Sometimes what we see as an undoing is really a becoming. Even if we have to look really, really hard; even if we are in a season of not knowing what comes next; even when nothing makes sense anymore; even when we don’t recognize the person in the mirror, we can hold on to the hope that love and light will always have the last word.
August 30, 2026
Finding God in the Chaos: Listening to the Still, Small Voice
Part 5: “In the midst of the undoing, there is a becoming”
Acts 9:1-20
Rev. Dr. Heather W. McColl
Acts 9:1-20
Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.”
The men who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. For three days he was without sight and neither ate nor drank. Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” He answered, “Here I am, Lord.” The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.”
But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem, and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored. Then he got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength. For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus, and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.”
In the midst of the undoing, there is a becoming Acts 9:1-20
I wasn’t exactly sure how to start this sermon. I thought of showing videos of artists using mosaic tiles to create something new from the pieces. But I couldn’t find one that resonated with me for one simple reason. A lot of these videos started with having the broken pieces already. They didn’t show the smashing of glass and tile to get the broken pieces. They didn’t show the process of undoing what was to get what is. Maybe because it’s not a pretty process – all that smashing, and shattering, all that loud cacophony of noise as the glass and tile are broken into small bits. Most of the videos skipped that part. Instead, they moved straight to the beauty which can arise from broken pieces. They skipped the process of the undoing and simply showed how when the pieces are placed, a new picture comes forth. Sure, it is a fascinating and captivating process, but it really didn’t show how in the midst of undoing, there is a becoming.
The closest thing that I could come to was a video of a caterpillar’s transformation into a butterfly. But it felt more like a science lesson…clinical and separate. We were only allowed to be outside observers of the process. Even when it showed the caterpillar basically becoming goo, shedding its former self, it didn’t sit right with me. Maybe that’s because as people of faith, we hold that we are perfect the way we are AND we could use a little work to become the person God created us to be. In no way, does our faith story tell us that we have to change everything about ourselves to become the person God calls us to be. After all, we know that we are created in the image of God. After all, we know that God gave us gifts to be used for the building up of God’s Beloved community. After all, we know that we are named and claimed as God’s Beloved. We know that the light of Christ resides in us, reflecting the divine. And none of that needs to be or should be lost as we become a new creation in Christ.
So, what do we mean when we say “in the midst of the undoing, there is a becoming.” That’s where Saul’s story comes in…To begin discerning the answer to this undoing is becoming, I invite us to put aside what we thought knew of this story so that we can see it with fresh eyes, so that we can hear it with new ears. For generations, it has been taught, it has been called the conversion of Paul. With this so ingrained in our collective memory and tradition, it makes it hard for us to think about this story as anything else. But I’m going to push us a bit this morning. I’m going to invite us to see beyond the title which is written in our bibles. I’m going to ask that we approach this text with open minds and open hearts so that God may reveal new insight for us.
First and foremost, Saul is not converted from Judaism to Christianity. In fact, Saul tried to work within the institution of the synagogue to preach the news about Jesus being the Messiah. The fact that it was not received and Christianity became a separate religion is a history lesson and sermon for a different day. So this text is not about the conversion of Saul.
The other thing we assume when we look at this text is that Saul’s name changed from Saul to Paul. But that is not what happened. In fact, Saul was his Hebrew name, Paul was his Roman name. And depending on his audience, Saul/Paul would switch between the two names in his writings. If he was talking with a Jewish audience, he used Saul. If he was talking with a Gentile audience, he used Paul. The reason we notice the name change as readers is because in Acts 13, the author stops using “Saul” and switches to Paul to simply show that Saul’s/Paul’s journey is taking him further away from Jerusalem, moving him more into Roman territory as he begins preaching more and more to Gentile congregations. So this text is not really about a name change or Saul forgetting everything that made him Saul in the first place and becoming an entirely different person.
So, what is this text really about? In my humble opinion, this text would be better titled the Undoing of Saul. Because when we read this text, we realize that what is happening is an undoing of everything Saul thought he knew. Yes, he is still the same person. What is undone is his limited beliefs of what is possible. What is undone is patterns which bring only harm and hate. What is undone is his certainty that there can only be one way to be in relationship with God…the correct way, the way that lines up with his way of thinking and acting, the way that lines up with his tradition, the way that lines up with his experience. This moment so transforms Saul’s understanding of who Christ is that he could do nothing else but let go of his limiting beliefs of what is possible and embrace this becoming of who God called him to be. It doesn’t change who he is at his core. It simply removes the blinders and expands his vision of the Beloved community of God. In this moment of undoing, Saul is transformed from who he was, an angry man so steeped into tradition that he refuses to see any other way to be, and he is transformed into an instrument of the Lord in sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So much so that a few days after this undoing, the people were saying “Is this the same guy? Didn’t he come here breathing threats and murder and now look at him, he is Jesus’ biggest fan!
Or let me say it this way… the undoing looks different for all of us. Sometimes the undoing is “an unexpected conversation, a person we dismissed, a question we cannot ignore or a new perspective that challenges our certainty. Sometimes the undoing is our carefully crafted plans falling apart in gut wrenching ways. Sometimes the undoing is our realization that whatever we had been doing simply isn’t working anymore. Sometimes the undoing is life changes like kids growing up or us looking in the mirror and wondering who that old person looking back at us is. And I’m not going to lie…the undoing hurts. It is painful. It is scary. It is a taking of what we thought we knew and turning it on its head to where nothing makes sense anymore. Everything which we thought we knew fell away and it feels like our eyes are open but we cannot see.
That’s why I continue to gain an appreciation for this story. It doesn’t sugarcoat the undoing. We are told Saul went three days without being able to see. We are told Ananias didn’t want to help Saul because of who Saul had been. We are told Saul had to let go of what he thought he knew and realize God was so much bigger than he expected. I’m sure the undoing for Saul was humbling. It was painful. It was scary. And yet…Saul’s story didn’t end at that point. We are told Ananias laid his hands on Saul, called him his brother and something like scales fell from his eyes. Old assumptions, Old prejudices, Old resentments. Old fears, Old definitions of who is worthy, Old ideas about who God can love, Old ideas of how things are supposed to be. They all fall away and Saul discovers that God is working through the undoing and creating something new.
Now please do not hear me say that I believe that God purposefully causes the undoing to teach us a lesson or to cause us pain. That’s not a God I would want to be in relationship with in the first place because that is just cruel and mean, two things my God is not. What I am saying is that as people of faith, we know that death and destruction are not the end of the story, that as resurrection people who have witnessed the power of becoming, we know what is possible when we tell a larger narrative. What I am saying is that sometimes what we see as an undoing is really a becoming. Even if we have to look really, really, really hard, even if we are in a season of not knowing what comes next, even when nothing makes sense anymore, even when we don’t recognize the person in the mirror, we can hold on to the hope that love and light will always have the last word.
We don’t have to fight it. We don’t have to run from it. We don’t have to buy the latest product to help us avoid it. We can simply be in the process of the undoing, allowing it to become a way for us to open our eyes, to open our hearts, to open our very being to the holy in our midst. What I am saying is that the undoing often becomes an invitation to let go, to let go of the things we were holding on so tightly too that our hands were no open to receive the new life in our midst, to let go of our certainty of the way things have to be, to let go, to let the pieces fall, to grieve the ones that don’t work anymore, to let our hearts break over what we lost, to invite our tears to become waters of renewal. Because as people of faith, we know our story doesn’t end in the undoing. Because we have the promise of the empty tomb which reminds us over and over again, that “In the midst of the undoing, there is a becoming. In the midst of the uncertainty, there is an invitation. In the midst of the disruption, God is still at work.” May it be so. Amen.
See also: Theology Tuesday for Sunday, August 30, 2026 – In the midst of the undoing, there is a becoming Acts 9:1-20.
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