Truly Born Again
Sermon Summary: Paul, one of the greatest leaders within the early Church, was also at first the great persecutor of the Church. His "Truly Born Again Experience" resulted in a dramatic and unexpected change in his life as he accepted his need for God's grace and forgiveness, experienced it and then lived his life with an attitude of gratitude and service. His experience is summarized in a three-word statement that also summarizes our Reformed Church Theology. The words are: Guilt, Grace and Gratitude!
As I was working on today's Sermon, the Holy Spirit kept on nudging me to think about one of the characters in the film "Slum Dog Millionaire." To think about how he truly serves as a great example of what today's Sermon Title suggests: "Truly Born Again." Yes, we have heard this phrase "You must be Born Again" that our Lord used in his conversation with Nicodemus about what it means to be a Christian, but what does it truly mean to say that we are born again?
Now, if you have seen the film "Slum Dog Millionaire," you probably think that I am going to use the younger brother Jamal to serve as my example — and he is truly an inspirational character. But rather than "Pure-as-undriven-snow Jamal," the character I am going to use is his far less pure brother Salim. At various points in the film Salim does despicable things, and yet he really has some very close similarities to the first character in the Book of Acts who deserves the title "Truly Born Again." The character I am speaking about is the Apostle Paul who goes from the persecutor of the early church to become the greatest missionary figure in the Book of Acts. Yes, Paul was truly "Born Again" and as we continue our Lenten Series on the Book of Acts, let us consider what his journey of faith suggests for our journey.
Let's begin our reflection by looking at the Paul we meet in Acts Chapter 7. As we read about the stoning to death of Stephen, a disciple in the early church, we see that Paul is standing there passing out the rocks. And further, we see that this was not an isolated act of persecution. Rather, for reasons that are not clearly spelled out, it seems that Paul had made his mission in life the persecution of the Christian Church. And he seemed fully committed to performing acts of terrorism and abuse. In short, Paul when we first meet him is anything but a good person. At that point in his journey, the thought of him being Born Again to become a great missionary figure and servant of the Lord would have seemed to have been a ridiculous hope or expectation.
Salim, the fictional character in Slum Dog, was like the real-life person Paul. For in the early parts of this movie, we see him participating in acts of violence and abuse that frankly are pretty disgusting. Believing that there could be good in a person that evil would also seem to be a ridiculous hope or expectation. Now of course, I don't believe there is anyone hearing or reading this sermon who is in anyway nearly as despicable as the early Paul or Salim, but i do believe we all have our human flaws and that from our Reformed perspective, the first step in our journey of being truly Born Again is accepting our personal need for God's grace and forgiveness in our lives.
Yes, there is much that is wonderful about our service and witness for the Lord, but none of us are perfect. The first step in our own experience of being truly born again is accepting our need for that grace and forgiveness. For the last couple of weeks you have heard me use the phrase that Lent is a season of reflection and repentance that prepares us for the renewal and joy that Easter offers, but do we really feel that we need to repent? I cannot and will not answer that question for you, but I can tell you that I do. And I thank God that he doesn't wait to love us until we reach perfection, but that he enters into our lives and challenges us to look at our lives, affirm what is good and commit to improve that which needs to be improved!
Isn't that exactly what happened in the life of Paul? For as we pick up our story about the life, conversion and born again experience of Paul, we read that he is traveling on the Road to Damascus for the purpose of continuing his reign of terror within the early Church. There is no indication that he has had a change of heart or feels a need to repent for his deeds of persecution but God in the ways that we sing about in our hymn Amazing Grace has another plan for Paul's life and so right there on the road to his continued perdition God confronts Paul with a blinding light and a simple question: Why do you persecute me? And this question is the next step in Paul's experience of being Born Again for the question and Ananias' brave act of compassion in laying his hands upon Paul, who he knew as the persecutor of the early church is the means by which God's amazing grace is experienced in Paul's life.
For as soon as Paul's physical blindess is healed, his spiritual blindness is healed also. He immediately asks to be baptized, and soon thereafter begins his mission to bring the gospel to others. As I thought back over the film Slum Dog, I asked what was the moment when Salim decided to serve as an instrument of grace in his brother's life. There had been times earlier in the movie when he could have made such a change but his moment of change was not like Paul's in terms of being instantaneous, rather it was a growing sense that his previous life of violence and abuse was not the life he wanted to lead and so at the dramatically speaking, highest moment of this film Salim makes the supreme sacrifise of dying so that his brother Jamal and Latika might have hope for the future. The choice was to continue in a life of sin or to hear and respond to God's call in his life and he chose life!
That's what being Born Again is all about. Listening for God's call in our lives and faithfully responding to it. That experience is what the Book of Acts is all about as the mothers and fathers of the early church respond to the call to take the gospel into Jerusalem, then all around Samaria and Judea and finally to the ends of the earth. And so, day after day in life after life, the church was blessed to be a community filled with people who had been born again and who through that experience wanted to express their gratitude to God for his amazing grace in their lives by serving as instruments of that same grace in the lives of their own loved ones and all who would be effected by their faithful witness and service. It's 2000-plus years later. So much has changed in terms of the context in which we live and minister. But two things have not changed. First, that God in his grace has come into our lives to bless us with his gifts of faith and hope that come from trusting in his eternal love. And second, in gratitude for his grace, we are called to live as an instrument of his grace.
Pastor Stephen Giordano — March 8, 2009
The Massapequa
Reformed Church
302 Ocean Avenue
Massapequa, NY 11758
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