Today’s reading in Acts is probably one of my favorite ‘Non-Jesus’ stories in the Bible. I call it a Non Jesus story because he is not the central figure in the story, the hero. Jesus plays the same role that God does in so many of the stories found in the Old Testament. Jesus is the force that move the story forward but it isn’t His story. It’s Paul’s story. It’s our story.

Paul, like Jesus, was born a Jew and raised as a Jew. Paul was very educated for his time. He was well versed in the Hebrew Law. He spoke and wrote in Greek, which was the trade language of the time. He was also a Roman citizen and was afforded rights that most of people around him did not have.

As a Pharisee, Paul would have regarded Jesus of Nazareth as a false Messiah, a rebel, a blasphemer, who was justly condemned to death. And he acted according to his conviction. He took the most prominent part in the persecution of Stephen and delighted in his death. Not satisfied with this, he procured the full power to persecute and arrest the scattered disciples. Thus he sets out for Damascus.

On the way to Damascus, Jesus appears before Paul asking him “Why do you persecute me?” “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus”. When Paul gets up, he could see nothing. And for three days he was without sight. His companions led him by hand onward to Damascus. There, Paul finds his vision. He finds purpose. He finds redemption.

And it isn’t just Paul’s redemption story. It’s my redemption story. It’s your redemption story. It’s our redemption story. That is the good news.

And no matter how many times we fail, this is our redemption story.

That is great news. Cause I’ll tell you what: This ain’t easy.

Following Jesus seems pretty simple as a child. Last time I was up here, I talked about how simple it seemed to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” and to “Love your neighbor as yourself”.

It’s simple in a greeting card kind of way.

It’s simple in a privileged way.

It is really easy to love God when you are happy. It is really easy when you are fed, when you can pay all of your bills, when you have a house over your head. God is easy to praise and easy to love during the good times, during the blessed times.

When your heart doesn’t know loneliness, doesn’t know sorrow, doesn’t know heartbreak, then it is easy to love God.

When your soul doesn’t feel broken or overwhelmed, then it is easy to love God.

And when your mind isn’t worried or weary, then it is easy to love God.

When you don’t have to think about whether or not you and your family will live through the day, then it is easy to love God.

And neighbors are easy to love when they look and think just like we do. When they speak the same language, worship the same God, or were born in the same place as you, then they are easy to love.

Neighbors are easy to love when they don’t want to hurt us, kill us, rape us, bully us, steal from us, or use us.

But this isn’t the world we live. We don’t live in a simple world. We don’t live in an easy world.

And these things that we are asked to do, “Love God” and “Love your neighbor” are not always easy things to do. Most of the time, for most people, they are a real struggle.

Life is not easy.

And when life isn’t easy, it is easy to slip, to fall from the path that God set before us. It is easy to make choices that one day wind us up in a place that we do not recognize. A person that we do not remember becoming. But there is hope. There is turning back.

The path that Jesus asks us to walk on is not easy. Of course as they say, nothing worth doing is ever easy. That sounds very much like something my father has said before. On more than one occasion.

And the path that Jesus calls us to walk upon is a task that is very much worth doing. I am not talking about the heavenly rewards that come from believing in Jesus. I am talking about the task that he set before all of us as his followers.

“Feed my lambs.”

“Tend my sheep.”

“Feed my sheep.”

A world where the sick are healed and the lonely are comforted. A world not built on division of wealth or religion or language or country. But a world built on the equality of every single one of us as children of God.

You may say I’m a dreamer. But I’m not the only one.

Truly a goal worth the hard work. Worth our lives. Worth our deaths.

But not an easy goal.

Of course, Paul’s goal was not an easy goal either. It was only to bring Jesus’s “name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel”.

“Sure thing God. Be right back.”

Paul was well suited for the path that God laid before him. He was a Pharisee, well versed in Jewish Law, well educated in the Greek culture of the time, and was a Roman citizen who could freely travel throughout the empire.  Unlike almost any other disciple, Paul was better prepared to spread the Gospel of Jesus to ALL the world. Or at least the Roman Empire, which everyone pretty much considered all the world.

Paul was the right person for the job. That was the path that God called him to walk. It wasn’t an easy path. More importantly, it wasn’t the path that Paul thought that he should be on. Paul had been doing what he had believed to be the right thing, walking his right path.

God, as God often does, had different plans for Paul.

And Jesus has a different plan for us. And it isn’t to live in suffering; it isn’t to live in loneliness. It isn’t to live in hunger; it isn’t to live in a world of inequality. It isn’t an easy plan.

“You can’t change the world but you can make a dent.” My favorite line from Death to Smoochy.

So what if instead of changing the world, we focused on making a dent.

Instead of trying to create a world where everyone has enough food to eat. A world where the sick are healed and the lonely are comforted.

Maybe we work on trying to create a community where everyone has enough food to eat. A community where the sick are healed and the lonely are comforted. A community built on inclusion and not exclusion.

And what if other communities across our nation and across our globe started doing the same thing.

Wouldn’t that be an amazing thing? Wouldn’t that be an amazing world to live in?

That’s why I love this story of Paul’s salvation, his redemption. Of course, I am sucker for a good redemption story. Deep down, I think we all are.

We are because Paul’s story of redemption is our story of redemption.

But our stories don’t end today. God’s plan for us is still very alive and on track.

That’s an easy thing to accept some days.

Other days…not so much. But on those days, I’m pretty sure that is why God created dogs.

So for the days where hope is abundant, where redemption is felt in your heart, when your bellies are full and your hearts happy, and for the days that we need dogs or something much more real, let us be thankful for the redemption and grace of God.

So like Paul, let us leave us from here proclaiming Jesus saying “He is the Son of God”. Amen.