- Thanks to Father William for the invitation to preach, and it is lovely to be here and worship in St. Mark.
- From today’s passage, we see
- Christ is hurt when the Church is hurt
- Christ comes down from heaven to meet Saul
- God does not take away Saul’s passion but transforms it
- Persecuting the Church
- Christ asked Saul, “Why do you persecute ME?” Christ identifies His Church with Himself, which is true as we call the Church the body of Christ.
- Christ feels the same pain as the believers on earth feel
- As individuals, though we are different from each other, like body parts, we make one body. So pain in one part is felt in the whole body.
- And as Jesus is the head of the Church, He also feels pain if there is pain in any part of the body
- That gives us a beautiful message, fellow believers, that one person’s pain in the Church must be felt by us all as we are one body
- Christianity is the most persecuted religion till today since the first century
- In the early church, the Great Persecution
- Similarly, in different countries like Nigeria, Sudan, Pakistan, but God has kept His Church as testimony against all these powers, and there is peace for us, as in the Book of Revelation, that one day God will wipe the tears
- Since we are one body and affect each other, we must be careful that our actions and egos do not cause division in the Church
- On the other hand, as we pray for the unity of the Church, we must be mindful of our gifts, actions, and words so that they can be used to build the Church, as Saint Paul says in Corinthians
- God always meets us
- In our passage today, we see Christ coming down and talking to Saul, not the other way around
- The beautiful thing about God is that He always comes to us in our sins and in life away from Him. We are not required to go and find God, but He comes to us.
- We just celebrated Christmas, and in Advent, we always reflect on the Good News that God came down from heaven in flesh and lived among us. God always takes the first step, and our human responsibility is to cooperate with God’s grace and love, which knocks on the doors of our hearts.
- Now you can say, great! Jesus met Saul. Where is God today and now in my suffering, pain, and difficult circumstances? I never met Him!
- He is here every Sunday when we gather, where 2 or 3 gather in my name, I am among them, and that is why former Archbishop Rowan Williams and traditionally Church has believed that Church (community of believers) is “the meeting of heaven and earth” where Christ is present among us.
- He is present, in the preaching of the Word, when the Holy Spirit calls to live a life with Jesus and dwell with Him, as last Sunday’s reading from the Gospel of John taught us, when Jesus said to John’s disciples comes dwell with me
- He is here whenever we celebrate the Eucharist and when we eat the blessed Body and drink the Blood of Christ
- God transforming emotions and passions
- When God comes near His creations, He does not destroy it but transform it
- As Irenaeus says, “the Glory of God is a human being fully alive.”
- As in Exodus 3:2-5, when God spoke to Moses through a burning bush, but instead of burning down, it radiated. Similarly, Paul, when Christ visited Him did not take his passion away but transformed it, and it was Paul, later with the same passions and zeal, who led the Church, preached the Gospel, got beaten many times, lived in prison, said who can separate us from the love of God, and finally died for Christ.
- When God comes near, He does not consume like a bush or Paul but puts us on fire to proclaim His word.
Connection with the Eucharist:
- So today, as we partake in the Eucharist, as you eat and drink Christ’s Body and Blood,
- I invite you to respond to God’s love by offering yourselves with your gifts to serve Christ’s Body, His Church, which is serving each other. It was wonderful to see last Sunday people offering themselves for God’s service. Let us continue that!
- And let God come near you in this year 2026, and let God’s grace transform you like Paul. I assure you that you will see the radiance which will not consume you but will make you more alive!
- May God use us like Paul to proclaim the Gospel that Jesus Christ is Lord!
Gloria:
All Glory be to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.