April 30, 1995	A Slight Change of Heart	Acts 9:1-6 (7-20)

In addition to being the third Sunday after Easter, today is also known as "Native American Awareness Sunday." It is on Native American Awareness Sunday that many United Methodist churches may have Native American speakers present in worship services to talk about the life of Native Americans, or to lift up and describe the ministry of the United Methodist Church among Native Americans. We didn't do that this year. But I need to point out that, of course, having a Native American Awareness Sunday would have been unheard of 125 years ago, or even fifty years ago. For, indeed, our attitudes toward Native Americans have changed. Back then, the attitude was summarized in the phrase, "The only good Indian is a dead Indian." Indians were considered by the European American community as standing in the way of our "Manifest Destiny," which was the belief that European settlers had a God-given mandate to colonize America from coast to coast, no matter what or who got in the way. Holding such a belief, European Americans engaged in some terrible atrocities against Native Americans, including massacres of whole villages of men, women, and children, atrocities that would have made the blast in Oklahoma City look pretty mild in comparison.

And much of this was due to the attitudes of European Americans as compared to those of Native Americans. While Native Americans saw themselves as a part of nature, with it's ebb and flow, white people seemed to be oblivious to the rhythms and spirit of nature. Nature to the Europeans—and the Indians detected this—was something of an obstacle, even an enemy. It was also a commodity: A forest was so many board feet of timber, a beaver colony so many pelts, a herd of buffalo so many robes and tongues. Even the Indians themselves were a resource—souls ripe for the Jesuit, Dominican, or Puritan plucking. It was the Europeans' cultural arrogance, coupled with their materialistic view of the land and its animal and plant beings, that the Indians found distasteful. To the Indians, Europeans, were like something mechanical—soulless creatures who wielded diabolically ingenious tools and weapons to accomplish seemingly mad ends.

It has only been within the past twenty years or so that we European Americans have begun to see the light; to begin to realize that the Native Americans may know more than we think they do; that a study of the philosophy and lifestyles of Native Americans may actually improve our own quality of life. Indeed, perhaps we are beginning to see the light.

Our lesson for today from the book of Acts talks about how a man named Saul saw the light while on his way from Jerusalem to Damascus. Saul of Tarsus, was a fairly well educated man, well versed in Greek philosophy as well as Jewish Law. He was a very pious Jew. And, so you can imagine what he thought about those who were known as Christians. Saul saw himself as a protector of the true faith. So, as far as he was concerned these followers of Jesus had to be eradicated. In fact, he was a willing participant in the stoning of Stephen, a deacon in the early church in Jerusalem. And Saul was a leader in the severe persecution that soon began in Jerusalem against the early Christians. In fact, the book of Acts mentions how he would personally enter the homes of Christians and have them thrown into prison. And our lesson for this morning begins by talking about how Saul intended to go to Damascus carrying orders from the high priest in Jerusalem to have Christians in Damascus arrested so that he could have them put into prison.

You know, when we think about it, in spite of his hatred for Christians, in spite of the fact that Saul was responsible for the death and persecution of some of Christ's earliest followers, Saul wasn't really such a bad guy. In fact, as I said earlier, Saul was actually a very pious man. He was a very religious man. He was very familiar with the scriptures and tried to follow them closely. But, it was for these very reasons that he found himself persecuting Christians. He fully believed that he had a "manifest destiny" to defend the true faith. Nevertheless, on the day that Saul was on his way to Damascus to do what he considered to be the will of God, you might say that he really did see the light! Or, to put it into the words of this morning's lesson from Acts, ". . .suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him." And he heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"

How many times have we actually found ourselves in the place of Saul, believing that we were the protectors of the one true faith, when what we were actually doing was persecuting those who were really following in the Way of Christ? What did it take, or what does it take, for a person to finally see the light?

There is the story of a General in the British army, a man by the name of Lew Wallace, who was a devout atheist. In fact, he was known at times to ridicule persons if they professed a faith in Christ in his presence. One day, as Wallace was sitting on a railroad train talking to another atheist. The other atheist suggested that an interesting novel could be written about Jesus Christ. He also suggested that Wallace would be the perfect man to write the novel. "Tear down the prevailing sentiment about Christ's divinity," the man suggested, "and paint him as a man — a man among men."

The suggestion was immediately acted upon and the novel was written Ben Hur was written. But in the process of constructing the life of Christ, General Lew Wallace found himself facing the greatest life ever lived on earth. The more he studied, the more he was convinced that Christ was more than a man. Until one day, he was forced to cry the same words as those that were cried by the Centurion at the foot of the cross, or by Saul after he saw the light: "Verily, this was the Son of God."

It is amazing, however, of how convinced and determined we may be about the rightness of our chosen path that we're even willing to gamble everything we have on it. How right Timothy McVeigh must have believed he was to have gone out and bought two and a half tons of Ammonium Nitrate, rent a truck, and blow up that building in Oklahoma City, killing all those people. There was no way that anyone could have argued with him; no way that anyone could have changed his mind. He knew he was right. And he probably still believes he is right. The question is how to change the mind of someone who believes they're right? How do we get someone to see the light?

There's the story of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., a strong and husky person when he was young. Early in his life he decided to earn money and drove himself to the very limit. At age 43 he controlled the biggest company in the world. At age 53, he was the richest man on earth and the world's only billionaire.

Then he fell victim to a chronic infection that resulted in all of his hair to fall out. He began to lose his health and his diet became very restricted. There he was with a weekly income of a million dollars, but only able to eat milk and crackers. In addition to his bad health, he was hated so much that he had to have full-time body guards. He couldn't sleep, he couldn't smile, he enjoyed nothing in life.

The doctors predicted that he wouldn't live more than a year. The newspapers gleefully wrote his obituary in advance — for convenience in sudden use. But, those sleepless nights started Rockefeller to think. On one of those long nights, he realized with a new light that he couldn't take even a dime into the next world. As the morning dawned, he realized, like a light that had turned on in his life, that money was not everything.

The next morning found him a new man. He began to help churches with his amassed wealth; the poor and needy were not overlooked. He established the Rockefeller Foundation whose funding of medical researches led to the discovery of penicillin and other wonder drugs. And as a result, John D. Rockefeller began to sleep well, eat and enjoy life.

The doctors had predicted he would not live over age 54, but he lived to be 98? Why? Because he had seen the light.

So, what does it take for us to see the light? What is God's message to us, today? What is the Lord saying to us? And are we willing to listen? Or, are we convinced that we're right? Does our version of the truth cause us to close our minds to other messages that may actually hold more promise to us and to those around us?

The Native Americans certainly lived and spoke a word of truth that only now are we beginning to hear and to appreciate. Or, using the words of Chief Seattle: For too long we have refused to see ourselves as a part of the earth and a part of nature. We have thought that we could own the earth, forgetting that we belong to the earth. For too long we have forgotten that whatever befalls the earth befalls the children of the earth.

How long will it take until more of us see the light? Until the ozone is gone? Until the polar ice caps melt? Until the fish in the oceans disappear and birds no longer fly in the sky? How long will it take for us to see the light?

Our lesson from Acts tells us about how Saul saw the light. His life took an abrupt turn, so much so that he changed his name to Paul (not a bad name, I think). Indeed, he went from being very narrow and closed in his outlook on the world to being very open and accepting. In fact, he became "the Apostle to the Gentiles." To be able to do that he had to believe that God has chosen all persons to be his people. He had to believe that our God is the same God, whose compassion is equal to all.

Do we think we always know the truth? Is our mind always set? Or shall we be open to the movement of God's Spirit who leads us to see the light, to accept those who are different from ourselves, and possibly even to accept the truth they have to offer us?

PRAYER

Let us pray:

O God, we thank you for giving us the example of Saul who saw the light and changed, even though he had been convinced that he had ownership of the truth. Soften our hearts to see you walking and sharing truth with those who are different from ourselves. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.