We Plan; God Laughs

Acts 9: 1 – 20

 

Saul was an ardent member of the group of Jewish leaders known as Pharisees.  This group practiced careful obedience to the rules of their religion.  From his earliest years, Saul had been schooled in the rules which governed daily life: the right way to wash your hands, the right foods to eat, and the right activities for the Sabbath, the holy day of rest.  The laws and traditions of their faith were vital to the identity of Saul’s people.  They lived under the domination of a foreign power, Rome.  To survive as a religion, they had to follow the traditions that defined their identity.

 

On the day that begins our passage for today from Acts, Saul no doubt began with morning prayers.  Then he set out for Damascus, full of purpose.  He was a man on a mission.  Saul’s world was in turmoil because an upstart rabbi had stirred the people up.  Many had chosen to follow this man named Jesus.  Many were drawn to his radical ideas about sitting at table with sinners, and healing on the Sabbath.  The Roman authorities had put the troublemaker to death, but groups of his followers were springing up all over the place.  For the law to be maintained, these followers had to be suppressed.  To uphold the law, Saul had obtained warrants, signed by the high priest.  The warrants gave him the authority to round up followers of Jesus and extradite them for trial in Jerusalem.

 

So Saul loaded up his beasts of burden and headed out on the road to Damascus.  Based on what we know about him, we can be reasonably sure that Saul packed carefully for the trip.  For a journey through the desert, he would need plenty of water.  I imagine he packed plenty of water; more than he expected to need.  He also made sure to pack a good store of bread and dried fish for the journey.  No doubt he also tucked an extra pair of sandals in the saddlebags, along with an extra tunic.  The nights could be cold in that part of the world.

 

When I imagine Saul’s road trip to Damascus, I see him preparing the way I would have prepared.  I imagine that he planned ahead because I am very much a plan-ahead type of person.  I’ve heard that some people are more spontaneous.  They just get in the car and hit the road, without a plan.  They enjoy the adventure of the unknown.  They don’t make any reservations.  They might have a map or a GPS, but they probably haven’t planned the route they’ll take.  They just go with the flow.

 

But that’s not my style of travel.  My motto for travel could be summed up in the words: “Leave nothing to chance.”  Before I hit the road, I spend hours on line and on the phone, arranging places to stay, people to meet, things to do.  The last thing I want is to go without a plan.  To head out without knowing where I’m going to lay my head that night.  The last thing I want is to go with the flow.

If I look back at the way my life has gone, I can see that there hasn’t been much going with the flow.  A lot of my life has gone, so to speak, according to a script.  As soon as I was old enough to go to school, I went to nursery school, as it was called in those days, then elementary school, and middle school and high school.  That was what the script called for.  After high school, the script called for college.  I was blessed with a family who could afford it, so off to college I went.  Of course, the choice of college was only made after a lot of research, looking for the right school, leaving nothing to chance.  After college, the script called for marriage, so marriage soon followed, and then children, all according to the script.  It was the plan I had designed for my life.

 

I suspect it’s that way for a lot of us.  We have a plan for our lives.  As the years go by we do everything in our power to follow the plan.  We become directors of our lives, choosing the education and the experiences and even the people who are likely to help us carry out the plan.  We want very much for our plan to come to fruition.

 

But somewhere along the way, for a lot of us, something happens.  In spite of our best efforts, our plan is disrupted.  The disruption might be the birth of a child who will need special care and attention for a long time, a child who will need our care way past the usual length of childhood.  Or the disruption might be the loss of a job that we had worked at for years, and the need to search for a new job.  It’s rough because, at our age that new job will be hard to find.  Or the disruption might be the end of a relationship, a relationship where we had shared so much: dreams, friends, children.  A relationship that had given meaning and purpose to our lives.

 

Somewhere along the way, for a lot of us, something happens that disrupts our plans.  Disaster hits.  I enjoy learning the derivations of words, and I discovered recently that the word “disaster” is made up of the prefix “dis” which means “opposite,” and the word “aster,” which is the Greek word for star.  For a lot of us, at some point in our lives, a dis-aster happens.  The stars by which we had guided ourselves are disrupted, thrown out of place.  The stars, which had seemed so orderly and bright, are thrown off course and our plans, which had been so clear and full of purpose, are now scattered in all directions.

 

As Saul headed for Damascus that day, he was full of resolve to bring the new followers of Jesus to justice.  He may have sensed the stars watching over him.  For his entire life until then Saul had followed the righteous way of a devout religious leader.  He describes it later in his letter to the church at Philippi:  “I was circumcised on the eighth day [exactly as the rules of my religion stipulated], [I was] a member of the people of Israel, … a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless”  (Philippians 3: 5 – 6).  Ever since the death of Jesus, Saul’s purpose had been persecution of his followers.  Wiping them out and erasing their movement from the face of the earth was the purpose that consumed him.

But suddenly, disaster hits.  A blinding flash of light, brighter than a thousand stars, surrounds him and he hears the voice of Jesus Christ.  Suddenly he can’t see anything.  The stars of religious law that had guided him are nowhere to be seen.  It’s hard to imagine a more vulnerable feeling than what you or I would feel if we were suddenly unable to see.  And, after that blinding flash of light, this vulnerable feeling continues for three days.  Saul is completely dependent on others to help him.

 

The plans of this righteous, committed, law abiding man were brought to nothing in a blinding flash of light that day.  In a blinding flash of light, God leads Saul to a new vision. God sends Ananias to guide him to the light of God’s grace.  In Damascus, in that small community of Jesus followers, he is baptized.  He regains his sight.  Now he will see the purposes of God more clearly.

 

From that day forward, Saul, the man who had always been director of his life, ceased to be director, and opened himself to God’s direction.  His life would no longer be determined by his plan, lived according to his script, a way he had determined his life should go.  He would no longer be in charge; God would be in charge.

 

There’s a saying that, if you want to hear God laugh, make a plan.  It’s a good thing God has a sense of humor because we give God a lot to laugh about.  We plan; God laughs.  God chuckles at our plans.  God chortles and giggles and even guffaws at our plans at times. Our plans don’t turn out the way we intend them to.  Does that mean that we never make plans about anything?  No.  In many situations, it’s useful to have a plan.  In this world, we have a wide array of choices.  How do we begin to choose what’s best for us?  A plan can give us guidelines, help in making choices.

 

But there’s a risk that the plan, our plan, will become the main purpose of our lives.  There’s a risk that our plan will place limits on what God might have in mind for us.  We’re so sure we know what’s right for us!  We’re so convinced that the best thing is for us to be in charge!  So often when we pray, we ask God for the thing we’re so sure is the best thing for us!  Please, God, let me get that job.  Please, God, make that person understand that I am in the right here.

 

Remember, though, what Saul discovered in Damascus.  In Damascus, Saul discovered God’s purpose for him.  He came to see God’s purpose, which was very different from what he had planned.  In a blinding flash of light, God opens his eyes to the risen Christ.  Saul is still a man on a mission, but his life is now a mission to spread the good news of God’s resurrection power in Christ.

 

It’s OK to have a plan.  A plan can keep us on track, keep us focused, keep us sane.  But a plan can also put limits.  We can get so determined to live by that plan that it keeps us from seeing what God might have in mind for us.  We want so much for that plan to happen, we want so much to be in control, that we’re no longer open to God’s purposes.  But the life of faith is about being open to God’s purposes.

One young woman was open to God’s purposes when her life took an unexpected turn.  She was highly accomplished in her field.  She had studied long and hard, traveled the world, and advanced to the highest levels in her career.  But at the age of 30, a dreaded diagnosis stopped her in her tracks.  Months of costly surgeries followed.  In spite of the surgeries, she would have to spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair.

 

But in spite of that disaster, she was open to God’s purposes.  “I wonder what God has in store for me now,” she said.  She went back to school and studied computer programming.  She started a business doing marketing and web design.

 

My friends, because God made us to be free, we always have a choice.  We can set about to be directors of our lives, determined to stay in charge.  But the life of faith is not about following that script we had so carefully prepared.  The life of faith is not about fulfilling our own plans for our lives.  The life of faith is about openness to God’s gracious intentions for us.  As our lives unfold, to listen for God’s voice, and learn to follow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rev. Elva Merry Pawle

May 5, 2019

Easter 3