Five years ago today, on the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, I was consecrated Bishop of Sheffield. It was on a freezing cold Sunday morning in York Minster with over 2,000 people present in that great church from all over the Diocese of Sheffield and from different points of connection in my own life. It was an unforgettable day and one I will remember for the rest of my days.
The past five years have been rich, deep, demanding and humbling. It’s taken me some time to grow into the ministry and the role. As I’ve said on other occasions, I’ve found throughout my ministry that stepping into a new role is rather like putting on a coat which is several sizes too big. When I was a child, it was always the case that a new school blazer had sleeves that were much too long. I had to grow into them and then out of them before there could be a new one.
The story of the conversion of Paul is connected to Psalm 95 by the theme of hearing God’s voice. It’s not impossible that both Saul and Ananias had read Psalm 95 in the days before the encounter on the Damascus Road. Saul hears the voice of the risen Lord speaking to him (though those travelling with him hear nothing). The voice confronts and shakes Saul to his core. His whole life is turned around. The persecutor of the Way becomes its greatest advocate. The one who seeks to murder others will in time die for his faith. The voice of God overcomes the hardness of Saul’s heart, he turns from his rebellion, he follows in the Way.
Saul’s conversion is a reminder that the second half of the Psalm, like the first, is not addressed only to those who are already part of God’s people. The call to come and worship the Lord is addressed to the whole world. The invitation to listen to his voice is similarly a call not just to the worshippers but to every person God has made to listen, to come into a relationship of love and obedience and to find the source of life.
But what happens to Saul is only part of the story. Fully half of the account in Acts 9 is about another person who listens to the voice of God. Ananias is listening to God that day. He hears the call to go and seek out Saul. He has not hardened his heart to what God may be doing even in this persecutor of the faith. Listening means obedience. Because Ananias heard and obeyed, Saul is brought to faith and baptized and begins his ministry.
Pray today and through this coming year that many who are like Saul in your community would hear the voice of God speaking to them as they travel about their business and be transformed. Pray today and through the coming year that you and I (and many in the church) would hear God’s word to us to welcome specific people into the life of God’s church.I am very thankful that I will be spending the fifth anniversary of my consecration with 200 young people from across the Diocese at our first young people’s development day. Please pray for us and for me as God helps me to keep growing into the role.
This post is one of a series of daily reflections on Psalm 95 in January, at the start of the Diocese of Sheffield Centenary Year
And his disciples took him by night and let him down over the wall, lowering him in a basket. And when he had come to Jerusalem he attempted to join the disciples but they are all afraid of him for they did not believe he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly… Read more »