‘Expansive and inclusive’ by Owen Lynch, 26 May 2024

How expansive and inclusive is God’s kingdom? Owen Lynch looks at the story of Saul who, as part of the duty he felt to uphold God’s law, travelled to oppose Jesus’ followers and take them prisoner. But the risen Jesus intervened, met Saul and changed his mind and his name. As Paul, God would use him to take the gospel message far beyond the boundaries of Jewish culture, but first Saul had to experience vulnerability and learn to depend on God.

Can we recognise anything from this situation in ourselves or the church around us? Have we lost sight of Jesus’ purpose to include everyone in the blessing of God? What difference would it make for us to be less defensive, prescriptive or exclusive, and more humble, vulnerable and inclusive, when we look for more of God’s kingdom to come?

Transcript

My current boxset of talks is about the book of Acts and the working title of the series is “A Community of Hope”. I say working title because as we study the writings, we are being directed somewhat by the author who traditionally we think of as Luke. Luke has his agenda and perspective and so we are seeing these events through his eyes retrospectively.

I am also inviting you to see these writings through my eyes as well, because I am the one who is preparing these talks.

And then I am also seeking to see these writings through the “eyes” of the Holy Spirit, as I prepare these talks.

Similarly, you are also seeing these writings through your own perspective and also through the “eyes” of the Holy Spirit as you reflect on these words.

How, we are meant to find common ground in these writings when I put it like that I don’t know!

And indeed that is the case. Some of you are kind enough to share your reflections with me, so I know that some of you really resonate with what I am sharing, others of you don’t and that’s ok! Our desire is not to tell you what to believe like we are a cult! But rather to promote dialogue and reflection - dialogue with ourselves, with each other and with Jesus. I hope that we are succeeding in that goal.

I want to share with you what I see in these writings of Luke.

I see a Jewish revolutionary movement for equality, inclusion and justice for all, started by Jesus and continued by his disciples, empowered by the Holy Spirit.

I see a Jewish revolutionary movement that was so progressive and powerful that the conservative authorities started to use violence to try and destroy it, when they lost the argument.

In episode 6 we reflected on how the violence caused all but the Palestinian Jews to flee from Jerusalem. But far from pouring cold water on the fire, this violent response from the authorities made the fire of revolution burn even brighter.

The movement took hold in communities outside of the Jewish nation - first of all in Samaria - a people group despised by their Jewish neighbours. And then Luke records a hugely significant story about a black African Eunuch who was caught up in this Jesus revolution. Hugely significant then and hugely significant now because as a non-binary person - the Eunuch represents a people group who are currently misunderstood and in places ostracised by the some Christian churches in the UK.

Now one comment I have received about this boxset series is that I don’t talk much about the role of the Holy Spirit in all this.

Apologies that I have given the impression that I am not concerned about the role of the Holy Spirit in all this.

Nothing could be further from my understanding.

As I see it, the Holy Spirit is the driving force behind this revolutionary movement of equality, inclusion and justice.

Just like Jesus, the Holy Spirit empowers the disciples to include the excluded through healings and acts of immense courage, despite the opposition from the religious authorities.

As I see it in Acts, the priorities of the Holy Spirit are to include the excluded, treat all people as equals and to ensure justice for the oppressed. And this is what we see the disciples doing in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Why do I think this relevant to us?

Well, we can see from Acts, that Christianity begins as a Jewish movement for inclusion, equality and justice, so it’s no surprise that it grows so quickly. Everyone gets to be a Jew! Or to put it another way - everyone gets to enjoy the blessing of Yahweh. No one is excluded.

It is not reductive it is expansive! It is not exclusive it is inclusive.

So I wonder, why are some expressions of Christianity in the UK so exclusive and reductive? Why are some parts of the evangelical church, that has been in steep decline for decades, doubling down on doctrines that exclude and reduce the church to a rump of people who share a strict moral philosophy?

Please forgive me because I’m a bit of a nerd when it comes to Christianity. I started this church 15 years ago and have been actively involved in leading churches for 25 years. It’s my job to think deeply about why large parts of the UK evangelical church is so reductive and exclusive. I am perplexed by this! Many people just accept that Christianity is a fringe religion and is in a state of decline. Some people think that this is exactly the plan - that a rump of holy people [holiness - defined in their own terms] will remain until Jesus returns to whisk them off to heaven, leaving everyone else to burn in hell!

But as we see in Acts, this Jewish Jesus movement that we read about in Acts expanded rapidly, because the Jewish disciples, inspired by the Holy Spirit, understood that Jesus’ gospel was based on inclusion, equality and justice.

The Holy Spirit gave them the vision to see that no one is excluded from the blessing of Yahweh, that injustice that excludes people from society should be challenged not just with words of protest, but acts of healing and empowerment.

Let’s turn to Acts 9 to see how this story might relate to the attempts by some evangelical Christians to exclude and reduce the this Jesus movement to a rump.

In chapter 8, we read about the violent response of the Jewish religious authorities to this Jesus movement and the leader of this violent crackdown was a Pharisee named Saul.

Saul and his team went from house to house dragging men and women associated with the movement off to prison. Saul had sanctioned the unlawful killing of Stephen - one of the revolutionary leaders. And at the beginning of chapter 9, Luke says that Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the disciples of Jesus.

So Saul appears to be a conservative hardliner, not unlike the present Iranian morality police who arrest and torture Iranian women and girls for wearing the wrong clothes or not covering their heads in public.

Saul the Pharisee would be a deeply offensive figure in British society today. He would be deeply hated and feared.

Luke records in chapter 9 that he went to the High Priest for letters of authorisation to the synagogues in Damascus, to go and arrest any of the revolutionaries who had fled there from Jerusalem.

So Saul is pursuing the revolutionaries, but Luke tells us that Yahweh is pursuing Saul - Acts 9:1-19

1 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. 3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.

“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

7 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. 8 Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. 9 For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.

10 In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!”

“Yes, Lord,” he answered.

11 The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”

13 “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. 14 And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”

15 But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”

17 Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, 19 and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

Saul’s logical mind made him a dangerous assassin. He was authorised to take life either through imprisonment or execution. His authority confirmed his argument and his argument justified his actions and his actions reinforced the appropriateness of his authority.

We can see from his letters, that Saul had a profound intellect and his Greek education in logic made him a formidable opponent.

His circle of logic and reasoning made it entirely possible for him to detach himself from the emotional tension of taking life from fellow Jews whose beliefs he considered to be heretical and destabilising.

The revolutionaries had no chance against Saul, they had no argument that he could not destroy and no authority to thwart his zeal.

It took something irrational and illogical to break Saul out of his circular logic.

The term - “Damascus road experience” has become shorthand for a life changing experience and rightly so.

This killer was confronted and stopped in his tracks, but just a important, the rationale and logic for his murderous actions was shattered.

The voice said to him [Acts 9:5 - KJV]:

Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? 5 And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

That is the King James Version (old English). It includes this interesting phrase that is not included in other translations:

“It is hard for you to kick against the pricks!”

Jesus was not referring to the revolutionaries in his movement as “pricks”! The phrase actually makes sense in a agricultural setting.

So a farmer might use a sharpened stick or spear [pricks] to urge a stubborn animal to move forwards. Sometimes an animal would kick back at the sharpened spear and in doing so hurt themselves on the spear even more.

It appears that Saul is being warned by Jesus that in his attempts to quell the revolution, he is unknowingly hurting Jesus and hurting himself.

It’s almost as though Jesus is using logic to point out the folly of Saul’s actions.

Notice that Saul asked “Who are you Lord?”

So Saul in his terror assumes he is having a supernatural vision and in the presence of something stratospherically more powerful than him. But he is confused, because the voice is asking him, “why are you persecuting me?”

See, Saul is convinced by his own logic, that in pursuing the revolutionaries, he is doing the work of Yahweh. It is a mark of his confidence that he is on Yahweh’s side, that he is confused by the question.

If the voice is Yahweh, why would Yahweh question what Saul is doing? Saul is so convinced that he is doing the bidding of Yahweh, that he is not sure who he’s talking to!

Perhaps he was talking to an angel representing Yahweh?

But no, the answer collapses his logic and collapses his worldview.

The voice speaking to him is Jesus - the one who Saul is hurting!

Three things we should notice about this answer.

First, the Jews had a core belief that they should not utter the name of God. This caution was based on the third of the ten commandments to not take God’s name in vain.

So for Saul to ask the voice who was speaking perhaps shows us that he thought he was speaking to an angel (of which Jewish literature shows us that there were a few).

Second, when the voice tells him that it’s Jesus speaking - Saul realises for the first time in his life that he has learned the unknowable name of Yahweh. The central figure in Saul’s life turns from an abstract unknowable God whose name cannot be uttered, to a real divine human called Jesus.

Third, Saul is hurting Jesus by his actions. Jesus says, “Why are you hurting me?”

In our world, those words are usually spoken by vulnerable people who are being abused by someone more powerful than them.

“Why are you hurting me?”

In this story, those words are being spoken by Jesus, by Yahweh.

Jesus is expressing his own pain and vulnerability and Saul himself is in a place of vulnerability as well. He is blinded and suddenly utterly dependent on his companions to take him to a safe place and look after him.

Vulnerability between two people is usually the bedrock for relationship. It is the setting for trust and love to flourish, for companionship to begin.

This seems to be what happens between Jesus and Saul on the road to Damascus. And we know from Saul’s letters and from the rest of the book of Acts, Saul’s relationship with Jesus is the fuel that empowers him to become the leading revolutionary in this Jesus movement.

——

I wonder if there is something in this story in Acts 9, that speaks to the state of the Christian church in the UK at the moment.

Is it possible that we evangelical Christians have lost sight of the purpose of Jesus’ revolution to include everyone in the blessing of God, treat all people equally and to ensure justice for all people?

Have we become distant from God, thinking of God more abstractly and forgotten the vulnerability that we can have with Jesus?

Have we lost the courage and ability to be vulnerable with each other and with Jesus, thus isolating ourselves and hardening our hearts?

Have we become like Saul and behave like the moral police excluding and disciplining those who we define as immoral or not holy?

Have we become like Saul in trying to stop this movement for inclusion, equality and justice?

Have we become like Saul in lacking the imagination to envision how everyone can be included in the blessing of Jesus?

Or are we like Philip and Ananias - two of the revolutionaries who were not from Palestine?

They had the exuberance and joy, the courage and imagination to believe that this movement for inclusion, equality and justice was for every single human being.

I think that the revolutionary Jesus movement we see described in Acts was expansive and inclusive. It did not assimilate and it did not destroy the cultural diversity of the people who were caught up in this movement. It was not prescriptive and was not a sausage machine creating identical clones. It was not a cult and was not dominated by one leader.

The one thing that was common to all these people was the love of God expressed through the resurrected Jesus.

As we reflect - are we like Saul before Damascus, or are we like Philip and Ananias?

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