One Man’s Trash is God’s Treasure

Text: Acts 9:1-22

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

            It’s an old adage that we all know is true, but it’s so true and so common that it’s little more than a cliché: One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. We can see evidence of it everywhere: spring cleanup day here in town, TV shows like Antique Roadshow or American Pickers, and countless stories told by movies and books. But if we’re going to accept one side of that saying, we have to acknowledge that the other side is true as well: One man’s treasure is another man’s trash. That carries over into our evaluation across any number of categories in life: How can someone think that’s so important? Why would someone spend their money on that? What were they thinking when they chose him? It’s that last question that shows we’re even quick to render judgments on other people. It seems hardwired into us.

            And so we come to the conversion of St. Paul—the biblical event that today’s feast day celebrates. Today we hear of Saul, a rabid persecutor of the Church, a Pharisee of Pharisees, breathing out murderous threats against Jesus’ beloved Church. He got permission from the powers-that-were to arrest any who confessed their faith in Jesus, no matter if they were men or women. They were to be arrested and punished for their belief in the man that Saul was certain was a false messiah.

            We who know the end of this conversion story, who know what Saul, who would be renamed Paul, would become after Jesus called him, can often forget just how horrible we would have judged him to be. He was a zealous persecutor of the faith that we ourselves hold. He held to righteousness by keeping all the manmade rules of the Pharisees. He went out of his way to go on a crusade against any and every member of the Church. And he really believed in what he was doing. He thought this was something that God would be pleased with. He thought he was in the right. In short, Paul (before he was Paul) was an enemy of the Church, an enemy of Jesus, and an enemy of God.

            And yet, the Lord Jesus appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus and chose him to be His own apostle and instrument. While Saul was going out of his way to persecute Jesus’ Church, Jesus was going out of His way to make Saul become part of that very same Church through faith. While Saul thought he was the only one seeing the situation clearly, Jesus veiled Saul’s sight until he was baptized and came to see his Savior for who He truly is. While Saul was coming to make war against Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus Himself appeared to Saul to make peace and bring him forgiveness and light. While Saul was feared, despised, and considered a lost cause by many, Jesus was working to make this man a fellow servant and brother in the faith to them.

            This is nothing new though. The Lord has always hidden His work under its opposite. Timid and fearful men like Moses become the leaders of God’s people. Sinners are forgiven. The dead are raised. The weak and poor are honored above the powerful and wealthy. Even Jesus Himself, who doesn’t have a place to lay His head, is actually the eternal glorious Son of God the Father underneath it all. His cross, which has every appearance of evil, injustice, and death to fallen human reason and senses, is in truth the greatest good that has ever come to humanity, fulfilling God’s justice so that we receive eternal life through it. God has done this from the beginning, even bringing an entire universe of life and light and wonder out of its opposite, out of nothing at all.

            This is how God continues to operate. Jesus hides His body and blood under simple bread and wine. He still hides peace and forgiveness, adoption as God’s heir in a little water poured over someone’s head, combined with the simple proclamation that they are baptized into God’s triune name. He still veils the good news of forgiveness, of God’s favor, under ink on the pages of Scripture, and in the voice of a very mortal preacher. And He still makes those who are His enemies into His children, His servants, His Church.

            For you have not been so different than Paul was. You also have trusted in your own righteousness, or your own rightness, or your own works, or resolve or cleverness or wealth or status or whatever else in creation you’ve treasured above the simple promise of God’s free favor. You’ve thought of those who are treasured by God—those who Jesus died to save—are actually trash, simply because they think differently than you, or they look differently, or don’t have the same talents or life or joys or challenges that you do. You’ve devalued them, as Saul devalued the Church. You’ve written them off as beyond saving—or worse, beyond wanting them to be saved—because of hatred. You know which group or person or ideology or party or demographic you’ve done that too. And the tragic irony is that in wallowing in that, you’ve done exactly what God has said is not good for you. In short, by doing that, you’ve become a sinner too.

            So God converts you. Just as He converted Paul, just as He directed Ananias (who, by the way at first had the same reaction we do about others: “Really, Lord? Him? You want to save him and bring him into the Church?”); just as Jesus took someone’s trash and turned him into a treasure for His kingdom; just as Jesus revealed Himself to not be worthless but the greatest of treasures, received in faith—so He has done for you. He’s picked you up, no matter your sin, no matter your darkness, no matter how far or in what ways you’ve wandered, no matter the world’s estimation of you or even your own estimation of yourself, and He’s made you His own. He’s made you His treasure that He was willing to die for and rise again to be with forever. He’s claimed you as His most prized possession, His beloved.

            And although it may be difficult and we have to learn how to do it, we can do the same for others. For Jesus has come not to call the righteous, the ones we think are worthy, but the unrighteous. He’s come not to be nice only to those who are nice to Him, but to convert those who have been enemies and turn them into disciples. He did this for Paul, so that all who saw him asked in joyful surprise, “Isn’t this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And hasn’t he come here to bring them bound to the high priest?” He converted Paul. He converts you. He calls all who need His forgiveness, who need to be restored to peace with God, to walk His Way. He does this to show His grace, to reveal mercy, and to give us reasons to give thanks for all He has granted us in faith. In the name of Jesus, who converts us, Amen.