Ananias
Ananias
Acts 9:10-21
There are natural born leaders in life. Last week, we looked at two examples: Peter and Paul. Peter was so imposing physically and so skilled as a fisherman and such a reliable provider for his village that people could hardly resist following him (not to mention that he was hardly ever going to be the guy to follow anyone else!). Paul was so smart and so articulate and convinced that he was not only the smartest guy in the room but the most moral person, too, that he carried his own kind of charisma. In very different ways, they each looked like they knew what they were doing. That’s a compelling thing to project in this world.
Just to remind everyone…being a strong, gifted, smart leader comes with its own challenges. Peter, who didn’t follow anyone, was tasked with following Jesus. Peter, who didn’t think he made mistakes, was going to have to learn not only how to forgive himself but how to forgive others. Paul—smart as he was—was going to have to learn how to humble himself. Paul, focused as he was on right and wrong, was going to have to proclaim a God who loves unconditionally, a God who’s grace was unearned. Both of these men, having spent a fair amount of time worshiping themselves and being worshiped by others, were going to have to learn to worship God. That was going to be a mighty struggle for them both.
To a certain degree, recognizing that great gifts can get in the way of who we need to be is worth recognizing. If you happen to be really great at something, especially something that the people around you value, you will be challenged to not “read your own reviews.” Haven’t we all read about the sports hero or the great author or the amazing scientist who was otherwise a terrible human being? It would be hard to be really great at something and know that you’re really average at best at everything else.
Well…I imagine that would be the case at least because, honestly, I’m not really great at anything. I could play almost any sport but none that well. I didn’t have to look far to find someone more talented. I did fine in school but, again, I didn’t have to search far to find someone smarter. If anything, the internet provides all the evidence that no matter what skill you pick, there is someone amazing out there at that skill. Just watch that one guy whip through the Rubik’s cube. I saw a guy this week who had a standing vertical leap of 56 inches! (If you totaled up all the inches that I’ve jumped cumulatively in the last month, I bet it’s not 56 inches!)
My point is that we’re not Peter or Paul. We can learn from them to not be stingy about forgiving people, to not walk around thinking, “We’re all that and a bag of chips,” to practice a little humility along the way. However, though we each have our own gifts, we’re not the super strong or the super smart. We’re not irresistibly charismatic. Most of us aren’t going to put some new “movement” on our backs and be remembered 2000 years later for founding one of the world’s great faiths.
All of this makes us much more like Ananias in today’s story. Who is Ananias? He lives in Damascus. He’s part of this new movement—the Way—that Jesus of Nazareth taught. Mostly, though, he’s just a guy. He’s an average, every day, run of the mill human being. Understand, I’m not belittling him. He’s us! I’m sure that he had people who loved him. I bet he told a good joke. He probably worked hard and loved his family and even had some good friends. When he was gone, plenty of people would grieve him. However, he wasn’t famous and wasn’t ever going to be.
Now, one of my favorite things about “run of the mill” adult life is how incredibly important it can be to have a “guy” around. To be clear, the “guy” could also be a “run of the mill” woman, too. You’re plumbing breaks and you call your friend. You ask, “Have you got a guy for that?” Or, your friend calls you in need and you say, “No problem…I’ve got a guy for you.” Average, everyday people know that sometimes we need help. There’s nothing better than knowing the people who can actually be helpful, who can get things done, who can solve a problem.
As a pastor, I can tell you without question that though the occasional “larger than life” member may make things interesting, it’s the everyday members who recognize a problem and step up and say, “I think I might be your “person” here,” the one who gets this done. One of the great gifts to me was a plain talking conversation that I had with one of our members who said that they would rather do almost anything than sit in a meeting but that if I gave them a project they would be thrilled. That member may regret that moment to this day, but I am so grateful!
This is who Ananias is—God’s guy. How do we know this? We know this because God turns to Ananias with a very specific need. In a way that should remind us of God stopping Saul in his tracks, God speaks Ananias’ name. Unlike Saul, though, Ananias barely misses a beat. It’s like they may have been in conversation before… “Yes, Master?” Maybe the gift of being Ananias (or us on a good day) is that we don’t walk around thinking we might just be God like the Peters and the Sauls of this world.
God speaks really practical words to this everyday man: “You know where Straight street is, right? Have you met Judas? He lives on the corner, the place with the front stoop. Ask Judas to introduce you to a guy who is staying with him named ‘Saul.’” If God can smile, I like to think that God was smiling when he said the next part, “This Saul, guy? Rumor has it the man has been praying his heart it.” (That’s where God would smile!). Then, God would add that Saul has just had a dream that (wait for it!) a guy named Ananias is going to show up and lay hands on him and restore his eyesight. (I like to think God would add, “And it’s been a while since I’ve had quite so much fun implanting a dream!)
Now…let’s pause. What has God asked Ananias to do? God has called this man to go where he doesn’t want to go and do what he doesn’t want to do. Let’s pause, and make sure that we all hear this. God is asking Ananias to go cozy up to the man who has been hunting down his brothers and sisters in the faith and care for him until he is healed. One more time…God is asking him to go where he doesn’t want to go and to do what he doesn’t want to do.
Why do we need to hear this so clearly? Well, as soon as we take our faith seriously and we learn how to pray differently, when our prayers move from being a laundry list of wishes and demands to a single request: “God help me to be helpful,” we’ve signed up to be Ananias, all over again. We might be thinking, “Now God, I’m available Sunday afternoons between 1:00 and 1:30 and I prefer pleasant company, if you don’t mind.” That’s not what God hears. What God hears is, “Send me where you need me.”
So, contrary to all your expectations, you find yourself with a hairnet on and you’re packing food to send to the hungry. Or, you sit down to share your dinner at a table with six homeless people, and at the least, you’re a little disoriented if not a bit scared. Or, you wake up and rush to a van that’s filled with teenagers and drive for miles until you’re at the most “middle of nowhere” place you’ve ever been and you’re going to build a deck and a ramp for someone in need and all you’re going to want is a break from that incredible heat and humidity. Or, maybe you’re just sitting at your friend’s table and listening to them tell you how their life has come apart at the seams. One way or another, you’re going to ask yourself, “How did I get here?” God’s answer is, “because I asked you to go.”
Every time someone tells you how faith will just make your whole life make sense and how faith will lead you to the land of “good and plenty,” I want you to remember Ananias. The amazing first truth is that God needed Ananias’ help. That’s the first thing to remember when your next calling shows up in front of you. It is an honor to be needed by anyone. You should be honored when your friend says, “I really need your help!” It should really knock the wind right out of you when your kid looks you in the eye and says, “I need you to listen to me!” On the day when God shows up in that kind of moment and you just know in your heart that God is right there whispering to you, “Come on! Tune in! Give it what you’ve got,” well, that’s about as good as life gets. I’m needed. This is meaningful. This is lived faith!
Here’s the other thing, though. It’s most likely not going to be someone you already like or love who God is going to ask you to help. I think God kind of trusts that we’re going to notice those needs. I think the Ananias moment happens when God calls us to care for the person we would otherwise just despise or maybe just overlook and ignore. Jesus taught the truth a dozen different ways. Real faith involves loving the people whom we would never, on our own, be able to even stand.
Ananias hates Saul—for good reasons. “The man has been hunting Christians down. Now you want me to care for him? What’s up with that?” God basically says, “I’m not looking for an argument. I’m looking for your help. I’m going to need Saul to get some things done. First, though, he needs to learn just how much someone’s life can be changed with a little grace, a little compassion, a little kindness.”
Despite his personal feelings, Ananias goes and cares for the person about whom he would otherwise have cared less about. Ananias goes and heals the person whom he would, left to his own devices, much rather have destroyed. Ananias shows Saul what it is like to be loved—in the purest sense—because the love that he shares with Saul is all God’s and most certainly not his own. Almost as soon as Ananias shows up and offers the simplest prayer, that Saul would be healed and filled with the Holy Spirit, Saul’s sight is restored.
Ananias—a run of the mill guy—becomes an instrument of God’s grace. And Saul would spend the rest of his life trying to tell people just how much being loved like that can change absolutely everything.