This morning’s Gospel reading was the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard, in which those who are brought into the Kingdom of God at the last moment are given the same as those who were brought in at the beginning. Jesus ends the parable with the reversal in our thinking that he often uses when he is talking about the Kingdom of God: the last shall be first and the first last. Those who think they are privileged in the Kingdom of God will be surprised by those they find in God’s Kingdom, whether that is the sinners, prostitutes and tax collectors of Jesus’ day or those that come at the last moment, as in the Parable.
St Paul, or Saul as he was originally known, is one of the surprising, unexpected people that we find in God’s Kingdom. Surprising and unexpected, because he was a violent and determined persecutors of the Early Church, to the extent that, when God asked Ananias to go to support Paul immediately after his conversion, Ananias was understandably nervous saying, ‘Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.’ Similarly, when he later attempted to join the disciples in Jerusalem, they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. It took Barnabas to convince them that God had genuinely worked in Paul’s life and brought about a real change in him.
The story of Paul’s conversion, which he told frequently as part of his missionary journeys as in today’s reading (Acts 26.1,9-25) where he tells his story as part of his defence when on trial before King Agrippa, is a reminder to us that no one is beyond the reach of God’s love and grace and that it is never too late in someone’s life for them to open their life to God.
I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s when Bob Dylan was viewed as the voice of his generation, one that was viewed at the time as being disinterested in God and living in ways that were viewed as opposed to God. I was aware at the time, within the Church, of people praying for Dylan’s conversion, thinking that that would have a major impact on people of his generation. Dylan did have an unexpected conversion in the late 1970’s which impacted his music at the time and continues to be explored within his music, without having quite the effects that those people who prayed for him expected.
All these people, experiences and stories remind us of the need to pray for those who have yet to open their lives to God even when it might seem that there is no obvious sign that that might happen. The love of God is such that Jesus went to the cross, giving up his own life, that people like Saul, that everyone thought was beyond the pale and unable to respond to God, should nevertheless become part of God’s kingdom and draw many others into that Kingdom too. Whoever it is for whom you are praying, may you continue to persevere in prayer and trust in God that in the future there will come a moment when that person will open their life to God and enter his Kingdom.
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Aaron Neville - Saving Grace.
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