There is bad religion and there is good religion.
There is religion that inflicts suffering, that makes others suffer.
And then there is religion that suffers for the sake of others.
And it all gets lumped together. Two ways of being that are so different are often called the same thing.
Which religion do we practice?
The Apostle Paul, he was also known as Saul, the same name, one is Greek the other is Aramaic, the language of the Jews at the time.
In the book of Acts we hear of Saul and his conversion, or perhaps abduction is a better word.
The one whose religious zeal brought suffering, persecution and death to those who followed the Way of the Crucified Messiah, Saul is struck down, blinded, and sent to meet with those whom he persecuted to be healed.
He is then sent out to the gentiles to bring the Gospel, to suffer for others.
Have you ever noticed that God seems to like irony?
Saul hurt Jesus by hurting those who followed in Jesus way. Jesus is still around. There is no escape. Saul the hunter is haunted by a dead man who won’t stay dead.
In a vision, in a flash, with a loud voice Paul sees this and is blinded.
Blinded by the light, blinded by sight.
It’s a big change, a dramatic conversion, someone who hates and seeks out others to bring harm- that is a tenacious personality and way of being and seeing that is hard to escape from.
A big change, becoming someone who suffers for others in the same way that Jesus suffers for others that they may have life.
Perhaps Paul was always blinded by rage, he finally saw his blindness on the way to Damascus, the scales are washed from his eyes by his enemies, and he finally sees, he once was blind but now he sees.
What is it like to be told by the God that you worship that, “You are hurting me, stop it.”
Conversion, not just of words, and ideas and the company that we keep, but of personality. It sounds almost like a stroke, to forsake the way of bad religion, of hurting others and then to walk the way of the suffering messiah, suffering for others that they may live.