A member of the parish once told me that for the longest time she thought the window, here, over the altar was Moses, and she wondered why in the world the church had Moses up there. Another parishioner mentioned that a former rector’s wife offered to have one of her children hit a baseball through it because it looked so imposing. Whatever you think of that window, sitting here in the church, one thing’s for sure -- you just can’t miss it. And like that window, as a Christian, you just can’t miss the saint it represents. St. Paul – the patron saint of this church – was always striking. As he was 2000 years ago, so nowadays, too, Christian folks have a strong reaction to Paul. He inspires either devotion or outright antagonism, but whatever you think of him, one thing you have to grant Paul is that you can’t ignore him anymore than you can ignore that window. Apart from Jesus, Himself, Paul’s writings have had the single greatest impact upon the Christian Church throughout the generations.

On this Feast of St. Paul’s Conversion what can we learn from our namesake? Well, let’s listen to what he had to say about himself. In today’s reading from the Book of Acts, his publicist, St. Luke, quoted a speech that Paul made to King Agrippa – explaining why it was that he went around telling everyone about Christ. This is what he said. “I was convinced that I ought to do many things against the name of Jesus of Nazareth.”

That was true. Paul, though at the time he went by his given name, Saul, was the first one to persecute Christians, and he did it with a vengeance. Saul hated Christians, and hated the One they followed even more. You see, like Jesus and all Jesus’ followers, back then, Saul was Jewish. He was the son of the very prosperous owner of a tent-making business in Tarsus, which was the capital city of Cilicia in modern day Turkey. In fact, Saul’s father was granted the rare privilege of being made a citizen of Rome, probably because of service to the Empire – with a government contract to provide tents to Roman troops in the Eastern part of the Empire. And so Saul was a citizen of Rome as well. His family were Pharisees – very Orthodox Jews, and Saul was so devout and so smart that he was accepted into the most prestigious conservative rabbinical school of the time – the School of Rabbi Gamaliel of Jerusalem. Over the years of his education Saul was the brightest and best. He was a shining star among his peers, and was being groomed to follow in Gamaliel’s footsteps. His goal, since his family was so prosperous and he was gifted in Jewish Law, was to take a seat on the Jewish ruling council – the Sanhedrin. From those positions he could fulfill his true passion – to teach and defend the true Jewish faith. And that’s why he persecuted the earliest Jewish followers of Jesus. He considered them to be heretics and the most dangerous influence on the Jewish community of his time, believing that they’d lead people away from the one true God. And he was ferocious in his persecution – presiding over the execution of St. Stephen and intending to travel to every Jewish community to arrest Christians. What this tells me is that no matter how devout – no matter how fervent – we are in our faith, God’s plans may be very different from our own. And more than that, passion – even faith-based passion (perhaps especially faith-based passion) can breed fanaticism – doing things for God that God doesn’t want or in ways that God doesn’t want them done. Now let’s return to what Paul said.

"With this in mind, I was traveling to Damascus, when at midday along the road, your Excellency, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and my companions. When we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”

So there Saul was – living his dream. He had achieved all that he’d hoped to achieve in his training. He was well established and respected. He was positioned to take his place in the councils of Jewish leadership. He had the right tools at the right time to do exactly what he believed God wanted him to do – to defend the faith. And he was doing that with a vengeance. Then, all of a sudden, everything changed. God, Christ, reached out, stopped Saul in his tracks and turned him around completely.

What this tells me is that God doesn’t let anything stand in the way of giving us the opportunity for new beginnings – whether we want a new beginning or not. We’re never so old or religious or well established or accomplished or under control or well on our way in our life’s dreams for God to give us the opportunity for a new start. More than that, God, Christ, doesn’t let our sins, our failures, our excesses, or our passionate decisions against Him – even when they’re violently antagonistic, like Saul’s, God doesn’t let them get in the way. God doesn’t hold them against us when it comes to making a new start in life with God. God, Christ, didn’t let Saul’s hatred of Jesus stand in the way. God didn’t let Saul’s execution of St. Stephen stand in the way. God didn’t let Saul’s intentions to arrest Christ’s followers stand in the way. If God didn’t hold those against Saul, there’s certainly nothing that we’ve done that will prevent God’s love from giving us new beginnings in life with Christ. This is a church – learning from our namesake – that accepts people as they are. We’re a community that believes in new beginnings – no matter what’s past.

Back to Paul’s words. He recounted that Jesus said, “I am sending you, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” God, Jesus, not only gave Saul a new beginning, He gave him a new mission – to announce to Jews and Gentiles alike the good news of salvation through faith in Christ and to teach them how to follow Him. What this says to me is that God is extremely economical. He never wastes resources. He uses who we are and what we can do to serve His purposes even when those weren’t necessarily our intentions. Saul, at that point renamed Paul, was a Roman citizen and so he could go anywhere in the Empire. God used that to send him everywhere. Paul knew the languages he needed to speak to all kinds of people and he knew their customs. God used that to relate the news about Christ to everyone he encountered. Paul knew the Jewish faith and the Scriptures backward and forward. God used that to explain the truth of Christ to Jews and Gentiles alike. God can use all of our abilities in His service.

But I want you to understand something else, too. While God changed Saul’s faith, his mission in life and blessed his gifts to serve Christ’s mission, God didn’t change all of Saul’s idiosyncrasies. Saul was overly passionate, abrasive and harsh before he met Christ, and he still was throughout his life in service of Christ. That’s why he offended so many back then, and why many still are by some of his writings today. Paul stayed the same old Saul. God may well change our lives and our mission, but we still have some of the rough edges we always have. One of the things that turns people off is how some Christians behave, but Christ doesn’t change personalities as much as destinies.

Nevertheless Paul had an enormously positive impact. He told King Agrippa, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.” In fact, with all his warts, Paul became the most effective advocate for faith in Christ in history. So too, like him, God can do things through us far beyond what we can imagine or intend.