Based on the sermon from Old South Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, Hallowell, Maine, 5/4/2025.

Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” Acts 9:1-6 (NRSV)

“Why are you persecuting me?” That’s what Jesus asked. “Why are you persecuting me?”

In this Easter season, we consider and reflect on how the Risen Christ appeared to and spoke to his closest followers, and, in today’s case, one of his opponents, but soon to be closest followers.

Here’s Saul.  A Jewish man, active in defending the Jewish faith.  And, he’s found some sort of purpose in going after Jesus followers, not yet known as Christians: “Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.”

Saul isn’t messing around.  He’s out to damage this fledging new thing, this new enthusiasm for a so-called Messiah. And there he is out on the road to Damascus.  A light “ from heaven” flashes.  He falls to the ground, and then there is THE VOICE, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

Not my followers.  Not the faithful.  Not my friends.  ME.

Why do you persecute me?

Here is this bold and remarkable statement, this question from the voice from heaven, this one who then identifies himself as Jesus.

When you persecute the followers of Christ, when you go after them, when you make their lives needlessly difficult and ugly—and I don’t think it’s a stretch that this statement, this question, actually goes well beyond those who identify as followers, since Jesus was very clear on the Greatest Commandment, that we are to love God and love neighbor – that when Saul persecutes, when anyone persecutes, you are persecuting Jesus, the risen Christ.

It’s a bold, remarkable statement, and one that we ought to keep close to our heart, that it may inform not only our actions, but who we are as people, that when we persecute, when we treat others as less than human, when we strip others of dignity by dehumanizing and degrading, we are persecuting Jesus himself, the risen Christ.

And, on the flip side, when we ourselves—each of us and all of us together—experience persecution, a stripping away of our dignity, that Jesus is with us, that the Risen Christ is with us.

It is a profound and remarkable statement that we might have missed and a moment that we must allow to sink in, that it may find a home in how we think, in how we feel, in how we consider our own selves, how we reflect on the meaning and purpose of being a congregation that declares Jesus Christ as our Head, and then how we interact with the world that we inhabit, and the expectations we have for our communities, country and world for how human beings ought to be treated.

It’s also worth a moment to consider how the followers of Jesus are mentioned in this passage.  According to the Gospel writer Luke, who also wrote Acts, the early followers of the risen Christ, called themselves followers of The Way.  They were not Christians.  They were followers of the Way.  They were not defined by a specific doctrine, dogma, creed, or book (there’s no New Testament in the first century!).  They are not defined by the place where they congregate, or anything that is a static, motionless thing.

They are followers of The Way. They move.  There’s activity and motion.  There are defined by who they are and how they love, how they connect, how they care, how they are continually trying to move closer to the Risen One.

So, in these days, as we continue to grieve the difficult decisions we’ve had to make as a church, as we express our sadness about putting our building up for sale, let us take stock not only of what we are losing, but what we are gaining—a new appreciation for being people who worship a Savior who is not stuck in time, but One who continues to move and breathe, active with us, sometimes ahead, sometimes alongside and sometimes behind, pushing us into a new way that feels weird and uncomfortable.

In the midst of our grief, there is also joy in our new awareness, our new sense of who we are as followers of the Risen One, as we continue to move closer to the One who brings us together.

We are Easter people.  And Easter people are alert to the new and usually surprising ways that the Risen One comes to us and how he makes himself known.

It may sometimes feel that, in our smaller numbers, that we are not doing it right, but it just might be that we are exactly where we are meant to be.  And, once we are able to release ourselves from this building that causes us so much worry, that drains so much of our time, energy and resources, that we will be poised to be yet another embodiment of who and what the Risen Christ is calling us to be. May we keep our ears, our minds, our hearts open, listening. 

May we open wide the doors of our imagination, mindful of how the Risen Christ speaks to us now. We may not experience a flash of divine light, but if we are attentive, it might be something just as extraordinary, or it might be in a completely normal moment, or in a still, small voice: recognition. And, an invitation into what’s next.