St. Paul's Episcopal Church of Clay Center, KS

THE CALL TO CONVERSION

We've been hearing about people being "called" as the season of Epiphany moves on toward Lent. Jesus was called by God - Jesus calls disciples to join him. I've often felt like a very slow learned in responding to that call. Sometimes it's "Now I get it!" Lots of times I feel like a failure. Just recently, I read a sermon by an Episcopal monk in the Society of St. John the Evangelist. He helped me understand call and conversion in a different way.

This brother writes: "The call of God is cotinuous, abiding, and progressive. This means that one's conversion is never truly over - occasions for conversion never end." He goes on to describe his own conversion as a boy, and his admiration for St. Paul. He was impressed by St. Paul's spectacular conversion story in Acts; and all the wondrous miracles Paul was described as performing. He wondered why his own experience was so lackluster. Perhaps his own conversion was not authentic. Then, as an adult, he studied Paul's story more seriously. He found distinctive differences between the story in Acts, and Paul's letter to the Galatians. Though Acts described an empowered wonder worker - Paul's writing of his experience in Galatians shows a more modest and mysterious conversion story. Paul seems to have spent 3 years thinking and praying about what had happened to him before he went on a missionary journey. And then, he describes another 14 years of reflection before he began the mission work for which he is most remembered. A total of 17 years preparing!

Though scholars read these passages with a variety of interpretation, Paul's Galatian story still gives our Brother monk hope concerning his own conversion. He suggests that all of us consider our stories of Call and Conversion as "very much in progress." Perhaps, as in life itself, there is ALWAYS room for growth!

Blessings on the Journey, Susan+