Rev.
Debbie Cato
Millwood Presbyterian Church
Acts 9:10-19 (Acts (;1-19)
July 26, 2026
Holy, holy God.
We come before You with open hearts, ready to receive Your word. Prepare
our minds to understand the wisdom of Your teachings. Soften our hearts to be
transformed by Your truth. In Jesus
name, Amen.
A Scary
Call
Today our
scripture passage is what I will call “Part 2” of one of my favorite stories in
the Book of Acts. Sam preached on the
first half of this story last week and she suggested three questions for you to
consider as you listened to her sermon.
Sam asked:
2. What does this passage reveal about God?
3. and … How does God want us as a church to
respond?
Last week, you heard how Saul was on his way to Damascus with a group of men looking for people who were part of The Way – the early believers. Saul had letters from the high priest to the synagogues giving him permission to search out believers and bring them as captives to Jerusalem – both men and women. Luke tells us that Saul “breathed threats and murder” against the disciples of the Lord. He meant business! Saul was not a nice man.
Now, in his defense, Saul was a committed Jew. He had been taught the Hebrew scriptures by one of the most highly regarded rabbis. Saul believed that people of The Way – the followers of Jesus were blaspheming God. He did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah and so he believed that everything Jesus taught, and everything the people of The Way believed, was contrary to God. It was blasphemy. In Paul’s mind, he was protecting his faith – protecting the laws of God. He was getting rid of early believers out of religious zeal.
But that wasn’t God’s heart. It wasn’t what God wanted Saul to be doing. So God stopped Paul in his tracks – literally. Saul was blinded with a bright light. As he is lying on the ground, Saul hears a voice ask, “Why are you persecuting me?” Why are you persecuting me? “Who are you Lord?” Paul asks. “I am Jesus. The very one you are persecuting.” Wow! That would get your attention, wouldn’t it?! I can imagine a booming voice, “I am Jesus. The one you are persecuting.” Luke tells us that Saul was blind for three days and he did not eat or drink during that time. God had Saul’s full attention.
In today’s passage, we are introduced to Ananias and the plot thickens. We don’t know anything about Anania except Luke tells us that Ananias’ is living in Damascus and he is praying. Later in the Book of Acts, Paul gives a speech as he is about to be jailed and he describes Ananias as "a devout man according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews" that lived in Damascus.
As Ananias prays one day – as he presumably does every day since we are told he is devout, God calls him to do what seems impossible. While he is praying, God gives Ananias specific instructions. “Get up and go to the street called Straight. At the house of Judas, ask for a man of Tarsus named Saul. He is praying, and he has seen a vision of a man named Ananias coming in and laying hands on him so that he will regain his sight.” Wow! Now, that is a word from God. That is a call to be bold.
Has God has ever prompted you during prayer? Perhaps He’s put on your heart to reconcile a relationship; repair a broken friendship or a family relationship. Maybe, like Ananias, God has asked you to do something hard; something you don’t want to do. Something bold.
As I was finishing up seminary and presbytery approved me to seek a call, I was so excited. I prayed that God would lead me to the right church; the church He wanted me to serve. I’ll go wherever you send me, God.
One day I got an email from a search committee in Casper, Wyoming. They had read my PIF – my personal information form and they were interested in talking with me. Casper, Wyoming. I knew there was no way God was calling me to go to Casper, Wyoming – so far away from my daughters. I replied with a “thank you for your interest but no thank you.” Maybe three weeks later, my phone rang. It was the chair of the search committee in Casper. We really think you are the one God is calling to serve our church. Could we just send you some information? Sure, I said. The information came and I half-heartedly looked at it. Shoot. I was drawn to it. It was exactly the kind of church I had been praying God would call me to serve. But it was Casper, Wyoming. I could not be that far from my daughters. I agreed to talk with them over skype – it was skype back then.
Much to my dismay, I fell in love. The prompting of the Holy Spirit was so strong, but I was still trying to resist. It was so far to be from Jessica and Tracy. But, I agreed to go visit them and preach in a neutral pulpit. It will be good experience, I told myself. But I was sure I would not like it, that the sense of call I was feeling would go away.
God is asking Ananias to go to the place where a known terrorist of Jesus’ followers was, and lay hands on him! Ask me anything God but not that! Ananias pleads with God. “Lord, I have heard about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. He has authority from the chief priests to bind up everyone who calls upon your name.” He’ll kill me, Ananias must have thought. Anything but this! Ananias tried to say no to God’s call. But God doesn’t take no for an answer. “Go and do this. I have chosen Saul to carry my name to the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel.” God called Ananias out of his comfort zone to play a role in the conversion of Saul – Paul who would come to preach the gospel and start churches throughout the nations with as much zeal as he once persecuted those that believed and followed the very things that Paul becomes so passionate about.
Remember those questions I asked you to think about? What does this passage reveal about us? What does this passage reveal about God? How does God want us as a church to respond?
I think the big question this text poses is how might God be calling you outside your comfort zone. Maybe God is calling this church – Millwood Presbyterian Church outside our comfort zone.
God called Ananias to be bold and courageous. Ananias was called to walk down the street and turn Saul from persecuting God’s people to being God’s mouthpiece for the teachings of Christ. Maybe God is calling you, calling us to be bold in some way. To be courageous. Maybe God is calling us to be bold for our faith in some way – to be God’s hands and feet. Or maybe even his mouthpiece.
As I watch what is happening in our culture, in the world today, I wonder if God is calling us to correct the course; to bring kindness and justice and mercy back into vogue. I wonder if he’s calling us to reach out to neighbors, to learn something about the immigrant members of our community, to lend a helping hand, to be generous to the needs we see all around us. Maybe God is calling us to be generous with our money and generous with our time. Maybe God is calling us to be these things. These things that build the Kingdom of Heaven. These things that reflect the values Jesus taught about over and over and over again.
I wonder if God is calling us to bring people back to the right teachings of Christ. We have wandered far from the true teachings of Jesus. Far from the true gospel message in scripture. When Jesus stood up in the synagogue of Nazareth, he opened a scroll from the prophet Isaiah which speaks of hope, healing, and liberation. The world has turned upside down from Jesus’ teachings. I wonder if God is calling us to be bold and speak truth? To speak hope and healing and liberation in our community.
Author Toni O’Keefe recently said, “There are times we must speak. Even if we are afraid, we must speak. We must say, this is wrong. This is broken. This is hurting me. This is hurting others. I don’t believe in this. I can’t accept this. We have the right to remain silent, but should we?”
In one of his devotionals, Henri Nouwen wrote, “We are not called to save the world, solve all problems, and help all people. But we each have our own unique call, in our families, in our work, in our world. We have to keep asking God to help us clearly see what our call is and to give us the strength to live out that call with trust. Then we will discover that our faithfulness to a small task is the most healing response to the illnesses of our time.”
It was just an ordinary day when God calls Ananias to be bold and courageous. All he has to do is go to a man who is “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord” and lay hands on him. As a disciple of The Way, Ananias is called to go to this man who is persecuting people just like him and lay hands on him because God is calling Saul to bring the truth of The Way to the gentiles and all of Israel and the kings. Do you see that God is using Ananias to achieve his purpose for Saul? This famous Damascus Road story is both a description of a transforming personal encounter with Christ and an introduction of Saul as a leading actor in the apostolic mission to the ends of the earth.
But as I see it, this is also a story about an ordinary man called to do something scary. A story about a faithful follower, not that different from you or I, who was obedient to God’s call. (After he tried to say no of course!) Because of Ananias’s obedience, one of the greatest threats to the new Christians becomes arguably the greatest apostle for Christ’s message. Because of Ananias’s obedience, Paul goes on to take three missionary trips through modern-day Turkey, Greece, Syria, and Italy, planting more than 20 churches, preaching the gospel, and raising up new leaders. Paul is credited with writing 14 of the 27 books of The New Testament. Nine out of those 14 books are written to seven of the church communities Paul started on his journeys: Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1st and 2nd Thessalonians.
I don’t think Ananias knew what the result of his visit to Saul would be - the vastness of God’s call on his life. I don’t think Ananias knew how much this terrorist to The Way would end up expanding the outreach of Christ’s life and ministry. Rather than capturing and murdering believers, Paul became a fervent believer himself.
And how can we know what the outcome of our obedience to God’s call will be? How can we know who might be turned around because of a conversation we have with them; or who might feel validated and supported because we speak up. How do we know who’s life might be changed because we are generous or kind. God lays before us opportunities to speak up for his truth. We have to keep asking God to help us see clearly what our call is and to give us the strength to live out that call with trust God. And then we have to be brave and courageous to follow that call.
Saul couldn’t see the truth until God blinded him and then used Ananias to lay hands on him and speak the truth into his life.
I bring us back to the questions Sam asked last week that are also good questions for this week. What does this passage reveal about us? What does this passage reveal about God? How does God want us as a church to respond? Who might God be bringing before us – calling us to respond by speaking the truth about what scripture teaches? What opportunities might God be making available to us where we can demonstrate our faith, our beliefs, through our actions? What unique call might God be calling you to; calling Millwood Presbyterian Church to? It’s a question we should be asking ourselves.
In the name of God the Father, Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit – three-in-one. Amen.
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