“Saul and Ananias”

Acts 9:1-19a

Rev. Caela Simmons Wood

First Congregational UCC, Manhattan, KS

April 26, 2026

Several years ago, I found myself in a conference room on the K-State campus, meeting with a handful of Housing and Dining staff. They were in the midst of some controversy as a department because of strife between some Christian RAs were upset because they were being asked to create inclusive and welcoming spaces for LGBTQ+ students. But they didn’t want to. And then some other LGBTQ+ RAs were, of course, upset about it. 

The way it was communicated, over and over, was so puzzling to me. Because they kept referring to these two groups as the “Christians” and the “LGBTQ+ community.” After doing a little digging, I discovered that there didn’t seem to be any Christians in the LGBTQ+ camp and vice-versa. This was puzzling to me because, of course, there’s nothing inherently “Christian” about being inhospitable to LGBTQ people. And some of the most faithful Christians I’ve known have been LGBTQ. 

I recognize that I have spent a lot of time in Christian communities that aren’t exactly “the norm.” And so it’s always a bit shocking to me when I find myself in spaces with Christians who seem like they’re practicing a totally different religion under the same name. It’s disorienting and confusing at best. It can also be deeply troubling and angering. 

I try not to spend most of my time in this pulpit calling out badly-behaved Christians. I could easily fill 10-15 minutes every single week with that, if I wanted to. There have, of course, always been people who claim to follow Christ but appear to have not read their Bibles too closely. Instead of doing justice and loving mercy, they bully others and preach hate. It’s horrifying to see the ways so many of these so-called-Christian voices have been elevated over the past decade or so. When a sitting president who claims to be Christian gets mad at a Bishop because she calls for mercy, you know we’ve strayed from the Gospel. When a member of the president’s Cabinet openly prays for the violent destruction of our enemies, claiming they deserve no mercy, Jesus weeps. 

In this period of time when a horrifying number of White Christian Nationalists have taken center stage, one of the tropes that always comes as a shock to me is the Christian persecution complex. Despite having an inordinate amount of power, these Christian Nationalists frequently complain about being persecuted. Their fear of irrelevancy leads them to complain that they are victims of abuse. And so they lash out by trying to regain control: making laws that enshrine their own particular worldview, all in the name of religious freedom. They never quite seem to understand that religious freedom means we all get to believe what we want. It doesn’t mean you get to impose your own beliefs on other people. 

Reading today’s passage from Acts, I was reminded that there are historic reasons some Christians claim to be persecuted. (There are also, of course, some real political reasons that powerful people want to make Christians feel persecuted and scared. Fear is the driving force for authoritarian regimes. If you can make people scared, you can get them to do almost anything you want.)

But back to the scripture-based imperative for this persecution complex. Early followers of Jesus were, in fact, persecuted. They were a tiny, odd religious sect following a man who had been killed by the state. They were outsiders. Disempowered and often afraid. The Book of Acts tells us all about the struggles of the early church. You don’t get very far in Acts before Stephen is killed for his faith. Jesus followers were at odds with the dominant culture of the Empire and they also were, more and more, in conflict with Jewish leaders. In the Book of Acts alone, we read about the imprisonment or death of so many followers of Jesus: Stephen, Peter, Paul, James, John, Barnabas, Silas. They really were persecuted. Like, “thrown-in-jail, stoned, run-out-of-town, executed” persecuted. Not “somebody told me I have to treat everyone with respect and I don’t want to” persecuted. 

And so, it’s in this context of real, true persecution that we find Saul, “still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.” Saul at this point is a zealous Jew, not a Christian. And he is a persecutor of Christians. Again, actual persecution. He is so angry at followers of Jesus that he’s taken it upon himself to hunt them down, vigilante style and capture them. 

Can we pause for a moment to recognize how horrific this is? I feel like sometimes we kind of gloss over this bit: “Oh, yeah, Paul. He didn’t like Christians. But then he saw the light on the road to Damascus and started following Jesus.” We rush to the second part of the story without really sitting in the horror of the first part. 

This is a man who was actively hunting down people because he didn’t like their beliefs. To hear it told in this passage from Acts, it’s not like he had been drafted into some holy war army and was being forced to do this. He WANTED to go hunt down Christ-followers and arrest them. He took it upon himself to ask the authorities if he could go to Damascus so he could find them, abduct them, and bring them back to Jerusalem to be punished - maybe even killed. 

It’s awful, isn’t it? To be so filled with hate and fear of people who are different from you, that you’d hunt them down, capture them, and ruin or end their lives? 

When Saul has that blinded by the light moment on the road to Damascus, the voice of Jesus doesn’t say to him, “Saul, believe in me. Follow the Way.” At least not at first. Instead the voice of Jesus says, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” 

Jesus calls Saul away from this violent, vigilante life of persecution. This isn’t the Way, he says. Lay down your sword. Stop the violence. Turn away from the hate. Breathing threats and murder isn’t the way of Christ. 

This feels like an important bit of information about what it means to follow Jesus. Following Jesus doesn’t mean forcing your beliefs on others through violence. It doesn’t mean ruining other people’s lives just because they’re different from you. It turns out that bombing abortion clinics isn’t life-giving. Bullying transgender people doesn’t make you more like Christ. And kidnapping brown people while they’re running errands or driving to work or picking their kids up at school doesn’t make anything safer for anyone. 

Following Jesus isn’t about hunting people down, threatening them, or being violent. Never has been. Never will be. 

This is probably not news to any of you. You probably wouldn’t be here today if you were confused on that point. And yet - it never hurts to say it out loud. Just so we’re clear. 

Lest you think today’s passage from Acts is all about confirming things you already knew to be true, let’s continue to the end of the passage, shall we? 

Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” He answered, “Here I am, Lord.” The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul.

Ananias is not thrilled. Saul’s reputation precedes him and Ananias knows that he’s in town to persecute and detain all followers of Jesus. You can see why Ananias was skeptical about the instructions given. 

But the voice of Jesus clarifies, “He’ll be expecting you. He is praying right now and waiting for you to come. I have big plans for him. He’s going to spread the gospel far and wide.” 

Of all the confounding things about this story, there is perhaps nothing more surprising than this: Ananias goes to find Saul. He lays his hands upon him and says that he’s come to bestow the gift of the Holy Spirit upon him. Saul’s sight is restored. He gets up and is immediately baptized as a follower of Jesus. 

It is, of course, surprising that someone like Saul could make such an abrupt 180. But that’s not the only shocking thing happening here. What about Ananias? How many of us here, if told that someone who is known to be a violent persecutor, would go to them and welcome them into the fold? How many of us would be able to make space for someone so different from us - someone who had previously been a Christian Nationalist, for example? To affirm them, welcome them, believe they have the capacity to not only change but make meaningful contributions?

Much has been made of the miraculous change of Saul’s heart. And it is truly incredible. 

Not enough has been said about this quiet fact: it is much easier to do a 180 if you not only have something to turn away from but something to turn towards. It is easier to leave one life behind if you have another waiting for you. People are more likely to make concrete, positive, lasting changes when they are embraced by a community of support that cheers them on, holds them accountable, and believes in their capacity for growth. 

At times in our life, we, like Saul, will be called upon to radically reorient our lives. At other times, we’ll find ourselves more like Ananias, called upon to welcome and affirm those who are seeking transformation. 

None of it is easy. No one ever said following Jesus would be. 

May God bless us with the strength of the Spirit as we seek to walk in Christ’s ways of love.