"What majestic trees! What powerful rivers!
What beautiful animals!" he said to himself.

As he was walking alongside the river
he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him.

He turned to look, and saw a 7 foot grizzly
charging toward him.

He ran as fast as ever he could,
but looking over his shoulder, he saw
that the bear was closing in for the kill.

He ran even faster,
so scared that tears were welling up in his eyes.

He looked over his shoulder again,
and the bear was almost upon him.

His heart was pumping frantically
when he tripped and fell on the ground.

He rolled over to pick himself up,
but saw the bear standing over him
about to slash a killing blow
with his giant clawed paw.

With that sight,
the atheist cried out,
"Oh my God!"
Time stopped. The bear froze.
The forest was silent.
Even the river stopped running.

As a bright light shown upon the man,
a voice came out of the sky,
"You deny my existence for all these years;
teach others I don't exist;
and even credit creation to a cosmic accident.

Are you really asking me to save you now?"

The atheist thought there a moment
in the luxury and safety of suspended time,
and said,
"No, that would make me a hypocrite,
and I have decided that that
is the worst thing of all,
but, I have one favor to ask."

"What is the favor," asked God.

"Make the bear a Christian," asked the man.

"Very well," said the voice,
and the light went out.
The river ran again.
The sounds of the forest resumed.

And the bear dropped his right paw,
brought both his paws together,
bowed his head, and said,

"Lord, for this food, which I am about to receive
make me truly thankful."

I love that story.
It says something about us,
who perceive ourselves most of the time
as the center and decider of all things.

What a rude awakening!

I have another bear story for us today.
This time, it is from today's first reading,
from the Acts of the Apostles.

A man named Saul
was full of himself, and very sure
that God would want things
ordered the very same way as did he.

Saul was a wealthy man,
an educated man from Tarsus,
a Roman Colony in the North
in what we now call Turkey.

And Saul, sometime not long after
the Death and Resurrection of Jesus,
Was raging against the Christians of Jerusalem
and surrounding towns,
for they had upset his carefully ordered world.

So, he charged around arresting them, beating them,
and throwing them into prison.

Saul was a bear.
Our story begins with him pushing
his poor donkey along the road
from Jerusalem to Damascus
in order to trap
a small congregation
at worship there.

I like to think of Saul as a bear
who had been hibernating in a dark, dank place
over a long, cold, dim winter.

He had no idea what he was doing,
and when the light hit him
on that Damascus Road,
he was just plain blinded by its contrast.

He who was used to the darkness
was struck down by the brilliance of God.

The post-enlightenment Western culture
is very much afflicted by Bear Disease.

From our dark places and limited vision
we decide what God is like for us
and act according to our own, individual gospels.

The true moment of enlightenment
is often deferred
until we find ourselves diminished and alone
with no direction or sustenance of life,
Then we had best not be shy
to ask for Godly gifts.

Make that Bear a Christian.

Now, I like where this story goes.

Paul is led to a house nearby,
where he languishes, stunned, blind, and immobile.

and God calls to a deeply Christian man
in that congregation in Damascus,
the very person and congregation
Saul was heading to arrest.

"Ananias," called God.
"Here I am, Lord," answered the man.

"Get moving," said God,
"and go to the street called Straight
to the house of Judas
and look for a man named Saul."

And Ananias said,
"You mean the man who charges around
binding your saints in Jerusalem
and casting them into prison?"

"The very one," said God.
"No way," said Ananias.

"Go," said God
"for he is to be my instrument."

And, here is one of the greatest witnesses to faithfulness
to be found in scripture.

This man, the hunted,
goes to face the bear,
because God said so.

And he goes to the street called Straight
and he finds the house of Judas
a man about whom neither he nor we
know anything,
and he asks for Saul.

Being ushered to his side
this Ananias said,

"Brother Saul,
the Lord Jesus has sent me."

"Brother Saul,
the Lord Jesus has sent me."

And Saul could see
and found before him
and example of a man
risking his very life
out of faithfulness and love.

Saul got to his feet
was Baptized
and became the Apostle, Paul,
a great saint for God's Church.

I wonder what it would be like
to risk mightily for God
and the Church
in our own time and place
as did Ananias.

I wonder how it would feel
to respond to God's call
with such faithfulness.

How satisfying would it be
to approach another person
who is overwhelmed by the world
and touch him and say

"Brother, or sister,
the Lord Jesus has sent me?"

How healing might that be, for us all?

As long as we are defining God and faithfulness
our own way
we will never find out.

Yet, once we discover the power
of connectedness to God,
expressed through his faith community, the church,
in story and sacrament
and demonstrated in the acts
of his saints all around us,
exactly this experience awaits us.

If ever we thought of the church
as a charitable organization
to be supported when all other things are done

or an organization that has some things to offer us
from which we can pick and choose
like shoppers at Safeway,

we are in for a great surprise.
Our eyes will be opened
once we discover
that God is God
and the Church is God's
and we are God's own.

Brother Saul,
the Lord Jesus has sent me to you.

How powerful that will be!
How wonderful to touch another
in the name of Christ
and bring comfort, healing, and direction to life.

That is what this day is about.

Today we celebrate the wholeness
of this Congregation.
with people from the 8, 9, and 10:15 congregations.

This day we gather as one
to worship God together
and encounter here the Risen Lord,

and, staying briefly to meet together
we will raise up 4 leaders
and engage in discernment
of some future directions of ministry together
in this changing world.

In what ways might we enjoy one another more?
In what ways might we feel the intimacy of the spirit
together?
In what ways might our seniors be a larger part
of who we are?
In what ways might we touch our youth
with a stirring and saving hand?
In what ways might we open ourselves
to the joy of God and this fellowship?

We are those called and empowered by God
to risk
and to act out the faithfulness of Ananias
in our own time and place,

We are to touch one another
and say, "The Lord Jesus has sent me to you,"

and to become thereby more fully human,
to participate in the very healing work of God,

and to be forever thankful.