!

• Revelation to John 5: 11-14

In John the Divine’s vision of heaven, the four living creatures and twenty-four elders are now joined by countless “thousands” of angels in praise “for the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb….”  All unite in one glorious “Amen!”

• John 21: 1-19

After two previous encounters with the Risen Christ in Jerusalem, John’s narrative returns to Galilee where the disciples have taken up again their daily work as fishermen.  On the shores of the Sea of Tiberius again, which was earlier the scene of the miraculous feeding of more than 5,000 women, children and men, (chapter 6), several disciples are preparing to launch out for nighttime fishing.  John specifically identifies the three:  Thomas, who has already had his personal encounter with the Risen Christ, with Nathaniel, who appears in the narrative for the first time since his presence at the wedding reception when Jesus turned water into wine to launch his public ministry, and with Peter, always the instigator.  “Just after daybreak,” (the same time of the day when the tomb was discovered to be empty), a figure appears on shore, (John tells his readers it is Jesus, but the disciples do not yet recognize him), and tells them to cast their nets on the right side of the boat.  After not catching any fish all night, they now catch so many fish in their nets “they were not able to haul it in.”  The “beloved disciple” tells Peter, “It is the Lord.”  In this incident, John’s narrative returns to an important theme: Jesus is most easily recognized on occasions of extreme, unexpected, unlikely abundance. Next, Jesus prepares breakfast for the disciples, which returns to another theme important in John’s narrative: Jesus is also recognized in the breaking and sharing of the bread.  Now focus turns to Peter and the third theme in this excerpt.  Jesus gives Peter an opportunity to acquit himself of his prior denial of Jesus (18:15-18,25-27)).  Each of the three times Peter professes his love of him, Jesus responds “feed my sheep.”  The encounter concludes with an allusion to “the kind of death by which he would glorify God.”

This Sunday’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles and today’s gospel from John tell the remarkable stories of the transformation of two of the least likely, least qualified, unwilling, unprepared people who became two of the most important leaders of the post-resurrection community of believers!  Saul/Paul is the rabid persecutor of the followers of Christ; Peter is remembered and haunted by his denial not once nor twice but three times of his friend and mentor when everything was on the line on that miserable Thursday night Jesus was arrested.  Saul/Paul’s transformation is fulfilled in the community of believers who take him in, nurture him in the gospel and baptize him.  Peter’s response to the Risen Christ is fulfilled when he accepts leadership of the community of believers, a shepherd of the sheep.

The church is a community of those ordained to witness and convey the love of God as the ones who have first-hand experience of that love for themselves.  Kathryn Tanner calls those who understand themselves this way as “the ministers of divine benefit.”  In Jesus, Humanity and the Trinity, she writes:

“…the ministers of divine benefit should therefore be as wide as God’s gift-giving purview.  In this universal community, humans should try to distribute the gifts of God as God  does without concern for whether they are especially deserved by their recipients,  Without bothering themselves, for example, between the deserving or undeserving poor, they should give their full attention, instead, to the various members of the worldwide community.  They must offer special protection, moreover, as they become necessary to those most likely to be left out of the community of concern at any point in time– the outcasts and strangers in their midst.”  Tanner returns to the origin of this generosity and continues, “Again in imitation of God’s relations with us, one gives to others with the hope that these gifts will be the basis for their activity as ministers of divine beneficence; one gives for their empowerment as gives in turn.”  “One expects dedication to the good of others to arise from the grateful sense that one has already been the recipient of benefit.”  (pp 89-90_

The DNA of the church passes directly through Ananaias and the community of believers in Damascus who took in and empowered their most intimidating enemy who, in turn, became the most tireless witness to the love of God flowing through Jesus, the Christ.  Erratic Peter responds, too, to God’s persistent love and finds his true calling as a trustworthy shepherd even to his own crucifixion.  The church is at her best and truest to her origins when her members act as beneficiaries of God’s love who become beneficiaries to others who are transformed themselves; “ministers of the divine benefit.”