The Conversion of St. Paul

Galatians 1 and Acts 9

Preached at First United Church, Waterloo (March 25, 2025) as part of the mid-week Lenten Series

I want to start by thanking Pastor Hoeun and the good people 

of First United for hosting our service this evening. 

It’s nice to be back preaching here 

after our pulpit exchange in January.

It’s now the third year that St. Matthews has been organizing 

a Lenten series with St. Paul’s Lutheran Bridgeport, 

and thank you Pastor Mario for your enthusiasm and support.

I think it’s great that we’ve expanded to four churches this year, 

including Emmanuel United as well.

I think we all share a lot in common as old mainline churches 

seeking to repurpose our properties 

and rediscover our mission in the 21st century.

Our preaching themes for our two services are nicely intertwined: 

as a pastor of St. Paul’s, 

Pastor Mario will be preaching next week on the conversion of St. Matthew, 

and as a pastor of St. Matthews 

I will be preaching today on the conversion of St. Paul.

The theme of conversion fits well into the Lenten Season, 

which is a time for turning our hearts to God and reorienting our lives to follow Jesus on the way to the Cross.

There are two main Bible texts that describe the so-called 

conversion of Paul which we heard this evening: 

from Galatians and from Acts.

The letter to the Galatians was written by Paul himself 

at least 40 years before the book of Acts, 

and in the letter, Paul recounts in his own words what happened to him.

The occasion for the letter is that Paul wants 

to justify his version of the Gospel as being trustworthy 

and divinely inspired, and that he received it not from human sources 

but by revelation of Jesus Christ; 

He wanted to show the Galatians 

that his message was about God from God.

Paul begins by describing that he knew the Torah better than anyone, 

that he was a very devout Jew, particularly a Pharisee, 

a religious scholar. 

He acknowledges that he violently persecuted the church of God 

trying to destroy it. 

But as he states: God “called me through his grace…to reveal his Son to me” and then he went on to “proclaim the faith.”

This version is very brief as it serves a particular purpose, 

to justify Paul’s authority as being equivalent to the original apostles.

—

(Davina Lopez)

By contrast, the version we get in Acts is a lot more exciting. 

The location of God’s call occurs on the proverbial Road to Damascus.

In this version, a light from heaven flashed around Paul, (a sign of divine presence),

And a voice cried out “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”…

“I am Jesus.”

(Lenski)

This revelation must have cut to the bone for Paul 

(who was called Saul at the time).

He was forced to do some real soul-searching 

and his world was turned upside down.

His primary goal in life had been to eliminate deviant and heretical thinking in local Judaism, 

and now he had to revisit his entire worldview. 

Those he had thought were wrong were actually right.

And Jesus was in fact divine after all.

Paul’s conscience was seared and he stood accused in his sin.

He realized that as he was punishing the disciples he was punishing their Master.

His inner vision and his physical sight was taken away.

This was the first part of the conversion.

-

The second part happened in Damascus itself, 

where he spent three days fasting, likely depressed, repenting and reorienting himself to his new reality.

God called a man names Ananias to preach the Gospel to him, 

And he laid his hands on Paul, blessed him, 

and “something like scales fell from his eyes” 

so that his sight was restored and he was baptized 

and he went to proclaim Jesus as the Son of God and Messiah.

R.H. Lenski draws attention to this archetypical conversion 

as being in two parts, 

where the first part is an accusation of the law,

that Paul stands accused and in an act of sin, 

And realizes that there is a chasm between himself and God

and the second part of the conversion is the proclamation of the good news, 

with the act of grace where Paul is released, redeemed and set free to live his new life a child of God.

The turn from persecutor of Jesus’ followers is complete when Paul becomes an apostle himself, literally a messenger, or one sent forth.

—-

(Lopez)

Now we need to take a moment to examine the word “conversion” in this setting.

Normally, we think of conversion as a change from one religion to another.

Now there are two main problems with the traditional view that somehow Paul converted from Judaism to Christianity here.

Firstly it’s anachronistic, it’s taking a concept from a later time period into the past;

Since Christianity at the time was not a distinct religion but a sect within Judaism.

The second problem

Is that the traditional definition of conversion is rather radical: 

it is to experience a rupture with one’s past and then abandon one way of life for another.

But the problem is that 

Paul really didn’t abandon Judaism, and still remained an observant Jew far after his life-changing experience, as Davina Lopez explains: there’s

“Little evidence that Paul experienced a rupture with his Jewish Past …rather he moved positions within that tradition”. 

There was a wide variety of quote “denominations” within Judaism in the first century (much like today), 

and for the first fifty odd years, those who followed Jesus as Lord were widely seen as being a part of a Jewish sect.

There was at the time a large variety of ways of thinking about and practicing the Jewish faith.

Rather than thinking of Paul’s experience as a classical conversion one might use another term.

One could describe it as Paul receiving a commission from Jesus, 

a special vocation to preach Jesus as Messiah to the Gentiles.

Another way would be to characterize it as a Call.

The call of Paul would echo other call stories of the prophets that were likewise exciting and astounding like the calling of Moses in the Burning Bush, or Isaiah in a dream of the temple. 

One of the main problem of the classic use of the term “conversion” to describe Paul’s experience is that it has resulted in anti-semitism.

There have been horrible historical consequences through the persecution of Jews by Christians throughout the centuries by a misuse of Paul’s life and teachings.

Mis-characterizing Paul’s experience as a rejection of Judaism in favour of Christianity has done a lot of harm. And it’s profoundly ironic that Paul’s rejection of persecution has been used as fodder for persecution in turn of Paul’s siblings in faith.

Perhaps though, conversion as a term could be reclaimed if we acknowledge a (better) and more gentle definition, 

that of a personal change in worldview and or practice.

That way we could acknowledge that Paul did experience a deep re-orientation in his perspective but it did not involve swapping one religion for another.

——-

As I reflected on Paul’s profound life-changing experience and call, 

my thoughts turned to one of my most intense spiritual experiences.

I was 15 and at a Christian musical summer camp, 

and I was having a bit of a faith crisis. 

I was rejecting my childhood faith and was quite disenchanted and skeptical of religion, and established Lutheran practices, 

esp. since many of my fellow campers weren’t acting very Christlike. 

However I met a boy who had a completely different view,

coming from a Baptist background he talked about Jesus as a personal friend 

and how his relationship with God was an active part of his life 

in a way that I had never heard anybody my age talk about. 

I was gobsmacked, and we spent quite a bit of time in discussion.

One day when we were talking I was hit by a flash of divine light 

and I felt the presence of God in a profound personal way 

that I had never felt before. 

In an instant, I knew that God did exist 

and was involved in a personal way with me. 

I’ll never forget that experience, one could say it was my conversion, 

or perhaps my born again experience.

It was a rupture with my past life, 

before where I was unsure, but still nominally Christian

and after where I knew in a deep visceral way that 

God was.

Of course I’ve had my doubts and my ups and downs spiritually 

but I’m grateful that I can remember a concrete 

“road to Damascus" defining revelation that has shaped my life.

—

Have you ever had a defining spiritual experience 

that you can look back on and perhaps trace your spiritual journey 

to your being present here in worship in a church on a Tuesday evening?

Last year at St. Matthews we ran a programme called Revive, 

a spiritual formation for lay leaders programme, 

which helps people re-connect to the spiritual reasons why they are at church, often volunteering long hours 

or being heavily involved in various roles.

Often church people lose sight of why they are doing what they’re doing,

because the busy-ness just creeps in and there are so many demands on one’s time, 

so many pressures of keeping the church going etc.

Esp. for the most active 10-20% of congregants.

Maybe some of you here tonight?

Maybe if you take some time to think back on your spiritual journey 

you can point to a conversion 

or a moment where you felt particularly close to God 

and it changed you in a deep and meaningful way.

Maybe it wasn’t one particular moment 

but a series of moments or experiences.

Maybe they’ve receded a bit in the hazy mists of time.

I hope that these reflections on the conversions of Matthew and Paul 

may inspire you to re-orient your lives to God this Lenten Season 

and to see how you can choose a path 

that is closer to the source of love and life, Jesus.

—-

Sources: 

Oxford Bible Commentary: Acts 9

Westminster Study Bible Acts 9 and Galatians 1

esp. Davina Lopez (Going Deeper: Paul’s Conversion/ Call)

Acts of the Apostles (Lenski)