Beginning a few years ago, children became enamored with a special kind of toy. It was enormous popular among 5-10 year olds. It was called a “Transformer.” (I always thought a transformer was an electrical gadget, but this is a different kind of toy.) 

The toy began with the shape of a rough, warlike robot figure, and by a series of twists and turns, he morphed into something else. The toy was transformed into something quite different. 

Before Arnold Schwarzenegger was governor of California, he was best known as the Terminator. He produced at least three movies, beginning in 1984. Some time ago I got his voice on my Internet provider. The sign-on screen, instead of saying “Welcome,” says “Where have you been?” And instead of saying, “You’ve got mail,” the voice says, “Check your mail.” And when I sign off, instead of “goodbye,” I hear, “You have been terminated.” Jesus might well have said this to Saul of Tarsus one day. “For hating my followers so much… for your relentless anger toward the people of the Way… for your murderous threats of persecution… you are to be terminated.” 

But that did not happen. Instead, Paul was transformed. He had what we might call today an “extreme makeover.” The story of Saul becoming Paul has become a favorite of the church. Saul of Tarsus, the chief terminator of early Christian disciples, was transformed into Paul, the great apostle to the Gentiles. The evil “Terminator,” the great enemy of the church, became a totally different, changed person. Paul became a counter agent for the Kingdom of God. He became the most effective evangelist and apologist for Christianity the world has ever known. 

In faith language, Paul experienced a “theophany.” A theophany is the unexpected, unanticipated, unsought interruption of life by God. 

Many Old Testament characters experienced a theophany. Among them would be Abraham, or Noah, or Moses, or Jeremiah, or Jonah. In the New Testament, all of those whom Jesus called to join Him experienced a theophany. They experienced an unsought interruption in their lives. Then later, in the Book of Acts, we are told that Paul experienced the same thing—a radical reorientation of his life. Luke tells us this story in the 9^th chapter of Acts. Paul tells his own version in Galatians 1:11ff. Interestingly, Paul uses two words to describe what happened to him. I believe his is a careful choice of words. He says something to the effect, “I was living my life as a persecutor of Christians, but God…” I was planning to do this, I was doing what I believed was right, I was carrying out a mission for my Jewish establishment, but God… 

Have you ever had occasion to use those two words?  I was doing something, living my life my way, BUT GOD… I was living it up with life’s fleeting pleasures, BUT GOD… I was successful, reasonably affluent, and secure, BUT GOD… I was mired in short-term secular pursuits, oblivious to what was going on around me, BUT GOD… I was in the dark morass of a divorce, angry and bitter, BUT GOD… I was sad, lonely, and feeling sorry for myself, “BUT GOD… I was disillusioned and annoyed with the institutional church, BUT GOD…I was deep into substance abuse, BUT GOD… 

This story reminds us that God is always the gracious transformer. God is gracious because it does not matter who you are or where you’ve been. God is transforming because you are radically changed in a new way. God is gracious because God’s forgiveness is greater and deeper than anything you can imagine. God is transforming because you are a new creation in Jesus.  

We may deserve termination. We are offered transformation. We may deserve to be mired in the same rut all our lives. We are offered new creation. (“The old has passed away; behold, the new is come.”) This is what happened to Paul on the Damascus road. 

Paul received it, but not easily. Paul was passionately committed to the old order. He wanted things to stay the way they were. He clung tightly to things he had learned and believed. He was convinced of the legalism and fundamentalism of his upbringing. Paul was deeply committed to the old way. Then Jesus comes along with some kind of voice and vision. Paul is brought up short. At first, he did not know what to do. 

He was changed, but not overnight. You have to read between the lines of the story. In the Acts account, Luke says that after his conversion “Saul stayed for a few days with the disciples in Damascus. He went straight to the synagogues and began to preach about Jesus.” (19-20) However, in Galatians Paul himself tells a slightly different story. He puts it this way: “I did not go to anyone for advice. Nor did I go to Jerusalem to see those who apostles before me. Instead I went at once to Arabia… it was three years later that I went to Jerusalem.” (Galatians 1:16-18) The implication of Paul’s own account is that the conversion was a total shock. He had to sort things out. He had to go to Arabia—the desert—to reflect for a while. If you read between the lines, you realize that Paul took three years, maybe longer, before he really began preaching. 

Is this not helpful information? Sometimes it takes a while. Sometimes it takes a long time. Billy Graham tells about the time he was on a plane and a man sitting immediately in front of him had been drinking to excess. The man became rather loud and abusive. Finally the flight attendant said to him, “Sir, do you know that Billy Graham is sitting right behind you?” The man turned around and said, “I’m so glad to meet you. I went to one of your crusades and it changed my life.” 

We have people who join Christ Church after coming here for three or four years. I honor that. I honor it partly because I know this story about Paul. I believe that you will come to a time when you are ready to say, “Yes, I want to put my life in this community with this community of believers. Yes, I want to connect, grow, and give in this setting. Yes, I have decided to become a disciple.” It may not happen quickly. It may take some time. Being a disciple—being a follower of Jesus—is not always automatic or easy. 

Let me share a couple of further thoughts on this story of Paul’s transformation. 

WE ALL NEED TRANSFORMATION 

We all need some transformation. We all need some changes and some new transformations in our lives. For most of us, this does not come in a flash of light or voices on the road. For most of us there is no date or hour to which we can point. We just need some direction along the way. 

A man was traveling in northern Vermont, and had the distinct impression that he was on the wrong road. So he stopped in a village, rolled down his car window and called to one of the villagers to come over and help him. “Friend,” he said, “I need help. I’m lost.” 

The old villager looked at him a moment and then said, “Do you know where you are?” And the man replied, “Yes, I know where I am. I saw the name of the village on the sign as I entered.”  

“Good,” said the old villager. “I’m glad to know you know where you are.” 

Then the old villager asked the man another question: “Do you know where you want to be?” And the traveler, a little mystified at this strange line of questioning, nevertheless replied that he did, and he named his destination. “So you know where you are, and you know where you want to be,” said the villager. And the traveler just nodded his head. And it was then that the old villager said a very profound thing. He said, “My friend, if you know where you are, and you know where you want to be, then you aren’t lost. All you need is directions.” 

That’s where most of us are. It’s where I am—needing some direction for the new life. 

Almost every weekday morning I read a small piece in a book by John Baillie called The Diary of Private Prayer. John Baillie was a Scottish preacher in the first half of the 20^th century. He wrote a little book of prayers for morning and evening for one month. I’ve had the book since seminary. It has become a Christian classic. You have to get past the Old English style, but each time I read I am reminded that I need direction—that I have a way to go. I still have a lot to learn about how I think, how I see my life, and how I see God.  

Each time I read, I realize that discipleship requires some radical reorientation, and that it may take me a while yet to assimilate this. I understand what happened to Paul, and why it may have taken some time. 

If we go back to those transformer toys for a moment, I am reminded that often the new form is capable of doing all sorts of things that were not possible in the original form. If we are open to God’s transformation, we become empowered in a new way. We may not morph into weapons of war, but into vehicles of love, carrying the “Christ-the-good-news” into our world. 

Are you ready for a 21^st century theophany? Are you ready for an unexpected interruption of your life that gives new direction? I am guessing that more than one of our Zimbabwe team will return next month and tell us that’s exactly what happened. I am guessing that more than one youth or adult from the North Carolina team is ready to tell us right now that’s exactly what happened. God is still making transformation happen. 

But there is more. 

TRANSFORMED TO BE A TRANSFORMER 

We are transformed by God in order to be transformers. The transformation that God works in you is not just for a better “you,” but for the transformation of the world. It is for the transformation of the prevailing culture. 

Some years ago, H. Richard Niebuhr wrote a powerful book which became a much used text on ethics across the land. The book was entitled Christ and Culture. Niebuhr makes the point that Christians are not supposed to adapt to the culture, nor are we supposed to ignore the culture, nor are we supposed to stand aloof above the culture. Rather we are to be transformers of the culture. 

Jesus came to change us. Jesus came to change the way we see, the way we think, the way we act, the way we consider, the way we reflect. We are transformed to be transformational agents. That’s exactly what Paul did. He changed the way of thinking and seeing and acting. 

Sometimes we get frustrated trying to be transformers. There are times we get very frustrated and discouraged. The Middle East is very much like that for many of us right now. There’s a story of an old Jewish man who went to the wailing wall in Jerusalem every day to pray. He went twice a day and stayed for 30-40 minutes each time he went. CNN News got a hold of the story and sent a reporter to talk to the man. The reporter saw him come to the wall, pray, and then very slowly with his cane, move away from the wall, going back into the city. She went up to him, introduced herself as a news reporter from CNN and asked if she could talk to him for a moment. She said, “How long have you been coming to this wall?” He replied, “I’ve been coming for 60 years.” 

“Wow! Sixty years. And what do you pray for?” He replied, “I pray for peace between Christians and Jews and Muslims. I pray for all hatred to stop. I pray for all our children to grow up in safety and friendship.” Replied the CNN reporter, “How do you feel after doing this for 60 years?” The old man said, “Like I’m talking to a wall.” 

We are not transformers to make headlines. We are not transformers so that a CNN reporter will ask us questions. We are transformers one day at a time, one act at a time. Over here is someone doing pro bono legal work among the indigent poor. Over there, someone is building a house for Habitat for Humanity. Over here, a group takes some children from the North Side through a summer Vacation Bible School. Over there, a group of people take love and supplies 8000 miles away to a struggling mission hospital in Zimbabwe. Over here, caring persons dole out sandwiches and coffee in a food line. Over there, a youth and adult team put a roof on a hurricane-damaged house in North Carolina. 

In most instances you cannot tell others when you were transformed. But you know you were blessed to be a blessing. And you know you are called to be a transformer of the culture. 

Shortly after coming to Christ Church in 1980 I entered into the Doctor of Ministry program at Pittsburgh Seminary. I wanted to do a study in leadership. I read a lot of books on leadership. One I still remember (and still have in my library) is a book by James McGregor Burns. Burns calls for transformational leaders. He says we don’t need people who are mechanics and caretakers. We need those who are motivators and change agents. He writes, “Transforming leadership ultimately becomes moral in that it raises the level of human conduct and ethical aspiration of both leader and the led, and thus has a transforming effect on both.”  (p. 20) Later, Burns says, “Transformational leadership lifts people out of their everyday selves into their better selves.” (p. 462) 

That’s what the Risen Christ did for Paul. That’s what Paul did for the church. That’s what the church is called to do for this world. 

By the power of God, we are transformed and transformational leaders for a better world.