At our Bible Study gathering this week we started looking at the Acts of the Apostles and were asked why we thought that the disciples were willing to take the Good News of the gospel to places thousands of miles away (presumably on foot) and usually be willing to lose their lives for it. Would any of us be willing to do that today? We concluded that the encounters with Jesus after his resurrection from the dead were enough to convince them. This Sunday we celebrate the Conversion of St Paul, and what is striking is that he didn’t ever meet the risen Jesus in the flesh but was converted simply by a vision on the road to Damascus. But it was enough to change him from being a persecutor of those following Christ to his most famous advocate. Most of what we know about the forming of the early church comes from Paul.
Today we tend to encounter Christ in less dramatic ways but there are still people who have visions of Christ and turn their lives in a different direction because of it. The risen Christ was active then and is still active today.
Revd Liz
